On October 20th of the second year of Wanli, in the west wing of Yangxin Hall. Several new guests, Jinshi, who had passed the exam this spring and entered the Hanlin Academy, and were later appointed as "Secretary Lang" newly established by the imperial court, were sitting around chatting.
In the small wing, four sets of tables and chairs were placed facing the door. Sitting inside are Yu Menglin and Lei Yingzhi, the two prostitutes who came to study in the spring of this year. The two in front are Yu Menglin and Wu Zhongqian, both of whom are second-level Jinshi. As for Yin Yingyuan, the number one scholar in the same subject as them, he was selected by Zhang Juzheng to compile "Records of Emperor Shizong" because he was awarded the Imperial Academy of Compilation.
The three major titles of Jiaxu Kechunwei, which began on February 19th of the second year of Wanli, were all written by Zhu Yijun. The three questions are: "Sex is difficult, something is wrong", "The great honor is to respect relatives, the second is not to be humiliated, the next is to be able to support", "First I was with others, listening to their words and trusting their actions; now I am with others, listening to them Follow his words and watch his actions.”
There are thousands of people in the world, and 90% of them said after the exam that this question was too easy. Moreover, the first and second questions are about filial piety. If you don’t practice a hundred questions like this, you will be embarrassed to say that you are a scholar when you go out. ——It seems that this examiner is not good.
Before the results were released, word spread that all three questions were written by Zhu Yijun. Now the scholars no longer said that the title was not good, but instead said that today's emperor "rules the world according to benevolence and filial piety, and the rule of Wen and Jing can be expected."
The six scholars in Yangxin Hall today, two are top-notch students and four are top-notch students, but they are all smart people. When they were reviewing the questions in the examination room, they all saw that this simple question contained the thought of the question maker - to ask the candidates to connect the answers, and there must be an organic connection between the three articles.
This method of formulating questions is the first of its kind in the world since the Eight-part Examination. It seems simple, but if you follow the previous method of answering questions and write three unrelated papers, you will basically not be on the list. The writing is really good. For example, Sun Jigao, the top scholar in the original time and space, ranked at the bottom of the top three, which surprised those who knew his literary name in the same year.
The first two questions asked by Zhu Yijun are translated as "Serving parents should be joyful from the heart"; "Be filial to parents, the best is respect and obedience, the second is not insulting parents; the third is food and clothing. Serve”.
If the examinee can think deeply, expand, and connect these three questions, he will find that the core of the last question is "filial piety to parents and seeking truth from facts in doing things, and not making superficial remarks."
It's a pity that not one out of ten people can really understand the questions. Of the six in this room, Tanhua Yu Menglin performed the best. He directly connected these three questions and wrote three good articles.
Yin Yingyuan, the number one scholar, was even more powerful. He directly pointed out in the third article that parents should be cared for and buried well, and should not stick to pillars and drums and engage in formalism.
When Zhu Yijun was nominating the No. 1 scholar, he saw a sentence in his third volume: "Those who sleep on bricks at dawn are indeed filial piety, but it is not as good as the time when we are related to my heart." He directly selected him as the No. 1 scholar.
As usual, when the gold medal list is posted, the Jinshi paper will also be printed and spread throughout the world. In particular, the scroll of the number one scholar should be posted next to the imperial list to show the court's sincerity in selecting scholars.
Of course, the writing style of the top candidate was excellent. The unsuccessful candidates were surprised at first and asked why they posted all the three major questions in this exam? In the past, admissions only focused on the first paper.
After taking a closer look at the content, I found that there are organic connections between the three articles of the No. 1 Scholar. When they all discussed filial piety from different angles, they all smacked their thighs in annoyance. There was the one with a hot temper who went around looking for someone who had previously advertised that the exam questions were easy, and wanted to beat him up.
Regardless of the fact that the failed candidates secretly cursed the emperor for asking the question, the emperor's hand opened the door to a new world for all the academic officials and examiners in the world. Oh, can the question still be asked like this? ! The examiners who had gone through the Four Books and Five Classics almost burst into tears - finally, we could come up with the right question!
As the examiner in the country with the largest examination power in the world, and the scope of the examination is very narrow, the examiner cannot be compared to the examination experts who have studied the "crafts" of eight-legged writing.
