Chapter 331 Reforming the Imperial Examinations and the Imperial Academy
However, although it took a few days for the decree to be formally formulated, in fact, in the morning when Yunxi mentioned this matter, the concerned ministers already knew that this matter was unstoppable.
After all, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty still has a lot of power in his hands. Unless it touches the bottom line of all officials and causes a backlash, any policy Yunxi wants to implement can be implemented. The worst is to slow down. Of course, someone like Zhu Yuanzhang is awesome. Even if the emperor touches the bottom line of all officials, he can still implement the policy. This special case will not be discussed.
Moreover, Yunxi announced it directly in the morning court, instead of first discussing it privately with the fourth auxiliary officer and relevant officials like the last time he proposed the regulations on the protection of military marriages, and then drafting a decree after the discussion. Therefore, it shows that Yunxi is powerful. Must do.
With both conditions in place, the system will definitely be implemented.
So after the official decision was made, everyone immediately devoted themselves to another, more important matter: competing for as many admissions places as possible for their hometowns.
In this way, not only was the morning court time completely occupied, but even the Qianqing Palace had people asking Yunxi about the quota allocation issue after the daily memorials were processed.
Yunxi already had some knowledge about how to allocate quotas at the provincial level. At this time, there were still few people admitted to each subject of the imperial examination, generally less than 100 people. Yunxi used 100 people as a standard, and first divided the points basically evenly. Fourteen provincial-level administrative units were given, and then based on population, as well as appeasing the original imperial examination provinces, and other factors, the final adjustment was as follows:
Seventeen people from Zhili, eleven from Zhejiang, nine from Changxi, six from Yongjian, nine from Huguang, six from Guangdong, three from Guangxi, two from Yunnan, five from Bashu, six from Henan, and ten from Shandong , four from Peking, six from Shanse, and six from Sanqin. A total of one hundred people.
Among them, Zhili has the most people and a large territory, so it has the most places; Huguang is the two provinces of Hunan and Hunan in later generations, and Yunxi reserved the places that were split into two provinces, so there are more places; similarly, Shandong Yunxi reserved quota for the northeastern provinces (at this time Liaodong is counted as part of Shandong).
Naturally, most people were dissatisfied after the quotas came out. Everyone felt that there were too few quotas in their hometowns and too many quotas in other places. Among them, Huguang and Shandong were naturally targeted.
Although Huguang is a large place at this time, it has more than 5 million talents, while Zhejiang and Changzhou have more than 14 million; and Bashu has a total of only more than 2 million people, and we in Changxi have more than 7 million people! How about that? There is Shandong. Although Shandong is the most populous province in the north, it is unlikely that there will be ten places.
Yunxi made repeated adjustments and deliberations before announcing the final result. Although there are many places for Zhili, the population is nearly 20 million. If divided according to population, there will be thirty places, so in fact there are not many, but a lot Officials from Zhili are still not satisfied.
Although the ministers were not satisfied with the quota, because there was no synergy, Yunxi still succeeded in reducing the quota, and announced that starting from next year's examination, this ratio would be used to admit tribute scholars.
The officials originally planned to continue the quarrel, but Yunxi immediately threw out the matter of determining the quota of state capitals.
In this way, the officials from the same province who had just stood together with the same hatred immediately split, undermined each other, and fought for more quotas for their hometowns with red faces.
Yunxi just took this opportunity to separate the factions of officials in the DPRK and China, so he delayed making a conclusion. Instead, he announced that this year's provincial examination would not be based on the quota of the state capital, and would wait until three years later.
Yunxi sat firmly on the Diaoyutai and watched the officials quarreling below, but he hesitated to come to a conclusion. Until the second year of Jianye, there were still people quarreling about this, but this is all for another time.
Another move of Yunxi was to announce the establishment of Jianghuai Province. Taking Fengyang Prefecture, Huai'an Prefecture, Anqing Prefecture, Luzhou Prefecture, Xuzhou, Hezhou and Chuzhou as the scope, Yangzhou Prefecture and Huai'an Prefecture were also adjusted The jurisdiction of these two prefectures was established as Jianghuai Province, with the provincial capital in Fengyang. Basically, it did not include the area north of the Yangtze River in Jiangsu and Anhui provinces, including the current Yangzhou City.
The current boundaries of Jiangsu and Anhui provinces were determined during the Manchu and Qing Dynasties, which was very unreasonable. Nanjing was known as the "Euclidean and Anhui Provincial Capital". Yunxi didn't care why it was never corrected later. Anyway, he made the decision now. , just divide them according to a more reasonable method.
Then Yunxi allocated five of the joint examination quotas in the Zhili area to Jianghuai Province. Although the population of Jianghuai Province was slightly larger, considering the Fengyang Prefecture, the ministers remained silent.
The original Zhongdu Remaining Department was reorganized into the Chief Envoys Department, the Inspection Envoys Department and the Capital Command Envoys Department of Jianghuai Province.
If left to future generations, these separated areas would be poor places, and the local people would have to protest to the end; but in this era, the provincial level is not as good as the state capital in terms of financial autonomy, and disaster relief and other things are all allocated by the central government. It can only be done by the superiors, but it has basically no impact on the people, so there are no protests by officials who ask for orders for the people.
