Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 31 Hanlin Academy

"Mr. Factory! Mr. Factory!"

Wei Zhongxian only came back to his senses after being called out by Wang Tiqian several times.

Thinking that he was discussing Wei Liangqing's title with him, Wei Zhongxian said:
"Let the civil servants in the court agree to the emperor giving them titles. Is that okay?"

He couldn't be sure of his own tone, and Wang Tiqian certainly couldn't, and he tactfully denied:
"The title your Majesty intends to give to Qi Jiguang is only a marquis. A duke is too high."

Hearing what Wang Tiqian meant, Wei Zhongxian knew that he wanted him to take the initiative to demote Wei Liangqing and others. But thinking about how much hard work he had to do to obtain these titles, Wei Zhongxian was really reluctant to give up and said:

"We'll see later. Let's finish the matter of donating the knight first!"

"The worst case scenario is to give Qi Jiguang a duke so that his descendants can inherit it."

Knowing that Wei Zhongxian planned to grant more titles to dilute the influence of Wei Liangqing Ning Guogong, Wang Tiqian was not optimistic about this idea. The emperor planned to use titles to reward military generals because the titles were valuable. If Wei Zhongxian made the titles less valuable, would military generals still value the titles so much?
What's more, there are only five dukes on the noble side. In order to maintain their status, they will strongly oppose the indiscriminate granting of titles. Wei Zhongxian's approach will only offend his nobles and fail to solve the problem.

But that was it, Wang Tiqian couldn't say much more. He knew that Wei Zhongxian valued the title, and even changed Wei Liangqing's hairpin to a duke after he was promoted. It was not easy to persuade him to give up his title.

Now Wang Tigan can only hope that the emperor needs someone to take care of things and will not attack himself and Wei Zhongxian easily.

Does Zhu Youjian need help? Of course it is needed. At this time, he was in the Hanlin Academy, selecting talents he wanted in the name of selecting people to live in.

Having learned about this from Living Lang Yuhuang a long time ago, a group of Hanlin Academy officials were already gearing up to gain the appreciation of the new emperor. Seeing that the emperor came to the Hanlin Academy in a light carriage, accompanied by Wang Zuoyuan, the right minister of the Ministry of Rites and a bachelor of the Hanlin Academy, and others, all the officials of the Hanlin Academy were very excited. They thought that the new emperor valued talents and was a rare wise king.

After the meeting, Zhu Youjian looked at many Hanlin Academy officials and nodded with satisfaction. At worst, these people are also Shujishi. They are talents selected after passing the Jinshi examination. If you are appreciated and promoted, you can become a bachelor in just a dozen years. The officials who will often deal with him in the future will definitely have these faces.

Therefore, Zhu Youjian attached great importance to today's selection and told everyone:
"Today, the second day of September, is approaching the Double Ninth Festival."

"First, take 'Double Ninth Festival' as the title and write a poem each."

"There is no need to limit rhyme or poetry. If you can write a good work, it will be a good story if it is spread."

Let them play freely, Zhu Youjian sat next to him and looked at everyone's expressions.

Officials of the Hanlin Academy are called ci ministers, and writing poetry can be said to be a compulsory course. Even during the reign of Emperor Jiajing, he still had to be able to write Qingci. For them, the question Zhu Youjian asked was very simple.

But precisely because of its simplicity, it is not easy to stand out. Some of the people were shaking their heads, and some were silent, each thinking hard and composing poems for the Double Ninth Festival.

Seeing that their attitudes were all serious, Zhu Youjian nodded. Putting aside the quality of the poems, the attitudes of these people were all right. They did not muddle through and take the questions they asked seriously. This is the most important thing to Zhu Youjian. He doesn't want to have a frivolous and impetuous person around him, as his daily life may be leaked.

Everyone showed off their talents, and soon someone completed the creation. Although Zhu Youjian didn't see the quality of his poems, he still nodded in approval when he looked at the neat and beautiful fonts. After all, we are selecting people to write daily notes, and writing quickly and with beautiful handwriting are also requirements.

Seeing that this man received the emperor's approval, others also speeded up. It didn't take long for dozens of editors, reviewers, and scholars from the Hanlin Academy to complete the creation.

Zhu Youjian wasn't very good at poetry, so he didn't really care. After getting a feel for each person's calligraphy and creation speed through poetry, they circulated the poems to each other, and each person selected three good and bad works.

