Yuan Shuzhi stumbled and finished all the data analysis questions without even guessing. Putting down the pen, I looked at the timing funnel in the center of the yard and realized that I was doing it too fast. There is still a lot of sand in the funnel. He breathed a sigh of relief, and a wave of extreme fatigue swept through his body. This exam was a huge drain on his mental and physical strength. After all, age is not forgiving, and he doesn’t want to check again, so let’s just let it go!
So Yuan Shuzhi drank some cold water from a bamboo tube, closed his eyes and rested his mind, and waited for the gong to wind up.
Finally, the gong sounded to end the first practical test.
"Please don't move around and wait until the staff has finished collecting the papers before you get up."
The staff began to collect the papers one by one. After collecting the papers, Zhang Yunmi announced that the exam was over. Different from the public examination in the old time and space, candidates are not allowed to leave the examination room midway during this examination, so the problem of lunch must be solved on site.
For exams, students are required to bring their own meals and even fuel for the stove. However, the examination room will inevitably become smoky. Liu Xiang also considered that this exam was the first public exam and he wanted to have enough influence. He ordered the city government to provide free meals. Anyway, the city government had made a lot of money recently, and now he had plenty of money.
Providing free meals is naturally a great thing and is a small help to the poor. However, for those with a little knowledge, the food in this official family has always been famous for being unpalatable and not full. Not to mention the porridge provided in the porridge shed, as far as the banquets held by local Shangguan families are concerned, they are mostly for show but not for eating, and are just a formality. According to several Jinshi masters in this city who had attended the Qionglin Banquet, there was nothing to eat at the Qionglin Banquet given by the Long Live Lord. The vegetable soup and roasted meat were all cold, and most of them were still undercooked. Not even each person has a pair of chopsticks. As the saying goes, the offering is not so perfunctory. After everyone bowed and dispersed, there was no one who didn't want to eat the "dishes" that they neither looked at nor liked. That was the benefit of the guards at Guanglu Temple.
Wealthy indigenous candidates were naturally unwilling to eat the meals provided by the government, but they couldn't bring their own meals in, so they thought of bribing a few police officers and examination staff in the examination room to bring them some good meals. Of course he was rejected.
On the other hand, some candidates who were so poor that they didn't have enough food to live in their homes cheered a little in their hearts. They didn't even know where to have dinner.
Yuan Shuzhi had nothing to do and found Zeng Juan. The two drank cold drinks and talked about the exam situation this morning.
"How's it going? Do you find these questions difficult? I think you are confident!"
"Brother Zeng is joking, I think you are the one who is confident! All the methods I used to solve the questions were taught by you or taken from your textbooks. I will definitely not forget your support this time when I get admitted to the university."
"Old Yuan, you are so boring! Why are you being polite to me! Aren't I also taking advantage of Zhang Yu? Do you know how much the textbooks cost? I definitely can't afford them. I have to thank him. By the way, Lao Kong, I It means that if, if something happens this time, you might as well stay at my house and help. You see, my family likes you quite a lot. My family's business is getting bigger and we need a counting house. If you don't mind, just stay. "
"Thank you, Brother Zeng, for your kindness. I will consider it." Seeing Yuan Shuzhi say this, Zeng Juan knew that Yuan Shuzhi was willing to stay, but he couldn't say it clearly due to human feelings.
"Everyone go to your respective numbers! Lunch is here!"
Following a shout, I saw someone pushing a gale-style two-wheeled trolley along the corridor to hand out meals according to the exam number.
This lunch is also special. There is no pot or bowl, but a white wooden box for each person. Zeng Juan has read a lot of "Australian books" and knows that this is called a "lunch box" and some are also called "bento". There are rice and vegetables inside, all put in rations.
When Yuan Shuzhi returned to the examination room, he saw that the wooden box "lunch box" had been put away, and there was a pair of rough bamboo chopsticks. When he opened the lid of the box and took a look, he was surprised. This dish is really good! Not only are the dishes rich in portions, they are also full of aroma! Two juicy meatballs, a plump braised egg, and some green vegetables. For most people in this era, it not only makes them salivate in terms of taste, but also shocks them visually. This combination is indeed beautiful and delicious.
"It's time to make soup, please take care of the bowls!"
With another shout, another "Blast" was pushed along the lane, with several large thermal buckets and large stacks of black leather coarse-glazed bowls placed on it. The staff placed the bowls on the "number plate" and scooped out a Spoon soup. There is some tofu and a small amount of oil floating in the soup.
The candidates ate hungrily. Some morning exams were filled with random answers. The candidates, who had no idea, thought to themselves: If they could have such a good meal, it would be worth it even if they failed the exam.
After all the candidates had finished eating, there were staff pushing large baskets to recycle the garbage. The wooden boxes and chopsticks were naturally thrown away, but this rough-glazed bowl could be taken back by the candidates as a souvenir, just like the bamboo kettle.
When everyone saw the Australians acting so extravagantly, they couldn't help but secretly laugh. There is also a bit more yearning for the civil servants of the Senate.
After lunch, the candidates squinted their eyes to rest, some recalled the content of their exam preparations, and some continued to talk in the corridor.
