Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 131 0126 [Song Zaju]

The time of the examination (state examination) in the Song Dynasty was not fixed. Generally speaking, the farther away from the capital, the earlier the examination time, which was convenient for remote scholars to come to Beijing to catch the examination in the next spring.

Although Yangzhou is not far from Kaifeng, the exam time is the same as Chengdu, more than two months earlier.

Outside the city of Deyangzhou, Li Hanzhang bid farewell to everyone, and he wanted to go to Xingyuan Mansion alone to take part in the water examination.

After walking a few steps, Li Hanzhang turned around again and pulled Zhu Ming aside: "Da Lang, you will definitely pass the test, and even if you fail, you can pass the test. So, don't worry, just relax and take the test."

"Can you explain it if you don't hit it?" Zhu Ming didn't understand.

Li Hanzhang explained: "My father and Yang Zhizhou can recommend scholars to submit directly. As long as the number of recommendations is not large, the Ministry of Education will generally not reject them."

And this kind of operation?

Ju Ming really doesn't know!

In other words, even if Ju Ming does not take the local exam, he can still be sent to the capital to catch the exam.

This is a kind of "recommendation power" of local officials. In principle, it needs the approval of the central government, but in fact the central government is too lazy to manage it.Anyway, in the Song Dynasty, there was no special privilege for candidates. No matter how many candidates were recommended by the local government, the central government could only read a few more papers.

Without real talent and learning, no recommendation is useless, you have to fail the ranking if you should fail the ranking.

Li Hanzhang also said: "Although the recommendation is convenient, it is not as good as the entrance examination. Dalang can write an article so that my father can familiarize himself with the handwriting. My father...is the chief examiner of the Yangzhou Examination."

"No need." Ju Ming politely declined.

The back door has been opened like this, and it is really too bad to ask the chief examiner to help.

Before Wang Anshi reformed the imperial examination, the prefectural judge took the examination of Jinshi, and the recorder and the army took the examination of various subjects.After the reform, it was still the state judge who took the examination for Jinshi, and the military recorder who joined the army to take the examination for Mingfa, which was not established permanently.

Compared with the Ming Dynasty, it seems very less rigorous and formal. The main examiners in the Ming Dynasty were Tixue Shi (Taoist Examination) and Supervising Yushi (Township Examination).

But still the same sentence, Juren in the Song Dynasty had no privileges, so what can you do if you cheat?

After Li Hanzhang left, Ju Ming, together with other scholars, went to the stationery store to buy paper.

You need to pay for the test papers yourself.

"Several friends, please come face to face!" The owner of the bookstore warmly entertained him.

Fatty Zheng said: "Everyone has a set of test strips, and I will pay for it."

Wang Chang was not happy: "This is my bookstore, who wants you to pay? One set for each person, and it will be charged to my account. Two more, to write a family certificate and a guarantee certificate."

Ju Ming is too embarrassed to buy ink sticks, but once he asks, it will be free.

Everyone was in the bookstore, finishing all kinds of petitions.

The content of the family certificate includes name, age, family status, three generations of ancestors, whether you have passed the exam, how many times you have passed the exam, and so on.

The certificate of guarantee means that the candidates guarantee each other to ensure that the information on the family certificate is true.If it is found to be false, the other two guarantors will be convicted together.

After finishing these, everyone went to the state office together.

Even Fatty Zheng went, it didn't matter if he passed the exam or not, the important thing was to participate.

The clerks of the etiquette case are quite agile in their work, and there is no need to take a card. After all, most candidates cannot afford to offend them.

The family certificate and the guarantee certificate will be stamped by the government after verification.

It is reasonable to show the household registration booklet, but Zhu Ming didn't bring it with him, but the clerk didn't care.After all, he is a scholar of the Eight Elements, just brush his face, and the two big seals of Ka Ka will be stamped on it.

The test paper is also stamped, and the name is written, and then returned to the examinee.This thing has to be kept well, if it gets damaged, you won't be able to take the exam this year.

Zhu Ming put the test strips at the bottom of the bookcase and pressed them with a few books, but he didn't take it seriously.He participated in the imperial examination purely to experience life, and by the way, he found reasons to refuse the emperor's conquest.

Anyway, we will rebel in the future!
But Bai Chongyan was very careful, specially prepared a bamboo tube, rolled up the test paper and put it in.After closing the lid, wrap the outside with oil paper, for fear that it will be damaged in rainy days.

