Great Zhou Empire: Kill Zhao Kuangyin at the beginning

Chapter 380: Commercial Society (Special thanks to the book friend Seventeen Years Old Bookworm for his two monthly tickets!)

Chai Zongxun took a few sips of tea and continued:
"Each department has one director and two deputy directors, whose official ranks are the fifth rank and the fifth rank respectively. The department staff is the sixth rank.

As for how many new departments should be established based on the current number of prefectures in our Great Zhou, the cabinet will discuss and determine this in the next few days and then report it to me.

The problem of insufficient officials is easier to solve by increasing the proportion of Jinshi admitted.

Lord Kou, what is the current rate of Jinshi admissions in our Great Zhou?"

The imperial examination system was established during the Sui and Tang dynasties. It was initially hosted by the Ministry of Personnel, with the chief examiner being the Minister of Examination (rank 6, lower). During the Kaiyuan period of the Tang Dynasty, the imperial examination was transferred to the Ministry of Rites, with the chief examiner promoted to the position of Vice Minister (rank 4, lower), and this position was continued by later generations.

The Ministry of Personnel was the department responsible for the selection, promotion, rewards and punishment of officials, while the Ministry of Rites was mainly responsible for matters such as sacrifices, ceremonies, diplomacy, schools, and the imperial examinations.

The transfer of the imperial examination from the Ministry of Personnel to the Ministry of Rites marked the complete separation of the imperial examination institution from the official selection institution and its relative independence. This was an important step in the standardized development of the imperial examination system.

After Chai Zongxun abolished the "recommendation system" and the "ennoblement system", everyone had to pass the "imperial examination" before they could enter the official career.

Therefore, over the years, the Ministry of Rites, which presided over the imperial examinations, has become increasingly powerful and has risen from the last two among the previous six ministries to the top three, and its status is comparable to that of the Ministry of Personnel and the Ministry of Revenue.

Kou Zhun came out of the class and said:
“Reporting to Your Majesty, since the introduction of the Four-Subject Imperial Examination, the number of people admitted to the Great Zhou has far exceeded that of the same period in all previous dynasties, and talented people among the people have many more opportunities to become officials.

In general, the national imperial examination, starting from the examination for the scholar to the examination for the Jinshi, the admission rate for liberal arts is about 6/10,000, the admission rate for military is 1/1000, the admission rate for business is 3/1000, and the admission rate for engineering is 5/1000.

The liberal arts require a vast amount of study of classics, history, and literature, so it goes without saying that it is difficult.

The military science also requires a wealthy family and training from an early age.

Since business and engineering courses have only been opened recently, the competition is less competitive than that of liberal arts and military courses.

Chai Zongxun smiled and said:
"Now that our Great Zhou has begun to fully enter the commercial society, the admission rate for the four-class Jinshi is too low!
With the increasing prosperity of commercial society and the multitude of industries, the government affairs that the court needs to manage will continue to increase in the future.

Pass on my decree, from now on, the admission rates for the four imperial examinations, starting from the provincial examination for scholars, will be doubled!
In addition to the governor and the magistrate, each prefecture was given a new position of prefect to be in charge of private commerce and workshops, so as to promote local economic development.

The official system of the Great Zhou Dynasty generally followed that of the Tang Dynasty. The Inspector was in charge of military and political affairs of the prefecture, while the Tongpan was responsible for local public security affairs such as suppressing bandits and arresting thieves. There were no special officials in charge of the economy before.

After the imperial edict was issued, scholars and officials across the country were all delighted, because the emperor doubled the number of people admitted to the imperial examinations, which provided many more ways for ordinary people to study, become officials, and change their destiny.

Over the past ten years or so, more than 200,000 industrial and commercial imperial examinations have entered the officialdom, continuously expanding the public's awareness and attention to industry and commerce.

With Chai Zongxun's vigorous promotion in recent years, "If you want to get rich, look to industry and commerce" has become a consensus among the people of the Great Zhou.