As soon as this method came out, everyone had different ideas. In particular, Zhu Youjian demanded that it not be left vacant and that people sign their names on the selection documents, and no anonymous evaluations be made. This forces everyone to carefully consider which person's work should be chosen as the best and which person's work should be chosen as the bad.

If someone's work is chosen out of friendship, it is considered good, and someone else's work is chosen as bad. The emperor must be wondering, why is the difference so huge?

Therefore, they must carefully select and not just focus on friendship.

Thinking about it this way, many people are relatively fair when making selections. Although there is inevitably an element of friendship involved, the works with the most positive reviews are indeed of the best quality.

He Wuzou and Jiang Dejing were rated as the most excellent, and in Zhu Youjian's opinion, they were indeed talented.

Sun Zhixian was rated the worst, followed by Zhang Sizhi. Are these two really so bad? Comparing the poems of these four people, Zhu Youjian made a comparison and found that He Wuzou's poems were indeed superior, and Jiang Dejing's was also very good. But Zhu Youjian didn't see the difference between Sun Zhixian and Zhang Sizhi.

There is not much difference in the poems between these two people, but everyone only chose them. It seems that they are not very gregarious, or they are not popular.

He decided to keep these two people in the Hanlin Academy to see if they would cause any trouble after today.

Thinking like this, Zhu Youjian was about to proceed with the next assessment when he suddenly saw a man kneeling on the ground and crying:

"Your Majesty, it's not fair, this is unfair!"

"They are jealous that I am being reused and are ostracizing me like this!"

Zhu Youjian was surprised when he heard this and asked:
"who are you?"

"Why do you say that you are being reused but being excluded?"

The man cried and said:

"Your Majesty, Sun Zhixian, a humble minister, is the chief examiner of the Shuntian Township Examination and will be promoted to the position of lecturer."

"They must be jealous of the humble minister, so they judge me as bad."

Zhu Youjian frowned and asked the people around him:
"Is that right?"

"What do you all have to say?"

Of course the surrounding Hanlin Academy officials did not admit it, He Wuzou said:

"Your Majesty, the Provincial Examination is also called Qiuwei. It is usually held in early August, and the results are not released until September, so it is called Guibang."

"As an examiner, Sun Zhixian, after hearing that His Majesty was coming to the Hanlin Academy, put down the heavy responsibility of the provincial examination and secretly returned to the Hanlin Academy every day."

"I despise him as a person, so I rate him as the worst!"

Others also spoke out and criticized Sun Zhixian's behavior. The rural examination is a grand ceremony for promoting talents in the country. Sun Zhixian overcame Kong Zhenyun, He Wuzou and others to preside over the Shuntian rural examination, which originally made everyone in the Hanlin Academy dissatisfied. His behavior of sneaking back like this undoubtedly angered everyone even more.

For a time, all the officials in the Hanlin Academy almost attacked him in groups, demanding to interrogate Sun Zhixian.

　"Xian Diao Zhi Shi": Xu Shitai and Sun Zhixian compiled the compendium only four years ago. He was promoted to serve as a lecturer. He was in charge of the examination of Shuntian and Cui Niziduo.

　　"Qing Yu Lei Chao": modified by Sun Zhixian

　　When Shizu first entered the pass, all the ministers who had surrendered in the previous dynasty had their hair tied up, crowned with virtuous crowns, and wore long-sleeved robes. There are two classes, Manchu and Han, among the emperors, and they have been in peace with each other for a long time.

　　Sun Zhixie of Zichuan was ranked among the Nine Ministers in the Ming Dynasty. When Prince Rui led the troops into the pass, Zhi Xie first came forward to declare his sincerity, and said that all the women in his family had taken full makeup, and when they went to court, they had their hair changed and were classified into the full class. If the Manchus are regarded as Han people, they will not be allowed to do so; if they return to the Han class, the Han people will consider them to be Manchus and they will not be allowed to do so.

　　He was embarrassed and angry, so he said: "Your Majesty has pacified China and made everything new. However, the system of clothes, hats and hair only remains the old Han Dynasty. This is your Majesty's coming from China, not China's coming from your Majesty."

　　After hearing the memorial, Shizu admired it and ordered his hair to be shaved off.

　　At the time of Shunzhi Dinghai, Xie Qian, a commoner from Shandong, rose up and marched into Zichuan, where his whole family died tragically.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)