At this time, Yuan Shuzhi was sitting alone in the cell. He tried hard to adjust his mentality. The afternoon application discussion should be an advantage for old boys like him. Those early naturalized people who had received the education of the Song Dynasty system would have been good at it. On the test, he is better than an old literati like him, but when it comes to writing policy papers, they are all useless nonsense. Just a few sentences are repeated over and over again, such as serving the Senate and the people, long live the great and correct Senate, vulgar To the extreme, I can't even flatter you.
At two o'clock in the afternoon, the gong for the application examination rang. Yuan Shuzhi opened the application materials in the newly issued document bag and started to start. The form of the application topic this time was similar to that of the old time and space. The materials were at the beginning and the topic was at the back.
In fact, the situation of this application is similar to the third test in the past imperial examinations, that is, the "Policy Discussion". Although Yuan Shuzhi has never participated in the provincial examination or the general examination, he has to be exposed to these contents when learning to write eight-part essay, so he is not unfamiliar with it.
Policy theory is originally to test the candidate's ability to understand the past and the present. It requires candidates to read history books and political documents of the current dynasty. However, after the middle period, because the imperial examination only focused on the "Four Books" in the first session, the latter two examinations were despised. Therefore, most candidates only read the Literature Comprehensive Examination and the Ming Dynasty Huidian. Deal with it through the past and the present. There are even those who memorize the composition and copy it from the exam room. Even the strategies for the imperial examination were memorized.
Yuan Shuzhi read through the selected 200 questions in the application essay several times before the exam, and roughly understood the similarities and differences between the policy essay and the application essay. What they have in common is that they all require candidates to demonstrate the ability to express themselves in writing and analyze and judge, and the proposed countermeasures must be feasible. However, the content of "application theory" is more realistic and targeted than "policy theory", which means that it is more "practical".
The materials are like this:
Material one:
eunuch
The eunuch party generally refers to the political faction formed by bureaucrats who pretend to be attached to the power of eunuchs. The phenomenon of eunuchs interfering in politics has appeared in many dynasties in Chinese history. For example, the "Disaster of Party Prisons" and "Rebellion of Shi Changshi" in the late Eastern Han Dynasty were one of the important reasons for the decline of the Eastern Han Dynasty and its gradual demise. In the late Tang Dynasty, eunuchs The forces involved in the internal disputes of the royal family. The relationship between eunuchs and emperors in the Tang Dynasty was that of slaves and masters. The behavior of the eunuchs in the middle and late Tang Dynasty was actually domestic slaves participating in the internal disputes of the royal family. Just like the slaves in each house of a wealthy family in the old society helped their masters fight for property, it was not that the slaves were really powerful enough to seize the power of the entire family. family property. The pseudo-Ming eunuch served the longest and held great power, especially the right to wear red, ranking first in the history of Chinese eunuchs.
In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, in view of the serious harm caused by the exclusive power of eunuchs in history, Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang once issued an edict strictly prohibiting eunuchs from intervening in politics. In the hands of Zhu Di, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, this iron discipline underwent a subtle change. Not only were they no longer wary of eunuchs, but they began to regard eunuchs as confidants and an important force in controlling the ministers of the outer court. Later emperors trusted eunuchs even more. In the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Xuanzong began to set up a study hall in the palace to teach eunuchs how to read. This laid the foundation for the pseudo-Ming eunuch dictatorship. Ming Yingzong ascended the throne at a young age and favored the eunuch Wang Zhen, and the power of the eunuch party began to take shape. Later, the eunuch Wang Zhi during the reign of Emperor Xianzong of the Ming Dynasty and the eunuch Liu Jin during the reign of Emperor Wuzong of the Ming Dynasty both cultivated party members and specialized in government affairs. During the Tianqi period of Emperor Xizong of the Ming Dynasty, the great eunuch Wei Zhongxian took full power, and a large number of court officials relied on his power. The power of the eunuch party reached its peak in history. After Chongzhen came to the throne, Mr. Wei Zhongxian He was dismissed from his post and banished to Fengyang, and was later forced to commit suicide on the road. The main members of the Eunuch Party committed suicide, and the power of the Eunuch Party suffered a fatal blow.
Material two:
Donglin Party
The Donglin Party was a bureaucratic political group dominated by Jiangnan scholar-bureaucrats in the Puppet Ming Dynasty. The "party" of the "Dongli Party" is a crony rather than an actual political party. In the 32nd year of Wanli in the Puppet Ming Dynasty, Gu Xiancheng and others restored the Donglin Academy where Yang Shi of the Song Dynasty taught, and Gao Panlong, Qian Yiben and others taught there. Donglin was originally a group of literati who studied contemporary literature and taught Confucianism. However, it came at a time when social conflicts in the Puppet Ming Dynasty were increasingly intensifying. People in Donglin used the name of satirizing government affairs and commenting on officials to shield landlords and strive for profits for wealthy businessmen. Although they put forward progressive slogans such as being honest and serving the public, revitalizing officialdom, opening up the public opinion, and eradicating the accumulated abuses of the government and the public, in fact they have become the spokespersons of the big landowners and big businessman interest groups, and lack any concrete actions to actually solve the problems. The people of Donglin were fiercely opposed by the eunuchs and their dependent forces at that time. The political differences between the two developed and evolved into a fierce party struggle in the puppet Ming Dynasty. The eunuch party headed by Wei Zhongxian collectively called the lectures at Donglin Academy and the pseudo-Ming Dynasty and opposition figures who were related to or supported the lectures "the Donglin Party".
