Spoiler History: Starting from the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 194 Generations of hard work and ten years of hard study

stare……

Wei Zheng, Fang Xuanling, and Li Shiji felt a little like a light on their backs for a while.

Li Shiji immediately stood up and wanted to apologize, but was stopped by Li Shimin with a wave of his hand:
"I know that my beloved hometown is Shandong, so I can't help but admire people who make money through marriage."

Wei Zheng was from Julu County, Fang Xuanling was from Linzi, and Li Shiji was from Lihu, Caozhou.

The expressions of several ministers became more solemn and cautious, and Li Shimin's smile became more kind:
"However, as Xuancheng said: The superior is the example of the people, so you can't be careless."

We can only stop there. After all, if the ministers have become in-laws, is it possible that they can be broken up again on the spot?

How could there be any reason to act like this?
Besides, Li Shimin also saw clearly: these so-called noble surnames were as obedient as quails during the Zhenguan period, but they really started to cause trouble later.

How did this noble surname become so powerful?
Li Shimin's eyes scanned the text twice, and finally locked on two words:

Prohibition of marriage, imperial examination.

"Everyone in the world proposes to this forbidden family, so they can get rich."

"The heirs of poetry and calligraphy studied the imperial examination system intensively, so how can they become famous?"

Li Shimin made his own guess.

The ministers who had just been reminded quickly shouted 666 to His Majesty:

"Everyone can hit the mark with just one word!"

"Your Majesty is very aware of every detail!"

"Congratulations, Your Majesty, you should learn from this when you look at the overturn of the carriage behind you. This is a blessing for the Tang Dynasty!"

Glancing at Wei Zheng who was scratching his neck, Li Shimin shook his head and let him go.

He had a hunch that Wei Zheng was famous in the history books because he was good at causing trouble for others, right?

While disregarding the emperor's wishes, I proposed to a girl with a big surname, and at the same time, I tried to dissuade me from accepting a "beautiful" girl with a big surname as my concubine. Although the starting point was good...

No, no, Li Shimin shook his head, these are just trivial matters.

"What's the explanation for this disadvantage of redundant officials?" Emperor Tang asked the question.

Wei Zheng immediately came out:

"Redundancy of officials is a serious and chronic disease of the former Han Dynasty. If you want to get rid of this evil, it is better to get rid of it sooner rather than later."

Li Shimin nodded, and then turned his eyes to Fang Du on the other side.

Fang Xuanling came out of the queue to consider:

"It would be too frivolous to say that catching money is selling an official position in later generations, but catching money makes those who get official positions in history inevitably become profit-seeking people."

"Pursuing profit for the people of Tang Dynasty is the blessing of the people, and pursuing profit and enriching selfishness is the silverfish of Tang Dynasty."

"Since Enyin's policy stated that our Tang Dynasty was extremely prosperous, it can be seen that later generations have restrained it. It should be to detect the shortcomings of Enyin in our Tang Dynasty and then correct it. Everyone needs to be aware of it."

It seems troublesome to say, Du Ruhui concluded:
"Cut the money, change the favor, examine the old policy and it is appropriate to change it at the same time."

Then he added: "Everyone should work slowly."

Li Shimin nodded and finally sighed and said:

"In a hundred years of prosperity, the number of countries that can be built can only be reduced to three hundred, so why?"

"Could it be that this is really a long-standing shortcoming of the founding of the Tang Dynasty?"

……

"The Tang Dynasty, the giant of the world, lasted only 280 and two years in one dynasty. It's a pity!"

Before, Liu Bei's mentality was just to watch the fun, but now Liu Bei really feels sorry for the Tang Dynasty.

After all, no matter how you look at it, it is not an exaggeration to say that the Tang Dynasty was the dynasty of brothers of the Han Dynasty.

Martial arts, eunuchs, foreign relatives, etc., now redundant officials have come out, they are brothers, how can it not be sighed?

After sighing, it is an accurate judgment:
"This family's scourge has been plagued by evil for more than a hundred years?"

"The concept of the aristocratic family in the Tang Dynasty is even better than my Han!"