However, some old heroes from Fengyang were not satisfied. Chang Sheng went to Yunxi and said: "Your Majesty, Fengyang will no longer be a place under Zhili. Emperor Taizu valued Fengyang very much. It's not good, okay?" ."
Yunxi said to him: "I separated from Jianghuai Province just to take care of Fengyang! Think about it, Jiangbei has always been poor, and the reading test has always been inferior to Jiangnan. If you are admitted to Fengyang in this province, you can still pass the exam." ?"
"Now that I have created a province, these four prefectures and three states, except for Anqing, are all close to Fengyang. This will actually increase the probability of Fengyang people passing the imperial examination. Why is it bad?"
"As for the care for Fengyang, even if the Zhili area is separated, it will not be less."
As soon as Yunxi said these words, people from Fengyang had no objection. On the contrary, they felt that Yunxi was taking care of his hometown.
Yunxi had a plan in mind, not to take care of his hometown, but to restrict Jiangsu and Zhejiang.
The Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas will be the economic center of the Ming Dynasty in the foreseeable future - even if the capital is moved, the Yangtze River Delta will be much more dynamic than the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. The economic base determines the superstructure, especially since Yunxi focuses on overseas trade, the future will be certain There will be forces spanning both political and business circles trying to control government affairs by relying on their strong economic foundation.
Therefore, Yunxi had to restrict the officials in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Historically, the northern and southern rankings were divided, but the officials in Jiangsu and Zhejiang dominated the southern rankings. Only Zhangxi could compete with them, but in the end they fell in with the same trend, so in the end the notorious Donglin The party controls the political situation.
Of course, the reason why the Donglin Party, which was not in line with the interests of the Ming Dynasty in the end, was able to control the political situation was also related to the poor guidance of public opinion and economic control in Jiangsu and Zhejiang in the north. However, even though they are still in the south of the Yangtze River, they cannot take it lightly.
Yunxi adopted provincial-level admissions in the imperial examination quotas, and divided Jiangbei into an independent province. The number of imperial examination quotas in Jiangsu and Zhejiang was only 23. Although it was not many, compared with the more than 2,500 in Jiangsu and Zhejiang at this time.
For a population of 10,000, it is already very small.
After Yunxi, there will be other measures to restrict people in Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas to ensure the highest degree of control over the court.
After that, Yunxi went to the Imperial College again, not only to see if there were any talented people, but also to inform Xu Zongshi, the imperial wine minister, that in the future, the selection of graduates of the Imperial College would also be based on the proportion of the imperial examination quota.
At this time, the imperial examination system was not the only one in the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty. Although there were fewer and fewer white officials, there were still many officials from the Imperial College, and their official positions were not low, and they could compete with the imperial examination.
Yunxi didn't want the imperial examination family to dominate, so he attached great importance to the Imperial College. Today he came to inspect the Imperial College. After talking about the matter, Yunxi asked the Imperial College to offer wine. Xu Zongshi said: "Is there anyone to recommend talents to the Imperial College now?"
Xu Zongshi replied: "Why not! Now there is a man named Chen Shou who is very capable. I recommend him to your Majesty."
Yunxi said: "Call him over."
After a while, a man about thirty years old came in and knelt down and said, "Student Chen Shou has met Your Majesty."
Yunxi took one look at him and saw that he looked good, and he could tell that he was a martial artist, so he felt satisfied. Then Yunxi called him up, asked him carefully, and found out that he also had the reputation of being a scholar.
When I asked him questions, he could basically answer them, which made me feel satisfied.
Yunxi then smiled relaxedly and said: "Your Majesty named you Chen Shou in the hope that you would leave a name in history just like Chen Shou during the Three Kingdoms period."
Chen Shou said: "Your Majesty, the student's father didn't know that there was a man named Chen Shou during the Three Kingdoms period. It was because our ancestors and uncles passed away early at a young age, so my father named the student Chen Shou in the hope of longevity.
A hundred years old."
Yunxi felt a little embarrassed. He just said a casual word and touched someone's vagina. It was not a good thing. If Yunxi himself was asked about such a thing, he would probably have cursed in his heart.
But Yunxi could not apologize as the emperor. Even if he apologized, it would probably only make Chen Shou more frightened, so Yunxi said: "How many years have you been studying in the Imperial College?"
Chen Shou said: "It has been five years since I reported back to Your Majesty."
Yunxi then said: "Have you ever returned home?"
Chen Shou said: "No."
Yunxi then said: "Then I will allow you three months' leave to go back to your hometown to visit your relatives. Your family is from Suixian County, Huguang, so three months should be enough."
"Now I will ask Xu Jijiu to allow you to graduate. I regard you as the middle school student and will take office in the palace after you come back."
Chen Shou knelt down very happily and said, "I thank the Lord for your kindness." Not every minister can get a vacation, except for bereavement leave, so Chen Shou was very happy that he could go home during the vacation.
If Yunxi hadn't felt that what he just said was inappropriate and wanted to appease Chen Shou, he wouldn't have allowed him a holiday.