Chapter 32 The Palace Exam with Hongzhi Characteristics!
"let's start!"
Emperor Hongzhi was a pragmatic emperor. After the necessary etiquette, he issued the decree to start the palace examination.
After the decree was issued, Hongzhi no longer stayed in the Jinluan Palace, but left under the service of the eunuchs. Not only did he leave, but most of the officials who were used to fill the bill also walked out of the hall one after another after Hongzhi left.
Three cabinet elders, Li Dongyang, Xie Qian, and Liu Jian, stayed on. Below them, more than a dozen officials from the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Personnel also stayed as invigilators for the imperial examination.
This proctoring lineup is absolutely luxurious! Imagine what it would be like in the future if a group of high-ranking officials and deputy national-level figures were to proctor your exams.
I'm afraid not many people can maintain absolute calm, right?
"Everyone, the Imperial Examination is a test to select the best among the best. If you don't fall in the first place, don't feel pressure. Just give your best."
After seeing all the tributes finding their seats in the examination room one by one and taking their seats, Li Dongyang, the elder of the Pavilion with a faint hint of gray in his hair and beard, encouraged the candidates with a smile, and then nodded to the officials of the Ministry of Etiquette.
"The time has come, let's begin!"
After the official from the etiquette department handed out the test questions, Lin Nuo couldn't help but breathed a sigh of relief.
Before the exam, he also tried a few questions based on the current emperor's personality.
Generally speaking, most palace examinations focus on policy theory, but this is not entirely the case. Sometimes there are also examinations on current affairs.
Today's Emperor Hongzhi is a benevolent and pragmatic emperor. Lin Nuo had guessed before the exam that the test questions assigned would be more likely to test current affairs.
As for current affairs, the most likely tests are just those.
Opening and banning the sea; how to quell the indigenous unrest in the southwest; how to increase inventory when the national treasury is empty...
This time's topic on current affairs is based on the current incident in the southwestern region, where the Southern Barbarians surrendered and then rebelled, and rebelled and surrendered again, requiring candidates to give precise strategies for governing the country.
When they saw the question, many candidates took a deep breath.
For the Gongshi who were used to quoting scriptures and writing policy essays, it was indeed extremely difficult for them to write down detailed strategies for governing the country.
Regarding the Southwest issue, in fact, both the court and the people basically hold the same view: those who are not of my race must have different minds!
Therefore, from the emperor down to the officials, most of the barbarians in the southwestern part of the country had a mentality of forcibly suppressing them with the army.
There was no way, the imperial court had not thought of educating them with the rites of saints, but unfortunately, those barbarians were not educated at all, and there was no way to reason with them other than beating them.
Therefore, the content written by the tributes present was basically based on how to use troops in the southwest. Some tributes who had a slight understanding of the art of war even talked about the formation of troops.
Even Xu Wei, a great talent, believed that the main task was to use troops, and education was a supplement. He described in detail how to use soldiers and how to educate, so eloquently that he filled up the entire examination paper.
As for Lin Nuo, after seeing the test questions, he closed his eyes and meditated for a moment, sorted out his thoughts, and then started to write.
"Everything in the world is not the king's land, and the shores of the land are not the king's ministers!"
This is the first sentence, the opening point.
The meaning is self-evident, the southwest region is the territory of the Ming Dynasty, and the so-called barbarians who grew up in the southwest are also the people of the Ming Dynasty!
"To pacify the southwest, I have three strategies: the upper, middle and lower levels!"
"The next strategy is to use barbarians to control barbarians, and lead Guangxi wolf soldiers into Yunnan, Guizhou and other places to suppress the rebellion!"
"The central strategy is to learn the laws of the Han Dynasty, implement the order of favor among the native officials in the southwest, and disintegrate the dominance of the local officials!"
"The best policy is to change the system of native officials to local officials, gradually abolish the system of local officials governing the southwest, and change it to the system of local officials to govern!"
After proposing the three policies, Lin Nuo then described in detail how to implement these three policies, especially the method of reforming the land and returning it to the locals. The description was quite detailed. Unknowingly, he also completely completed the entire paper.
It's full.
Lin Nuo put down the pen with some unfinished thoughts. Lin Nuo turned around slightly and found that Xu Wei had just finished answering. He put down the pen with a sad look on his face, looking like he was not very satisfied with his answer.
The palace examination is divided into two sessions, starting in the morning and afternoon respectively.
The first half is mainly about policy or current affairs, writing an article, and the second half is mostly about writing a poem or poem with a certain word or phrase as the title.
Like the provincial examination and the general examination, the first half is the most important, especially for a pragmatic emperor like Emperor Hongzhi, who naturally pays more attention to the current affairs articles in the first half. As for the poems and songs that follow, unless they are particularly amazing, otherwise
Most of them are glanced at and not looked at much.
At the end of the first half of the exam, after the officials of the Ministry of Rites put away the papers, the officials of Honglu Temple served some beautifully made and delicious meals to each candidate. After lunch and a short rest, the second half will begin.
Perhaps the candidates felt that the writing on current affairs was not very satisfactory. They all looked a little unnatural when eating, and they did not have the intention to taste the palace delicacies. After finishing their meals, they closed their eyes and rested, preparing for the next exam.
There was not much rest before the second half of the exam began.
The moment he got the test questions, Lin Nuo smiled secretly in his heart. Emperor Hongzhi seemed to really not pay attention to the second half. Even the questions he asked were very perfunctory.
The topic is very simple, it is to write a poem based on this year's heavy snow.
Whether it’s poetry or lyrics, there are no hard and fast rules. You can write whatever you are good at.
The meaning is self-evident, and I don’t bother to read it anyway. You can write whatever you like, and it doesn’t matter how you write it.
Even the emperor was so perfunctory, and Lin Nuo was even more lazy to use his brain. Without any shame, he slightly modified the masterpieces of later great men and moved them to this palace examination.
"The scenery of the North, thousands of miles of ice, thousands of miles of snow..."
Lin Nuo would not have dared to write this poem in the Qing Dynasty, but during the Hongzhi period of the Ming Dynasty, it didn't matter.
Hongzhi was a benevolent emperor in the Ming Dynasty who opened up the possibility of speech and did not like the practice of being punished for speech.
I, a young man less than twenty years old, wrote poems about the Qin Emperor and the Han Dynasty. It was nothing, and even more powerful people were still alive.
In the eyes of Hongzhi and the court officials, this was just a young and frivolous maniac who loved to brag. Whoever had never bragged when they were young probably just laughed at it and didn't take it to heart at all.
After finishing writing "Spring Snow in Qinyuan" with great eloquence, Lin Nuo stopped paying attention to the paper and sat cross-legged on the chair. It seemed that he was resting his mind with his eyes closed, but in fact he had already started practicing.
There were not many opportunities like this to practice in the Jinluan Palace. He would not waste such an exciting thing.
Not to mention, perhaps it is because the Jinluan Palace carries the destiny of the country. After only practicing here for half an hour, Lin Nuo felt that his internal energy had increased a little. If he had practiced here for a year and a half, maybe his Nine Yang internal energy
I can catch up with Xiuer.
“What a great place!”
In the evening, Lin Nuo opened his eyes with some regret. After handing in his papers, he left the Golden Palace with a group of tributes.
Next, the candidates will have two days of rest. Two days later, they will come here again to participate in the Chuanlu Ceremony. On that day, the emperor will hand-pick the number one, number two, and top pick, and give a banquet to all the new scholars.
.
Lin Nuo looked back with some regret and glanced at the splendid Jinluan Palace again. He left this time, and the next time he wanted to practice in the Jinluan Palace again, he didn't know when it would be.