After taking good care of his relatives and friends and taking care of family affairs, Sun Shining went straight to Taiyuan Prefecture to take part in the provincial examination.
Although after the provincial examination was held, scholars also had the opportunity to become county magistrates, but the future was almost clear and could be seen in the distance.
It is precisely because of this that the value of Juren has risen sharply.
In the pre-Ming Dynasty, ostensibly Jinshi were officials, but in fact 70% to 80% of them were elected to the local level. Jinshi only served in local positions for a few years before entering the capital, and within ten years they would become ministers or ministers, which was extremely fast.
However, due to the increase in the number of Jinshi scholars, all Jinshi scholars were sent to local areas for training. Therefore, even those with the same Jinshi status were awarded county magistrates after two years of observing politics, thus squeezing out a large number of ways to appoint people to officials.
In order to make up for their official positions, as long as they pass the selection of the Ministry of Personnel, they can serve as the second official of the left. And every three years, the superior ones will be promoted, the average ones will be transferred, and the inferior ones will be demoted.
Therefore, the general promotion of people to officials can only be through local general magistrates or edicts. Officials from the seventh or sixth rank are classified as entering the rank and entering the stream.
In addition, the career prospects of candidates are relatively broad, and they can be promoted to the third rank. They can be appointed as governors locally, and in the central government, they can be ministers of Dali Temple, Zhan Shifu, Taichang Temple ministers, etc. I don’t know how much the future has been expanded.
The liveliness of Taiyuan Mansion gave Sun Shining a sense of novelty.
But he did not dare to neglect, so he began to study behind closed doors, invited several scholars to give face-to-face lectures, and did exams, which was extremely hard work.
The examiner's preferences, the examiner's dislikes, changes in writing style, and even fonts must be discussed and paid attention to one by one.
On the sixth day of the Lunar New Year, when the examiners enter the palace, a banquet will be held first, and all the officials inside and outside the curtain will attend the banquet.
After the banquet, the inner curtain officer entered the inner curtain room in the back hall, and the examiner sealed the door. The inner curtain officers did not interact with each other, and the inner curtain officer could not interact with or hear anything other than reviewing the examination papers.
On the eighth day of the lunar month, thousands of talented people from Shanxi Province entered the venue covered with stars and moonlight, their eyes full of excitement.
The gap between a scholar and a scholar is huge.
Although the exam questions have changed, the system has not. The exam is divided into three sessions, each lasting three days. For the three sessions, you need to enter the examination room one day in advance, that is, on the eighth, eleventh, and fourteenth day of the Lunar New Year. After the examination
Appearance in one day.
After appearing on the stage, Sun Shining gasped and got on the carriage.
"Master, thank you for your hard work."
"Go back." Sun Shining shook his head, closed his eyes to rest, and began to recall the exam questions.
After sleeping for a day, he spent the next morning writing all the questions silently, and took the papers to the home of the Chief Envoy of Shanxi Province.
The chief envoy was also a Jinshi. He was in his fifties. He had glasses on his nose and a smile on his lips:
Shi Meng Shu carefully read one copy, put it aside, picked up another copy, read it from beginning to end, and finally threw it away:
"If I am not blind, I would like to sincerely congratulate my uncle."
Sun Shining was overjoyed and breathed a sigh of relief.
He asked the Chief Envoy of Shanxi to help him review the files. This was the secret of the Earl's Mansion, and he didn't take it seriously at all.
He doesn't understand the character character mentioned in the Dream Book. He may have something to criticize, but when it comes to talent and learning, he will never be inferior to those great scholars. If he can comment on his answer sheet, he must be sure to get it right.
Something happened!
"It's just that with my status as Uncle Guo, I'm afraid my ranking is not very good."
"I know." Sun Shining said nonchalantly:
"I don't covet the name of Jie Yuan, let alone the Three Yuan exams. The promotion of people is different from the Jinshi, as long as I can win the examination."
These false names are good things to others, but they are no less than poison to him.
Since the beginning of the Hongwu period, the Ming Dynasty has always taken great precautions against its relatives. Basically, they were given a title to support them and were not allowed to interfere with the government's affairs.
But Emperor Shaowu established a new dynasty. Although he was also a descendant of Emperor Taizu, in the end it was just like the founding of the country. The so-called ancestral system did not work in front of him.
The same is true. Sun Shirui, the uncle of Daizhou, will be the governor, and Sun Shining can also take part in the imperial examination and enter the officialdom.
However, Sun Shining also knew the temper of scholars in the county. As the saying goes, there is no first in literature and no second in martial arts. Even if he opened his own paper, some people would not approve it.
So it would be great to be able to become a Juren safely.
When he passed by some restaurants, he saw many scholars getting drunk. Some of them looked frightened and had no idea what they could do.
But he was different. The chief envoy helped him check the papers and found out that nine times out of ten he would win, which made him lose his confidence for a while.
