In the imperial study, Zhou Jun was reviewing memorials and conversing with Prince Zhou Xiao about what he had seen and heard in the court today as usual.
Zhou Xiao asked Zhou Jun: "Father, will the Tubo people really take action against Sang Chiruo?"
Zhou Jun: "Sang Chiruo has been able to govern in Tubo so far only by balancing power...the old aristocrats who support Tubo's ancestors, and the new aristocrats who were promoted from commoners, barbarians, and slaves. The two forces are confronting each other. This is
This gave Sang Chiruo room to survive."
"However, after experiencing the great famine caused by wool, Sang Chiruo's prestige among the Tubo people will be greatly reduced, and both the old and new nobles will be dissatisfied with his performance. My meeting with the Tibetan envoys today is just to give the Tibetan people
Just give them a reason to liquidate Sang Chiruo."
Having said this, Zhou Jun looked at Zhou Xiao and asked: "You have been following me to listen to politics for a long time. What do you think of people like Sang Chiruo?"
Zhou Xiao glanced at Zhou Jun carefully and replied: "Although Sang Chiruo is as cunning as a fox, he is destined to be defeated when he meets a sage like my father."
Zhou Jun frowned and said to Zhou Xiao: "What I want to hear is not these flattering words... Although Sang Chiruo is an enemy chief, he is also a hero. After being a criminal, he was able to earn what he is now in Tubo
It is not easy to maintain the entire Tubo Kingdom to its current status after experiencing several major defeats. Such a person, even if he is an opponent, is remarkable."
After a pause, Zhou Jun said: "Although Sang Chiruo was resourceful and instigated the Tibetan and Tibetan factions to fight against each other to seize power. However, he was naturally suspicious and had to do everything by himself. He over-trusted his own abilities, and finally faced the domestic chaos.
There is no way to save the day. What I want to tell you about this matter is that one person’s power is limited after all. He cannot take care of all aspects of the entire country. It is important to grasp the power in his hands, but conditional decentralization is the key.
It is the prerequisite for the long-term stability of the country."
Zhou Xiao was confused and hesitated for a while, obviously not hearing the deep meaning of Zhou Jun's words.
Seeing that his son did not understand his painstaking efforts, Zhou Jun sighed.
Seeing the disappointment on Zhou Jun's face, Zhou Xiao felt anxious in his heart. He quickly bowed and said, "Father, after I return, I will definitely study more. If there is an opportunity in the future, I am willing to go to Tubo in person to promote the reputation of Li Tang!"
Hearing the word "Li Tang" from Zhou Xiao's mouth, Zhou Jun was silent for a long time, and finally waved his hand to signal the former to retreat.
After the civil strife in Tubo, Zhou Jun left all subsequent responses to the Privy Council.
At the moment, for him, there is a more important thing, which is to promote the reform of the imperial examination system.
The feudal imperial examination system was founded in the Sui Dynasty and continues to this day. Although it can select talents for the country, it has many drawbacks.
For example, the test questions focus too much on cultural knowledge and literary literacy, but ignore practicality and professionalism; the imperial examination is only for officials above the ninth rank, but unqualified civil servants need to be evaluated through Liuwaiquan; the evaluation of candidates and
Recruitment is too subjective and selective, and there are likely to be many "secret operations" in the process.
In order to correct these shortcomings, Zhou Jun invited Du Fu, the Minister of Rites, Lu Lun, the Minister of Culture, and a group of Hanlin officials from the liberal arts academy to gather in the political hall and begin to plan the next development direction of the imperial examination.
First, the biggest change in the new imperial examination compared to the past is the change in subject content.
In the past, for subjects such as Jinshi, Xiucai, Mingjing, etc., most of the test questions were a passage in the classics, and then they were required to complete an essay or a formal essay based on this passage.
In Zhou Jun's view, although such examination questions can select a group of officials with excellent literary qualities and quick thinking, in terms of practicality, many of those admitted officials are unable to complete the corresponding job responsibilities.
Therefore, Zhou Jun first abolished the examination subjects such as the Jinshi Examination and the Scholar Examination, and changed them into corresponding subjects that closely followed the functions of the imperial department.
For example, the Household Department subject specifically assesses candidates’ knowledge of land, people, money, grain, tribute, warehousing, etc., as well as money and grain expenditures.
The subjects of the Ministry of Industry specifically assess knowledge of engineering, craftsmanship, farming, water conservancy, transportation, etc.
The original imperial examination subjects included six main subjects: Xiu Cai Ke, Jin Shi Ke, Ming Jing Ke, Ming Fa Ke, Ming Zi Ke and Ming Shu Ke, while the minor subjects included Junshi, History, Sanshi, Kaiyuan Li, Dao Ju, etc., plus
There are about twenty subjects together.
After the subject reform, the imperial court's three provinces, eight ministries, nine temples, five prisons, and three courtyards were divided into twelve divisions based on their respective job function requirements, including household, industry, ritual, literature, city, agriculture, palace, miscellaneous, etc.
an examination subject.
From a numerical point of view, the number of subjects in the new imperial examination has been greatly reduced; but from a focus point of view, the functional proportion of each of the twelve subjects in the new imperial examination is basically the same.
Second, the admission method for the new imperial examination has changed.
In the old imperial examination, when candidates were admitted, the candidates were first asked to complete the test questions, and then the examiner gave scores. Finally, the candidates were ranked and handed over to the court, and then the official positions were allocated.
However, the new imperial examination overturned this process.
Before the new department starts, the imperial court will use notices to inform the world how many people each imperial department plans to hire this year and which positions are vacant.
Moreover, in this job list, there are not only high-quality officials, but also low-class civil servants.
In other words, the examinations for officials and civil servants will be held in the same examination room at the same time.
Candidates can choose the subjects they want to apply for and start preparing for the exam based on their abilities and the number of positions in the court this year.
Once the imperial examination written examination is passed, the imperial court will organize officials to conduct corresponding interviews.
The interview was completely conducted in a liuwaiquan manner. The venue was set up in the selection hall of the Ministry of Civil Affairs. A white curtain was hung between the candidates and the examiner. They only answered questions and asked nothing else.
One advantage of this method is that the examiners will not judge people based on their appearance, completely eliminating the bad officialdom habit of people with poor looks not being able to advance.
After the written test and interview are completed, the examiner will summarize the two results and give a final ranking.
This ranking will be submitted to the Council Hall, where the emperor and a group of ministers will personally review it. Then, according to the ranking, the positions that have been vacant before the imperial court will be awarded will be corresponding one by one.
The third change is the rank and position of the admission officials.
The top three in the imperial examinations of the Tang Dynasty over the years basically started from the sixth rank, and once they joined the ranks, most of them were Beijing officials and lacked grassroots work experience, so they often spent their time in places such as the Hanlin Academy.
Zhou Jun suppressed the number of candidates for the highest official position in the new imperial examination to the seventh rank or below, and stipulated that all officials, after being admitted, must go to local prefectures and counties to serve. Only after working in the local area for several years and having certain grassroots experience can they
You can go back to Gyeonggi to report on your work.
The advantage of such a regulation is that it allows a candidate who has passed the imperial examination to gradually transform book knowledge into work practice, and it can also test whether a person can only talk on paper.
Based on the above three changes, the new imperial examination promoted by Zhou Jun began to be planned in the 13th year of the New Year (773), and went through a slow and gradual process. Finally, in the 15th year of the New Year (775), it officially replaced the original
The old imperial examination system has become the country's new national policy for selecting talents.
