Spoiler History: Starting from the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 729: Yanyou Rehabilitation
[But getting back to the point, the first wave of East-West collisions sparked by The Travels of Marco Polo did not occur until the Ming Dynasty.

Or to be more precise, it was the collision between the Ming Dynasty ruled by the three emperors Zhengde, Jiajing and Longqing, and the Portugal ruled by Manuel I, John III and Sebastiao I.

However, this topic will have to wait until the Ming Dynasty chapter to be discussed in detail. For now, let’s return to the Yuan Dynasty, because the imperial examination system has finally returned.

It is said that alcoholism is a compulsory course for Mongolians, while promiscuity and murder are optional courses for Mongolians.

Emperor Wuzong of Yuan came to power through a coup. Strictly speaking, he did do something in the economy, but compared with his "wonderful" life, these are simply not worth mentioning.

Just five years after ascending the throne, the 30-year-old Emperor Wuzong of Yuan died in Dadu due to excessive drinking and debauchery, ending his wonderful life.

When the emperor died, there were always some who were happy and some who were sad, but the one who was most overjoyed was the prince.

The crown prince of Emperor Wuzong of Yuan was his younger brother. This was because his younger brother had put in a lot of effort in the coup. So the two brothers agreed that "the throne will be passed down from elder brother to younger brother, and from uncle to nephew." This person was later Emperor Renzong of Yuan. It was also Emperor Renzong who put a lot of effort into restoring the imperial examination system.

However, unlike Zhao Da and Zhao Er, Emperor Wuzong of Yuan himself acknowledged the existence of this agreement and appointed his younger brother as the Crown Prince when his health was good.

In fact, the plan to restore the imperial examination system was not only considered by Kublai Khan, but was also discussed during the reigns of Emperor Chengzong of Yuan and Emperor Wuzong of Yuan. However, just like during the reign of Kublai Khan, it ended in nothing.

The problems faced in different periods were also different. In fact, at the end of Emperor Chengzong of Yuan Dynasty, because the vast territory required a large number of officials, the sparsely populated Mongolian nobles had already accepted the need for imperial examinations to select officials, but how could they do so without damaging the privileges of the masters?

Another problem is that there has always been a big conflict between the north and the south among the Han people. If the imperial examination system is to be restored, should it be restored from the Song Dynasty or the Jin Dynasty?

Therefore, with the rise of Emperor Renzong of Yuan, these problems were solved.

Because Yuan Renzong was a Mongolian, although he did not get along well with the nobles, he still guaranteed the privileges of the Mongols to consolidate his base, and the method of selecting officials based on ethnicity came into being.

Secondly, Yuan Renzong followed the trend in respecting Confucianism and was inclined towards Neo-Confucianism, so the proposal to restore the imperial examination system of the Song and Jin dynasties was thrown into the trash can. The Neo-Confucian Han Confucians who were promoted formulated a complete new imperial examination system for Yuan Renzong, which is known in history as the Yanyou Restoration of the Imperial Examination System.

It was the decision of the Yanyou Restoration of the Imperial Examination that the Four Books and Five Classics written and annotated by Zhu Xi be the designated textbooks for the imperial examination. Later, the Ming and Qing dynasties fully adopted this regulation and made the imperial examination revolve within the scope of Neo-Confucianism. Its influence was not small.

As for the examination system, it still uses the three-level examination system of the Tang and Song dynasties, which we are all familiar with. There are provincial examinations, metropolitan examinations, and palace examinations. The first place in the provincial examination is called Jieyuan, the first place in the metropolitan examination is called Huiyuan, and the first place in the palace examination is called Zhuangyuan. Therefore, since the Song Dynasty, there has been an auspicious saying to wish for good luck in the imperial examinations called "winning three prizes in a row", and the Yuan Dynasty was no exception.

However, despite this wish, in reality, in the more than one thousand years of imperial examination history, there were only fourteen people who were able to win the top three places in a row. If we limit it to winning the top three places in a row without interruption, there are only three people in history: Song Yang and Feng Jing of the Song Dynasty, and Qian Qi of the Qing Dynasty.

However, Qian Qi's case was a bit special because since the Ming Dynasty, there were so many people taking part in the provincial examinations that three more examinations were added: county examination, prefectural examination and academy examination. Only after passing all the examinations and obtaining the status of "scholar" could one officially start taking the imperial examinations. Therefore, in the Ming Dynasty, if one took the imperial examinations smoothly, there were six examinations.

