The Ministry of Rites separated out the Lifan Yuan, the Ministry of Personnel separated out the Organization Department, the Ministry of Household Affairs even separated out the Civil Affairs Department, and the Second Department of Finance, which can be said to have shocked the world.
However, for the tributes who had just finished the examination, all this was just a cloud. The examination, which lasted for more than ten days, made everyone in the capital feel wary, fearing that they would disturb these future officials.
According to the report of Shuntian Prefecture Yin: The people in Gyeonggi Province all kept their voices and held their breath for fear that the sound of breathing would disturb the tranquility of Wenquxing.
Shuntian Mansion is seven rooms wide, with five ridges hanging from the top of the mountain. It has blue brick walls and glazed tiles. It is the most magnificent building in Shuntian Mansion Gongyuan. The words on the plaque
The three characters "Zhigongtang" were inscribed by Zhang Juzheng himself when he ordered the Gongyuan to be rebuilt in the early years of Wanli. After Zhang Juzheng's death, Emperor Wanli liquidated him and almost opened his coffin to kill his body. Most of the effective New Deal implemented by Zhang Juzheng was abolished, but no one has replaced this plaque, which still hangs high today.
At this time, there were rows of red candles in the Zigong Hall, as bright as day. Duan Yizhi, the Imperial Examiner, sat in the middle as the chief examiner, and the other supervisors, promotion officers, record-receiving officers, sealing officers, transcribers, and readers, as well as the room officers of the 20th room of the Five Classics and the 82nd There are a lot of marking officers in the room.
The Shao Wu Dynasty changed the past practice of the pavilion elders taking the exam, and the Imperial Academy Jijijiu served as the examiner. This was a huge loss for those pavilion elders who wanted to attract more disciples.
Similarly, for the candidates, the sacrificial wine, which is clean and poor, and has almost no power, is really not a big tree to climb.
Duan Yizhi is sixty years old, and will soon be serving as an official in two years. Now he is full of energy, and he is not tired after reading for days and nights.
"Start splitting numbers, doing roll calls, and writing lists."
"Yes -" On the eighth day of the fifth lunar month, since the official list must be stamped with the seal of the Ministry of Rites, the promotion officer and the supervisor led eight hundred soldiers to escort the official list to the Ministry of Rites. After being stamped, they went to the screen wall in front of the lobby. The list is announced.
Outside the gate of Gongyuan, six thousand candidates and tens of thousands of relatives, friends and servants had been waiting for most of the night before the three main gates slowly opened. At this time, the morning star was still bright, competing with the moon.
Two groups of soldiers came out first and shouted loudly to the crowd to retreat. Everyone stepped aside a little, and then they heard the sound of drums and a guard of honor. Several officials on horseback escorted a colorful pavilion tied with yellow silk out of the gate. The main list was in the Caiting. Candidates in the square asked: "Who is Huiyuan?"
"Did Anhui Zhang Shining win?" The shouts were overwhelming, and the sound seemed to knock over several promotion officers on horseback. Moreover, the crowd was so crowded that it was impossible to get out.
The promotion officer discussed with the supervisor for a few words, and then shouted condescendingly to the crowd in the square on horseback: "Quiet, quiet, I will announce to you in advance the names of the top five people in this examination -" Square It soon became quiet, but the breathing of tens of thousands of people was also loud, and it took a long time for the waves to stop.
The roll call goes from fifth to first. Only these five people enjoy such privileges, and the rest can only look at the yellow list.
"Zhang Yongqi from Anqing Prefecture ranked fifth in the annual Guiji Examination..."
"Fourth place, Huzhou Shenquan..."...Then, after the top five were listed, everyone rushed forward, trying to find their own names.
Feeling happy or sad for a moment is inhumane. Once you pass the examination, you will definitely be on the gold list. Next, we just need to take the palace examination to see who can be ranked first.
