After all the examiners arrived, the gate of Gongyuan was locked, and no one was allowed to enter or exit at will.
Although Wang Yuan was appointed as the chief examiner, he was only responsible for internal affairs, that is, setting questions, grading papers, judging, etc.
There is also a promotion officer, who is an official from Shuntian Prefecture, and is responsible for the outside affairs. He is mainly responsible for the preliminary preparations, post-finishing work, etc. This examination was organized by the promotion officer.
There is also the Supervisory Censor, who is responsible for overseeing internal and external affairs, including: sending and receiving test papers, copying, body searches, invigilation, food supply, etc.
If someone cheats in the examination room, or changes the answer sheet midway - Wang Yuan is not responsible for such fraud, it is the responsibility of the supervisor!
What are Wang Yuan's responsibilities?
Questions are leaked, the contents of the red scroll and the ink scroll are different, the examiner has violated regulations... If these situations occur, Wang Yuan will be held accountable.
"Xueshi Wang, I'm going to lock the door." Zhang Shilong said.
Wang Yuan cupped his fists and said, "Thank you!"
Previously, the gate of Gongyuan was locked, but now it is the inner curtain door. The examiner and fellow examiners were all locked in the courtyard. Except for the invigilators who came to deliver meals every day, they were not allowed to have contact with anyone else.
After Zhang Shilong finished speaking, he exited, took out the key and locked the courtyard door.
Didn’t we say before that Li Liang, the minister of Guanglu Temple, betrothed his daughter to Liu Jian’s grandson, but broke off the engagement after Liu Jian lost power? The person who exposed the impeachment was none other than Zhang Shilong!
Zhang Shilong was not a member of Yang Tinghe, nor was he a member of the emperor. He was just a conscientious censor who was secretly used by Yang Tinghe. Historically, looking at his words and deeds throughout his life, he was purely the kind of operative who could not get rid of the dirt in his eyes. The honorable nobles, fortunate ministers, eunuchs, and Yang Dang were all offended, and eventually died of illness while supervising the construction of water conservancy projects in Shaanxi.
Zhu Houzhao bypassed the Metropolitan Procuratorate this time and asked Yang Yiqing to recommend the supervisor, and Yang Yiqing recommended Zhang Shilong.
After Wang Yuan locked the courtyard door, he immediately went back to discuss the questions with the examiners.
In addition to Wu Yipeng, the deputy examiner, there were twelve other co-examiners. At the time of Zhu Yuanzhang, it was stipulated that only four co-examiners could be selected for the provincial examination. However, as the number of candidates increased, it had increased to more than ten by the mid-Ming Dynasty.
The sources of these fellow examiners are complex, including magistrates and county magistrates from various prefectures and counties in Shuntian Prefecture, as well as professors and teachings from schools in various places.
Wang Yuan returned to the room and sat down, smiling and saying: "Everyone, if you have any suggestions, please feel free to speak up."
"It all depends on Master Wang." All the examiners said in unison.
One of the examiner's powers and responsibilities is to set questions, and no official in their right mind will come to steal the spotlight from the examiner.
Wang Yuan asked Wu Yipeng again: "Where is Bachelor Wu?"
Wu Yipeng was very embarrassed at this moment. He was one of the examiners when Wang Yuan participated in the joint examination two years ago, and now he has become Wang Yuan's deputy. Wu Yipeng forced a smile and said: "Why do you have to be so humble, Bachelor Wang? You should answer the questions."
Wang Yuan was too lazy to think and said directly: "Four Books and Five Classics, please each give a big question and a small question. Let's not mention whose question will be chosen in the end. I will decide before the exam! I only have one rule. Before the list is announced, who will be chosen?" No one is allowed to drink. If anyone is caught drinking, I will immediately disqualify him from being a fellow examiner!"
Everyone was shocked, then became awe-struck, and collectively stood up and clasped their fists: "I will never drink!"
It is normal for rural examination examiners to have banquets. After all, they have to stay in Gongyuan for half a month. Not to mention leaving Gongyuan, they are not even allowed to go to other people's examination rooms. They can only stay in their own examination room to correct test papers. Their only pastime is to go there. Relax in the yard.
How to pass the time if you don’t have a drink or a dinner party?
As a result, the trend became worse and worse. People drank every day for fun. Even exam questions were written on the spur of the moment when they were drunk. Exam papers were graded half-drunk and half-awake.