Qian Qi was special in that he got the first place in all six exams, achieving an unprecedented achievement of winning six prizes in a row.

However, apart from this achievement, there is not much to say about Qian Qi, the king of the rolls. After all, the other members of the Qian family are quite dazzling.

Not to mention Qian Xuesen, the father of China's space program and missiles.

Let’s not talk about Qian Weichang, the father of modern Chinese mechanics, and Qian Sanqiang, the father of the modern atomic bomb.

Let’s put aside cultural celebrities such as Qian Zhongshu, Qian Fu, and Qian Mu for the moment. The Qian family’s iron certificate of immunity from death that has survived to this day is even more legendary than that of this top scholar.

After all, there have been many iron certificates of immunity from death in history, but this is the only one that really plays a role.

It was issued by Emperor Zhaozong of Tang, borrowed and viewed by Emperor Taizong of Song, Emperor Renzong of Song, and Emperor Shenzong of Song. In the 24th year of the Hongwu reign of the Ming Dynasty, Qian Ruxing, a descendant of the Qian family, went to Beijing to seek an audience with Emperor Hongwu with an iron certificate and rescued his father Qian Yongqin, who was sentenced to death according to the law for tax and grain shortage. This cultural relic is now treasured in the National Museum as a first-class cultural relic. If you pass by, you can actually go and see it.

In a sense, this iron certificate, like the imperial examination system, is also one of the credentials for tracing back to Chinese history.

However, looking back at history from the perspective of the imperial examination system, we can see that the Yanyou Restoration of the Imperial Examinations in the Yuan Dynasty had little effect on the Yuan Dynasty.

This unprecedentedly large empire soon fell into greater chaos, revealing its true face of short-lived weakness.

In the Guangzheng Hall, Li Yu watched helplessly as joy gradually spread across Qian Chu's face, and this joy made the corners of Qian Chu's mouth no longer smooth.

As a result, the smile on this familiar face became even more annoying.

Especially when thinking about his own sudden and unclear death, Li Yu felt very upset:

"Qian Huzi does have some good descendants."

The sour taste of this direct address by nickname was obvious, but Qian Chu didn't take it seriously. Instead, his smile became even brighter:
"What Cong Jia said is true. After all, in the future, thousands of years later, those who can hit the six highest points in a row and achieve great success are all due to the hard work of future generations. What does it have to do with me?"

"I know how to follow the will of heaven, so I can protect my clan from extinction, so that future generations of Qian's descendants can serve China and be remembered by people."

Li Yu was speechless for a moment. How could this also be related to obeying the will of heaven?
However, when he thought of the unofficial history about himself that was passed down in later generations, he became so sad that he almost cried.

If he is like this, what about his only son? I am afraid he will also be hard to avoid disaster.

Then Master Kong Jiong saw that the King of Tang from Jiangnan was glaring at him again, and he was so scared that he almost subconsciously lowered his body.

Zhao Kuangyin had watched so many episodes, and he had already let go of what he should have let go of, so after writing these things down, he became a little curious:

"Does Wende still have the golden book and iron certificate?"

This kind of thing is not too rare. It can even be said that it was popular for a while in the chaotic times after the fall of the Tang Dynasty, but there are indeed very few that can be passed down for hundreds of years.

And those who wanted to use this item to avoid death were not successful. After all, as everyone knows, there is an exception for the crime of treason.

From the ridicule of Jia Sidao by later generations, we can also see how easy it is to frame him for the crime of treason.

Zhao Kuangyin naturally kept these thoughts in his heart, after all, he had issued the Golden Book and Iron Certificate.

"Your Majesty." Qian Chu bowed politely.
"This is a treasure of my grandfather, and I dare not easily destroy it. If the emperor wants to see it, I am willing to present it to our Great Song Dynasty."

"I have only one question that I would like to ask Your Majesty to explain: What is a missile? What is aerospace? What is an atomic bomb?"

Zhao Kuangyin waved his hands repeatedly. People in later generations said that this was something that could trace the lineage of China. If it fell into his hands and was destroyed, wouldn’t it be impossible to explain it?
"I just want to take a look, so please keep this thing for yourself."

"As for your doubts, they will be answered later."

(End of this chapter)