This is the confidence of a powerful family.
"How great would it be if I were to take the Eight-Part gu examination? With Brother Gui's knowledge, he will definitely win."
"Hey, don't mention the past!"
A few scholars started making a noise there, all talking about their dissatisfaction with the new imperial examination.
Sun Shining got off the carriage and went to the restaurant. While drinking tea, he eavesdropped on the remarks of these scholars.
"We have spent ten years studying the eight-part essay with great difficulty. Now we have to take exams on astronomy, geography, historical classics, European and African books, thousands of miles away, so what's the use?"
A drunken scholar shook his head. He raised his wine glass and loudly said without hesitation: "Let me tell you, all the princes in the court are making wedding clothes for the powerful, and the sons of aristocratic families are in high positions."
"Hey, I am also a eucalyptus student. Now I have entered Longmen. I was lucky enough to study for two years, but I don't know how to write."
A thin scholar complained: "I have to buy books and hire a gentleman. It costs a lot more. How difficult it is!"
These words made everyone agree.
In response, Sun Shining shook his head and strongly disagreed.
In his opinion, the eight-part essay has gone through three hundred years. It may have been good at the beginning, with many children from poor families appearing frequently, but after Jiajing, it had become clichéd.
The rich and powerful families already have so-called secrets on the Eight-Part Part Essay.
As long as you have been awarded the title of Scholar or Jinshi, you will have some experience in the eight-legged essay, secret books, and the reason why those scholarly families emerge in endlessly, and there are famous people in every generation, is because of these secret books.
Books, celebrities, secret books, and poor families could not compare with those of rich families, and the imperial examinations were gradually monopolized.
Of course, talking about monopoly is a bit exaggerated, but it is normal for wealthy families to occupy the majority of Jinshi.
Only those geniuses from poor families were lucky enough to succeed, so they leaped over the Dragon Gate and ascended to the Emperor's Hall at dusk.
But now this new type of imperial examination is quite new to the powerful, and so far no good solution has been found.
There were three rural examinations, the first of which tested eight-legged essay, poetry, and policy questions, and there were some traces to follow.
But in the second session, I started to test common knowledge questions, astronomy, geography, and historical allusions. It was hard to guard against, and no one had that much knowledge.
The third round is about word problems and legal arithmetic. This thing relies entirely on memory and ability, but not on financial resources.
That's all. What's more important is that the provincial examination adopts the points system just like the joint examination.
For subjective questions such as Eight-part Policy Questions and Poems, the examiner will divide the articles into five grades, dismissed, fourth grade, third grade, second grade, and first grade.
The fourth grade is sixty to seventy, the third grade is seventy to eighty...
The examiner will then give the marks.
Common sense and application are more concise. If you know how to answer a question, you will get full marks, and if you don't know it, you will get zero marks.
Finally, total scores are tallied, from high to low.
This kind of objective rating is more fair to children from poor families.
And if it was in the past, eight-part essays were determined for life, no matter how well other poems were written, it would not help.
Of course, this is entirely due to the small number of examiners and the large workload. Although there is a lot of content in the rural examination, who makes the stereotyped writing the easiest to check?
Moreover, doing well in eight-part essays is equivalent to being good at poems, lyrics, and poems, and you can also write official documents and judgments. Taking one test is equivalent to taking many tests.
"Everyone."
Sun Shining couldn't help but said: "Although this new imperial examination has all kinds of disadvantages, there is one thing that is best for everyone, and that is fairness."
“It’s no longer the case that stereotypes are fixed for life. Isn’t it a good thing for those students who have partial subjects?”
"After all, no matter how good our eight-legged writing is, can it still be as good as those children from aristocratic families who asked great Confucians to teach them?"
"What Xiongtai said is absolutely——"
The brothers who had been drinking also woke up and gave speeches one after another.
Sun Shining raised his wine glass: "I hope to meet you all in the capital in the future."
"Drink full——"
For a time, the atmosphere was extremely lively.
With a smile on his face, Sun Shining said before leaving: "Please have a drink, everyone, I will bear all the blame for today."
At this time, the scholars became even more excited.
He doesn't care about connections or fame, he just does whatever he wants.
There is no way, he has a queen sister and a prince's nephew, so he can't escape his wealth in his life.
At this time, in the capital, shortly after the end of the rural examination, the martial arts examination was also held as usual. Although the excitement was not as lively as the general examination, it was equally eye-catching.
The martial arts exam was really picked up in the Chongzhen Dynasty. After Emperor Shaowu ascended the throne, the martial arts exam began to be gradually established.
Following the imperial examination model, a three-level ladder was designed at the local level.
Wu Xiucai, Wu Juren, Wu Jinshi.
Both are treated exactly the same.
The political treatment enjoyed by scholars was also enjoyed by Wu Xiucai.
