Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 99 Mingfa and Mingshu

"What is the name of this government office? Yuan Qing can help me find out the details."

"Is it called the Tongjuan Office or the Magistrate's Office?"

Upon hearing the emperor's inquiry, Yuan Keli, a minister who had served as an official and understood the actual local affairs, rejected the names of the General Judge's Office and the Judge's Office without even thinking, and said:
"Tongpan and judge have the word judge, but they are not responsible for trials. Instead, they are responsible for the Qing army, patrols, farming, water conservancy and other matters together with Tongzhi. Each government has different responsibilities."

"Only recommending officials can regulate punishments and praise plans. They are responsible for judging cases, and also participate in the three-year performance evaluation of officials. They have the responsibility of proposing punishments and observing inspections."

"I think it should be called the official office, and it does not need to be run by general judges or magistrates."

Zhu Youjian shook his head and said:
"There is no recommending officer in the state, it is the judge who is responsible."

"Furthermore, Tongpan signed official documents with the magistrates in the former Song Dynasty. I plan to clarify Tongpan's right to countersign and let Tongpan review whether local official documents violate laws and regulations. Only official documents that have been countersigned will have legal effect."

"So this government office needs to be run by a general magistrate, and the local government cannot treat it as a decoration."

This is a great thing to increase the power of the Three Laws Division. Yuan Keli is responsible for the restructuring of the Three Laws Division, so of course he cannot refuse.

So he thought about it and felt that calling it the Office of Pushing Officials was a bit low-level. Calling it imitating the provincial level and calling it the Office of Punishing and Prosecution would not clearly cover court responsibilities and would be easily confused with the provincial level.

However, he was asked to designate this government office as the general magistrate's office and to define the promotion officer as a general magistrate official. As a former promotion official, he was unwilling to do so. Thinking about the independent trial of the court, he said:
"Dali Temple was called Tingwei in ancient times and was responsible for judicial trials."

"I think it can be called the Court Office, focusing on court responsibilities."

"The push officer is in charge of independent trials in the court, and is responsible for the affairs of the court office when the judge goes to the magistrate's office to sign official documents."

In this way, Tuiguan and Tongpan can be called the chief officer together instead of being reduced to the second assistant. The transfer situations of the two are completely different.

There's something selfish about it, but it's also more appropriate. Zhu Youjian nodded in approval and said:
"good!"

"In the future, each prefecture and Zhili Prefecture will establish a Tingwei Office. The Tingwei Office will be in charge of the Zhengliupin Tongjian and the Zhengqipin Tuiguan, and the Zhili Prefecture Tingwei Office will be in charge of the Congqipin Magistrate."

"The Tingwei Department has jurisdiction over the Criminal Division, the Investigation Division, and the Court. The person in charge is tentatively designated as the eighth grade, as a subordinate official."

"This will be trialled in North Zhili first, and then we will decide whether to extend it to South Zhili and the thirteen provinces based on the situation."

This is a safe approach, Yuan Keli nodded in agreement. I feel that the emperor was very cautious in adjusting local institutions and did not make random changes.

However, he had a headache when he thought about the eighth-rank officials that the various imperial offices needed. The salaries of these people were not high, and the money and food they needed was not a big problem. But where do people come from? This is a question:
"Jinshi are usually awarded the rank of official and county magistrate of the seventh rank. There are also people who are in charge of the sixth rank and magistrates of the state from the fifth rank. Only when they make mistakes will they be demoted to the county magistrate of the eighth rank."

"Should the eighth-rank officials under the Tingwei Department be held by juren or supervisors?"

It’s not that he looked down upon those who promoted candidates and supervised students, but the emperor had given priority to officials from the local Third Law Department to be transferred to the imperial Third Law Department. These eighth-grade officials will have the opportunity to serve as Kedao officials in the future, so they must be cautious.

Raising this question to the emperor, Zhu Youjian told Yuan Keli about the long-planned reform of the imperial examination:
"In addition to the Jinshi Department, I plan to set up the Ming Law Department in imitation of the Tang and Song Dynasties to select officials for the imperial court and the local Three Law Departments."

"Those who pass the Mingfa examination are also called Jinshi, but the rank is lower than that of the Jinshi, and they are awarded to eighth or ninth grade officials."

This is a way, but the reform of the imperial examination system is of great importance, and Yuan Keli will never agree easily. He did not reject it directly, but he already felt that the emperor was not making random changes, and the matters he proposed needed to be taken seriously.

