In April, there were a lot of discussions between the DPRK and China.
The first one was the alliance with the Turks, because Gao Shen had just died, and Gao Shen's case clearly showed the attitude of some emperors towards the Turks.
Therefore, the ministers had to consider their opinions carefully. There were many discussions in private, but not many people wrote letters to express their opinions. In the end, it is estimated that the emperor himself will make the decision.
The second one is that the emperor wants to re-open the imperial examination. This matter is related to the important affairs of the court. There are too many people with ideas, and there are people from the Sui Dynasty who can learn from it. People from various ministries are very concerned about this, so they write letters one after another to express their opinions.
The number of memorials on the emperor's case suddenly doubled, and with the workload greatly increased, Li Po could only patiently bury his head in the papers, and no longer had any thoughts of entertainment.
The news gradually spread to the local areas, and local officials also wanted to say a few words.
Therefore, in the second half of the third year of Yuanzhen of the Tang Dynasty, news of the imperial court re-opening the imperial examinations spread everywhere, and various voices emerged.
Those who agreed with it wanted to write a letter to express their opinions, and there were also a lot of objections. They were so busy that other matters seemed to be suppressed.
The impact was much greater than Li Po expected. People seemed to be particularly interested in the reform of the talent selection system. This may be because the former Sui Dynasty had laid a certain foundation.
Li Po also invited some veterans who had served in the former Sui Dynasty to ask questions. It seems that when Emperor Wen Yang Jian implemented the imperial examination system, his voice was not so noisy.
Analyzing the reasons, it should be because people are not familiar with the imperial examination and have no way to talk about it. Moreover, at that time, Yang Jian was preparing to pacify Nanchen, and the two directions were parallel. People's attention was obviously on the military, and they did not care about whether the imperial examination was imperial examination or not.
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Moreover, in the early years of the founding of the emperor, he had outstanding military exploits and defeated the Turks to the point where they could not hold their heads high. With Yang Jian's prestige greatly increased, he forced the imperial examination from top to bottom, and the resistance was not that great.
But having said that, it is obvious to all that the imperial examination system did not work well in the pre-Sui Dynasty.
There are many reasons. The wars in the late Jin Dynasty had just subsided. Although the Nine-Rank Zhongzheng System was decadent, it had already been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. It was an indisputable fact that the clan was powerful.
The purpose of Yang Jian's implementation of the imperial examination was obviously not to cultivate talents for use, but to compete with the aristocratic families for power, and the word "fight" actually explained the situation at that time.
Send you a cash red envelope!
When they came to understand, the aristocratic families naturally resisted fiercely, so the imperial examination immediately fell into an embarrassing situation in the Sui Dynasty. The wealthy families restrained their children and did not allow them to participate in the imperial examination, and formed a culture that the imperial examination officials were not serious officials.
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This has a huge impact on the imperial examination. When the imperial court selects scholars, there are only a few candidates. Even if they are selected, they will never get ahead. For example, Fan Wenjin, the current manager of Liangzhou, is a victim. He participated in the imperial examination and got an official position, but he could only serve as an adviser.
Many people looked down upon him, and eventually he resigned and returned home.
How to break this situation?
Yang Jian also thought of many ways. While completely abolishing the nine-grade Zhongzheng system, he also opened schools everywhere to train people who could take the imperial examination.
To this end, he also selected many talented and learned people to run schools.
But in the end, there wasn't much success. In the last year of Emperor Kaihuang's reign, Yang Jian dismissed the selected "great scholars" in disgrace. In the first year of Renshou, he could no longer tolerate the progress of running the school, so he decided to abolish it. By this time, all the efforts had been exhausted.
Turn into nothing.
There is no way, the situation he faces is too complicated.
If you want to compete with the powerful families for power and completely transfer the power of appointing officials from all over the world to the central government, it is not something that an imperial examination system can achieve.
People at that time had actually realized that the Nine-Rank Zhongzheng System had come to an end, but they also did not want the emperor to put a knife to their necks, so the imperial examination system that replaced the Nine-Rank Zhongzheng System was struggling.
During the Daye period, Yang Guang inherited his father's political ideas, but his methods were much more drastic than his father's. Yang Jian just put the knife on the neck of the family without thinking about seeing blood.
But Yang Guang is different. He is waving his knife and slashing him here and there. Who can bear it? When they see the opportunity, they start fighting one after another. Do you have the knife?
In general, the imperial examination system failed in the former Sui Dynasty. By the end of the Sui Dynasty, there were only 72 scholars who passed the examination, and 89 people who passed the regular subjects and special subjects. Over the decades, the number of candidates increased intermittently.
With less than 200 people together, would you say it’s awkward?
Moreover, the imperial examination system of the former Sui Dynasty was too crudely formulated and changed every year, which often made people confused. The emperor added and removed subjects at will, and the exam seemed to be random, which only added to the feeling of being inferior.
With such chaos, it's no wonder that he walks unsteadily.
Of course, this is only part of the reason. Just like the former Qin Dynasty unified the six countries, it faced a world that had been divided for a long time, and there were too many things to consider.
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When Datang wanted to reopen the imperial examination, it was actually facing a huge test.
The advantage compared to that time is that the resistance of the noble families is not so fierce. The nine-rank Zhongzheng system has been abolished for 20 to 30 years. Although the princes from all over the country still value family rank, they no longer distinguish between high and low grades.
The turbulent situation in the world has also weakened the strength of the powerful families. With the people's peace of mind, the imperial examination is still recommended. For the people of the family, it has changed from being strongly opposed to being acceptable to everyone.
Just like when everyone speaks out nowadays, there are obviously many people who are in favor, but there are very few people who are clearly opposed to it, because everyone feels that they can't make the effort anymore.
Furthermore, the people in the homeland of the Northern Qi Dynasty were hit hard, so there is no need to worry about them rebelling in gangs and rebuilding the Northern Qi Dynasty.
Therefore, the situation faced by Li Po is easier than that of Yang Jian. The disadvantage is that a mess is a mess after all, and it is not that easy to clean up.
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There were many people who wrote letters to express their opinions. Li Po read them carefully. By June, he had a clear idea in his heart. There were many people who agreed with it. Those who were nostalgic about the benefits of the recommendation system were clichés and not worth mentioning. He looked for an opportunity to put them into practice.
These people have just been replaced.
Grab a few more examples and let them know the dangers of writing letters and speaking out...
Of course, he did not expect that the reopening of the imperial examination would achieve immediate results. He was already prepared to accept the worst result. Like the previous Sui Dynasty, few people took the examination, or those selected were all from aristocratic families.
It doesn't matter. The important thing is to be well prepared, to determine the framework of the imperial examination system, to learn from the experience and lessons of the previous Sui Dynasty, and to persist in doing so, and sooner or later the results will be achieved.
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In April of the third year of Yuanzhen of the Tang Dynasty, when news was still being spread and opinions were being listened to, Li Po did not make any big move. There were still many things to do, and the imperial examination was just one of them, and he did not need to go all out.
At the end of April, Dou Jiande and his party from Hebei Province finally arrived in Chang'an...