Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 1137【Female Imperial Examination?】

Zhu Guoxiang met with officials and common people along the way, and Shen Yourong also met with officials' families and women from the people along the way.

On the day before the Mid-Autumn Festival, Zhu Guoxiang called all the provincial, prefectural and county officials in Hangzhou to a banquet. The officials were allowed to bring their wives and children, and all of them went to Shen Yourong's place.

The banqueting places for men and women and children were separated only by a courtyard wall.

Moreover, the courtyard walls are connected by moon-shaped doors, so not only can they hear each other's voices, but they can even see each other through the door holes.

In addition to the Empress Dowager, the Emperor's concubines and children must also participate.

Shen Yourong was the first focus of the audience, and Li Qingzhao was the second focus of the audience. Every one of those female relatives had read Li Qingzhao's poems.

The head of the official family was Sun, the wife of Li Wenhui, the Left Governor of Zhejiang.

Although Li Wenhui claimed that his family was poor, who among those who could pass the imperial examination and become a Jinshi at that time was really poor?
His ancestor was Li Yuanxiang, the 20th son of Li Yuan, who was granted the title of Duke of Fujian in the second year of Zhenguan. During the reign of Wu Zetian, Li Yuanxiang's son was killed, and his grandson inherited the title and was exiled again. His status was restored during the Tianbao period.

During the reign of Emperor Renzong of Song Dynasty, Li Wenhui's family separated and moved from Jinjiang to Qianshan, Hui'an. Because the land there was scarce and difficult to survive, they moved to Xiaoqi to cultivate and reproduce - Xiaoqi Peninsula was not yet completely connected to the mainland. It was passable at low tide, but turned into an island at high tide.

Compared with other official families, Li Wenhui's family was really poor, even worse than Mr. Bai back then.

But others have families!
He was educated on the island since childhood. Because of his extraordinary intelligence, he was sent to study in the main sect of Jinjiang when he was a little older.

Sun, with her two sons, one daughter and one daughter-in-law, went to pay a visit to the empress and concubines first.

Shen Yourong asked, "Have the two young men achieved any honors?"

Sun replied, "My sons are dull. My eldest son only passed the imperial examination and became a scholar, while my second son did not even pass the imperial examination. However, my eldest daughter married in my hometown of Jinjiang, and my eldest son-in-law passed the imperial examination when he was still a young man."

"You two gentlemen are still young, so just study hard in the future," Shen Yourong encouraged.

After a few words, Song Bo's wife, Xing, also came to pay her respects with her children.

By the time the families of the prefectural official and the county magistrate had all paid their respects and finished chatting, an hour had passed.

It was still early for the banquet, and Shen Yourong talked about interesting stories again. Wen Xiaomei, Li Qingzhao and others also joined in the chat. Well, there were also the former Song Dynasty Concubine, the former Jin Dynasty Concubine, the former Xixia Queen Mother, the former Annan Queen Mother, the former Dali Concubine, and so on.

Zhu Ming, a filial son, threw a bunch of empress dowagers, concubines and imperial concubines of the fallen country to Zhu Guoxiang to deal with.

Duan Yu had many concubines, but he was too old to take care of them, and he had long been a monk. One of them was the youngest, most beautiful, and childless, and was given to his father by Zhu Ming. She was only 33 years old this year.

At that time, Zhu Guoxiang sent a telegram to curse loudly, and then reluctantly accepted it.

All the officials' wives and children in front of them wanted to take the opportunity to show off, mainly by having their children recite poems in front of the Empress Dowager and the Imperial Consort.

Especially for a daughter who has no marriage contract yet, she might be favored by the Empress Dowager!

One of the girls performed extremely well!
The girl was only ten years old and had not yet reached the age of marriage or been given a name. Because there were other young men present, she could not reveal her name and only called her by her nickname "Fu Fu".

Li Qingzhao said: "The Emperor and His Majesty both said that women should be more open. Why can't we show our names to others? Girls in the East and West Capitals, including princesses, no longer hide their names."

The wives of the local officials were very surprised to hear this.

I thought that it was worthy of being the capital, the customs were indeed quite good and could not be compared with Hangzhou.

So they started introducing their daughters again. For example, Zhao Fufu was given the maiden name Zhao Mu.

Why did Zhao Mu stand out?

At the age of ten, he could recite "The Analects of Confucius", "Mencius", "The Great Learning" and "The Doctrine of the Mean" fluently, and he had also studied mathematics, physics and astronomy.

