Chapter 427: Tang Xianzu’s Examination:
The first imperial examination in the Southeast was opened to obtain scholars. Scholars from all provinces gathered in Nanjing to participate in the imperial examination.
All the inns in Nanjing were full, and scholars who came late had to stay in temples and Taoist temples, or they had to rent private houses.
In fact, a large number of scholars gathered in Nanjing last year, but this time the scale was even larger.
According to Southeast's policy last year, any scholar with a good reputation who passes the entrance test of the Imperial College can become a graduate student.
After completing studies at the Imperial College and completing the required credits, the direction of employment allocation will be determined based on grade points and professional achievements.
Although in Su Ze's opinion, this selection system and training system are more scientific, they still cannot overcome the huge inertia of history and times.
A large number of scholars still refuse to go to prison. Taking the imperial examination is the right way. This is a deep-rooted idea in the minds of scholars in this era. Entering prison and conferring officials are all "evil paths" that are not popular.
Su Ze couldn't understand what most people thought, and there was indeed a shortage of officials in the southeast, so he could only continue to open courses to obtain scholars.
But this time, Su Ze still had his own persistence in the imperial examination.
The first is the content of the imperial examination. Although Su Ze dislikes the eight-legged essay very much, he still has to admit that most scholars have been studying the eight-part essay all their lives. If the content of the imperial examination is rashly changed, it will cause huge confusion.
Moreover, the unified examination scope is the greatest fairness to the entire scholar group.
The format of the answer is still the eight-legged essay, but the syllabus of the exam has been changed to the new study in the "New Commentary on the Three Classics".
Regarding this point, from the day Su Ze established the Governor's Office and published "New Commentary on the Three Classics", scholars throughout the southeast had been mentally prepared. Local official schools and private academies had long begun to teach "New Commentary on the Three Classics" 》Yes, this is also a reasonable thing, and it did not cause too much trouble.
But unlike the Ming Dynasty, where one could achieve success in one step by passing the imperial examination, the imperial examination in the southeast only gave one a ticket to officialdom.
The number of people admitted to the imperial examination this time is 400, with the first 100 being Category A and the last 300 being Category B.
Category A can directly enter the departments of the Seventh Ministry, Five Temples and Two Supervisors, but they are not directly awarded specific official positions, but are awarded "trainee" positions.
Trainees enjoy the treatment of ninth-grade officials and receive a salary. The trainee period is one year. After one year, they have to take internal examinations in each department, which is called "selection".
According to the new regulations of the Southeast Cabinet, officials of the Seven Ministries, Five Temples and Two Supervisors are selected from the following three categories of people and take a "selection" examination. Those who pass the selection examination can become official officials of the Seven Ministries, Five Temples and Two Supervisors.
The first category is the officials who originally worked in these departments. Those who have worked for three years and have been excellent in the three-year evaluation can be recommended to take the selection examination.
The second category is the graduates trained by the Imperial College. After completing their studies at the Imperial College, they can be awarded positions in prefectures and counties. However, if they want to enter the Seven Ministries, Five Temples and Two Prisons, they need to participate in the directed training.
For example, supervisory students who want to work in the Ministry of Household Affairs need to participate in prescribed training on arithmetic content such as finance and taxation. Only after completing the prescribed training can they take the "selective" examination of the Ministry of Household Affairs.
The third category is Category A Jinshi. After completing one year of "traineeship", Category A Jinshi can directly take the "selection" examination.
That is to say, in theory, if you are a Jinshi, a prisoner, or an official, you must pass the "selection" exam if you want to enter the seven departments, five temples, and two prisons. As long as you pass the "selection" exam, you will be on the same starting line.
The advantage of Category A Jinshi compared to the first two is that if you fail the selection examination in the trainee department, you can choose to continue to train in the department for one year, or choose another department to train again.
Officials and supervisors with targeted training can only apply for the "selective transfer" examination of their department.
The content of the "selective" examination is naturally not eight-part essay.
They are mainly based on the practical work of relevant departments, plus questions on policy theory and political theory. Because the target group of the selection examination is no longer all scholars, but current or future officials, it must be close to work practice.
However, although the selection examinations are conducted separately for each department, all questions are uniformly set and corrected by the examination bureau under the leadership of the Minister of Education, which eliminates the possibility of internal fraud and private appointment of official positions within each department.
The last three hundred Category B Jinshi also had to compete with the Imperial College students and local officials for local positions.
Local positions are based on provinces, and the official system in the southeast will not directly grant important positions such as county magistrates to new scholars. They often start from grassroots officials such as academic administrators and county captains.
For such an imperial examination, Southeast scholars can say that they have mixed feelings.
Compared with the Ming Dynasty's rise to the sky in one step, the so-called "becoming a farmhouse minister in the morning and ascending to the emperor's hall in the evening" will never happen again.
