Before the exam, Zhang Yue and others went to the bookstore to prepare a family certificate. The family certificate recorded the examinee's name, year, township, three generations, head of household, number of cases, and location. They were bound together with the examination paper and then handed over to the examinee. There is a division.
At the beginning, Cai Que helped Zhang Yue and Huang Haoyi take over this matter to prevent them from being cheated.
Now Zhang Yue is already familiar with the world.
The bookstore undertakes a wide range of tasks. In addition to candidates taking exams, interpreting exams, and even attending the ministry after becoming an official, the bookstore handles all these documents.
The bookstore mainly writes family records and also verifies the identity of officials.
Song Dynasty people's notes record that when Lu Yijian was in power, his son Lu Gongzhu went to the bookstore to submit a complaint. At that time, he was described as "covering his clothes and running on a donkey, retreating as modestly as a humble man".
Everyone looked at him and thought he was polite, but didn't find anything unusual about him.
After asking before leaving, I found out that the other person was the son of the current prime minister.
The bookstore is responsible for verifying one's identity, but it also creates numerous drawbacks.
For example, officials repeatedly reported to the court that "the supervisors often paid ultimatums to others, so that those who were living in exile and had nothing to do would take the opportunity to test themselves in the department."
The mastermind behind causing outsiders to pretend to be proctors for exams is Shu Si.
After Zhang Yue arrived at the bookstore, the shopkeeper said to Zhang Yue diligently: "The bookstore costs five thousand yuan! Self-binding costs three thousand yuan. But we have been friends with Zhang Xiucai for so many years, so we changed the price to two thousand five hundred yuan, and self-binding costs one thousand yuan." Five hundred dollars would be enough."
Zhang Yue came here just to get a discount on the group purchase price. Zhang Yue calculated it and felt it was still a bit expensive and asked, "Is this the price?"
The shopkeeper heard this and said, "One more person will send you a copy of the exam instructions."
Zhang Yue said with a smile: "Why do we need so many books for Yangzhengzhai? This fifteen hundred yuan is a bit expensive, otherwise I would go to other houses and ask, there are more than 20 people there."
The shopkeeper quickly grabbed Zhang Yue and said: "Zhang Xiucai is staying. As you can see, don't go to other places, and don't make any announcements to outsiders. Let's talk behind closed doors. I'll give you a copy of the exam instructions for self-binding for one thousand yuan." , I will ask you to take more care of the business in the future."
"What? Look after your business more. Do you want me to explain the test and take it again?"
The shopkeeper hurriedly said: "That's not what I meant. Look at my stupid mouth. Of course it's He Zhang Xiucai. You can solve the test and save the test. You will also give me a book of test explanation instructions. What do you think?"
Zhang Yue nodded and said, "That's pretty much it."
The shopkeeper wiped his sweat and said with a smile: "But Zhang Xiucai, let me tell you, do you have any familiar classmates who would like to write for you?"
Zhang Yue shook his head and said, "I don't know. Let me ask you."
The shopkeeper smiled and said: "Thank you Zhang Xiucai. Besides, we are very familiar with Mi Feng and the transcriber. If your classmate has this plan, the price can be easily negotiated."
Zhang Yue said: "I can help you ask this, but are you really sure?"
The shopkeeper smiled and said: "That's natural. We can't guarantee it for the provincial examination, but the Imperial College Examination and the Kaifeng Prefecture Examination are all conducted by our own people. As long as we can afford it, it will be fine."
"Are you working on the printing paper?" Zhang Yue asked.
The shopkeeper smiled and said: "Zhang Xiucai is really a transparent person."
Zhang Yue lamented that the Song Dynasty was really an era of commodity economy. To be precise, money could pass through officials.
As far as he knew, there were two ways of cheating in bookstores.
Generally, bookstores will glue the pattern in front of the test paper as the header and then submit it to the examiner.
The examiner will then seal the joint between the form and the test paper, then seal and transcribe it.
At this time, the bookstore will accumulate a large number of test papers and hand them in when the exam is about to start.
The examiner will make mistakes at this time.