In the evening of that day, the examiners had their first dinner together, and they could only have tea instead of wine.
After the banquet dispersed, some people were full of resentment and thought Wang Yuan was showing off; others admired him and thought Wang Yuan acted responsibly.
In any case, no one dares to drink, and no one has the conditions to drink.
Because Wang Yuan directly handed a note to Zhang Shilong, asking him not to bring a drop of wine in when providing food.
"Drinking is a good way to ruin things!" Zhang Shilong originally had a bad impression of Wang Yuan, a lucky minister, but after getting the note, he immediately changed his mind. He even decided to go to the imperial court as soon as the provincial examination was over.
, it is recommended that the supply of alcoholic beverages be canceled in rural examinations across the country.
Zhang Shilong's father drank to death, and his family fell into such embarrassment that he sold his ancestral home to survive. He was forced to drop out of school in the Imperial College and go home to take care of his mother and younger siblings. He was delayed for several years, and everything happened due to
Dad is a drunkard!
Wang Yuan forbade the examiner to drink, which immediately made the supervisory censor very fond of him.
Two days passed in the blink of an eye, and all the candidates for the provincial examination gathered outside Gongyuan in the dark. Wang Yuancai summoned the examiners to decide on the content of the examination.
"Please bring over your test questions!" Wang Yuan said.
All the examiners came forward one after another and handed Wang Yuan their examination questions.
Wang Yuan browsed through it quickly, circled it with a brush, and copied the selected excerpts to another piece of paper. At the same time, he also asked a question of his own: Investigate things to gain knowledge!
[Shuquge www.shuquge.co] If you don’t bring in private goods, what kind of examiner can you be?
Wang Yuan took out the contents of the final examination questions and said with a smile: "Please take a look."
All the examiners gathered around and praised and flattered him one after another.
Wang Yuan's set of test questions includes all current question types, divided into: single sentence questions, section questions, several section questions, whole chapter questions, continuous chapter questions, fan questions, cut-off questions, cut-off questions, cut-off questions
Presumably, the candidates' expressions will be very exciting when they see the questions.
Wang Yuan took out the wax printing machine again, quickly engraved the questions, and then asked the examiners to help print them. For thousands of test papers, dozens of them would have to be engraved. Fortunately, there was not much content, otherwise Wang Yuan would have to engrave them.
Go crazy.
The governors and edicts of the prefectures and counties praised the wax printing machine highly and found it very convenient.
For provincial examinations in other places, the questions are usually written on a board, and the invigilator holds the board around the room, waiting for the candidates to copy them all.
Some candidates are short-sighted, and copying questions in the middle of the night makes it very troublesome to repeat the questions.
On the fifth watch, thousands of candidates had already entered the venue. After they had nailed down their tarpaulins, they couldn't wait for the questions to come, and actually made a scene in the examination room.
"Don't make any noise!"
Zhang Shilong personally led the sergeants and drank loudly in the examination room.
When the sky was slightly bright, the invigilator took the test questions and distributed them one by one along the examination booth. While handing out the questions, he said: "Don't touch the ink with your hands, or you will stain the answer sheet!"
Wang Yan was very familiar with this stuff. He took out the water directly from the pot and stuck the wax-printed test questions on the corner of the examination table. Although the ink had been improved, it would inevitably stick to his hands, so it was best not to touch it during the whole process.
After quickly browsing the test questions, Wang Yan almost laughed out loud when he saw "Studying things to achieve knowledge".
Although it was not announced who the examiner was, the conflict in the court was so serious that the news that Wang Yuan was the examiner had already spread.
It just so happened that Wang Yan was a member of the Physics Club, and he spent time in Gewutang every day for a period of time. This guy was originally from Henan, but he borrowed his degree from Shuntian to study and take exams, and he had already accepted Wang Yuan as his teacher last autumn.
Wang Yan didn't care about anything else. He first wrote articles on "investigating things to achieve knowledge". Most of the content came from Zhu Xi, and a small part was from Wang Yuan's theory.
Until the evening, Wang Yan only had one question left, and he was scratching his head and couldn't answer it.
In other words, more than 90% of the thousands of candidates currently facing this question are at a loss.
This is an embarrassing question that is more terrifying than the interception question. The content of the question is just one word: 萱.
The beetle is the larvae of the scarab beetle.
It was getting dark, and everyone was sitting there, dumbfounded as they looked at the question, not knowing where to start.