The third emperor of the Sui Dynasty

Chapter 627
Even if it is the Shangyuan Festival, because the scientific examination is tomorrow, the chief officials of the Ministry of Science, the Ministry of Rites, the Ministry of Officials, and the Ministry of Imperial Affairs cannot be free.The Sui court attached great importance to education in recent years, and successively built four higher education palaces in Yecheng, Zhuojun, Taiyuan, and Daxing, and established rural schools, county schools, and county schools in local areas.

Rural school children only need to learn basic knowledge such as "The Analects of Confucius", "Thousand-Character Classic" and "Three-Character Classic", as long as they recognize all the characters in "Thousand-Character Classic" and "Three-Character Classic", and calculate addition and subtraction within one hundred, After all, you can enter the county school and receive formal education.And the county school is also a place to train local officials. Although it is difficult for the students who come out of here to become the talents of the country with outstanding intelligence and ruling the world, they can do practical things, can perfect the government orders promulgated by the court, and can serve the people of the country. The elders in the hometown explain the imperial decrees and educate the local children in the hometown.

Higher-level county schools are also less likely to produce evil talents, but they can cultivate talents in many fields such as law, mathematics, medicine, engineering, etc. Take mathematics as an example, county schools teach basic However, when you go to the county school, you have to learn more deeply, go deep into all walks of life, such as how to make craftsmen more efficient, such as how many bricks a house roughly needs, and so on. Learning is also the core force to promote the advancement of Tai Sui's science and technology in the future.Although they are not like Yang Gongren, Wei Yunqi, Yang Shanhui, Fang Xuanling, Du Ruhui and other talents who support the country, they are low-level officials who are indispensable to run the world. Without these people governing at the bottom, no matter how powerful Fang Xuanling and Du Ruhui are There is nothing to do.Therefore, the ability of such people may not be outstanding, but it constitutes the cornerstone of the imperial court's management of the world. As long as these people graduate in batches, the imperial court can choose the best ones.

As for the final Four University Palaces, they are equivalent to the universities of later generations. They are the schools for the top students of county schools to study further. After graduation, students can not only participate in scientific examinations, but also stay in school for research. Rural teachers.

Of course, Yang Tong now has very few things that he can use to educate students, so many disciplines in the county school are under his imagination; for example, in engineering, you let craftsmen build a farm tool or a weapon according to the drawing. , he can help you out easily, but when you ask him to name a Chou Yinmao, he will tell you 'this is the way', 'everyone does this', and then you ask him why everyone does this When do?He was still reluctant to answer; when he asked why the Baizhang-high Qianyang Hall was erected and why the heavy things it bears did not fall down from time to time, he was dumbfounded.Therefore, the fundamental problem lies in the lack of teaching materials; the same is true for mathematics. When Yang Tong participated in the college entrance examination, he could score more than 150 points in the 20-point math problem. If you ask him to write mathematics textbooks, it would be better to let him kill people. .

The only thing he can remember now is addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. In addition, there are several formulas for calculating the area and volume of figures. These formulas of figures have been shocked by the elites of the era when they were taken to the Sui Dynasty. Is it possible for Xuanling and the others to write more advanced mathematics textbooks?
There is also gunpowder. Yang Tong wants to make it, but the problem is that he lived in an era when he couldn't even carry a knife in his previous life. In addition, he didn't want to engage in terror/attacks. How could he have the time to study the formula of gunpowder?To ask him, it is better to ask the alchemy Taoist priests of the Sui Dynasty.

All in all, if Da Sui wants to let a hundred schools of thought flourish, the key lies in the teaching materials. Only by solving this root cause can technology slowly sprout.For the students, I will learn what you ask me to learn, and few of them take the initiative to create.

And this time the scientific examination!
For candidates, it was an unexpected surprise. Although the imperial court moved the exam time forward, the exam two months later is still valid. If you fail the exam twice, it means that your own level is not as good as others.

The emperor ordered Liu Xuan, Kong Yingda, and Wei Zheng to be the chief examiners of the Luoyang test center, and even said that he would enter the Luoyang Academy to observe the big test. He attached great importance to this sudden attack-style test. An examination room has ten examiners patrolling back and forth, and the students uniformly use standard regular script to answer the questions. After the examination, they collect the test papers, paste their names, stamp them, number them after the order is disturbed, and then the officials transcribe them. Then take a copy and submit it to the examiner for review to prevent fraud.