However, the official-centered ideology that had existed for thousands of years had gradually weakened under Chai Zongxun's policies of governing the country according to law, strictly governing officials, cracking down on corruption, and clarifying the boundaries of power, as well as the prosperous development of industry and commerce across the country.

Many smart and talented people have earned a lot of money over the years by running businesses and opening workshops. As long as they pay taxes in full according to the law, their personal safety and wealth will be protected by the Zhou court.

Even if a few big merchants paid property taxes according to the law, their monthly income still exceeded the monthly salary of the local highest official. Of course, the commercialization process of the Great Zhou society also encountered considerable resistance.

Many conservative thinkers who studied Confucian classics hard, passed the imperial examinations in literature, and jumped from commoners to bureaucrats were naturally very indignant that some people among the common people became rich through business and their property and living standards even exceeded those of themselves, the "officials".

Some narrow-minded and dark-minded bureaucrats began to have vicious intentions of seizing the property and even the wives and concubines of local wealthy businessmen.

However, there were mechanisms to restrain bureaucrats from abusing their power, such as the Wude Division, Longxiang Guard, and local Xiangxian Bureaus. In order to protect their own safety, persecuted merchants or their families in various states reported their crimes to these institutions that supervised officials.

For every report, under the order of Emperor Chai Zongxun, the court would investigate it thoroughly and would never tolerate any official who did evil.

Over the past two decades, the country has punished more than 4 cases of this kind, with more than people being removed from office and imprisoned, and more than people being sentenced to beheading.

Such strict and iron-fisted law enforcement finally intimidated the old bureaucrats who were obsessed with officialdom, so that they no longer dared to abuse their power for personal gain or use it to retaliate against businessmen.

The businessmen also became more and more convinced that the court of the Great Zhou was no longer the court of a very small number of people where "officials protected each other", but a court that protected the interests of the entire people and was people-oriented. As a result, the people were more motivated to do business and open workshops, which promoted the rapid development of industry and commerce in the Great Zhou.

The "Shang-based" civilization is growing bit by bit in the Zhou society.

On the sixth day of the fifth month of the twenty-ninth year of Kaixi, 26,000 beautiful women who were initially selected by government offices across the country arrived in Bianliang one after another under the escort of officials.

These beauties came from more than 100 ethnic groups in more than 1,000 states of the Great Zhou Dynasty. They were all between 16 and 18 years old, and all were young, beautiful, and charming.

After two months and eight rounds of careful selection by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, a total of 500 beauties entered the final selection.

At 7:00 pm on July and August, Chai Zongxun, accompanied by Empress Dowager Fu, Queen Fu and Prince of Song Guo Jizhou, entered Chuxiu Palace to select a concubine for Prince of Song.

The five hundred beauties were all extremely beautiful, each holding a wooden tag with her name on it, standing respectfully in the palace waiting to be selected by the emperor.

Guo Jizhou is already eighteen years old this year and is about 1.76 meters tall, just slightly shorter than his father.

As a result of his long-term love of martial arts and dislike of studying, Guo Jizhou has a strong physique and a cheerful personality.

Seeing so many stunning beauties standing in the palace at this moment, and knowing that they were selecting concubines for him, Guo Jizhou could not help but look around at the beauties and grinned from time to time.

After more than an hour of careful selection, Chai Zongxun, his mother and his cousin unanimously chose Song Chun, the fifth daughter of Song Wei, the General of the Left Guard and former Jiedushi of the Zhongwu Army, as the princess of Song King Guo Jizhou.

Because Chai Zongxun saw a look of pity and love for the eldest prince Guo Jizhou in Song Chun's eyes.

When fifteen more concubines were selected, it was almost noon. Chai Zongxun immediately ordered the Ministry of Internal Affairs to hold a banquet to entertain all the beautiful women who had entered the "concubine selection".

Many of the five hundred beauties at the banquet secretly observed King Song. Seeing that he was tall and strong, handsome, and behaved normally but with an imperial demeanor, they were relieved.

(End of this chapter)