Zhang Fei laughed loudly:

"Brother, after all, our ancestors were all princes, generals and ministers, so they cannot farm and butcher dogs like the head of Guizhou."

"Then we can only shout loudly to sell our daughters to subsidize our family assets?"

Mi Zhu also agreed:

"This is self-promoting in the name of prohibiting marriage, and his behavior is quite similar to that of a businessman, just exchanging fame for money."

"Then what is the highest level of this family?"

Pang Tong said spicyly:
"Gao Zai, a group of pretentious young people with a big surname, actually rely on their sisters and daughters to get rich clothes and food?"

"Absorbing the common people outside, sucking the sisters at home, sucking the king and father in the temple, only enriching your own family?"

"How are their actions different from those of Jiangdong Rats?"

Zhang Fei nodded repeatedly, feeling that he had vividly seen the magical power of knowledge at this moment.

Military Master Pang is very knowledgeable and has a unique flavor when he curses others.

Then I don't know if the military master gets angry, who is stronger or weaker than the later generations who "have never seen such a brazen person"?
Unfortunately, Kong Ming did not satisfy Zhang Fei's curiosity. He took up a pen and wrote down several methods of getting into office in the Tang Dynasty on the paper in front of him, and then thought about it carefully.

The words "catching money" and "chaju" were crossed out one by one. Finally, after careful consideration, Kong Ming drew a circle on the words "military merit".Then Kong Ming raised his head and looked expectant. He was now more and more interested in this imperial examination.

[As we all know, the imperial examinations in the Tang Dynasty were not ambiguous, and the scoring was not standardized at that time. The personal likes and dislikes of the examiners can greatly affect the imperial examination results.

Therefore, the scholars with big surnames who participated in the imperial examination quickly concluded an effective way:

Touzhi, Xingjuan, Wenjuan.

First of all, bring expensive gifts to visit those dignitaries who have more say in the Kyoto circle, and try to get on line with them. This step is called Touzhi.

After knocking on the rich door of Jiadi, there is the second step: compile your previous favorite works, or essays or poetry collections into volumes, and if you are a big surname, you will visit your parents to ask them to polish their pens before handing such a questionnaire to the dignitaries In order to leave a name for appreciation, this step is called writing.

Before the imperial examination, those who successfully completed the exam would come to visit again with their papers to strengthen their relationship and seek recommendations to become famous. This step is called Wen Juan.

In the middle and late Tang Dynasty, if the scholar's family was really powerful, the compiled documents would be submitted to the head of the Ministry of Rites through an intermediary. This step was the highest-end provincial document.

And with these three plus one step, the noble family can easily widen the status gap with the humble family and the white body with almost every step, so it is already foreseeable how the imperial examination will turn out.

Among the 830 imperial examination scholars named in the "Old Book of Tang" and "New Book of Tang", there are 589 people with major surnames, 109 people with minor surnames, and only 132 people from poor families.

Of course, this proportional distribution is not uniform. Let’s compare several of the emperors when they were in power:

Wutang recorded 55 Jinshi, of which 34 were from noble families and 21 were from poor families.

Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty recorded 132 Jinshi, of which 128 were from noble families and 4 were from poor families.

Initially, it seems that this pot needs to be carried by An Lushan, but what happened when Xuanzong was in power?There are 30 recorded Jinshi, 27 of them are from the gentry, and only 3 of them are Hansu.

The most representative one is in the sixth year of Tianbao during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong. At this time, the Anshi Rebellion had not yet broken out. It is recorded in the historical records that Li Longji "wanted to seek scholars from all over the world" and issued an edict to recruit scholars.

Prime Minister Li Linfu said that large-scale opening of examinations will inevitably lead to a mixture of good and bad people, and there may be people with fake eyes, and the influx of humble people into the capital in the name of imperial examinations is not conducive to public security. Only then can I come to Beijing for a retest.

What Li Linfu said was very reasonable, so he gained the right to take charge of the whole process. So the final result of the imperial examination was that "the common people have no place", and they were all included by the gentry.

Therefore, Li Linfu reported good news to Xuanzong: Ye Wuyi is a virtuous man!