The eight-part format developed maturely during the Chenghua period, and by the early Jiajing period, every question that could be asked in the world had dozens of sample essays and thousands of tutorial materials. It was impossible for the examiner to read them all one by one. Almost every time In the exam, a certain candidate who got the right answer can use the model essay to steal the success.
Later, the examiners were forced to invent the tangential question, that is, first select a sentence from a certain paragraph in the Four Books and Five Classics, and then choose another sentence from another place that has nothing to do with this sentence. The two sentences are connected to form a question, which is called a tangential question. Also called a small question.
Although these two sentences have completely different meanings, they can test the candidate's adaptability or blind connection ability - the permutations and combinations are endless, and they immediately became popular all over the world.
However, this method of quizzes is acceptable, but the Chunwei and Qiuwei courts did not allow examiners to ask such questions that "separate the meaning of the classics." Therefore, it is not easy to be a teacher in the Ming Dynasty. At least in the question setting stage, you have to lose a lot of hair.
Now these examiners have discovered that if the emperor's method is used to set the questions, although the permutations and combinations cannot be endless, there are still many! Although it increased the burden of marking, the first three major questions had to be read carefully, but it was not as troublesome as reading the first paper.
If you follow this method, the difficulty of the test questions will rise sharply. There are three questions about politics and one topic. Candidates who can exhaust all the arguments in the second paper are basically the top students in elementary school. If they can still write flowers on the third question, they will have no problem getting on the list - this is the marking work The volume actually didn’t increase much.
...
The turbulent discussion lasted for more than half a year. The changes in test questions in the spring of Jiaxu not only affected scholars, major bookstores had already hired famous teachers to study the court's next question-setting ideas and began to write model essays - it is estimated that they can make a lot of money again.
Only a very small number of very smart people in this world can see from this the emperor's intention of first going out to the countryside and then giving out the exam questions for the past two years. When the emperor proposed the topic, he wanted to express his preference for certain major policies to Shilin, and it was already beginning to take shape at this time.
...
Although these new recruits in Yangxin Hall have been employed for more than half a year, they have never done anything wrong. When I was in Hanlin Academy, I could spend half a day studying leisurely.
Although I entered the attendant's room this month, the decoration of the attendant's room has not yet been completed, and there are fewer things than when I was in the Hanlin Academy. As a result, these six people would inevitably sit together after work, writing poems or discussing current affairs, just like a literary meeting when studying.
Zhang Guofu, the second-class Jinshi, is a descendant of Zhang Shi and Zhang Qinfu, one of the "Seven Sages of Stone Drum" in the Southern Song Dynasty. He was a native of Mianzhu, Sichuan. He is now forty-five years old, but he still calls Yu Menglin, who is eight years younger than him, his brother.
He asked Yu Menglin: "Brother Boxiang, in my undergraduate course, I heard that Xu Huating's grandson Xu Yuanchun was ranked among the top three, but he was removed from the list by the emperor. Is this true?"
Yu Menglin shook his head and expressed ignorance. Lei Yingzhi, who was beside him, heard this and said: "This is true. What I heard is that the prince was not selected as the assistant minister, but the teacher Yu was selected when the official investigation was completed."
Another secretary called Wu Zhongqian and said: "Before the imperial examination, the emperor usually doesn't read the paper. How could he cross it out? It's a rumor."
Lei Yingzhi listened and said with a smile: "I heard that when the teacher presented the list of candidates for the test, the emperor saw Xu Yuanchun's name and dismissed him directly without asking for the paper. So it seems -" said After finishing this sentence, he showed a playful expression and looked at the other three people with a half-smile.
Wu Zhongqian took a breath of cold air and said: "How can the emperor embarrass Yuan Fu by doing this? This... this... is there going to be a court dispute?"
After hearing this, Yu Menglin chuckled and said: "After such a long time, why are we still talking about dynasty disputes? Although Xu Jie is the master of Yuan Fu, his family is rampant in the countryside. It's not just for one day. How can Yuan Fu protect his family for a lifetime?"
Lei Yingzhi looked curious after hearing this. Asked: "Hearing what Brother Boxiang said, the Xu Huating family is going to be in a bad situation?"
Yu Menglin sneered and said: "I don't know the details, but I heard yesterday that Cai Guoxi has been restored by the emperor and has been assigned to Songjiang to prepare troops!"
Bookstore
