Chapter Thirty-Three: First in the Imperial Examination
At this time, everyone in the county government office was reviewing the imperial examination manuscripts.
The reviewing official sat in the middle, and four or five academic officials sat on the left and right.
There is also a highly respected retired minister in the Jiangnan area, former prime minister Li Rusong.
This Li Rusong was the number one scholar in the Dakang period. He later entered the Hanlin Academy and compiled books. He was later promoted by the emperor and served as Zuo Shilang of the Ministry of Personnel and Bachelor of Dongge. He later moved to the Cabinet as Assistant Counselor, Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, and Bachelor of Jianjidian.
, and was finally promoted to prime minister.
Now this old man who was once a very popular minister resigned from office and retired to live in seclusion for many years. He looks to be in his seventies, with gray hair, thin face, bright eyes, strong spirit, old and strong, without losing his charm, and not too old at all.
Many of them are old, frail and have difficulty moving.
At this moment, the former prime minister was different from everyone else. He was wearing plain clothes instead of the official uniform of a court official.
This county examination was supposed to be attended by the prefect of Jinling and take charge of the examination. However, after the prefect of Jinling was taken down for corruption and perverting the law, the court did not arrange for anyone to come and take office. The date of the imperial examination could not be delayed, lest it be delayed, so we had to take a compromise.
The method was to send Zhang Tang, a court official from Shenjing, to take charge of the examination to show the emperor's kindness and benevolence.
As a former prime minister, Li Rusong was a top figure with high moral standing and great power in Jinling Mansion.
In order to avoid the occurrence of favoritism and malpractice, everyone discussed asking this old man to come over and supervise, in order to demonstrate the fairness and justice of this imperial examination and stop everyone from talking.
There are a total of 180 people who came to participate in the Jinling Prefecture County Examination. The papers are not too many, nor are they too few. They are divided among everyone to mark the papers. The speed only takes seven or eight hours.
The review is completed.
Since the students participating in the imperial examination this time are all local candidates, their names need to be anonymized and transcribed during the examination, and they cannot be reviewed directly to avoid malpractice for personal gain.
The county magistrate and academic officials cross-check the papers together to avoid mistakes and omissions.
After going back and forth like this for several hours, I finished reading these papers that day.
After the marking was completed, everyone opened the ambiguous papers and gradually arranged them in order according to the order circled before. Then they began to make the final confirmation. As long as the last procedure was correct, then they only needed to follow the order of the papers.
Copy a list and it will be used as the list on the release day.
Li Rusong originally came here just for a formality, and he didn't care about these child-level papers. He was the number one scholar in high school back then, and later served as a prime minister. His vision and talent were extremely good, so he couldn't read ordinary papers.
It's quite a bit disdainful.
It's just that Jinling Mansion is located in the south of the Yangtze River. There are many talented people in the south of the Yangtze River and the academic style is flourishing. It is inevitable that some monsters and weirdos will appear.
Therefore, he was also interested in seeing if he could select a few outstanding talents from among the students who passed the imperial examination.
When I picked up the paper, the first-place paper came into view.
"Jia Yun?"
Before marking the test, he first looked at the name and then saw the character Jia. Li Rusong narrowed his eyes slightly, as if he knew the origin of this person, "Is this person a candidate from the Shenjing Jia Mansion or the Jinling Jia Mansion?"
"For the record, Old Prime Minister, this person is a student from the Jia Mansion in Shenjing who came here specially to take the imperial examination in Jinling Mansion!"
"This person's writing is strong and powerful, and there is a vague demeanor of a calligraphy master in the movement of his pen. This is a master of painting and calligraphy. In the whole world, he is a very rare and romantic person."
This paper has been reviewed by many people, and they all praised it heartily. Regardless of background and identity, the words written by Jia Yun based on the [Cai Jing template] are indeed first-rate romantic writing, not to mention at Tong Sheng's stage.
Well, even in Enke's palace examination, he was able to compete with the number one scholar in writing without falling behind.
Suddenly, Li Rusong became interested.
He knew that the examiners and academic officials who marked the papers were all honest scholars, and it was unlikely that they would go out of their way to please the Jia family in Shenjing without conscience. Then there was only one possibility, and that was that this person's talent and learning were truly outstanding.
It was very powerful and amazing. Li Rusong immediately said: "Let's take a look first!"
After reading this paper, Li Rusong couldn't help but his eyes lit up.
The answers to the questions and answers are quite accurate. Although the writing adheres to the golden mean and is quite satisfactory, it can only be regarded as a medium article. However, the wonderful writing and painting are genuine, making the article immediately jump from the average level to a rare masterpiece.
.
Li Rusong is also a scholar. He also loves calligraphy, is literate, and knows how to calligraphy. He often copies the calligraphy of ancient calligraphers. Seeing such exquisite writing, he pondered for a moment and said: "In my opinion, among the scholars in the world, calligraphy is the most popular."
There are only a handful of scholars with this level of attainment.”
"Even in the Enke imperial examination, you can win a Jinshi title with this word."
Just as I was thinking about it, I looked at the character Jia again, thinking about Jia Yun's identity and her origins from the four major families. In the eyes of others, it seemed like a bonus, but for a scholar like Li Rusong, there would be something in her heart.
I thought, "Jia Mansion!"
So he sighed again and again: "What a pity, what a pity!"
The people next to him were quite puzzled when they heard this. Why is Jia's family background such a pity? Everyone was puzzled. They looked at Li Rusong and said with a smile: "Old Prime Minister, you have been praising me until now, so why did you mention Jia's family?
His origin is a pity?"
"It is indeed a pity. Among these papers, this boy is the first, but this Jia family..."
After saying that, Li Rusong closed his mouth.
Even though he was idle at home and ignored the turmoil outside, he had many disciples and former officials in the court. These people would also report to him on time the trends in the court. The Jia Mansion seemed to be cooking in flames, with flowers blooming, but in fact
Despite the divine grace, at least the emperor at that time had his thoughts on the four major families headed by the Jia family.
Li Rusong handed the paper to Zhang Tang and Zhang Cao who were standing next to him, and said: "This boy can be the first."
After hearing this, Zhang Tang and Zhang Cao nodded and said, "Then let's settle it."
...
Jinling Mansion·Announcement Day
The number of people participating in the county list is relatively small, and most of them are locals, with no outsiders. Therefore, the speed at which the papers are drawn up and the list is released is extremely fast.
Generally speaking, you can see it five days after marking.
Even if the time is slightly extended, it will not exceed seven days.
Most of these days are spent on getting closer to these people.
High-ranking officials often get news from the government offices after their rankings are determined.
Therefore, they can take advantage of this gap before the list is revealed to get to know and make friends with those who have already made the list.
Therefore, those who really have information and connections do not need to stay in the inn to wait for news. They only need to go home and ask their father.
Children from poor families, on the other hand, dare not go home for fear of missing the time to see their rankings.
On this day, Tianxiang Tower was overcrowded. The talented people from the south of the Yangtze River were sitting here in small groups, calling their friends, and were having a drink. Suddenly, they heard a voice coming from outside, "The results are released!"