So the frontier poets were born. To put it bluntly, they failed in Chang'an and Luoyang, and could not break through the glass ceiling of the gentry's "throwing zhi, running scrolls, and warm scrolls" through the gentry.

Among them, typical representatives include Cen Shen of the Jiedushi shogunate in Anxi, Gao Shi of the Jiedushi shogunate in Hexi, and Wang Changling who moved randomly among the Jiedushi shogunate in the frontier states.

And these are only famous for their poetic talents, and more, such as An Lushan's close confidants Yan Zhuang and Gao Shang, all fled to Chang'an in Guanzhong without being famous.

After defecting to Anlushan, he served as chief secretary and then secretary-general in just three years, and finally "returned home in glory" with the rebel army.

Objectively speaking, the style of writing scrolls created by the children of the gentry did indeed promote the artistic style of society in the Tang Dynasty.

After all, if you want to stand out, your poems and prose must be beautifully written. Therefore, the parallel prose and regulated poems of the Tang Dynasty are also a masterpiece. If they are well written, they will be appreciated by the powerful, and there will be everything in that dynasty.

But at the same time, competition and exaggeration also arose in the society of the Tang Dynasty.

For example, in order to successfully get his head by writing a scroll, Wang Wei went to Princess Yuzhen's house to play the pipa through personal connections. Therefore, he was appreciated and recommended by Princess Yuzhen.

Another person recommended by Princess Yuzhen was Li Bai. Li Bai also gained the attention of Princess Yuzhen with his song "Ci of the Immortal Yuzhen".

Another example is Yu Di, a high-ranking official. It is recorded in old Tang books that he blatantly amassed money, killed wantonly, dominated superiors and subordinates, and was full of misdeeds throughout his life.

However, in order to successfully write the scroll, Han Yu, the literary sage, wrote a gorgeous parallel prose to praise Yu Di.

The ultimate consequence of writing a scroll was the trend of cliques. At that time, the people who wrote the scrolls called the dignitaries who were scrolled as "seat masters". After successfully writing the scrolls, they were called the "disciples" of the powerful.

Another result brought by the Xingjuan was that the nobles gathered in Luoyang, Chang'an, and finally waited for the failed scholar, Huang Chao. 】

"Isn't this just a bribe if you use a clever name?"

Zhang Fei sneered.

Regarding this simple and rude evaluation, Liu Bei and Kong Ming remained silent.

If it could be said earlier that this line of writing was for appreciation, then as soon as the master and disciple came out, everyone understood: Party colleagues fight against dissidents.

Pang Tong came to a conclusion simply and crudely:
"It seems that my name must be concealed in this imperial examination."

"Otherwise, in this imperial examination, the winner has already been decided before the test is even started."

"Then what's the difference between having and not having the imperial examination? Abandoning the examination of talent and looking at one's family background is just an imperial examination with a different name."

Kong Ming thought for a moment, clasped his fingers and said:

"The handwriting, ink type, and paper quality can all distinguish between big surnames and Hansu."

"Consider the best, set up an examination room, supply paper and ink, and paste names on the papers."

"It's more than that." Liu Ba also joined the discussion:

"The officials in charge of the examination need to be separated from the officials who examine the examination papers, so that they don't know each other."

Zhang Song pinched his sparse beard and shook his head:
"People have likes and dislikes, and in our court there are disputes based on the opinions of different schools, let alone written into the examination papers. Talented people in the field will inevitably be missed because of the likes and dislikes of the people who review the examination papers."

Pang Tong said enthusiastically:
"It's quite simple. One exam paper needs to be reviewed multiple times."

"But if this happens..." Pang Tong counted on his fingers:

"The venue, materials, and officials are countless. It's really not easy to run the imperial examination well."

Seeing the end on the light curtain, Zhang Fei also shook his head and sighed:
"Is it better for rebels to get ahead than in Kyoto?"

"I don't know whether to say that the late Tang Dynasty is more like the Wei and Jin Dynasties or copy our big man again."

　A new month full of energy

　　
　
(End of this chapter)