Even the top 100 Category A Jinshi still need to complete the probationary period and pass the selection examination before they can become official officials of the Seven Ministries, Five Temples and Two Supervisors. There is also a long road to promotion before they can do this. Senior officials in the administrative system.
Moreover, Southeast has clearly canceled the tax exemption and exemption privileges for Jinshi, Juren, and scholars, including current officials.
But the good news is that now that the official system has been established throughout the southeast, there is a shortage of officials and people everywhere. Su Ze has expanded the establishment of officials at all levels and increased the number of people admitted to Jinshi.
If you fail to pass the Jinshi exam, you can still take the Imperial College exam. After completing the Imperial College exam, you can also enter the bureaucracy, but you will need to waste more time studying.
If it doesn't work out, you can still become a clerk. There are also ways to advance from clerk to official.
This is different from the previous Ming Dynasty where there was only one way to take the imperial examination, and everyone took the imperial examination. As long as they were willing to study and work, they would have a better chance of getting ahead.
Because there was still a selection examination later, the palace examination was canceled for the Jinshi examination, and there was only one tribute examination, which was held in Nanjing Gongyuan.
Those who fail to pass the tribute examination can still take the Imperial College Entrance Examination in May, or apply for the civil service examination organized by each province in July.
Now the scholars gathered in the capital are preparing to stay in Nanjing to prepare for the exam and seize this opportunity.
The reason why the imperial examination was so high this time was because Su Ze also reformed the township examination and county examination systems.
The privilege of tax exemption and exemption from military service was cancelled, and those who were admitted as scholars could directly become officials, so Su Ze simply greatly increased the number of people who passed the provincial examination.
But as before, only the top 50 in the county examination can enter the county school. These county students will study for three years. County students studying in the county school can receive subsidies for Lumi and stationery, and can work safely. Study, and you will be issued a certificate of completion after completing your studies.
County students and other talented people could take part in the rural examinations, and the number of candidates who passed the examinations was greatly increased. The best candidates could also enter government schools for full-time study.
All scholars understand that once the reform of the county and township examinations begins, scholars and candidates will soon be worthless. If you fail to pass the Jinshi or Supervisor exams this year, there will be more candidates to take the test together next year.
According to Su Ze's design, in the future, county schools will be equivalent to junior high school diplomas, government schools will be equivalent to high school diplomas, and Imperial College will be equivalent to university diplomas. The Ministry of Rites is also gradually increasing the number of county schools and the number of students in prefectural schools.
In fact, with the emergence of a large number of workshops, not only the government, but also workshops and commercial firms needed a large number of talents who could write and calculate.
Those who can read and write can also choose to join the Southeast New Army. The Southeast New Army also has a fairly complete promotion system, and the status of soldiers in the Southeast is also very high.
However, the deep-rooted ideas in this land make the best scholars prefer to enter the official career. This has not changed even in the era before Su Ze traveled through time.
All Su Ze can do is to provide more choices for the literate population. After all, having choices is better than having no choices. Let those scholars who cannot pass the imperial examinations also have a decent job, and Southeast can gather more people's hearts. .
On April 6, the Nanjing Gongyuan finally opened its gates, and Tang Xianzu, a fifteen-year-old from Linchuan, Jiangxi Province, lined up to enter the Gongyuan.
Tang Xianzu was born in a scholarly family in Linchuan, Jiangxi Province. He was admitted as a scholar at the age of fourteen, and passed the exam the next year. Then the southeastern army entered Jiangxi.
Halfway through the imperial examination, the sky above his head changed. However, Tang Xianzu came into contact with Su Ze's articles very early. He was very obsessed with "The Peony Pavilion" and "Nan Ke Meng" written by Su Ze. Later, he also studied "The Peony Pavilion" and "Nan Ke Meng" seriously. "New Notes on the Three Classics", I heard the news that Nanjing was going to open a subject to obtain scholars, so I rushed to Nanjing to participate in this tribute examination after the New Year.
The fifteen-year-old Juren attracted much attention from both the Ming court and the Southeast. When Minister of Education Shen Shixing saw the young Tang Xianzu, he nodded slightly and smiled encouragingly.
Although Tang Xianzu did not know Shen Shixing, the person wearing a vermilion official robe and surrounded by many officials must be a senior official from the southeast. Tang Xianzu also smiled gratefully.
Although efforts have been made to improve the conditions of Gongyuan, so many people are crowded together to take exams, and the environment is not much better no matter how hard it is.
However, the examination booth of Nanjing Gongyuan is still equipped with whale oil lamps, matches, and insulated iron buckets to provide hot water. At least, there is no need to hold candles and eat cold food to take the exam.
