(Thanks to the information provided by the study committee. In the Ming Dynasty Provincial Examination, there is no admission ticket for the general examination. You need to take the prepared answer sheet and go to the Yamen to fill in the candidate information and stamp it. All the errors in the previous article have been corrected.)
A few days before the examination, the scholars took the road guide and official documents and went to Honglu Temple to register.
Then, he took the test paper he had prepared and went to the Ministry of Rites to get it stamped, which is the so-called "seal paper." It's okay for new imperial examination candidates like Wang Yuan and Jin Lei. Those who passed the examination in previous years still need to bring their own rural examination articles.
Go and fill in the detailed information on the test paper so that the etiquette department can arrange the test room and seat number.
The process of the general examination is very similar to that of the provincial examination. You have to enter the venue in the dark, and the candidates nail the tarpaulin themselves to protect themselves from rain.
Historically, this situation was not changed until Zhang Juzheng became the first assistant.
Because there was a fire in the Gongyuan during the Tianshun period, the supervisory censor was too stubborn to open the door of the Gongyuan without permission, burning more than 90 candidates who were taking the exam, and injuring countless others. Zhang Juzheng learned from the past lessons and believed that the conditions of the examination room were too
Due to the hardship, the wooden gates of the Gongyuan in the capital were demolished and all were replaced with brick walls and tiled roofs.
From then on, candidates for the general examination no longer had to nail the tarpaulin themselves.
This year's competition was not as fierce as expected. There were more than 3,500 people taking the exam, which was actually 300 less than the exam three years ago.
Of course, it mainly depends on how many students are admitted.
No one can say for sure. The number of Jinshi scholars changes frequently. In the last term, 350 Jinshi scholars were admitted.
Midnight, midnight.
It was a cold spring, and all the scholars were waiting outside the Gongyuan. Many people were shivering in the cold. I don't know whether it was really cold or because they were too nervous.
At this time, there were 9,000 seats in Gongyuan. I checked the seat map two days in advance to prevent being unable to find a seat during the exam.
Wang Yuan and Jin Lei were not far from each other, with only more than sixty numbers between them.
This is no coincidence. It has something to do with the classics they deal with. One deals with the "Book of Rites" and the other deals with the "Spring and Autumn Annals". The scholars who deal with the "Spring and Autumn Annals" and the "Book of Rites" are often placed in the same place during the imperial examinations in the capital.
house.
According to the rules of the early Ming Dynasty, the "Book of Changes", "Spring and Autumn", "Book of Rites", "Shangshu" and "Book of Songs" were assigned to the same examiners in a ratio of 1:1:1:2:2.
This was based on the number of candidates in each class before the Zhengtong Dynasty, but it had changed dramatically during the Zhengde period.
Take the Jinshi in the fifteenth year of Hongzhi as an example. There are 21 people each in "Spring and Autumn" and "Book of Rites", 76 people in "Book of Changes", 70 people in "Book of Songs", and 112 people in "Book of Songs".
.
Do you see anything unusual?
There are too few Jinshi in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Book of Rites. This is not an isolated phenomenon, it happens every year!
The reason is very simple. The classic meanings of "Spring and Autumn" and "Book of Rites" are too complicated, and it is easy to be confused during the exam. Although "Shang Shu" is recognized as the most difficult to learn, as long as you learn it, the exam is actually very easy. And "Shang Shu" is actually very easy to take the exam.
"Spring and Autumn" is difficult to learn and difficult to test, while "Book of Rites" is easy to learn but difficult to test.
As time goes on, there are fewer and fewer scholars who study these two classics. However, the number of scholars who study the "Book of Songs" is exploding, because the "Book of Songs" is easy to learn and even easier to take the exam.
How did Wang Yuan know this at the beginning? He was simply led into a trap by Wang Yangming and Shen Fucong.
But who knows that Wang Yangming and Shen Fucong are from Yuyao, where many aristocratic families have written "Book of Rites" for generations. If divided by region, Yuyao's "Book of Rites" is the best in the world!
By the Zhengde period, although the ratio of housing officials had not changed, the actual operation had changed.