After the correction is completed, it will be sealed and sealed. One hour before the ranking is released, the serial number on the basic copy, the original copy of the examinee, the dismantling and recording of the names, the whole process will be completed jointly by the Ministry of Science, the Ministry of Rites, the Ministry of Imperial Affairs, and the Ministry of Officials, so as to ensure the maximum degree. just!

Among the exam questions, interpretation of scriptures, arithmetic, and policy theory accounted for a large proportion, while poetry and prose were not given much attention.The imperial court has also been compiling a unified textbook of scriptures and meanings in recent years. In previous years, the most complained by candidates is that the answers are not uniform. There may be thousands of interpretations for the same volume of scriptures. high score.

Qin Shihuang burned books and buried Confucianism, resulting in the incompleteness of the pre-Qin classics. Although many great Confucianists in the Han Dynasty studied and sorted out, there were not small gaps in the content, which were all completed by later generations.After the Han Dynasty, the war continued until the Sui Dynasty. More and more correct interpretations of the classics were lost, and there were more and more wrong interpretations. Taking the Four Books and Five Classics as an example, thousands of annotations have now been derived. It is for this reason that Kong Yingda intends to Gather the world's great Confucian scholars to compile "Four Books and Five Classics Justice".

Liu Xuan, Kong Yingda, Wei Zheng and others are all well-educated people, especially Kong Yingda's family background, which is the closest to orthodoxy, and it is most suitable for him to preside over the compilation. This is a grand Confucian event for future generations, and no literati can withstand this temptation.

The scientific examination was held in an orderly manner.

On the day of the exam, the examinees went through layers of inspections and filed into the Luoyang Academy.These examinees enter the examination room from early morning and leave at dusk.Candidates who have not handed in the papers by the specified time are allowed to burn a candle provided by the court. If the candle is burned out, they must hand in the papers, otherwise they will be regarded as abandoning the exam.

In the past few days, Yang Tong would go to the Luoyang Academy for inspections. Every day, he would see more than a thousand candidates entering the examination room, and he would enter the examination room when he heard the officials call his surname.When entering the arena, the sky was still a little dark, and the team moved into each examination room like a long dragon.These examinees were all dressed in white clothes, and they had a sense of sight that white clothes were better than snow, which made Yang Tong feel like "the best talents in the world belong to the Sui Dynasty".

A total of 120 candidates were recruited from the Luoyang examination center among thousands of troops, and the top 30 were taken into the palace by Kong Yingda for a public palace examination. Yang Tong had only done it once in the past, and spent the rest of the time fighting outside. It was time for the palace examination, and this time 'Enke' was held just when he was free, and he also had time to meet these talents, so he arranged for these [-] people to meet in the Luocheng Palace in Xige City, where the palace examination was also held.

The students had learned basic etiquette from the officials of the Ministry of Rites before they came. When they faced Yang Tong, although they were all sweating profusely, their etiquette did not fall behind. Only after Yang Tong gave an order did they get up tremblingly.

They were all common people before, and even though their official careers were promising, their mentality remained the same. When they saw the emperor who loved the people, many of them trembled with excitement, with various thoughts circling in their minds, but they seemed unable to talk about it.

Yang Tong saw it, so he said kindly, "Acquiring scholars is to seek talents for the country. You are brave generals who have been killed out of thousands of troops. Naturally, your talents and learning are extraordinary. If you perform well in the palace examination If you are satisfied, I can grant you the position immediately. The theme is "The people are the foundation of the state, and the foundation is the state's peace" from "Shangshu·Song of the Five Sons."

Kong Yingda had already transcribed the test questions, and now he only needs to distribute them to everyone.As soon as the examination questions were in hand, the thirty students couldn't wait to answer them. For a while, the hall became quiet.

Yang Tong sat for a while, feeling very bored, so he stepped down from the throne and paced in front of the crowd.Seeing the Son of Heaven by their side, many people trembled with fear. Some people couldn't hold their pens steadily. Yang Tong knew that he made them nervous, so he quickened his pace. If he met a more stable person, He will stay for a while longer, but these people don't have a refreshing point of view for him.

When the papers came up, Yang Tong was not in a hurry to comment, but asked, "Do you have any opinions on the policies of the Sui Dynasty? As long as you have an idea, I will accept it no matter whether it is right or wrong, and I will never blame you."

