When the fourth son received the order, Zhu Yuanzhang looked at the unhappy prince and said slowly:
"We know that you want to be a wise king. But to be a wise king, you also need to have wise ministers. The current group of ministers are either rebellious ministers and traitors who have been cleared and come to shore, or they are remnants of the former Yuan Dynasty who have returned to this dynasty. How can they have any moral integrity?
What shame?"
"Father, these words are too absolute. For example, Mr. Song is not like this." The prince said softly.
"The same goes for Mr. Song!" Zhu Yuanzhang said coldly: "It's true that he is a moral man, but he wants to transform the Ming Dynasty, transform you, and even transform us according to the methods of Confucius two thousand years ago! He is better than those corrupt people.
This generation is even more terrifying!"
"..." The prince lowered his head and remained silent. On such a principled issue, he could not give in unconditionally.
"We don't expect the current group of people to be upright and honest. As long as we scare them not to mess around and maintain the court, it will be enough." Zhu Yuanzhang sighed and looked at the silent people aside.
Lao Liu said:
"Our hope lies in the next generation."
"Ah?" Lao Liu was so surprised that he couldn't open his mouth from ear to ear.
"Ah what, we are not talking about you, but the reform of the imperial examination system that you told us about years ago!" Zhu Yuanzhang slapped the table and said decisively: "We want to train a group of different officials ourselves!"
"Oh." Lao Liu breathed a sigh of relief. He thought his father wanted to treat him like an animal again.
"That's it." The prince also looked slightly brighter and asked, "How will my father plan to reform the system?"
"In the past two months, we have personally read all the "Election Chronicles" of the previous dynasty, as well as related and unrelated history books, and also read a lot." Zhu Yuanzhang pointed to his reading glasses and said: "Lao Liu, again
It’s time to get a new pair.”
"This is simple." Lao Liu nodded and said, "I'll send someone to do my father's optometry later."
"Yeah." Zhu Yuanzhang nodded slightly and said:
"We found that what Lao Liu said was right. Song Lian and the others just lied to us. Jinshi is the imperial examination, and the imperial examination is Jinshi. The Jinshi subject is just one of the previous imperial examinations. Just like what Lao Liu said - there is also Ming Jing, Ming Jing
There are many subjects in Fa, Mingzi, and Mingshu. Each subject has many people applying for it, and many talents have emerged."
"In the 289 years since the founding of the Tang Dynasty, there have been 264 Jinshi examinations. On average, only 26 people in each subject passed the Jinshi examination!" Zhu Yuanzhang had obviously put in the hard work, and he said:
"Just because Jinshi can only admit one or two people out of hundreds in each subject. And Ming Jing can admit one or two people out of ten in each subject. No wonder people at that time said, 'Thirty old Ming Jing, fifty young Jinshi'"
.”
After a pause, he sneered: "Perhaps in the eyes of scholars, this is why the Jinshi is valuable. But in the eyes of the emperor, what is the use of this Jinshi? And he is still so young, so the Jinshi subject is a complete failure.
Far less successful than Mingjingke!"
"Father, you can't say that." The prince smiled bitterly. In order to maintain his status in the Jinshi Department, he had to sing the opposite tune again:
"Precisely because the Jinshi subject is the most difficult, the smartest people in the world are all candidates for Jinshi. Therefore, those selected from the Jinshi subject are all the best talents!"
"Can it be that these best talents cannot stand out if they take the economics exam?" Zhu Yuanzhang asked rhetorically.
"You can definitely pass the exam, but you can't close the gap." The prince said with a wry smile.
"Why do we need an exam to sort people into different grades?" Lao Liu endured it again and again, and finally couldn't help but said:
"It's not like the imperial court has no assessment or big plans. Shouldn't they be allowed to rely on their actual performance to determine the merits?"
"This..." The prince was speechless for a moment. What Lao Liu said was completely beyond his inherent cognitive scope.
"What do you mean, Lao Liu?" Zhu Yuanzhang asked in a deep voice.
"Since scholars place more emphasis on Jinshi subjects, then simply cancel the Jinshi subjects and leave only Ming Jing, Ming Dharma, Ming Calculation and the like. We are all Ming scholars, so no one can look down on anyone else, right?" said the old man.
Six pairs of scholars used knives, and they were always more ruthless than his father.
"..." The prince was stunned when he heard this. He still wanted to keep the special status of the Jinshi Department, but Lao Liu actually shouted to cancel the Jinshi Department?
"Well, this is a good idea." On the contrary, Zhu Yuanzhang did not have those rules and regulations, and he did not believe in any authority - because no authority could predict how he, a commoner with a beggar background, could conquer the world?
So he only trusts his own judgment.
"No one is a Jinshi anymore, so no one has the right to discriminate against others." This is Boss Zhu's judgment.
"You can all be Jinshi, and you can't discriminate against others." Zhu Zhen's mentality is much brighter than that of his father.
"For example, Ming Jing can confer Ming Jing Jinshi, Ming Fa can confer Ming Fa Jinshi, Ming Engineering can confer Ming Gong Jinshi, and Ming Shuang can confer Ming Suan Jinshi..."
"Ming Gong Ke?" Zhu Yuanzhang was not easy to fool, and he was keenly aware that something had been mixed in.
"Shouldn't we correspond to the six ministries and select practical talents for the court?" Zhu Zhen said matter-of-factly: "The Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of War, and the Ministry of Rites, these three highly professional departments, shouldn't they all have a dedicated subject?"
"Well..." Zhu Yuanzhang thought for a moment and said, "That makes sense, but you won't bite off more than you can chew, right?"
"Father, Mr. Liu said that now is the best time to reform the imperial examination system - the imperial examination has been suspended for several years, and scholars across the country have been suffering from no future for a long time. For them, as long as there is an imperial examination at this time, it doesn't matter what they take
It's better than nothing."
"Furthermore, my father stopped the imperial examination because the scholars selected by the imperial examination were embarrassed and disappointing. Therefore, everyone expected that the new version of the imperial examination would be radically reformed. So at this time, the imperial examination reform
The resistance is minimal, you have to take bigger steps, don’t be afraid of breaking your balls!
"It is better to go too far than to go back a little bit, and not to worry too much and take too small steps. Once the new version of the imperial examination is launched and becomes a rule, if you want to carry out in-depth reforms, you will face opposition from scholars across the country. Then
That's when it really got into trouble.
"So the most important thing is to set up the framework at the beginning, and then gradually improve it. And if each subject is simpler at the beginning, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages." Zhu Zhen had discussed it with Liu Bowen many times, and he was naturally confident when talking about it.
Manman said:
"For example, in addition to the normal Four Books and Five Classics, you only need to familiarize yourself with the Seven Martial Arts Books such as "The Thirteen Chapters of the Art of War" and you can take the Ming Bing Ke and pass the Ming Bing Jinshi.
"This can greatly reduce the resistance of candidates, increase their enthusiasm for registration, and also play a better role in attracting talents and winning people's hearts."
"Yeah." Zhu Yuanzhang felt that every sentence was so reasonable and spoke to his heart. He couldn't help but smile and said: "It seems that you have been planning this for a long time."
"These were supposed to be suggestions from my teacher to my father." Lao Liu said sternly: "But fate has caused him to have no chance to display his talents in governing the country. He can only forward it to my father through his sons and ministers, and beg him to adopt it."
"Alas..." Zhu Yuanzhang also said sadly: "Now it seems that the most unselfish of the original advisers was Mr. Liu. What a pity, what a pity..."