Even if he is in the top three, he is from a Jinshi background, which is different from being a Jiansheng or Juren. A few days later, the palace examination began.
A group of candidates took a carriage and drove to the outside of Daming Gate. They gathered in the lobby of the Ministry of Etiquette with their examination baskets and lined up according to their examination rankings.
A total of three hundred people, led by Xu Wenbin, the left minister of the Ministry of Rites, walked through the Qianbu Corridor and the Jinshui White Jade Bridge to the outside of Chengtian Gate.
These guards are from the Guards Department. They are all nearly six feet tall, wearing wind-winged helmets and golden armor. They are tall, majestic and majestic. They are neatly lined up on both sides of Chengtian Gate. They hold their hands on the hilts of their swords and stare at the candidates who pass in front of them. .
This time the search is not focused on carrying books, but on whether you are carrying weapons. This is just a precaution. Which candidate would bring a sword into the palace? Isn't this looking for death?
Walking through the bluestone-paved square in front of the palace, we stood outside Danbi. Fourteen record readers and dozens of deacons headed by Duan Yizhi came in and stood in the palace. According to the ancestral system, the emperor was expected to ascend to the palace to receive the salutes of hundreds of officials and to give advice on the spot.
I saw the emperor sitting on the dragon chair, wearing a golden five-clawed dragon robe and a Yishan crown on his head. He had a majestic appearance and a short beard that was deliberately kept short to show his majesty.
Many candidates immediately lowered their heads at the first glance, filled with emotions. The candidates bowed five times and kowtowed three times: "Long live my emperor, long live the emperor——"
"Get back on your feet!" The emperor raised his hand with a smile on his face: "The weather is nice today. I hope everyone will not be restrained and spare no effort in writing for the country." After that, the exam officially began.
The officials of Guanglu Temple have already neatly placed the three hundred examination papers in the main hall. The Huangji Hall is thirty-two feet wide and sixteen feet deep. It is grand and tall and can accommodate nearly four hundred examination papers. The candidates took their seats in order and began to polish their ink and wait for the papers to be issued.
The fourteen examiners stayed in the Wenhua Hall last night, and each drafted a topic. The eunuch who was the Supervisor of Ceremonies sent the eunuch to the Qianqing Palace to have the emperor circle a topic in his pen, and then sealed it and returned it to the cabinet, which was in the cabinet lobby. The chamberlain who was ordered to be in charge of the imperial examination printed 348 copies on the spot. The inner and outer doors were isolated when printing the title, and the title was never allowed to be leaked in advance.
"Since the Zhongxing Dynasty, I have been lamenting day and night. I have been thinking about King Wu's taboos and the loss of my ancestors. I am also worried that the same mistakes will happen again and the world will be in chaos. I am anxious and have few good strategies. If any of you scholars can help me share my worries, , please write clearly in the article, don't stick to the words and ink - "A policy argument, a very routine and common policy argument.
To sum up, I finally conquered the world, but like King Wu of Zhou, I couldn't sleep well every day, for fear that future generations would repeat the same mistakes, causing great changes in the world.
If you have any good ideas, write them down! All the candidates breathed a sigh of relief. Who knows, on the other side of the wooden board, there are another list of questions.
Now there is a pond with an area of one zhang, with a jiaoxian growing in the center. One foot out of the water, lead the Jia to the shore, where it should be flush with the shore. Ask about the depth of the water and the length of the pond.
There is a pool measuring one foot square. There is a young reed growing in the pool. It is one foot above the water. If you lead it to the shore, it will be just flush with the shore. How deep is the water? How long is the reed?
Then there is the third question, which is still a mathematical geometry problem: Now there is a person holding rice out of three passes, and the outer pass is three and one is taken, the middle pass is five and one is taken, the inner pass is seven and one is taken, and there are five dou of rice left.
Question: What is the geometry of the basic meter? Someone brought a batch of rice out of three checkpoints. The external customs tax was one-third of the goods, the middle customs tax was one-fifth of the goods, and the internal customs was taxed one-seventh of the goods. In the end, there was still Five buckets of rice.