Shen Yourong liked the little girl very much. She called her to her knees, held her hand and asked her mother: "Other people only teach girls the Analects, Filial Piety, Women's Admonitions, and Mathematics. How did your girl learn all the Four Books?"

Her mother Huang replied: "She liked it, so she hired a teacher."

Shen Yourong asked the little girl: "Do you like reading?"

"I like it," Zhao Mu nodded, "I also want to take the imperial examination."

As soon as this statement came out, everyone was stunned.

Li Qingzhao clapped her hands and laughed, "You are indeed ambitious!"

People in later generations have quite a misunderstanding of the situation of women in the Song Dynasty.

Especially the female-oriented novels and their adapted TV dramas, which are even more feudal than the Qing Dynasty! The cult of the legitimate and illegitimate daughters is particularly ridiculous, and they don't even allow illegitimate daughters to recognize their biological mothers, completely ignoring the fact that "filial piety" comes first.

The status of real women in the Song Dynasty was severely differentiated.

One type is the daughters of lower-class families in the city, whose parents sell them to wealthy families and treat them like slaves, with no human rights at all.

One type is rural girls and most urban girls who marry men of the same class. They have to work while raising children, just like a normal poor couple, with no restrictions on appearing in public.

One type is the daughter of a wealthy family, who will study as long as they have the conditions.

From Sima Guang, the two Chengs, Wang Anshi, to Zhu Xi of the Southern Song Dynasty, they all advocated that women should receive education.

Their idea is, if women don’t read and understand, how can they teach their children?
But unlike men's education, they advocated that women study "The Analects of Confucius", "The Book of Filial Piety", "Precepts for Women", needlework, arithmetic, etc. They did not encourage but did not prohibit the study of "Mencius", "Spring and Autumn Annals", "Book of History" and other works on state governance.

Regarding widows remarrying, Zhu Xi's actual proposition is: keeping chastity and not remarrying is part of the Confucian outline and should be followed in principle. But even Confucius couldn't do it, and Confucius' daughter-in-law remarried, so ordinary people don't have to force it.

During the Ming and Qing dynasties, Zhu Xi's first sentence was remembered, while the second sentence was selectively forgotten.

In addition, Cheng Yi and Zhu Xi's chastity was not double standard. They believed that if women were required to be chaste, then men should also be chaste. Zhu Xi himself did not remarry after his wife died, and the couple was eventually buried together.

Zhu Xi's daughters-in-law, nieces, and daughters can remain widows if they want to, or remarry if they want to. It's all voluntary. As for things like adultery and nun-sleeping, if they really happened, they would have become explosive news long ago. Why would they have to accumulate them and be exposed only after someone impeached them?

Moreover, in the face of the attacks from his political opponents, Zhu Xi did not acquiesce as the legend goes, but was disheartened: "Since the court believes that the slander is true, I have nothing to resent about being dismissed from office and exiled."

Preserving Heaven's principles and eliminating human desires was a cage designed for the arrogant and licentious scholars of the Song Dynasty, but it eventually became a tool to oppress the disadvantaged groups.

The wife of a provincial councilor asked, "Can women also take the imperial examinations?"

"Isn't it possible?" said the wife of a government official.

Shen Yourong looked at Wen Xiaomei, Li Qingzhao and others and asked: "Did the court prohibit women from taking the imperial examination?"

Everyone was confused.

Wen Xiaomei also frowned and thought hard: "It seems there is no ban."

Li Qingzhao said: "When entering the imperial examination room, you have to be searched, and you have to take off all your clothes to check if you have any contraband. The searchers are all men, so how can a woman pass that? If a woman wants to take the imperial examination, she must be specially searched by a female officer."

Everyone was stunned.

The imperial court did not prohibit women from taking the imperial examinations, but in practice, women were not allowed to enter the examination room at all.

If you want to go in, you can just take off all your clothes and let a group of men check you out.

The female top scholar in the opera is impossible to appear. No matter how good you are at disguising yourself as a man, you still have to take off all your clothes before entering the examination room.

The former Queen Mother of Annan, Du, suddenly said, "I heard that the examination of child prodigies was not strict."

Li Qingzhao was afraid that the world would not be in chaos, so she clapped her hands and laughed, "Yes. You are only ten years old, you can take the child prodigy test."

The test for child prodigies, also known as the Tongzike, originated in the Han Dynasty.

The age requirement varied from dynasty to dynasty, even within the same dynasty. In the early Tang Dynasty, the age requirement was 10 years old, and later it was relaxed to 12 years old. In the Five Dynasties, it became 13 years old, and in the Song Dynasty, even 15 years old was acceptable.