Inside the hall, there was an eerie silence.

Kong Yingda coughed, and said bitterly, "The Holy Majesty asked you something, and you still haven't answered? This is your chance to show yourself."

In the cold, no one paid attention to him.

Yang Tong was really disappointed. These candidates were just like the peasant children who had just entered the city. They lacked self-confidence, courage, and responsibility.Pick up the first test paper and roll the roll.

When the examinee heard that the emperor called his name, he was unprepared for a while, and then replied in a panic: "Holy, holy. The grassroots have no opinion on the Sui policy, just feel...just I feel that His Majesty is a sage descended from heaven who cares about the people of the common people, sage, sage, and His Majesty's policy of administration is naturally good."

Yang Tong was even more disappointed, and asked casually, "Which point do you think is good? What's good about it?"

The man also faltered for a while, and couldn't answer for a long time. In the cold weather, he was so anxious that he was sweating!

"You are too nervous to answer for a while, I can understand." Yang Tong said with a smile: "If you have any thoughts, you can express them in words, okay?"

"Grassman, thank you, Your Majesty!" The examinee seemed to be pardoned.

Yang Tong nodded, so he clicked on the next one. Seeing that Yang Tong was kind, the people in the back behaved better than the other. Although they didn't have any good suggestions, but fortunately they dared to speak up. After asking them one by one, Yang Tong sent someone to Send them out of the palace.

Kong Yingda sighed: "This year's candidates are really mediocre. There are two or three who can speak eloquently and have clear regulations, but they have nothing to say."

Yang Tong flipped through the examination papers one by one, and shook his head: "Students from common people's families are not well-educated after all, because there are inherent gaps, so their knowledge, confidence, and courage are not as good as those from aristocratic families. The same...need to hone from the bottom."

"This is also one of the reasons why the children of the aristocratic family are more capable than the poor. There is a difference of hundreds of thousands of years. If the poor are to catch up with the children of the aristocratic family, they will undoubtedly have to pay a hundredfold effort. I don't know when this gap will be bridged. It is even more difficult for ordinary people. It is." Fang Xuanling said from the side.

Yang Tong pondered for a while, and said: "We open courses every year to recruit scholars, and we recruit all the outstanding people. As a result, the level of candidates is getting worse year by year. I am afraid that the officials will become the worst dynasty in history. The four colleges must expand the enrollment scale and unify all the outstanding students from the county schools to study in the four colleges. Only in this way can they receive better education and become real talents Kong Shangshu, you must take this matter as the top priority."

"Here!" Kong Yingda bowed to his orders.

Yang Tong ordered to Fang Xuanling: "Xuanling, you should adjust the officials of the northern counties and counties, and promote the deputy officials to county magistrates, the county magistrates to general guards, and the general guards to county guards. Ten of them are all arranged to go to various counties to serve as vice-officials. Those who are adjusted will be used in the imperial court."

"Your Majesty!" Fang Xuanling bowed his hands and said, "I feel that Enke can be opened again."

"At this level, how do you drive it? Are you kidding me?"

Fang Xuanling said with a smile. "Your Majesty, we open courses to obtain scholars, and the taxis are all people under the age of 30, but their family background is quite poor. While studying, they also have to make a living. People of this age group have very little time to study. It’s pitiful. The Enke that Weichen refers to is aimed at people under the age of 50 and over the age of 30. People of this age are definitely better than these people now.”

Yang Tong rubbed his forehead and said with a smile, "Yes, I have forgotten about it."

At the beginning, I was afraid that some people would study for the exam, and the rich family would be impoverished, but they would not get anything in their whole life. Therefore, Yang Tong set a time limit for the imperial examination. , down-to-earth without family struggle.It is indeed beneficial in an era of abundant talents, but now there are not so many talents, so Yang Tong's ban has a sense of self-destruction.

"Your Majesty!" Fang Xuanling said again: "The age restriction is good, but it's a little out of date now. I think that after the unification of the world, all officials in all positions are available, and then activate this restriction."

Kong Yingda also said: "The imperial court can't go back on its word and change its orders overnight, so let's use Enke's method to open a course to obtain scholars! It means that people of all ages can sign up, so that more people will participate and the imperial court will have more choices. .”

"Then there will be another one in the fall. You first draft the specific regulations, and wait until the scientific examination in February is over before announcing it."

"Here."

(End of this chapter)