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Chapter 852 Dual Track System

What was the root cause? The emperor thought there were many reasons, such as the laws were not strict and the implementation was not in place, which would be gradually improved and corrected in the future. But one of the most important reasons was the imperial examination system.

The vast majority of Ming Dynasty officials were selected through the imperial examinations, and the books they learned during the imperial examinations were all sage books that taught people to be good. Why is it that after all the study and practice, the best of the best are all bastards who are planning to harm others?
If individual officials become bad, it can be said that they have low character. But when problems occur on a large scale, the answer cannot be found in character. The most likely possibility is that they are not taught correctly, or that there is something wrong with the teaching materials.

So is there something wrong with the books of sages? The emperor did not dare to assert it, but he could not completely rule it out. So he proposed a solution: to add more universities, choose other textbooks for teaching, and then make them a channel for entering the officialdom together with the imperial examination.

As the saying goes, it's better to take a mule or a horse out for a walk. Without discussing right or wrong, compare them and see the results, and you will generally have the correct answer.

How to compare? It's very simple. The spring examination three years later is divided into two parts: old candidates and new students take part together. The examination questions are also divided into two parts, including classics and new textbooks.

If any part of the exam is qualified, you will be considered a Jinshi; if 70% of the exam results are qualified, you will be considered a Jinshi; if both parts are qualified, that is very impressive, you will definitely be a Jinshi!

Different treatments were given to different scores. Those who passed the imperial examination were directly assigned to a seventh-rank position, those who were also imperial scholars were assigned to a ninth-rank position, and those who were also imperial scholars were only assigned to a ninth-rank position.

Finally, the imperial examination is about to be cracked down! After reading this edict of self-criticism, the first reaction of all scholars is definitely not to applaud the emperor's humble admission of mistakes, but to worry about the imperial examination.

Emperor Jingyang has been on the throne for almost 20 years, and the biggest impression he has given people is change. From the royal family to the people, from the imperial court to the local areas, from ancestral systems to conventions and customs, all kinds of changes have been made every now and then.

Eighty percent of the privileges of the royal family were cut off. In recent years, the royal palaces in various places have been downsizing. Some had to sell their land and mansions, and some branches simply petitioned the emperor to ask for a job in the imperial farm to earn a salary to supplement their family expenses.

If we were to ask who hated Emperor Jing the most in the entire Ming Dynasty, it would not be the bureaucrats, gentry or landlords. After all, some of them made huge profits from the New Deal and were staunch monarchists.

But most of the royal family members, whether they held positions or not, would secretly curse Emperor Jingyang to die quickly, and then return to his original appearance. Then he could continue to lie in his mansion and enjoy the delicacies of the mountains and the sea, and have fun every night.

The control over the army was also taken away, leaving nothing behind. Without an army, officials had no confidence in speaking to the emperor, and the court became a one-man show, with officials becoming yes-men.

If anyone dares to say no, the Dongchang guards and Jinyiwei will come to check the accounts, confiscate the property and impose hard labor anytime and anywhere. No one wants to be an official with a guillotine hanging over their head, and they are even more unwilling to not eat or take. After decades of hard study, there is neither privilege nor wealth, what is the point?
Later, the Ming Dynasty Code was changed beyond all recognition, with the laws written as clearly as possible, and the number of laws added or reduced every year according to the actual situation. This not only increased the learning tasks for the officials who judged the cases, but also deprived the officials of their privileges.

If ordinary people knew the details of the crime and the way to deal with it before the case was judged, would they still be afraid of officials? If they were not afraid of officials, how could they take bribes, how could they change their hands and make money for their superiors to seek advancement?

Even the Buddha could not escape the fate of being changed. If any violation of the precepts was discovered in any Buddhist temple, the Imperial Guards would immediately visit the temple, arrest the monks and send them to hard labor, and all the temple property would be confiscated.

Just from this one item, the emperor's treasury increased many times. Every temple was like a mountain of gold, fabulously rich.

