Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 546 Gengchen Chunwei ([-])
The examination method of the Ming Dynasty Examination is basically similar to that of the Township Examination, but there are some differences.Although the exam is still divided into three sessions, namely the ninth, [-]th, and [-]th day of February, two days before the exam, the pictures of Xishe must be posted first.

The so-called Xishe map is to use pictures to draw the number of seats in the east and west rows, arrange and write in a certain row where a certain person sits in a certain place, and paste his name in the middle to make a list.

And the examiners, whether they are chief examiners, deputy examiners, tribute officials, promotion officials, supervisors or other officials related to the examination, after the chief and deputy examiners are appointed by the emperor, they will not be allowed to go home. Immediately enter the examination hall, and immediately seal the key inside and outside the door, and are not allowed to enter or leave without permission, commonly known as "locking the courtyard".

In order to prevent cheating, not only the chief and deputy examiners were temporarily hand-picked by the emperor, but the test questions were not prepared in advance.The test questions for each exam are drafted by the examiners on the day before the exam. Immediately after they are drafted, artisans are called in to engrave them on the inner curtain, and they don't stop all night.Similarly, these craftsmen could not leave after engraving the test papers. They had to wait in the test house until the test was completely completed before they were allowed to receive the reward and leave.

Gao Yushi came to take the exam this time and found that the general examination is not necessarily stricter than the rural examination in all aspects. For example, when entering the examination room, the body search, the Taoist examination and the rural examination are all stripped and searched. It is "routine physical inspections, and holding up a towel to watch", so as not to "damage morale".

Of course, then again, the township test is in August, and it won’t be cold if you take it off. Some embarrassment.

Gao Wushi entered the examination room and found that there was not much difference between the national examination and the rural examination. If there was, it would be that there were more people, and the standard of Xishe did not improve. Maybe only Jiangnan Gongyuan The standard of the rooms can be better. Other places, even the Jingshi Gongyuan, are just ordinary test sheds. It is not bad to be able to shelter from the wind and rain. There is nothing else worth mentioning.

However, it may be due to the fact that most of the Ju people are not active and their bones may not be strong, so the court arranged charcoal and coal for heating as usual in the spring of February. Only the examiners can use charcoal, and coal is provided to all examinees.Gao Wushi was a little bit dumbfounded to find that the small coal stove at his feet was produced by Jinghua, and the briquettes were burned inside, so there is no doubt that it must be from Jinghua.

Of course, these are trivial matters, the important thing is the exam.

The first part of the general examination is the same as the rural examination, and it is also a test of seven stereotyped essays, and it only focuses on the first three essays: the first essay mainly looks at the questions, the second essay is all important, and the third essay mainly focuses on the discussion.As long as the last four articles conform to the format and there are no obvious mistakes or omissions, it is sufficient.Of course, if you're talented, you've already written all over the place, so it doesn't matter if you have to write the last four essays seriously, but... the examiner won't read it carefully anyway, because the examiner's time may be more tight than the examinee's. I don't have that much time to spare.

Gao Yushi has a large number of top students to teach him the experience of the exam, so his exam is different from many ordinary candidates. He knows that although the general exam and the rural exam have seven stereotyped essays, the writing style of these articles is not exactly the same as the rural exam.The two most critical points are to figure out the atmosphere, and to find out the meaning of the examiner.

Why try to figure out the atmosphere?Because stereotyped essays are also called Shiwen, both content, format and style are constantly changing with the changes of the times.Especially in the Ming Dynasty, when the stereotyped essays were created and finalized, the changes in the stereotyped essays became more obvious. Therefore, Gu Yanwu once said: "Every subject changes in the current period".

