Emperor Ming Dynasty

Chapter 1016 Wu Jinshi

After taking good care of relatives and friends and taking care of family affairs, Sun Shining went straight to Taiyuan Mansion to take the provincial examination.

Although after the provincial examination was held, scholars would also have the opportunity to become magistrates, but the future was almost clear at a glance, and they could see the end.

It is precisely because of this that the gold content of Juren has risen sharply.

In the pre-Ming Dynasty, on the surface Jinshi became an official, but in fact, [-] to [-] percent of the local officials were recruited to fill the position. Jinshi only entered Beijing after serving in the local area for a few years, and became ministers and ministers in more than ten years. It can be said to be extremely fast.

However, due to the increase in the number of Jinshi, all the Jinshi were sent to local places for training, so even if they were fellow Jinshi, they would be awarded county magistrates after two years of observing politics, which squeezed a large number of ways to recruit people and appoint officials.

In order to make up for his official position, as long as a candidate is selected by the Ministry of Officials, he can serve as a secondary official, and every three years, the superior will be promoted, the average will be promoted, and the inferior will be demoted.

Therefore, Juren is generally an official, and can only be a local judge, or an instructor, from the seventh rank, or the sixth rank official, which belongs to the entry stream.

Moreover, the prospects of juren are relatively broad, and they can be promoted to the third rank. The local is the inspector, and in the center is the Dali Temple Minister, Zhan Shifu Zhan Shi, Taichang Temple Minister, etc. The future has expanded.

The excitement of Taiyuan Mansion gave Sun Shining a sense of novelty.

But he didn't dare to be negligent, and started to study behind closed doors, inviting a few people to teach face to face, and to do exams, which can be described as extremely hard work.

The preferences of the examiner, the dislike of the examiner, the change of the style of writing, and even the font must be discussed and paid attention to one by one.

When the examiners on the sixth day of the junior high school entered the palace, they first held a horse-riding banquet under the curtain, and all the officials inside and outside the curtain had to attend the banquet.

After the banquet, the inner curtain officials entered the inner curtain of the back hall, and the supervisors closed the door.

On the eighth day of the Lunar New Year, thousands of talents from Shanxi Province entered the arena wearing stars and wearing moons, their eyes full of excitement.

Yuyuelongmen, the gap between a scholar and a Juren can be said to be huge.

Although the topic of the exam has changed, the system has not changed. The exam is divided into three sessions. Appeared in one day.

After coming out, Sun Shining panted and got into the carriage.

"Father, you have worked hard."

"Go back." Sun Shining shook his head, closed his eyes, and began to recall the exam questions.

After sleeping for a day, the next day, he wrote all the questions silently in one morning, and took the papers to the home of the chief envoy in Shanxi.

The chief envoy is also a Jinshi, in his fifties, with glasses on the bridge of his nose, and a smile on the corner of his mouth:
Shi Mengshu carefully read one copy, put it aside, picked up another copy, read it from beginning to end, and finally threw it away:

"If the old man is not blind, then he must seriously congratulate Uncle Guo."

Sun Shining was overjoyed and heaved a sigh of relief.

Asking the Shanxi chief envoy to help him review the files, this is the background of the Earl's Mansion, and he doesn't care at all.

Shi Mengshu talked about character, he didn't understand, maybe there is something to criticize, but when it comes to talent and learning, he will never be inferior to those great scholars, and he can comment on his own answer sheet, it should be ironclad It's up!
"It's just that the identity of Uncle Guo may not rank very well."

"I know." Sun Shining said indifferently:

"I don't covet the name of Jieyuan, let alone the three yuan and ranks. Juren is different from Jinshi, as long as I can win the exam."

These false names are good things for others, but they are no less than poison for him.

Since the beginning of Hongwu, the Ming Dynasty has always been on guard against foreign relatives. Basically, they are raised with titles and are not allowed to meddle in the government.

But Emperor Shaowu established a new dynasty, although he was also a descendant of Emperor Taizu, but in the end it was like the founding of a country, and the so-called ancestral system didn't work in front of him at all.

The same is true, Daizhou uncle Sun Shirui will be the governor, and Sun Shining can also take the imperial examination and enter the officialdom.

However, Sun Shining is also aware of the temperament of scholars in Zhixian County. As the saying goes, literature is not the first, and martial arts is the second. Even if he breaks his paper, some people will not approve it.

So it would be great to be able to become a juren in a safe and stable manner.

When he passed by some of those restaurants, he saw many scholars getting drunk, some of them were frightened, and they didn't know what they could do.

But he was different. The chief envoy helped him to check the test papers, and nine out of ten he would be successful, so he lost his confidence for a while.

This is the confidence of a powerful family.

