Chongzheng Hall.
Today is the day of the Imperial Examination for Zhi Ke. It is similar to the Palace Examination for Gong Ju. In Zhi Ke, only candidates who pass the Pavilion Examination can take part in the Imperial Examination.
Except for Ziyun Tower where Taizu’s Imperial Examination took place, the examination venues for subsequent subjects were all in Chongzheng Hall.
Li Jie has no intention of changing the exam location or anything.
Therefore, this time the examination was still held in Chongzheng Hall.
The morning bell rang and the sky was dim. The candidates who passed the pavilion followed the guidance of the guards and walked all the way to Chongzheng Hall.
Although most of these candidates have official ranks and have basically gone through the palace examination before, when they come to Chongzheng Palace again, they can't help but feel a little excited.
Different from the tribute examination, the subject system focuses more on strategy and theory, and this has been the case from the beginning.
The imperial examination system is nominally an imperial examination to select extraordinary talents.
What is extraordinary talent?
Of course it is different from the mainstream.
That is to say, the assessment of strategies other than Ci Fu.
In the pavilion examination, the assessment item is theory, while in the palace examination, policy is assessed.
Just like the Gongju Palace Examination, Li Jie personally controlled the Chongzheng Palace and made decisions at the Xuan Palace.
Rich country and strong military strategy!
This is the question for this imperial examination. After the question was announced, the chamberlain of the Royal Medicine Academy appeared and handed out fifty sheets of form paper and fifty sheets of draft paper.
The reason why so many papers are issued is because of the curriculum policy, which requires the number of words to be more than 3,000 words.
Three thousand words and fifty sheets of paper are just enough.
Corridor.
After receiving the manuscript paper, Fan Zhongyan did not start writing immediately. Then, while grinding the ink with clean water, he secretly drafted the manuscript in his mind.
Rich country and strong army?
This topic is very broad, which means it is relatively easy to answer.
Most of the people present for the examination were scholar-bureaucrats with official positions, and they had both rich background and practical experience.
It is not difficult to say something meaningful.
However, everything has its pros and cons, and while the topic is broad, it often means that it is difficult to give a good answer.
Since becoming an official in the eighth year of Dazhong Xiangfu (1015), Fan Zhongyan has successively served as the manager of the Guangde Army, the Jiedu officer of the Jiqing Army, and the warehouse supervisor of the Yancang in Xixi, Taizhou.
These dispatches all have one thing in common: they are all in the prefectural and county government offices, and they are not the top leaders in the system.
Although he was busy with these missions, Fan Zhongyan lacked the experience of being in charge of politics.
In other words, he lacks the opportunity to see the big picture.
certainly.
Fan Zhongyan was not without his strengths. When he joined the army as manager, he not only managed the prisons fairly, but also managed to recruit famous teachers to start schools.
When he was the warehouse supervisor of Xixi Yancang, in addition to his own responsibilities, he also did not forget to cultivate talents and founded an academy.
That is Xixi Academy.
Fan Zhongyan was obsessed with establishing schools because he felt that educating talents for the country was an extremely beneficial thing.
The one who rules the world must first educate and teach the people to do good; the one who is good for the country must not first educate talents, and the way to educate talents is not first to encourage learning.
Thinking of this, Fan Zhongyan immediately clarified his thoughts.
[The minister replied: In order to govern the world, we must first respect schools, establish teachers, gather talents, and establish righteousness. 】
This sentence is Fan Zhongyan's breakthrough. This sentence is similar to "a century-old plan, education comes first".
Just as Fan Zhongyan was writing, Liang Shi on the other side also finished drafting.
[The minister replied.
Changing customs and legislating laws is what is urgent today!
I heard that the officials of Quanfu were appointed in Zhou Dynasty, and they were merged with each other to help the poor and transfer the wealth of the world. Only Sang Hongyang and Liu Yancao were able to achieve this goal in later generations.
Today's scholars cannot deduce the legal intention of the previous kings, and even think that the ruler should not compete with the people for profit.
However, the method of repairing Quanfu is not to compete with the people for profit.
This is the way of adjustment, the way of poverty. 】
The official of Quanfu, that is, the subordinate official of Situ, is in charge of national taxation, purchasing unsalable materials on the market, etc.
Changpingcang is one of the similar manifestations.
However, Changpingcang's unified purchase of supplies is limited to grain.
Obviously, Liang Shi meant more than that.
Expand categories and establish a similar reserve system. If items are cheap, they will be collected and if items are expensive, they will be sold.
In this way, it can prevent big businessmen from monopolizing and infringing on the interests of small people, and the court can also benefit from it.
In a sense, this is also the germination of socialist market economic thinking.
Full market competition also requires government intervention to regulate the market economy so that it does not get out of control.
In fact, it is not difficult to see from Liang Shi's writing that Liang Shi is also a big fan of Sang Hongyang.
Liquor monopoly, ironware monopoly, and salt monopoly were all Sang Hongyang's pioneering projects.
And Sang Hongyang himself was deeply influenced by Guan Zhong. "Guan Zi·Qing and Chong" mentioned that if a husband has many things, he will be cheap, if he has few, he will be noble, if they are scattered, they will be light, and if they are gathered together, they will be heavy.
Controlling the circulation of goods and currencies through administrative means can effectively regulate the market and balance prices, while also combating monopoly mergers by big businessmen.
There is no doubt that the monopoly system is an extremely important financial means. It not only lasted throughout the feudal era, but even in later generations, the monopoly system was still an important supplement to the national economy.
And this is one of the reasons why Sang Hongyang is highly respected.
The creation of a system that can last for thousands of years shows his talent in the world.
Liang Shi is just one of Sang Hongyang’s many die-hard fans.
(ps: Liang Shi’s answer to the policy question, excerpted from Wang Anshi’s remarks)
A blink of an eye.
The time came to noon.
Although the exams are all done after breakfast and full, the high-intensity mental activity consumes a lot of money.
After a long time, it is inevitable that you will feel hungry.
Fortunately, the person in charge at this time was Li Jie. If it was Renzong in history, this exam would have been miserable.
In history, when Renzong first opened the examination course, there was no lunch option. The candidates were all dizzy and hungry until the end of the exam.
Later, the ministers of the DPRK could not stand it any longer, so they directly wrote a letter accusing the emperor of being too negligent.
Song Renzong was also a soft-spoken man, so when the system was opened again, the candidates who were considered for the examination would be provided with meals.
Of course Li Jie would not make the mistakes Renzong made.
Although these people who participated in the manufacturing courses were indispensable from well-connected people, under his nose, those who dared to blatantly stuff people were probably not even born yet.
Therefore, most of the candidates for this program are truly talented.
Among all the candidates, in addition to Fan Zhongyan and Liang Shi, there is another one who also attracts Li Jie's attention.
Hu Yuan, a scholar from Hailing in Taizhou.
Hu Yuan was also one of the few people who participated in the system education as a commoner.
At this time, Hu Yuan, the famous Mr. Anding in later generations, although he was over thirty, but looking at the Song Dynasty, he was still an unknown little transparent.
When Li Jie saw the name Hu Yuan, he was actually a little surprised.
After that, he sent someone to check and found that Hu Yuan also participated in the imperial examination in the second year of Tiansheng. Unfortunately, he failed to pass the provincial examination.
After failing the exam, Hu Yuan did not leave Bianliang, but lived in Bianliang for a period of time.
Until a few days ago, Hu Yuan met Li Wei, a Hanlin scholar, by chance, and was recommended by Li Wei to participate in this program.