After thinking about it for a long time, Yuan Keli asked:
"Will the Mingfa Department be opened only once, or will it be opened regularly in the future?"

"Does His Majesty intend to exclusively use the Mingfa Department as a Jinshi in the Three Laws Department, or allow other Jinshi to serve?"

Zhu Youjian thought about it for a long time and said:
"The Mingfa Section can be counted as a regular subject, and there is also the Mingshu Section, which selects officials for the General Accounting Office, the Qintian Supervisor, and the Ministry of Household Affairs."

"Jinshi students in the Jinshi subject can take the judicial and arithmetic examinations later and obtain the corresponding official qualifications. Just like the Hanlin Academy selects Shujishi, an additional examination will be held." "And they can also take these two subjects at the same time during the examination. , directly obtain the corresponding official qualifications."

When Yuan Keli heard this, he immediately asked:

"Your Majesty is saying that the Jinshi subject, the Mingfa subject, and the Mingshu subject can go hand in hand. Can candidates take the examination at the same time?"

Zhu Youjian said:
"That's it!"

"I plan to hold the two exams after the Jinshi exam."

"In the past, there was always some controversy over the selection of first-, second-, and third-class candidates. Especially when the rankings in the general examination and palace examination changed too much, there would be more disputes."

"I plan to use Mingfa and Mingshu as independent examinations and as additional examinations for Jinshi."

"Those who have only passed the examinations of Mingfa or Mingshu can be awarded the fourth and fifth grade Jinshi according to their rankings, starting from the eighth and ninth grade Zuoji officials, such as county magistrates, chief registrars, and the newly established officials of the Tingwei Department."

"Those who pass the Jinshi examination can be awarded the title of top three Jinshi, starting from the seventh-rank official, but they can be promoted to the seventh-rank county magistrate or promotion official."

"Those who pass the Jinshi examination and the additional Mingfa or Mingshu examinations at the same time can be awarded the second-level Jinshi. They will start from the seventh-grade official. When they are promoted to the seventh-grade county magistrate or promoted officials, they will be added to the sixth-grade casual official."

"The top three candidates, the top pick, the second best candidate, and the top three candidates will be selected from those who passed three subjects at the same time. If there are not enough candidates who passed three subjects at the same time, they will be selected from those who passed two subjects. I will make the decision personally."

This change was a bit big, and Yuan Keli thought about it for a while before he figured it out.

Although I know that this will help reduce the controversy over the selection of first-, second-, and third-level players, the changes are too big.

Yuan Keli felt that such a direct change might cause some Jinshi who were not good at law or calculation to cause trouble, so he suggested to the emperor:
"I think Mingfa and Mingshu can be opened, and only the top four and five top grades will be awarded. And just like the martial arts examination, there is no need to participate in the palace examination."

"The Jinshi examination should be carried out according to the original method to avoid confusion among candidates for next year's examination."

"The number of applicants for the Jinshi subject next year should not be lower than that of the previous subject."

"Your Majesty can use the Mingfa and Mingshu subjects as a favor, and enroll dozens of people in each subject as needed, as His Majesty's favor."

Zhu Youjian thought about it and felt that next year would be the first year of Chongzhen and it would not be appropriate to cause trouble. Adopting Yuan Keli's suggestion, he praised:
"The old man has the old method, the new man has the new method, Yuan Qing is old and mature, and this method is very good."

"I have decided to open up the law department and the science department next year, and allow all candidates and Imperial College students to participate."

"Juren who take the Jinshi subject can take these two subjects at the same time to verify what they have learned."

"Jinshi in Mingfa and Mingshu will not take the palace examination for the time being. Those who pass the examination will be awarded the eighth or ninth rank official position and will be regarded as Jinshi -"

"The subsequent transfer of official positions will be regarded as a top three Jinshi."

　"New Book of Tang":
　　The Tang system and the subjects for selecting scholars were mostly due to the Sui Dynasty, but there are three main reasons. Those who came from the academy were called students, and those who came from the prefectures and counties were called Xianggong. They all advanced and retreated after being promoted to Yousi.

　　The subjects of its subjects include scholars, Ming Sutras, handsome men, Jinshi, Ming Dharma, Ming characters, Ming calculations, One history, Three histories, Kaiyuan rituals, Taoist examinations, and boys.

　　The difference between the Ming Jing is that there are five classics, three classics, two classics, one classic for learning, three rituals, three transmissions, and history.

　　It is a common choice at this age.

　　The emperor himself issued a decree called "Zhiju", so he should only wait for extraordinary talents.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)