Under the cover of night, candidates in the examination room were either working hard with lights on and immersed themselves in writing; or they were lying down with their clothes on; there were even cases where the examination pressure was too much, and they were temporarily mentally disturbed, and were immediately escorted by patrolling soldiers by the invigilator.
For those who cross it out, there are rumors that before the exam starts, red and black flags are used as a sacrifice ceremony, calling for those who have the grievance to avenge the grievance, and those who have the vengeance to take revenge. If you do something unscrupulous and harmful to others outside on the spot, your life will be taken.
The ghost came to the examination room and demanded his life.
Although there are many rumors, the Xia Dynasty examinations did test the will of the emperor more than any other dynasty. This is all because the Xia Dynasty abandoned the three-session system of the previous dynasties, that is, there were three examinations in total, each lasting three days, and there were three days in between.
The system of bathing and changing clothes after leaving the office was changed to a three-day and three-night system.
This saves manpower and material resources, which is a good thing for the people near Shenjing, but not so good for some people.
What is also not good is the marking officers who are good at taking exams.
At this moment, deep in the courtyard of the Ministry of Rites, the marking officers in the 18th room were busy grading the examination papers. Each of them had solemn expressions, scrambling against every second and meticulously reading the candidates' papers word by word. Every marking officer
The responsibilities on their shoulders are extremely important. The pen they hold in their hands is not only related to the fate of each candidate, but also the future of the marking officers.
Faced with an extremely large number of examination papers, the marking officers are also organized. They usually go through the examination papers roughly and pick out those who violate the temple name, do not know how to avoid taboos, and those who try to report their names and family backgrounds in the examination papers.
Come out and be deposed directly.
After that, read it a little more carefully. In addition to the preliminary evaluation, you must also check whether there are any words that are deviant and contrary to human ethics. Such candidates will be severely punished. Not only will their honors and reputation be cut off, but also the examiners who admitted him in the provincial examination.
All joint sponsors have to suffer. This is an examination of the Ministry of Etiquette. There are some mistakes that can be turned a blind eye in some places, but this is a problem that must not occur here.
Thanks to the Ministry of Rites here, the imperial court also had countermeasures to deal with such a complicated grading work.
The Ministry of Etiquette has four divisions, namely, rituals, ancestral offerings, host and guest, exquisite meals, and is in charge of etiquette, sacrifices, banquets, and tribute orders. There are many civil servants in the ministry who are responsible for copying. These people are responsible for the country's etiquette and ceremonies.
Even the name of the temple, etc. are all very familiar. It is perfect for these people to be responsible for transcribing the examination papers for the candidates as the first check. And marking the examination papers with incorrect taboos can also effectively alleviate the problem.
overcame the pressure from the marking officer.
In addition, the marking officials usually collect a sum of money and distribute it to the clerks who write the examination papers. For the clerks in the Ministry of Rites, this money is enough to cover their salary for two to three months. The most important thing is that
, this money will be paid immediately, and will not be owed or converted into other messy things.
Obviously, this is a win-win situation.
But despite the help of the clerks, the marking officers still stayed up all night reviewing the papers without any delay.
There is another room outside the eighteenth room, which is also brightly lit. There is a bowl of steaming tea soup on the desk, and a copper kettle is placed on the stove next to it. The room is filled with the aroma of red dates and a hint of ginseng.
the taste of.
Red date tea can not only dispel cold, but also nourish the spleen and stomach. It is not only a favorite of candidates, but also a refreshing thing for marking officers.
A middle-aged official wearing a crimson official uniform sat in the middle, frowning as he read the paper in front of him.
As the examiner for Emperor Chunzhi's kiss, Wang Ding cherished this opportunity very much and read the papers without sleep or food.
In the eyes of all the officials who came and went, this was really a strange thing.
Logically speaking, the examiner only needs to centrally coordinate the examiners in each room, and make the final decision when the examiners have disputes about the ranking of the candidates. There is no need to personally mark the papers as before.
But Wang Ding didn't think so.
Although he is already among the Nine Ministers, he still has a stubbornness in his bones. He believes that Confucian scholars should take the world as their own responsibility. The purpose of selecting scholars through the imperial examination is to select talents for the country, and must be cautious. Therefore, for those who have been deposed from other houses,
He wanted to read the exam paper again out of responsibility.
Of course, he is not a good person. If the exam papers are rejected directly because of shortcomings such as lack of writing and taboos, etc., he will not read them. He only looks at those papers that were rejected by the examiner due to poor grammar and science. But just like that,
The workload was heavy enough that even in the prime of life, he had to order his servants to bring him a bowl of ginseng soup to refresh himself.