Tang Xianzu spread out the examination paper with fragrant ink, and sure enough, the questions related to the meaning of the classics were all from "The New Meaning of the Three Classics".
Tang Xianzu became more confident. The questions in the exam paper this time were all the same as those in Southeast's newly published books, with sentence reading added to separate the sentences, which greatly accelerated the reading speed.
Moreover, this imperial examination in Southeast China no longer needs to memorize Ming Dynasty’s thick list of taboos, and people will no longer be dismissed for accidentally writing taboo words. This also reduces the burden on candidates and marking officers.
Tang Xianzu confidently finished answering the questions on the classics and meanings, and came to the last question on policy.
This question surprised Tang Xianzu because the question was different from previous strategies.
Tang Xianzu remembered the rumors before the tribute examination. He heard that the last question of the tribute examination was asked by Su Ze himself. Now it seems that this question may have been asked by the Governor himself.
The stem of this question is very long, and it discusses the Annan issue.
Different from the simple questions on policy theory, this question has a very long question, which lists multiple pieces of historical materials.
From the establishment of Jiaozhou in Annan during the Qin and Han Dynasties, to the Second Expedition Rebellion, to General Fubo Ma Yuan entering Jiaozhou to quell the rebellion.
At the end of the Han Dynasty, Shi Xie separatized Jiaozhou, including a large number of historical materials about Annan in the future.
Until Zhu Di, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, conquered Annan, established counties and then withdrew, it contained not only records in historical books, but also actual records of the Ming Dynasty and excerpts of memorials discussed by ministers at the time, printed on several densely packed sheets of paper.
It wasn't until he lit up the whale oil lamp that Tang Xianzu finished reading all the materials. He rubbed his sour eyes. It was indeed a topic set by the Governor himself. These materials focused on the Annan issue from multiple perspectives. Just reading it made him feel happy. It benefits a lot.
After Tang Xianzu read the long questions, he thought quickly and quickly understood the purpose of Su Ze's new question type.
The biggest unfairness of previous policies was that it was almost impossible for poor students to read and study history books outside the scope of the Four Books and Five Classics.
The price of books is high, and more importantly, a lot of knowledge is not published on a large scale and is only circulated within some large families.
Moreover, it is impossible for children from poor families to study independently like children from big families. They often start learning later than children from big families. It is a helpless choice for everyone to study the Four Books and Five Classics together.
This new type of question gives the children of a big family and the children of poor families a relatively fair chance to compete.
Because the historical materials required for this question have been printed on the paper, what is tested is not the candidate's knowledge accumulation, but the ability to analyze existing materials.
The history, current situation, geography, economy, and climate of Annan, the management of Annan by past dynasties, and the various considerations that led to the establishment and abandonment of Annan during the Chengzu period of the Ming Dynasty are all fairly provided to the candidates.
Everyone only needs to write a strategy to support their own arguments based on these materials.
How wonderful!
Tang Xianzu admired Su Ze even more. He was able to come up with such a wonderful way to select talents. The governor was really a genius!
Putting aside his admiration for Su Ze, Tang Xianzu began to write his own article.
As a fifteen-year-old young man, he naturally longed to open up new territories. Tang Xianzu picked up his pen and wrote on the paper:
"Since ancient times, Annan has been my homeland of China."
Tang Xianzu understood that this question was not for him to list information. He also wrote:
"The Ming Dynasty withdrew from Annan in the Yongle year. It was probably because the governance of Annan cost too much and the income was low. The soldiers were always stationed in Annan and wanted to return home. The people of Annan did not care about China. Rebellions continued and military expenditures were eroded." "If we do not repeat the Ming Dynasty
, If the imperial court makes mistakes, Annan must be allowed to colonize and prosper, so that Annan will not become a burden to our southeast, but a benefit to the southeast." "When the people of Annan are getting richer, their thoughts of rebellion will
fade away. If Annan wants to be rich, the Central Plains will not dare to return. There are proposals to abandon Annan."
Tang Xianzu also proposed to use the Cochin sugar industry as a basis to develop Annan into a granary and sugar warehouse in the southeast based on Annan's products.
After finishing writing eloquently, Tang Xianzu checked that everything was correct, copied the test paper and walked out of Gongyuan.
He is full of confidence that he will definitely get a high ranking this time, and he is just waiting for the day when the results will be released.
After the candidates left the venue, Shen Shixing led the marking officers to begin the intense marking work.
When a marking officer saw Tang Xianzu's paper, his eyes lit up, and he quickly circled it and handed it to another colleague, which meant that he recommended this paper to win the first place.
When the marking officer saw the next paper, he was so impressed that he read it three times and still felt that the article was extremely sophisticated. However, there were some contents in this paper that he could not understand.
This time, he did not hand it over to his colleagues, but took the paper directly to the examiner Shen Shixing.
(End of chapter)