Question: How much rice did this person bring? Fourth, there is a country called Japan, which once invaded North Korea and became an enemy of the Ming Dynasty. Let’s talk about its land, customs and characters... Now everyone is talking about it.
The eunuchs on the side said sharply: "Quiet, there are two questions in this imperial examination."
"One is policy analysis, and the other three are additional questions."
"For these three questions, you can choose one of the three, or you can do them all. Everyone, please do it according to your ability!" At this time, everyone was happy and sad.
There are advantages and disadvantages to having an additional question. For those who have a wider field of study, this question is equivalent to a score question.
But those who were confined to the Four Books and Five Classics, reciting poems and composing poems, all looked sideways. It's just too hard for them.
Zhu Yixi just looked at them, thoughtfully. When people have no worries about food and clothing, it is time to train their literary skills to serve as officials. It is really despicable to only know about romance and romance every day.
He sat for a while longer, then stood up and left. Then it was dusk, and whale oil candles made the entire hall brightly lit, and many scholars suddenly realized that it was getting dark.
Theoretically speaking, the palace examination lasts for one day and one night, and is not limited to time. However, the policy statement can only contain a few hundred words, or at most a thousand words. Three hours of copying and writing is enough.
The emperor, on the other hand, had already gone to the harem and was living happily. In fact, if he hangs around often, it will affect the performance of the scholars.
It was a quiet spring night in Miyagi City, with eucalyptus fragrant tea and birds singing. Fourteen readers began to turn around the table to read the papers. The so-called table transfer means that a test paper is reviewed by the chief reader, stamped with the first to fifth grade marks and the seal of the reader, and then transferred to the next reader for review. A paper must be reviewed by fourteen readers. Review and stamp the grade marks, and finally review them. Those with more fourth and fifth grade marks must be listed in the top three.
Of course, all this must be presented to the emperor for preview. If the emperor thinks that a person's name sounds nice, or his handwriting is good, and he is flattering and comfortable, it is normal for him to give him the top prize.
Otherwise, why would it be called a palace examination? Where are the disciples of the Emperor? The Wenhua Hall is quiet and serene, with two gilded twin cranes in the corner exhaling fragrance. Time passes slowly amidst the rubbing sounds of papers being read.
The examiners in the East Pavilion were reading the papers behind closed doors. Those scholars in the capital who were on the examination list had already started drinking and carousing. Regardless of their rankings in the palace examination, and regardless of whether they had not participated in the passing ceremony, this Jinshi could not run away, and he was proud of his life. You must enjoy yourself to the fullest, drinking and singing about how much life has to offer.
After a night of overtime work, 300 articles were ranked according to the ancestral system. After reviewing the papers, the readers had to kowtow and kneel in front of the emperor.
Zhao Shu, the cabinet bachelor and chief assistant, submitted it in person and read the papers for the top three to the emperor. As Zhao Shu got older, the summer sunshine came out of the window and shone on his body, revealing the gray on his temples.
After working hard for nearly ten years, this former staff member of Sun Chuanting has reached the top of the official list, and his reputation has spread all over the world. Who doesn't admire him?
Everyone knows that he is a figure like Li Shanchang and Zhuge Liang. The voice is mellow and slightly aged, hoarse, and sounds really good, with ups and downs.
Policy analysis is all about momentum. If the article is well written, it will be overwhelming. And if it's poorly written, it's boring, repeating old tunes without any flavor.
"The top three articles are all good." After a while, the emperor opened his eyes and nodded slightly in appreciation. On the side, Liu Afu prepared his imperial pen and served Emperor Zhu Biao to appoint the top three.
"The scholarly articles of today's scholars are remarkable. They have swept away the decadence of the previous dynasty and are full of vitality, with a hint of the style of the Tang and Han Dynasties." Zhao Shu also praised it.