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the folk customs were simple and honest, and the stereotyped essays were nothing more than explaining the purpose of the book, short and simple.Later, Wei used righteousness and method, and the style gradually formed. In the Chenghua and Hongzhi periods, the rules were neat and well-organized; in the Zhengde and Jiajing periods, Tang Shunzhi, Gui Youguang, etc. used ancient prose as the current prose, so that the current prose and ancient prose appeared. The trend of integration; it is even more troublesome in the Wanli period now, because the dispute between practical learning and mental learning has gradually arisen, and the essays or lectures in the exam, or admiration of talent, or joyful rhetoric, are changing with each passing day, and the changes are endless.

This is the most difficult part of Gao Yushi's exam. If he writes an article that goes against the trend, it will definitely be difficult.In fact, some celebrities in the Ming Dynasty, such as Feng Menglong and Ai Nanying, were masters of stereotyped writing, but because they couldn't follow suit, the examination room was rough.

In fact, the writing style is also related to the overall situation of the court. Generally speaking, there are two types of writing styles in the Ming Dynasty. One is respected by the School of Practical Learning, which requires that there be something to say, and every word must be to the point. Talking about it is like saying nothing.The other type is respected by the lineage of Xinxue, which requires gorgeousness and grandeur, with sublime intentions, and reads with a faint sense of immortality.

These two types of writing styles are very different, but the Chinese style has great hopes. The key is to see which examiner gets your paper and which faction he is a fan of.This is also the main reason why Gao Yushi thinks that he can be regarded as a Chinese style according to his level, but whether he can succeed or not depends on his luck.

So, why seek the meaning of the examiner?Because Daming will test the questions, it is of course up to the examiners to turn over the book the day before the exam to decide, and the room officials can also express their opinions, but the chief examiner has the power, and he is always the one who makes the final decision, so he will eventually decide. Determine the examination questions according to your own ideas, and the room officials still have to listen to the arrangements of the chief examiner in the final analysis.

In this exam, the chief examiner is Shen Shixing. Gao Wushi doesn't have to worry about being ridiculed after the exam, but at the same time he also has a disadvantage, that is, Shen Shixing's questions are likely to come up with a style that he is not particularly good at.

But fortunately, there was an ancestral system in the Ming Dynasty, which was really beneficial to Gao Yushi, that is, he would try to select the middle list, which was divided into three lists: South, North, and Middle.This ancestral system originated from Zhu Yuanzhang. At that time, because the north was not recovered for a long time, Zhu Yuanzhang's style of study was far less strong than that in the south. Therefore, the result of the fair examination was that the number of candidates in the south was ten times that of those in the north.

Of course, this is absolutely unacceptable to Zhu Yuanzhang, because in the long run, the north must rebel, so Zhu Yuanzhang personally selected a group from the examination papers of northern scholars to form a relatively balanced number with the south, and for this reason he also killed a group who thought that It's not fair to select people like this.

Zhu Yuanzhang is actually smart on this point, because once the gap between the selection of scholars from the north and the south is too great, sooner or later the court will be full of scholars from the south. How can they care about the life and death of the north?Therefore, his practice was gradually institutionalized by the later emperors, who divided the test paper into three volumes: south, north, and middle.

Among them, the southern volumes include Yingtian and Susong prefectures, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Fujian, Huguang, and Guangdong; the northern volumes include Shuntian, Shandong, Shanxi, Henan, and Shaanxi; the middle volumes include Sichuan, Guangxi, and Yunnan. , Guizhou and Fengyang, Luzhou two prefectures, Chu, Xu, and three prefectures.

That is to say, because Gao Yushi was born in Henan, his test papers are directly entered into the northern ones, and he only needs to compete with scholars from Shuntian, Shandong, Shanxi, Shaanxi and Henan provinces instead of Su Song, Shaoxing, etc. A large number of academic bullies in the area compete.It is a blessing in misfortune. Even if it happened that Shen Shixing asked some practical questions, Gao Yushi had already made up his mind. If he can blow it, he will blow it. The quota is 55 people for the south roll, 35 people for the north roll, and [-] people for the middle roll.He felt that he had a relatively high chance of winning in the Northern Scroll.

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(End of this chapter)