"Examiner, this was just sent by someone from the Bookstore." A receptionist came in carrying a wooden box with a seal on it, and raised his hand to Wang Ding.
Wang Ding raised his eyes, and saw that the box that the collector brought in was not a big box, but a wooden box the size of an arm, covered with seals, painted with varnish, and sealed tightly. He immediately realized,
This is not a rejected paper submitted to you for review, but a recommended paper selected after unanimous consultation between the examination room, the examiner and the marking officer.
The so-called recommended papers are the papers that have been selected by the marking officers and can pass the examination. Twenty of them are the main papers. A total of 360 main papers have been selected by the eighteen rooms. In addition, each examination room will also
Ten preparation papers are selected at the same time. If the chief and deputy examiners are not satisfied with the main papers, they will select from the preparation papers of that room to make up the number of twenty papers for each room.
In other words, there will be 360 candidates who pass the examination.
This wooden box is made of black mother-of-pearl and is quite exquisite. It is obviously used by the Ministry of Rites to store the main examination papers.
Seeing this, Wang Ding couldn't help but exclaimed: "The adults in Shang Shufang's grading speed are unexpectedly fast."
The official in charge said: "Examiner, according to the co-examiners and graders of Shang Shufang, it can be said that the Jingkui scroll of Shang Shufang this time is indisputable, so Shang Shufang has selected the recommended scrolls so quickly this time.
.”
"Oh?" Wang Ding and the deputy examiner sitting aside looked at each other, slowly put down the brush in his hand, and became more and more curious: "Undisputed?"
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! "Exactly, indisputable." The officer in charge smiled and nodded.
The deputy examiner sitting nearby, an old official from the Ministry of Etiquette, said repeatedly: "It's strange, it's really strange. According to the past practice, the marking officers of each room will not easily submit the recommendation papers until the last moment."
Wang Ding glanced at Chen Meng, the other deputy chief examiner and director of the criminal department, and saw the same curiosity in his eyes.
What kind of examination paper can make the marking officers put aside their arguments and agree unanimously?
There are three foundations of etiquette, and the ruler and teacher are the foundation of governance.
In the examination, the examiner of each room is the room master of the Chinese person in that room, and together with the examiner of the subject examination, he forms a teacher-student relationship with the candidates. This was a very important connection in ancient officialdom, so every person
The examiners in the room will all compete for the test papers they recommend. After all, this is their invisible right as examiners.
According to convention, the co-examiner of each room has the power to admit candidates and recommend them to the main examiner, while the general marking officer only has the right to make suggestions, and the final decision-making power is still in the hands of the co-examiner.
As the examiner of a subject, Wang Ding has the power to set the ranking of candidates admitted to the joint examination. This is the so-called "take the same test, and the examiner will decide who is the best."
Even Wang Ding was a little curious about the test paper that convinced all the examiners in the room. He couldn't wait to open the seal on the wooden box with the two deputy examiners and took it out to read.
What the three of them read first was the first title, "The book has the same text, the practice has the same theme."
This title comes from "The Doctrine of the Mean". Confucius said: "If you are not the emperor, you will not discuss etiquette, system, or study of literature. Today, you will get off the train and go to the same track, write the same article, and act in the same direction. Although you have the position, you have no virtue and dare not do it.
There is no need for rituals and music. Even if you have virtues, if you don’t have a proper place, you would not dare to perform rituals and music.”
This sentence may seem unusual, but it is not.
In modern terms, this is a special test point, because many scholars believe that the phrase "the writing is the same as the text, the practice is the same as the ethics" is quite special and should have been embedded by later generations in the Han Dynasty. Zhuzi held this attitude and thought it was Confucius's
Later generations Zisi used his own language to explain Confucius' thoughts.
Wang Ding's eyes fell on the broken question on the examination paper, but he saw it said "Zhou, the sect of the world, is determined by literature and etiquette."
This sentence that broke the title was so majestic that Wang Ding immediately applauded secretly and read on.
Fuwen and etiquette are all considered by the emperor of Zhou to unify his subjects. Now they are all the same, which can be regarded as the subordinates who do not accompany them. Moreover, the husband has a certain power, and the superiors and subordinates have the distinction of coexistence. In ancient times,
In the time of the emperor, this was not always the case, but today, according to Zhou Dao, it is especially brilliant.
Then the candidate separated the two sentences "The book has the same text, the practice has the same logic" and explained them separately.