Daming was the time when Zhu Guoxiang restored the test for child prodigies, with the age set at thirteen years old or below.

The specific process is as follows: During the county and prefectural examinations, children under the age of thirteen can sign up to participate, and they will be assigned an area in the examination hall. After passing the two child prodigy examinations, they will be sent to the capital to be assessed by the principal of the Imperial Academy. If they pass, they will be arranged to study in the Imperial Academy preparatory class and then directly promoted to the Imperial Academy's inner dormitory.

There will be no examination for child prodigies in the year of the major examination, which means there will be two examinations in three years.

In each session, the number of child prodigies who passed the Imperial College Examination would basically not exceed five, and sometimes only one or two were admitted.

It has been twenty years since the Ming Dynasty resumed the examination for child prodigies, but the total number of child prodigies who have passed the examination is less than 80.

Of these more than 3 child prodigies, half of them were not yet grown up, but there were already 8 first place winners, 15 second place winners, and third place winners. There were also several who were seriously biased in their studies and became art officials in the Hanlin Academy, the Ministry of Works, the Ministry of Revenue, the Ministry of War and other government offices.

Of course, there are also those who have failed in their studies because they are too young to bear the pressure.

At night, the officials and their families left.

Li Qingzhao told Zhu Guoxiang about this and asked, "Will that girl be stopped by the examiner when she takes the Tongzi exam next year?"

Zhu Guoxiang asked: "Whose family is this girl from?"

Li Qingzhao said: "The daughter of Zhao Mingfu, a councillor of Zhejiang Province."

Zhu Guoxiang smiled and said, "If Zhao Mingfu doesn't stop his daughter, the examiners and the police will naturally give Zhao Mingfu face. The Ming Dynasty Code of Rites does not prohibit women from taking the imperial examinations, so they have no reason not to let them take the exam. However, before sending her to the capital, she must first be reported to the court for approval."

"Will the government agree?" Shen Yourong asked.

Zhu Guoxiang laughed loudly: "He will definitely agree. Don't look at that boy as serious, he has always been a fun-loving person. The more headaches the officials in the court have about the female imperial examination, the more that boy wants to watch the fun."

Li Qingzhao's eyes lit up when she heard this: "If this girl really graduates from the Imperial College and passes the imperial examination, will the emperor let her become an official?"

Zhu Guoxiang thought carefully and said, "The Imperial College is full of men. If a girl can endure years of criticism, successfully graduate from the Imperial College and pass the imperial examination, then she must be a person of great perseverance. What's wrong with letting such a remarkable girl become an official?"

It really takes a lot of perseverance.

Put yourself in the shoes of that girl. At the age of ten, you have to endure constant criticism and have to study with boys for many years without anyone to talk to. If you fail to be admitted as a Jinshi when you graduate from the Imperial College, you will have to endure the pressure of repeated failures in the exams, and even the pressure from your family and your fiancée's family to get married.

Can a person with such great perseverance who has broken free from so many cages and passed the imperial examination be treated with ordinary eyes?
Shen Yourong shook his head and sighed, "It's hard to even think about it. If it were me, even with his intelligence and talent, I would probably give up halfway through my studies at the Imperial College."

Li Qingzhao said: "We can give these female prodigies more choices. For example, if they are successfully admitted to the Imperial College, they can choose to drop out of school and get married at any time, and the court will grant them a royal status."

"That's fine." Zhu Guoxiang nodded.

Shen Yourong said, "I like that girl very much. Your husband's sons are not of the right age, but the emperor has a prince of the same age as her. If she can really pass the imperial examination and then observe her character, she may be taken as the prince's consort."

Zhu Guoxiang said: "Although my son's age is not suitable, my grandson's age is suitable. No, his son is also my grandson... I mean, my grandson who is not his son, I have to compete with him for this matter."

The older Zhu Guoxiang gets, the more he likes to argue with his son, especially making fun of the unfilial son over trivial matters.

Shen Yourong smiled happily when she heard this, because she had a grandson who was of the right age, only one year younger than the prodigy girl from the Zhao family.

Zhu Guoxiang fell into deep thought.

I no longer thought about the prodigy girl, but instead thought about the many female workers in Hangzhou.

Economic foundation determines social status. With more and more female workers, the customs in Jiangnan will definitely undergo subtle changes.

What is about to rise is real feminism, not some "childless cat-loving lady".

(I recommend White Thirteen's "The Wolf of Los Angeles", an experienced author with guaranteed quality.)
(End of this chapter)