Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

However, Dong Qichang was still too happy because he would soon have more things to do.

On February 25th, the rankings for the Jinshi Examination have been drawn up.

Although it has not been officially announced, Zhu Youjian got the draft list.

Seeing that Liu Lishun was not on the list, he already frowned. After asking the Jinyiwei Statistics Department to do the statistics, he became even more furious:
"Most of the tributes on the list are after officials. 』

"There are no officials in the three generations of our ancestors, only two or three adults." 』

"How can this reflect the role of the imperial examination and ease social conflicts?" 』

Zhu Youjian had a clear understanding of the role of the imperial examination. In addition to recruiting talents in a relatively fair way, the most important role of the imperial examination was to circulate among all classes and ease social conflicts.

As long as there are people who "serve as farm ministers in the morning and ascend to the emperor's palace in the evening", many lower-class people will always hold on to hope. We will not resist violently unless absolutely necessary.

If this role is lost, classes will solidify and conflicts will increase, exacerbating social unrest.

In the North-South Ranking Case in the past, it was because the southern scholars did not give the northerners a chance at all that it made Taizu furious and launched a major case. It also affected the subsequent imperial examinations, setting the three volumes of the Northern and Southern Middle Schools.

It can be said that people in the Ming Dynasty had a very clear understanding of the imperial examination and knew that it was not entirely about talent and learning, but more about a means of governing the world.

However, their understanding of class circulation was still not as good as that of Zhu Youjian. When the joint examination was held, Zhu Youjian ordered the newly established Jinyiwei Statistics Department to count the previous Jinshi in each subject, and record the age, age and age of these Jinyiwei. Origin, resume, etc., all tallied up.

Today, only 20-30% of the tributes from the three generations of ancestors are seen in white, which is only half the 40-50% during the Jiajing and Longqing years. Zhu Youjian suddenly became furious and was very dissatisfied with the current imperial examination:

"After he was able to accurately recruit many officials even though his name was unknown. 』

"It seems that there are many ways to differentiate in the examination room!" 』

These skills may be passed down in the family, or they may be taught by teachers in the academy. It forms a style that can be seen by the people marking the papers.

Articles written by the descendants of common people who have not been educated have the so-called "poor atmosphere" in the eyes of these people. Being ostracized by the examiners reduces the chance of admission.

Therefore, there are fewer and fewer Jinshi in the past three generations, far less than before.

For Zhu Youjian, it means that the channels for circulation between the upper and lower levels have shrunk to only half of what they were before.

This means that the role of the imperial examination in mitigating conflicts has been reduced and is far less effective than before.

Therefore, he already had the idea in his mind to change the content of the imperial examination and replace subjective judgments with more objective questions.

But these are things for the future. The situation before him now is the list of candidates for the examination in this subject, and he needs to make a decision.

Do you want to admit it like this, or re-evaluate the test?
Unable to swallow this breath, Zhu Youji thought for a long time and summoned Shi Fenglai, Yuan Keli and Guo Yunhou who were presiding over the examination and said:
"In order to prevent someone from cheating, and to avoid missing out on talents, we need to be more cautious in marking the examination papers this time."

"Although Yuan Qing and Guo Qing are in charge of the Ming Fa and Ming Shu departments, they cannot completely ignore the Jinshi department."

"The three of you re-evaluated all the test papers that were on the main list and the second list."

"To be admitted as a tribute scholar, at least two ministers must approve it."

"Only one of the Qing family approves, and there will be a retrial."

"If you don't agree with it, then you will be removed from the deputy list."

The provincial and municipal examinations all have main and deputy rankings. This is used to provide timely replacements when problems arise with those admitted.

This time Zhu Youjian disrupted the main list and the deputy list and asked the three examiners to re-evaluate.

I believe that the people recruited in this way will be more fair than before. Shi Fenglai could naturally hear the benefits of this, but it was a great damage to his prestige.

The emperor's behavior was obviously because he was dissatisfied with the list of tributes he had selected. So Yuan Keli and Guo Yunhou were asked to join in and re-grading.

So he said with caution:
"According to the usual practice, the results will be released after the general examination."

"If you re-mark the exam, it will take a lot of time."

"The Mingfa and Mathematical Sciences departments also need marking."

This reason did not change Zhu Youjian's decision. He said:
"Precisely because of the Mingfa and Mingshu departments, the results can be released later this year."

"What's more, it will be held on the second day of April on a trial basis. It's only February 25th, so there's no need to be in such a hurry."

"Yuan Qing, Guo Qing, can you take time to grade the papers?"

Of course Yuan Keli and Guo Yunhou are willing, because this means that the tribute scholars in the Jinshi Department are also admitted by them. They will truly become the teachers of these people and establish the identity of teachers and students.

Therefore, the re-grading was approved without any doubt. Even if Shi Fenglai had opinions in his heart, he could only hold them back.

That's not all. In order to increase the number of people admitted to Jinshi, and also to reduce the number of candidates like Liu Lishun who failed many times, Zhu Youjian decided to open another encore in the name of ascending to the highest level. Invite older people with three generations of white-haired ancestors to participate in the ceremony, and imitate the special imperial examinations of the Song Dynasty to give them a background.

This idea was expressed to the ministers by Zhu Youjian on February 26th.

Most of the ministers who were well-informed knew about the emperor's order to re-mark the papers, and they also guessed that there might be a follow-up to this matter.

What they didn't expect was that the emperor would imitate the famous Jinshi from the Song Dynasty and conduct another encore. This made many people feel toothache and felt that the emperor was too generous:
It is not enough to admit 600 Jinshi at one time; more must be admitted.

With so many Jinshi, are there so many vacant official positions in the court?
Some people thought of the debate about Mingfa Ke and Mingshuang Ke a few years ago, and used the excuse of redundant officials to persuade the emperor to retract his idea.

But more ministers did not say a word about this.

Some of them have children and nephews who took the examination for this subject, and they think it is a good thing that the emperor expanded the enrollment.

Some people know that the emperor's ideas cannot be stopped, so they might as well acquiesce to it.

What's more, I thought of the thousands of literati in the capital, knowing that after the emperor's idea of ​​holding an encore spread, they would definitely attract their support. If the ministers in the court fail to pass, they may be labeled as traitors by the failed candidates.

Therefore, senior officials such as Grand Scholars and Jiu Qing are very cautious about this matter. Even if they disagreed with what the emperor said about Enke, they did not dare to openly oppose it.

Seeing that there were very few people who opposed it, Zhu Youjian quickly passed the resolution after a show of hands -

He dared to raise this point because he knew that now everyone was gathered together, and the courtiers who were concerned about their reputation did not dare to object.

If this matter fails, he will create momentum in the newspaper, and those who failed to pass the exam will definitely make a fuss.

So Enke's matter was quickly approved. Then Zhu Youjian, in the name of Enke, limited the qualifications to participate to Juren who were over forty years old, or Juren whose ancestors were white for three generations——

Let these people who have not been elected for many years or have low status feel the emperor's great kindness.

This decision obviously frustrated many officials. Because their descendants are obviously not the white bodies of their ancestors. It is possible to be over forty years old, but in order to be eligible to take the Shujishi examination after being admitted to the imperial examination, many people in the Ming Dynasty lowered the official age and said it was under forty years old——

The official age of Jinshi in the Ming Dynasty is now generally ten years younger than their actual age. Many people who are in their thirties or forties on their official resumes are actually in their forties or fifties.

Therefore, there are not many candidates who comply with the previous one. The third generation of ancestors who came after them were even more concerned about it. (End of chapter)