Originally, the family status and the seam of the test paper were sealed together. However, in a hurry, only the family status was printed, and the test paper did not have time to use the seal, so that the bookstore could switch the test paper during the transcription process.
Another step is the format of the test paper. Candidates should write 'Feng' on the first line, 'Examination' on the second line, copy the questions on the third line, and then start copying the text on the fourth line.
The first three lines are the same for all candidates, so the bookstore presses the header of the test paper very low when binding the test papers, so that candidates can only write the main text on the second page.
What is stamped is the seam between the family status and the first page of the front volume, so the package can be transferred directly from the second page.
During this period, the bookstore must have bribed the officials who wrote the records and the officials who made the seals, and then collaborated from top to bottom.
In addition to examinations, bookstores also undertake many matters for candidates, such as requesting registration numbers, notifying examination information, and even collecting admissions in the same year after passing the Jinshi examination, and various charges.
After Cai Que became a Jinshi, he owed so much money, including a large sum of money to the bookstore.
Zhang Ji has a poem.
The title of the poem "Moves in Chang'an in the Past" can be read in the first volume of the poem.
Dr. Qin has practiced Western learning, and Nangong is now a Han official.
When I got the money, I just returned it to the bookstore and borrowed a house to use it as a medicine shop.
Now I can't make a living in Qizhou, so I moved closer to Longtouhan.
This is what the poem says about returning the money to the bookstore.
This was the style of the imperial examination in the Song Dynasty.
A few days before the exam, the Kaifeng Mansion and the candidates for the Imperial College invigilator were also decided.
The right secretary admonished Zhao Bian, the Zhijixian Academy Wang Anshi and Zheng Xie, and the Zhijixian Academy Director Teng Fu was the examiner of Kaifeng Prefecture and was responsible for recruiting people.
Chen Zhu, the imperial censor in the palace, Sima Guang of the Zhimi Pavilion, Li Dalin, the school manager of the Mi Pavilion, and Yang Hui, the school manager of Jixian, were the proctors of the Imperial Academy and were responsible for the affairs of the candidates.
Zuo Zhengyan, Wang Tao, and Secret Pavilion School Manager Pei Yu presided over the special examination.
In the Song Dynasty, there was a system of locking the courtyard. During the examination, officials who wrote hemp were locked in the courtyard and were not allowed to have contact with outsiders.
Specifically, an edict was drafted for the emperor, in which internal officials with important appointments must be banned.
As for the imperial examination lock-up, it is strictly enforced in the provincial and imperial examinations. As for the examination, it is not strictly enforced.
In Beijing, usually after the appointment of the examiner is issued, the examiner can still live at home, and only one close doorkeeper is assigned to monitor.
As for the local examinations, it is even more lax, because the examiners are transferred from other states, so the candidates cover the road to write the papers, or rush to visit the examiners in the hotel, or invite good men to threaten the examiners.
An official named Ouyang Che wrote to the court criticizing the examination system.
During the imperial examinations in the Gabin year, most of the wealthy nobles paid money and silk to make friends with the examiners before the imperial edict was issued... Even when the examiners came, some asked to see them at Daozhou's inn, some were accepted into the family of the examiner, and some took knights with them. Those who come here to seek bribes.
So after the Imperial Examiner was appointed, all the candidates inquired about several examiners and tried various ways to ask for help.
However, everyone only knew that the examiner Chen Zhu was from Jianyang, Jianzhou, with the courtesy name Sidao, and was a Jinshi in the second year of Qingli.
Deputy examiner Li Dalin, courtesy name Caiyuan, was born in Huayang, Chengdu.
Yang Hui, whose courtesy name was Yuan Yuan and whose name was Xianbai, was from Mianzhu. He was promoted to Jinshi in the first year of Jiayou's reign.
As for Sima Guang, there is no need to mention it.
Zhang Yue felt satisfied when he heard the names of these examiners.
It turns out that among the four, Sima Guang and Li Dalin both have good official reputations and can be regarded as upright and honest, and can select scholars impartially. With them presiding over the examination, although they will inevitably resort to asking for help, their talents will not be buried.
In this way, even if you fail the exam, you won't complain about anything.