"How good would it be if you took the stereotype test? With Brother Gui's knowledge, he will definitely pass."

"Hey, don't mention the past!"

Several scholars started arguing there, full of dissatisfaction with the new imperial examination.

Sun Shining got off the carriage and went to the restaurant, sipping tea while eavesdropping on the remarks of these scholars.

"We have been studying stereotyped essays for ten years, and now we have to take astronomy and geography, historical classics, European and African ones, which are thousands of miles away, so what's the use?"

A drunken scholar shook his head. He raised his wine glass and said loudly without hesitation: "If you want me to say, all the princes in this court are making wedding dresses for those powerful people, and the sons of the aristocratic families are on the throne."

"Hey, I'm also the head of the case. Now that I've entered the Longmen, I've been lucky enough to study for two years, but I don't know how to write."

A thin and thin scholar complained: "I have to buy books and hire a gentleman, and the cost is much more. It is difficult!"

These words made everyone agree.

In this regard, Sun Shining shook his head, extremely disapproving.

In his opinion, stereotyped essays have gone through [-] years. It may have been good at the beginning, and many children from poor families appeared frequently, but after Jiajing, it has become fragmented.

The family of the rich and powerful already has the so-called cheats on stereotyped essays.

As long as you have passed Juren or Jinshi, you will have some experience in stereotyped essays, secret books, the reason why those scholarly families emerge in endlessly, and there are famous people in every generation is because of these secret books.

Books, celebrities, secret books, and poor families are all inferior to those rich and powerful, and the imperial examinations are gradually being monopolized.

Of course, it is a bit exaggerated to talk about monopoly, but it is normal for wealthy families to occupy the majority of Jinshi.

Only those geniuses from poor families are lucky enough to be able to jump over the Dragon Gate and ascend to the Hall of the Son of Heaven.

But now this new type of imperial examination is quite novel to the rich and powerful, so far no good solution has been found.

There are three township examinations, the first one is to test stereotyped essays, poetry, and policy questions, and there are still traces to follow.

But in the second round, the general knowledge questions, such as astronomy, geography, and historical allusions, were tested.

The third round is application questions, and the law counts. This stuff depends on memory and ability, but not financial resources.

That's all, the more important thing is that the township examination, like the general examination, adopts the point system.

For subjective questions such as stereotyped questions and poems, the examiner will divide the article into five grades, dismissed, fourth grade, third grade, second grade, and first grade.

The fourth class is sixty to seventy, the third class is seventy to eighty...

Then the examiner will make a mark.

Common sense and application are more concise, with a full score for one question, and zero points for those who don’t.

Finally, the total score is counted, from high to low.

This kind of objective scoring is more fair for the poor.

And if it was in the past, stereotyped writing would determine life, no matter how well written other poems are, it will not help.

Of course, this is entirely limited to the small number of examiners and the heavy workload. Although there are many contents in the rural examination, who makes stereotyped essays the easiest to check?
What's more, doing well in stereotypes is equivalent to not bad in poetry and songs, and you can also write official documents and judgments. One test is equal to many tests.

"You gentlemen."

Sun Shining couldn't help but said: "Although this new imperial examination has all kinds of bad things, there is one thing that is best for everyone, and that is fairness."

"It's no longer stereotyped for life. Wouldn't it be a good thing for those students who have partial subjects?"

"After all, no matter how well we do stereotyped writing, can it be as good as those from aristocratic families who ask great Confucians to teach them?"

"What brother said is absolutely—"

The brothers who were drinking also came to their senses and gave speeches one after another.

Sun Shining raised his wine glass: "May I meet you all in the capital in the future."

"Full drink—"

For a time, the atmosphere was extremely warm.

With a smile on his lips, Sun Shining said before leaving: "Please have a drink, everyone, today's debt is all on my shoulders."

Now, the scholars became more and more excited.

He doesn't seek any connections, nor does he want to be famous, he is the only one who does whatever he wants.

There is no way, there is a sister of the queen, the nephew of the prince, and he will never escape the wealth of his life.

At this time, in the capital, shortly after the end of the rural examination, the martial arts examination was also held as usual. Although it was not as lively as the general examination, it was equally eye-catching.

Martial arts were really picked up in the Chongzhen Dynasty. After Emperor Shaowu ascended the throne, martial arts gradually began to be established.

Following the imperial examination model, a three-level ladder is designed locally.

Wu Xiucai, Wu Juren, Wu Jinshi.

Both are treated exactly the same.

The political treatment enjoyed by scholars can also be enjoyed by Wu Xiucai.

It's just that in terms of quota, martial arts is far smaller than Wenju, only half of the quota.