To put it bluntly, since it was the founding of the country again, some relationships in the court were also cleared, and the baggage was gone. The officialdom was more open-minded, and the morale of the scholars was also improved a lot.
There is a trend that comes once a day. For example, in the Song Dynasty, the biggest characteristic of scholars was the volume. They first suppressed warriors and then suppressed dissenters.
In the early Ming Dynasty, scholars liked gong and had many strong opinions. But now the emperor is carrying out drastic reforms, even continuing to advance eastward and westward, and has taken back all the former Western Regions, which has greatly improved the morale of the people.
"The style of the Han and Tang Dynasties?" Zhu Yixi was stunned for a moment, then laughed hoarsely: "It's only been a few years, not by that time."
"By the way, how about additional questions?"
"Did you get all three questions right?" Zhao Shu secretly cried out when the emperor asked. Basically, only two of these three tripod armors were made.
And those who answered three additional questions could only be ranked in the top three. After all, their policy analysis was quite satisfactory.
"There is no one among the three tripods. But among the three, there is a scholar from Panyu, Guangdong, who has answered all three questions."
"Oh?" Zhu Yixi said with a happy face: "Hurry up and let me see how it goes."
"Yes!" Zhao Shu had no choice but to hand it over to the emperor for inspection. Soon, the scroll appeared in front of the emperor.
In terms of policy, this person endorsed the reform of the post station in a high-profile manner, but he was more radical, saying that he was treating the symptoms rather than the root cause.
Although the officials are simple and crude nowadays, for the high-ranking officials, it only takes a few years for them to become corrupt immediately.
Therefore, he strongly requested that the reception function of the post station be abolished and only provide official communication, thereby further reducing costs.
And he started to give examples, such as a county post station was poor, but its losses amounted to thousands of yuan a year. If the accounts were reported in time, it would also be a huge burden for the county government.
Later, he also listed the appointment of subordinate officials in the former dynasty by the Commercial and Taxation Department. Some old rules are still there, and the burden on the people has been reduced, but not much.
Obviously, his suggestions regarding the inn were completely rejected by the marking officers. If the reception function of the post station was eliminated, wouldn't it be a catastrophe?
You must know that not everyone has to travel thousands of miles to become an official. There will always be poor people. If the court does not bear the burden, wouldn't it mean that people will starve to death on the way?
As a result, he ranked last in the top three.
"Hahaha!" When the emperor saw this, he couldn't help but laugh. This guy is a typical angry young man.
Although it was not stated explicitly, his disdain for officialdom was described between the lines. Especially taking the example of the Commercial and Tax Department, this is referring to Sang and Huai. Although it is a subordinate official, it is the officials of the previous dynasty who are being scolded.
This is really brave, pointing at others and scolding them. The additional questions are pretty good. Both geometry questions were answered correctly, but his understanding of Japan was quite profound. He pointed out that the Japanese king was nothing more than a power-stealing minister, and the emperor was reduced to a puppet.
"Not bad!" The emperor praised, glanced at Zhao Shu, and placed it in front of him: "Let him be the number one scholar!" Although it was against the rules, Zhao Shu still agreed.
Revealing his title, it was Wang Xu, Panyu of Guangdong. He was twenty-three years old. His ancestor was a wealthy businessman and his father was also a businessman.
No wonder he can easily answer geometry questions, he really has a skill. But based on his understanding of Japan, his family should be a maritime merchant.
"Twenty-three years old, you can be considered young and promising." The emperor praised him with great emotion. If in later generations, this would be shocking for a 23-year-old county magistrate and division-level cadre.
But in the imperial examination era, this was actually normal. At noon, the eunuch Tian Ren, the eunuch Bingbi, the chief ceremonial officer, came to the Huangjimen cabinet with the test papers for the first-class and three-person examinations designated by Yubi. The fourteen paper readers were all waiting eagerly.