He said to Zhu Ming again: "Da Lang, how many bamboo tubes are here, it's easy to break if you leave them like that."

"Alright." Ju Ming followed suit.

"Success or failure depends on one move!" Bai Chongyan cheered himself up. According to the popular saying, he, the son of a rich man in the countryside, can already be called a "poor scholar".

Zhu Ming cupped his hands and said, "I wish you high school."

Zheng Hong didn't think about the exam at all. He was bored and moldy in the mountains, and when he returned to Yangzhou, he thought about playing: "There is no sumo show today, so you can go to my restaurant to watch Zaju."

Zhu Ming said, "The luggage hasn't been packed yet."

"I'll send someone to take it back!" Zheng Hong immediately called the donkey cart and took Zhu Ming and Bai Chongyan to the restaurant to watch a play.

When he arrived at the restaurant, he asked his followers and coachman to take their luggage to Zheng's house.

Bai Chongyan was afraid of losing the test paper, so he held it in his arms and refused to hand it over.

This restaurant is quite big, with two floors.

Zheng Hong introduced as he walked: "In the past, there were only a lot of customers in restaurants when they only had meals. Since the introduction of Gentleman Tea, the number of customers drinking tea has also increased. It is really a pleasure in life to enjoy tea while watching a play."

There were also teahouses in the Song Dynasty, but most of them were low-end and provided loose tea to ordinary people.

There are also high-end teahouses, but the number is rare, mainly in big cities.

Zheng's restaurant is considered a high-end consumer place in Yangzhou. Customers are generally not used to drinking loose tea, and group tea is more troublesome, and it cannot be brewed repeatedly.

The emergence of green tea has filled the gap in the market.

Now there are always performances in the restaurant, and occasionally sumo wrestling.Even if it is not at the meal time, there are guests coming. The rich drink first- and second-class green tea, and the shy drink third-class green tea.

Even the third-class green tea is expensive here, twenty cents a bowl, and the portion of tea should be more.

You can watch the theater for free, and you can watch it for half a day with a bowl of tea, and the ticket price is all in the tea.The repeated brewing function of green tea provides the possibility of continuing to drink tea and watch movies.

It was mid-afternoon at this time, and the restaurant was almost full.

No matter how commercial Yangzhou is, it is still the second largest city on Lizhou Road, and there will never be a shortage of rich people.

Zheng Hong chose a table near the front, brewed three cups of first-class green tea, and ordered some candied fruit.

"The person playing Concubine Yang is Wang Shounu, a famous actress in Yangzhou, and Tang Minghuang is her husband." Zheng Hong introduced the actor while chewing on candied fruit.

Ju Ming asked curiously, "Are the couple free?"

Zheng Hong said: "The imperial court no longer raises official slaves, and also advises the people not to raise private slaves. In fact, it doesn't matter whether slaves are slaves or not. Raising slaves is not cost-effective, and they have to feed and drink. It is easier to sign a document. There are five years, some For ten years, when the time limit is reached, no one owes each other."

This is a social change brought about by economic prosperity. It is more cost-effective to hire actors in the form of contracts than to raise a bunch of actors as slaves.

In the Song Dynasty, there was no distinction between Kun classes, women could still be on stage, and there were a lot of female stars with names and surnames, and their income was even far higher than that of small businessmen.

The bigger the city, the more "women are preferred" to the common people.

In Kaifeng in the Northern Song Dynasty, "middle and lower households do not give birth to boys, but love and cherish them when they give birth to daughters."

The reason is simple. Urban residents don't farm land, so it's useless to raise so many males. On the contrary, it is easier for daughters to find jobs, and the cost of marriage is not so high.

"Hahahaha!"

The audience suddenly burst into laughter, but it was a gag on the stage.

This drama is adapted from the short story "Yang Taizhen's Biography" in the Northern Song Dynasty.Most of the lines are in the form of spoken words, and they suddenly start singing again during the acting, with many jokes mixed in.

It was the first time for Zhu Ming to watch Zaju of the Song Dynasty, and he found it quite interesting.

After a scene is performed on stage, there will be a string of performances in the middle.

Two actors were somersaulting there, and there was another one who looked like a matchmaker, painted and painted by male actors, laughing and cursing a bit like stand-up comedy.