In order to increase the gold content of martial arts, the emperor allowed Wu Xiucai to participate in the provincial examination, so that he could be awarded an official.

Once the military examiner is admitted, he can be awarded the title of the patrol battalion, with a hundred people.

Wu Jinshi is terrible. After passing the exam, the outstanding ones enter the Yanwu Hall, which is equivalent to entering the Hanlin as a Jinshi, and they are giving him qualifications.

Ordinary Wu Jinshi went to the Beijing camp, or the frontier army, to be appointed as a team official and to conduct drills.

However, his military rank is not Youshi, but Sergeant, which is the rank of Deputy Battalion Chief, or Battalion Chief.

In other words, after two years of experience, he will definitely be promoted to deputy battalion officer, and if he performs well, he can even reach battalion officer.

Yingzheng is the seventh rank, and the deputy camp is the seventh rank.

As for those in the Martial Arts Hall, those who have reached the military rank of Zuo Shi, usually after teaching for about two years, can join the Department of Bodyguards and become the emperor's personal bodyguard.

With such qualifications, as long as you enter the Beijing camp, you will be an official in the camp.

If you are approached by the emperor, you will jump to the sky.

According to the law of thousands of years, the holy family is above everything else.

The emperor went to the Dongnuang Pavilion of the Qing Palace and summoned Yan Chongxin, Zhu Mou and others who had been reported by the cabinet and personally delineated by himself as the examiners of the undergraduate martial arts examination.

"Looking for scholars at Linxuan is a grand ceremony for talents. Although Wen Jinshi is an important minister of the country, Wu Jinshi is also fundamental. They have both civil and military skills and walk on two legs, so they will not be bullied like Zhao Song.

All of you are ministers selected by me personally, you must remember this. "

Zhu Yixi raised his legs in a leisurely manner and said calmly, at this time he does not look like a 40-year-old middle-aged man.

"The 180 Wugong warriors are 120 more than the 60 in the last regular examination, but I am not only not happy, but worried. Do you know why?"

"This, I'm so stupid, please teach me your Majesty."

Yan Chongxin couldn't figure out what the emperor was thinking at this time, but he understood that this was the emperor's statement.

"Most of these Wu Jin scholars are from the north, and very few are from the south. I am not happy."

The number of Wu Jinshi has been increasing compared with the past, but a consensus has been reached among the cabinet, respecting literature and right martial arts, and the number of Wu Jinshi can only be half, that is, 200.

It is also the contempt for martial arts, so martial arts does not have three points like the imperial examination, but confusion.

So among the 180 people, the northern province accounted for [-]%, which can be described as terrifying.

If things go on like this for a long time, I am afraid that the army will be occupied by northerners. This is absolutely unbearable for Zhu Yixi, who regards the principle of balance as the foundation.

Moreover, Shandong people accounted for another [-]%.

"This..." Yan Chongxin felt very wronged, but he could only say aggrieved: "Your Majesty, the people in the south like articles more than they like to dance with guns and clubs."

"It's not an excuse."

The emperor said coldly: "Martial arts emphasize both civil and military skills. How can a pure martial artist be a general?"

"From ancient times to the present, how many pure warriors can be put on the table?"

"kindness?"

These words shocked everyone in the row and knelt down in fear.

Zhu Mou, who always showed his calmness to others, was also panicked and bowed his head in silence.

In an instant, the atmosphere in the entire hall instantly turned to freezing point, and everyone felt the chill.

Perhaps for a moment, or for a quarter of an hour, the entire hall was silent.

The emperor looked at them coldly, and then said with a little deep meaning: "Don't talk about the present with old thoughts, inclusiveness is the kingly way."

"Get up, don't be an example."

"The minister waits to thank the emperor for his kindness!"

All the ministers stood up one after another, sweating coldly.

Afterwards, Zhu Yixi circled the test list to express his approval.

"Choose a day to hold the palace test!"

After all, it was as if nothing had happened.

Wenyuan Pavilion, where the cabinet is located.

The people in Zhongshushe are very politically sensitive, and they are walking around cautiously at this time, not daring to make the slightest sound.

And the elders of the pavilion remained silent, either reading or drinking tea.

Yan Chongxin concluded: "I'll learn my lesson later..."

These words were very meaningful, Zhu Mou glanced at him, but did not speak.

In the evening, when he returned home, just after changing his clothes, several ministers gathered at his house with solemn faces.

Zhu Mou said calmly: "It seems that you all understand the deep meaning of it, Your Majesty is dissatisfied with us!"

"How about that?"

"Put away all those impeachment things!"

Zhu Mou sighed, "There are enough troubles out there, let's be inclusive!"

But can Qin Xue and Neo Confucianism be harmonious?
(End of this chapter)