Chapter 136 The moment of unveiling the list (Part 1)
The next day, the imperial court officially announced the top ten in this exam outside Zuo Chang'an Gate.
The names are revealed in order from tenth to first.
Of course, those who participated in the exam were looking forward to it, and the nature of the literati's mutual disdain emerged. In fact, no one was convinced by the other. After participating in the exam, they felt that they could be at the forefront.
This was especially true for those censors who had previously criticized the royal family. They all lost their control and ran to the Chang'an Gate to wait.
Even some important officials from the Six Ministries sent stewards to the scene to see what the final rankings were.
Of course, there are more people who come to watch the fun without exams.
Chang'an Gate is the outer gate of the imperial palace. Ordinary people, traffickers and pawns, as well as scholars from the capital, and wealthy people come to watch the excitement. This can definitely be used as a source of conversation after dinner, and can also be used to observe the future direction of the court.
Liu Ruoyu, the eunuch in charge of the ceremony, arrived at the scene early.
As a literary eunuch, I participated in the selection this time and saw the true talents and learning of some talents, as well as many gorgeous and empty articles that said nothing.
He is increasingly looking forward to the start of a new contention of a hundred schools of thought in the Ming Dynasty. The current situation requires a collision of ideas and the rise of all walks of life.
The time has come.
Liu Ruoyu announced loudly: "The selection is conducted with names sealed. The top ten are decided by His Royal Highness the Supervisor and the examiners and will be summoned to the palace tomorrow.
Now that the rankings have been determined, let’s start to reveal the list. Starting from the tenth place, one person will be announced for every half stick of incense!”
People gathered together, just like the opening of the imperial examination, but this time it was not the scholars who were looking forward to the results, but the officials in Beijing who crowded into the front row.
In particular, the young and strong Yushi Yanguan were the most energetic, pushing other older ministers to the back.
When it comes to performance rankings, it doesn’t matter what status you have...
Liu Ruoyu signaled to reveal the first name, and then said loudly: "Dong Qichang, Director of the Imperial College!"
Who?
…It’s him.
Dong Qichang, a Jinshi in the 17th year of Wanli, a famous calligrapher and painter. He had previously served as a lecturer in the East Palace, and now serves as a secretary in the Imperial Academy, responsible for compiling Ming records.
It is also worth mentioning that he was born into a wealthy man in the south of the Yangtze River, and he once condoned the enclosure of land by domestic slaves. Judging from his background and experience, he is close to the Donglin Party, but because he does not like party strife and likes to make real friends, among his friends
There are many people in Donglin who are against the Donglin Party.
This person ranked tenth, and some neutral scholars praised him.
But Dong Qichang himself was also present, and he was quite arrogant and felt a little unhappy: "I am only tenth...are the judges deliberately targeting me?"
He kept a smile on his face and congratulated each other with his friends, but he was still unhappy inside.
"No one can match my calligraphy skills. There are not many people in the world who can compare with me in terms of collection of books and knowledge. Li Ruhua from the Ministry of Household Affairs avoided taking the exam. The gang in the Hanlin Academy had a false reputation. How could they be ranked No. 1?"
Ten..."
Liu Ruoyu watched Dong Qichang step forward, accept the congratulations from his friends, and get the tenth place name card from the eunuch, the eunuch.
"Prince Jianguo said that this person is a talented person who is excellent in calligraphy, painting and collection of books, but he must be reversed and transformed before he can really achieve political achievements."
Liu Ruoyu happens to be good at this, but think about it, without the guidance of the prince, his life would probably be like this.
Half a stick of incense passed quickly.
Ninth place! Zhou Yingqiu, the censor of Youdu!"
Him!?
The person who was just promoted by the Crown Prince?
The censors and officials were disappointed. This was a character they didn't like. One more "fascinating" person would mean one less "decent" person.
Zhou Yingqiu also knew that he was now supervising the country for the prince, and he was being closely watched. If he later revived the Metropolitan Procuratorate to arrest corrupt officials and measure land, he would definitely offend a group of literati.
So he didn't come himself, but sent Tang Renjie, his family's cook, to see the results.
Tang Renjie did not dare to make any mistakes in front of this large group of officials and scholars. He respectfully revealed his identity, received his name card, and went back to announce the good news.
At the same time, he also understood one thing. It was right to follow his master and follow the prince to supervise the country~
Liu Ruoyu remembered that Zhou Yingqiu wrote the answer sheet with the most content. He came up with a bunch of ways to confiscate homes, collect taxes, and run royal shops to make the landlords poor and the country rich.
The prince laughed when he saw it. He felt that these methods were too straightforward. If it weren't for the one about royal real estate construction and market sales that was more profitable and would be adopted later, it wouldn't be in the top ten.
"Eighth place, Zuo Guangdou, the censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate!"
"Okay!!!"
The censors and officials all shouted and applauded, and this time one of them finally came out.
However, Zuo Guangdou did not congratulate each other much with his colleagues. Instead, he walked quickly with a respectful expression and went to the Chang'an Gate to thank him: "I, Zuo Guangdou, would like to thank His Highness Jianguo!"
The imperial censors in the front row were dumbfounded. Didn’t Zuo Guangdou have a particularly tough temper and why did he specifically confront the prince?
I heard that a person was taken away and drank tea for more than 20 days. Could it be that he has become weak?
Zuo Guangdou took the name card from Liu Ruoyu very politely, then turned around and bowed in the direction of the East Palace.
Under the astonished looks of other imperial censors and a large number of scholars, he returned to the queue with a smile.
But when he saw some scholars whispering with disdain, Zuo Guangdou felt very unhappy.
"What are you looking at! I'm pretending to surrender! Once I'm trusted, I'll find an opportunity to continue fighting with him!"
Didn't he think about cheating to surrender? He surrendered first before cheating. What did the world think of him when he surrendered? How could he be so shameless as to cheat back~
"Seventh place, Imperial Academy editor Zhou Yanru!"
"The sixth place is Xiong Wencan, a member of the Ministry of Etiquette!"
"Fifth place: Wen Tiren, Bachelor of Archives!"
They were announced every half-way through the incense stick. These three people are all young, and they are all people with complicated reputations in history.
Liu Ruoyu remembered that when the Prince Supervisor saw the three of them lining up, he was stunned for several breaths.
In particular, I felt a little incredible that Xiong Wencan could get sixth place. After reading the answer sheet repeatedly, I sighed: "He is indeed the king of liars~"
Then he laughed and said that this person will definitely be able to join the Archives Department, and there will be opportunities for him to show off in Nanyang in the future.
Wen Tiren and Xiong Wencan are both talents that the prince has paid attention to before, and Zhou Yanru, who is seventh...
Zhou Yanru, the number one scholar in the 41st year of Wanli's reign, was just thirty years old now. He was quite handsome and delicate in appearance and was very popular among the scholars in the capital. When his ranking was announced, there were bursts of cheers. But when he knew he was seventh, he was a little happy at first, and then shook his head and sighed, as if it was a pity.
"The seventh place was a little happy at first, but then felt depressed?" Liu Ruoyu was a little confused.
But Zhou Yanru really believed that he could have been in the top three because the answer sheet he originally wrote was lost after writing it.
I thought it might have been stolen or sold.
As a result, he wrote a new one on the last day and got seventh place.
He was happy because he was lucky that he could be ranked among the top ten. He was sighing because he believed that he could have been in the top three.