After these interludes, the matchmaker turned and left, deliberately removing the cloth stuffed in her chest halfway.The matchmaker was about to end her somersault, and ran back in a hurry, picked up the cloth ball and stuffed it back to her chest, put her hands on it, and winked at the audience.

"Hahahaha!"

Zheng Hong was so teased that he slapped the table and laughed. He is a layman, so he likes to watch this kind of show.

Bai Chongyan also enjoyed watching it with great interest. In the countryside, opera troupes are invited to perform only during festivals, weddings and funerals.He is usually in the academy and doesn't have much entertainment, so he doesn't dislike this kind of performance.

After the matchmaker left, Concubine Yang returned to the stage again, changed her outfit and sang while walking.

Looking at it, Ju Ming felt that the taste was not right. Some of the dialogues on the stage seemed to be insinuating that Cai Jing is a traitor?

Zhu Ming asked, "How many years have you been performing this drama?"

Zheng Hong replied: "It has been decades. This year, a famous zaju artist from Xingyuan Mansion changed this "Yang Taizhen Biography" a little more, which is more funny and amusing than the old drama performed before."

Zhu Ming didn't ask any more, he could already confirm that someone was deliberately satirizing Cai Jing.

This kind is still in the category of pediatrics, and Kaifeng Zaju is more ruthless.

The content of the play is——

Cai Bian, Cai Jing's younger brother, wanted to honor his father-in-law, Wang Anshi, and rearranged the seats when offering sacrifices to Confucius.

Confucius asked Wang Anshi to sit down, and Wang Anshi asked Mencius to sit down.

Mencius declined and said to Wang Anshi: "Seats should be arranged according to rank. I am a duke, and you are the real king. You should sit in front of me."

Wang Anshi invited Yan back to his seat.

Yan Hui said, "I'm just a commoner in the back alleys. I haven't made any achievements. You are the true Confucianism in the world."

Therefore, Wang Anshi took his seat, ranking only under Confucius.

Confucius couldn't sit still anymore, so he quickly retreated and asked Wang Anshi to take his seat.

Wang Anshi refused in fear.

Zilu, who was outside, was very angry when he saw it. He ran to the ceremony room to find Chang Gongye (Confucius's son-in-law), dragged him out of the Confucius Temple, and cursed at him.

Director Gongye said in a daze, "What mistake did I make, why are you scolding me?"

Zilu pointed into the hall: "You don't know how to protect the father-in-law, look at the son-in-law (Cai Bian) of other people's family."

That drama made Cai Jing, Cai Bian, and Wang Anshi black to the sky, and it started this year.

In order to consolidate their own status, Cai Jing and Cai Bian urged Song Huizong to posthumously crown Wang Anshi as Shu Wang last year.

Before that, Wang Anshi had been worshiped in the Confucian Temple.

Once the title of title is changed, the order of seats should also be changed. Confucius and Wang Anshi are both princes, and Mencius, Yan Hui and others are all dukes.

It has been passed down among the people that Wang Anshi will be ranked second in the Confucian Temple.The scholars were filled with righteous indignation, so they wrote a drama to satirize this matter, without giving Cai Xianggong any face.

The Confucian Temple incident was one of the main reasons why Wang Anshi was spurned by Confucian scholars, and the rumors became more and more true, and even the great Confucians of the time expressed their objections.

The "Yang Taizhen Biography" in front of me satirizes Cai Jing openly and secretly, and it is probably also influenced by the Confucius Temple incident last year.

If Wang Anshi knew about it, he would probably lift the coffin and run out to beat Cai Jing up.

As time passed, Fatty Zheng ordered some food and drinks, and the three of them ate and drank in the restaurant.

Until the evening, they went to Zheng's house together.

The guest room has been arranged, and the luggage is in the guest room. Zhu Ming lives in the east wing, and Bai Chongyan lives in the west wing, all in the same yard.

As soon as he moved out of the top chair and sat down to chat in the yard, someone came in suddenly.

Zheng Yuanyi was dressed up, not only was her head full of hair accessories, but she also wore some jade ornaments on her body, making it look like she was going to worship the Buddha.

"Second brother isn't here?" Zheng Yuanyi seemed to be looking for Zheng Hong, but her eyes were fixed on Zhu Ming, and she said pleasantly, "Oh, brother Zhu is here too!"

(End of this chapter)