It seems that the rule of man is not entirely bad. People at the top still select officials, and they do not rely on private requests as imagined.
When Zhang Yue was thinking this, Chen Xiang found him.
Zhang Yue was very happy to see his teacher. He has been busy writing papers these days and has rarely gone to Chen Xiang's place.
Zhang Yue was worried that Chen Xiang would scold him for being lazy recently, so he said that although he was busy looking for jobs through connections, he had not failed at all in his homework.
Chen Xiang looked at Zhang Yue and said, "Take the written articles with you and follow me in plain clothes."
Zhang Yue did not dare to ask any more questions and followed Chen Xiang's words.
Chen Xiang also dressed very low-key, and the two of them took a carriage and walked for a while.
Both of them were speechless, but Zhang Yue felt that Chen Xiang was thoughtful.
Then the two stopped at a street corner and walked for a while until they arrived in front of a mansion. Dozens of scholars were standing here. They or their servants all held scroll bags with scrolls in them. articles.
Whose mansion is this?
Before Zhang Yue asked any questions, he learned from others that this was the residence of Chen Zhu, the imperial censor in the palace who was the chief examiner of the Imperial College Examination.
Zhang Yue suddenly remembered that Chen Zhu and Chen Xiang were both Jinshi in the second year of Qingli. They were in the same year, and they were both from Fujian, and their surname was Chen.
Their relationship is very close, so what is Chen Xiang’s purpose of bringing him here?
Chen Xiang looked at the scholar in front of the mansion and said to Zhang Yue: "It's too eye-catching if we go through the main entrance. Follow me through the small door and don't look around."
Does taking the small door mean taking the back door?
"Let's go."
Chen Xiangfang took a step forward but saw Zhang Yue still standing still, his face flushed red.
"how?"
Zhang Yue was speechless.
Chen Xiang already knew how to ask: "Don't want to go?"
Zhang Yue said: "Yes, the students dare not let the teacher owe this favor."
Chen Xiang said: "You are worrying too much. I usually tell you that studying is not about asking for help from others, but about seeking for yourself. But I also talk about the way of authority."
"You have also seen how many scholars came to the outside to ask for a meeting but were unable to do so. But if the examiner finally accepted these people's papers, but you were the only one without them, what did they think?"
Zhang Yue said with relief: "Student understands."
Chen Xiang nodded and said, "Come with me."
Zhang Yue followed Chen Xiang to the back of the courtyard and knocked on the small door. He saw an old servant opening the door, took one look at it, and then let Zhang Yue and Chen Xiang in.
After entering the house.
Zhang Yue saw an official who was supposed to be a receptionist in a room, drinking with several people, and there was a beautiful singer beside him.
Chen Xiang and Zhang Yue followed others to a side hall, where they could vaguely see an official talking to someone through a screen.
After a while, the visitor left, and Chen Xiang led Zhang Yue inside.
The official behind this screen is Chen Zhu.
As soon as the other party saw Chen Xiang, he smiled and came out to greet him: "Shu Gu, what's the matter with your great work? I'm here late at night."
Chen Xiang signaled Zhang Yue to wait by the screen, then stepped forward and said with a smile: "I don't go to the Three Treasures Hall for anything. If I have something to do, I came to ask Brother Sidao for help."
"Hey, Shu Gu, you're still a stranger to me. If you don't ask for anything, just tell me what you have to say."
The two people immediately sat down separately as the guest of honour. Zhang Yue watched from the side, but saw that the two people deliberately lowered their voices to speak.
Chen Zhu and Chen Xiang were talking, and then glanced at Zhang Yue a few times, probably as a sign of appreciation. Chen Xiang kept talking, but Chen Zhu just listened but did not express an opinion, and nodded from time to time.
And the look he looked at Zhang Yue became much softer.
After the two finally finished talking, Chen Xiang motioned to Zhang Yuejin to come forward.
Chen Zhu Wenyan said to Zhang Yueyan: "Show me the articles you usually have."
Zhang Yue said it was a gift.
Chen Zhu nodded while reading. After reading it, he said to Chen Xiang: "Okay, okay, no wonder even the wealthy prime minister and Privy Master Zeng praised the disciple's talent."