Now, the temple has been converted into a Taoist temple, and a bunch of idiots spend all day practicing martial arts, collecting herbs, making elixirs, and fortune-telling. They have also opened many clinics and schools, providing free medical treatment and spreading new knowledge.

The common people are short-sighted, and they really believe it when they get some benefits. There are more and more Taoist friends, chanting spells and reciting the Ming Dynasty Law at the same time. Who can bear this? The poor people who can't even make a fart when beaten with three sticks now use the Ming Dynasty Law to make a fuss when they are scolded. As a result, people in front of the government offices in various places are suing for trivial matters every day, and there are Taoists who are familiar with the Ming Dynasty Law to help write the petitions. They are just hoping that the world will not be in chaos. The world is going downhill!
Now they have extended their evil hands to the imperial examinations, which is simply digging up the ancestral graves of the scholar class. The key to respecting Confucianism alone is not Confucianism, but respecting it alone. As long as the premise of respecting it alone exists, no matter what follows, the effect will be almost the same.

Suzuzhanni is a system, a circle, and anyone who wants to enter must abide by the unspoken rules. This set of rules not only provides privileges for the scholar class and excludes dissidents, but also controls the imperial power and protects itself.

Can we add new learning to the mix? Of course not. If we are all unique, any equal thing will be destructive. If we lose our uniqueness, we can’t talk about respect. If we lose respect, how can we fool people?

Do you dare not agree to go hand in hand with the new school? Definitely not. With Emperor Jingyang's courage and viciousness, he is probably waiting for someone to cause trouble.

The Salt Law was a lesson for us. We thought we had a chance to launch a counterattack against the new policy, but unexpectedly it provided the emperor with an excuse to abolish the Nanjing court, and then even the old nest was wiped out.

Make trouble again? Who knows where the emperor is hiding? Once he finds an excuse, he will abolish the imperial examination and replace it with a new school.

Will you die rather than obey? If someone dares to die, the emperor will kill him. It is not a big deal to kill hundreds of thousands of scholars for this. Didn't you see that the Eight Banners Army has been brought here? By then, there is no guarantee that the Mongolian Army, the Luzon Army, and the Annan Army will also come.

What the Han army dared not do meant nothing in the eyes of these foreigners. Maybe they were just trying to kill more Han people to avenge the destruction of their homes and the killing of their loved ones.

Do we dare to unite and boycott the exam? We don't want to be officials of the Ming Dynasty. If we have the ability, we won't employ any officials who came from the imperial examination system. We will rely on the new learning.

This is the only way to fight against the imperial power and have a greater chance of winning. No matter how powerful Emperor Jingyang is, he still needs the assistance of officials. If the Ming scholars can unanimously refuse to cooperate, they will definitely win some power and even prevent the entry of new schools.

But then again, when has the scholar class ever been unified? Scholars are just a macro-relative concept. At the micro level, it also contains many factions.

Take the more than ten military officials of the General Staff who can participate in the imperial meetings as an example. There are seven or eight schools of thought among more than ten people. With the pressure of the emperor, they can still reach consensus on many issues. If there is no one who can make the final decision, the situation will immediately become a mess and no one will be convinced by anyone else.

Even though Laozi, Zhuangzi, Confucius and Mencius were so knowledgeable and prestigious back then, they still could not command universal support. Different schools of thought still existed at the same time, and they were not convinced of each other.

If there really is someone who can unify the thoughts of most intellectuals, then the world will be united. And he will be the only emperor in history, and other emperors will have to stand aside.

In fact, this was also the case. On the question of whether to agree to put universities on a par with the imperial examination, there were different opinions in the government and the public. Some people firmly disagreed, some agreed and opposed, some strongly supported it, and some just didn't care. It was impossible to reach a consensus.

They can't even reach a consensus within their own class, and when they come before the emperor, it's easy for the left hand to hit the right hand to cancel each other out. The final situation is that the quarrel still exists and the reality remains the same.

(End of this chapter)