Take this examination as an example. There were a total of seventeen room officials, two of whom were in charge of the Spring and Autumn Annals and the Book of Rites, and the remaining fifteen were in charge of the Yi Jing, Shangshu and the Book of Songs.
These two people, one is Wang Yangming and the other is Wen Renhe, worked together to correct the volumes of "Spring and Autumn" and "Book of Rites".
Wang Yuan's test paper will 100% be seen by Wang Yangming, because the two room officials must review the paper repeatedly and give their own comments.
After hammering and nailing the oilcloth, Wang Yuan took a nap and was woken up in a daze.
After the title, Wang Yuan directly looked at the title of "Book of Rites", because "The first art of weightlifting in the imperial examination". This sentence was understood as "the first game" in the Qing Dynasty, which included the Four Books and the Five Classics, while in the Ming Dynasty it specifically referred to the first game.
A question from the Five Classics.
As long as you answer the questions on the Five Classics well, and if you do slightly worse on the questions on the Four Books, you are very likely to be among the best.
In addition, the imperial examination in the Ming Dynasty did not require the eight-part essay to be written. If you are awesome, you can write it yourself. However, the eight-part essay is a literary style summarized by scholars of the past dynasties. As long as you compose according to this format, you can write the essay in the shortest time and in the most concise way.
The text is well written, and it is most convenient for the examiner to quickly review.
In the Spring and Autumn Annals answer sheets of Jinshi scholars in the Ming Dynasty, non-eight-part essays occasionally appeared.
This is because sometimes the questions of "Spring and Autumn" are too difficult, and the meaning of the scriptures is very complicated, and it is difficult to summarize it into one sentence. When faced with this situation, the scholars who wrote "Spring and Autumn" chose not to write eight-legged essay, but instead wrote "Lunun"
"Complete the essay in this way - the risk is very high. If you encounter an irresponsible marking officer, the answer sheet will be directly judged as failing.
The first "Book of Rites" is entitled: "The purpose of examining music is to understand government, and then you are ready to govern."
In connection with the previous text of the scripture, it can be translated as follows: "If you examine the sound, you can understand the sound; if you examine the sound, you can understand the music; if you examine the music, you can understand the politics, and the method of governing the world will be complete."
Of course it cannot be a literal meaning, there is a deeper meaning here.
It is often related to the ethical code. Music has five tones, and the palace, business, and horns represent the things of the king, his subjects, and his people respectively.
To examine music is to observe the social situation of the world and find out various problems in governance. If a certain sound is wrong, it means there is a problem in a certain class. For example, the palace sound is weak and the business sound is messy, which means that the relationship between the king and his ministers is unstable and vague.
With the symbol of war.
The music of prosperous times represents peace and harmony; the music of troubled times represents resentment and anger; the music of a subjugated country represents hardship and sadness.
Ritual and music have the function of education. As long as the etiquette can be carried out in its proper manner and the music can have its sound, the country and society can function normally.
This question is not about music, but about the governance of the world.
The title comes from another sentence in "The Book of Rites": "Only a gentleman can know happiness."
Only gentlemen, that is, scholars and scholars, can understand the connotation of music and can review and correct political gains and losses by listening to the music of the world.
If you want to understand this, it is easy to solve the problem. Wang Yuan wrote: "A gentleman observes the profound meaning of happiness and understands the principles of governance."
Why is "Book of Rites" difficult to study?
This question can illustrate one or two things.
Zhu Xi did not annotate this paragraph in "The Complete Book of Rites". The editor cited Shao Yong's annotation to explain the ethical principles, and Fang Fengchen's annotation to explain the difference between the five tones, but did not mention anything about governance. Scholars
You need to understand it based on the context, and you must have a good teacher.
During the imperial examination, it is best to pick out some key words from Shao Yong and Fang Fengchen's annotations and use them in the eight-part essay to give examples and arguments. Only in this way can you stand out among the candidates and show that you are knowledgeable without deviating from the exam syllabus——
The annotations in "The Complete Book of Rites" are too complicated, and there are so many that it makes one's head go numb. Quoting these annotations is just annoying.
Therefore, there are fewer and fewer scholars who deal with the "Book of Rites", and the "Collection of Spring and Autumn Annals" is even more disgusting than the "Collection of Book of Rites"!