However, in terms of quota, the martial arts examination is far smaller than the civil examination, with only half of the quota.
In order to increase the value of the military examination, the emperor allowed Wu Xiucai to participate in the provincial examination so that he could be awarded an official position.
Once a person passes the military examination, he can be awarded the rank of patrol battalion officer and have a hundred people.
Wu Jinshi is a big deal. Those who excel after passing the exam are admitted to the martial arts hall, which is equivalent to Jinshi entering the Imperial Academy, which provides him with qualifications.
Ordinary martial arts scholars went to the Beijing camp or the frontier army to be appointed as regular officers and trained.
However, his military rank is not right sergeant, but senior sergeant, which is the military rank of deputy battalion commander, or battalion commander.
In other words, after two years of experience, he will definitely be promoted to deputy battalion commander, and if he performs well, he can even reach battalion commander.
Yingzheng is the seventh rank, and deputy Yingzheng is the seventh rank.
As for those in the martial arts hall, those who have reached the military rank of Zuo Shi, usually teach for about two years, then can join the bodyguard department and become the emperor's personal bodyguard.
With such qualifications, as long as he joins the Beijing camp, he will be the official of the camp.
If you get close to the emperor, you will rise to heaven.
The rule that has existed for thousands of years, the Holy Scroll is greater than anything else.
The emperor came to the Dongnuan Pavilion of the Qianqing Palace and summoned Yan Chongxin, Zhu Mou and other ministers who were invited by the cabinet and selected by himself for the undergraduate martial arts examination.
"Linxuan is a great ceremony for recruiting scholars. Although Wen Jinshi is an important minister of the country, Wu Jinshi is also the foundation. He has both civil and military skills and walks on two legs, so he will not be bullied like Zhao and Song Dynasty.
You are all my personally selected ministers, so you must remember these words."
Zhu Yixi crossed her legs and said calmly. At this moment, he looked nothing like a forty-year-old middle-aged man.
"The one hundred and eighty warriors are sixty more than the one hundred and twenty in the last regular examination. But instead of feeling happy, I feel worried. Do you know why?
?”
"Here, I am stupid, please teach me a lesson from your majesty."
Yan Chongxin could not figure out the emperor's thoughts at this time, but he understood that this was the emperor's statement.
"Most of these martial arts scholars are from the north, and very few are from the south. I am not happy about it."
The number of Wu Jinshi has been increasing compared to the past, but the cabinet has reached a consensus that the number of Wu Jinshi can only be half, that is, two hundred people.
It is also due to the contempt for martial arts examinations that martial arts examinations are not divided into three points like the imperial examinations, but are mixed.
Therefore, among these 180 people, the northern province accounts for 80%, which can be described as terrifying.
If this continues for a long time, I am afraid that all the troops will be occupied by Northerners, which is absolutely intolerable to Zhu Yixi, who regards the principle of balance as fundamental.
Moreover, Shandong people account for another 30%.
"This..." Yan Chongxin felt very unjust, but he could only say aggrievedly: "Your Majesty, people in the south like articles more, but they rarely like to dance with guns and sticks."
"This is no excuse."
The emperor said coldly: "Martial arts requires both civil and military skills. How can a pure martial artist become a general?"
"From ancient times to the present, how many pure warriors have been able to put themselves on the table?"
"kindness?"
These words shocked everyone present and they knelt down in fear.
Zhu Mou, who always showed his composure to others, was also frightened and kept his head down without saying a word.
In an instant, the atmosphere in the entire hall turned to freezing point, and everyone felt the chill.
Perhaps for a moment, or perhaps for a quarter of an hour, the entire hall was silent.
The emperor looked at them coldly, and then said with a hint of meaning: "Don't judge the current situation based on old thoughts. The only way is to be inclusive."
"Get up, it won't happen again."
"I thank you for your kindness!"
All the ministers stood up one after another, with cold sweat on their backs.
Afterwards, Zhu Yixi circled the list of candidates to express his approval.
"Let's hold the imperial examination on another day!"
After all, it was as if nothing had happened.
Wenyuan Pavilion is where the cabinet is located.
The people in Zhongshushe were extremely politically sensitive and were moving around cautiously, not daring to make the slightest sound.
The several pavilion elders remained silent, each one reading a book or drinking tea.
Yan Chongxin concluded: "I will learn a lesson later..."
These words were very meaningful. Zhu Mou glanced at him and said nothing.
In the evening, when I returned home, I had just finished changing my clothes when several ministers gathered at his home with solemn faces.
Zhu Mou said with a calm face: "It seems that you all understand the deep meaning. Your Majesty is dissatisfied with us!"
"What about that?"
"Put away all the impeachment stuff!"
Zhu Mou sighed: "There are enough chaos down there, we have to be inclusive!"
But can Qin studies and Neo-Confucianism be harmonious?