Section 20 Interesting stories in the imperial examination (3) ()

After the exam, the examiners should be busy. The previous article about the details of the marking in the examination room was already mentioned, so I will not repeat it here. On the night of the eighth day of the fourth month, the fourth president and the eighteenth room officer stood up in the middle of the night, just as the outer dragon gate was circulating the drum and shouting the door, and the ministers had arrived and were about to open the list.

When opening the list, the inner dragon gate is opened. Inside the door is the Jukui Hall where the four presidents hold a craftsman ruler to measure the world's elites. The curtain officials in the inner and outer face bowed each other and sat in four sides among the red candles in the hall. In the middle and south, Zhuo Bingtian was in the middle, Jia Zhen, Hua Shana, and Sun Baoyuan sat on the left and right. On the left are the ministers of the charter; on the right are the ministers of the Zongli Pavilion. On the opposite face north are the censors and the censors and the tunes. On the east and west, the examiners of the 18th room sat on each other. In this way, they surrounded a large case of writing the charter, and only then were summoned and carried the box to the hall.

The ranking was set the day before, and it was called the Grass List. Among the 7,469 Juren who took the imperial examination, the 272 were selected according to the order. The scrolls were divided into red and ink, and except for Wukui, each ten volumes of one bunch had been arranged neatly. Open the box, and the clerk presented the first bunch of Wukui's papers, and the examiner Zhuo Bingtian kept it at hand. When the second bunch was delivered, he moved the ink scroll to Jia Zhen, who was on the left: "Go on!"

So the clerk opened the Mi Feng and sang loudly: "The sixth place is Jiang Jizhu!"

Zhuo Bingtian and Jia Zhen followed the rules of many years, one marked the sixth place on the red scroll; the other wrote a big name on the ink scroll. The other clerk compared the list and wrote a note on the sixth place Jiang Jizhu, and passed it to the big table of writing the list, filling in the name below the ranking. Someone took the note and stuffed it out from the crack of the inner dragon door, asking the person who reported the good news to grab the first report and invite a generous reward.

As usual, the list is written from the sixth place to the last place, roughly from dawn to dusk, and it comes to an end; the examiner and the deacon have a meal and rest, and at the hour of Xu and Hai, the five titles, that is, the top five, will be dismantled.

This day was set at Xu Zheng, that is, at 10 o'clock in the evening, and the rankings of the top five were announced. Just after nine o'clock, there were people gathering in front of Jukui Hall. Deacons, servants, and listeners from inside and outside the curtain officials, and so on. Each of them had a red candle, and even two or three branches, which would light them together. At that time, there would be a crimson flame in the hall, which was as bright as clouds. There was a name called "Not to Wukui". The "Not to Wukui" was revealed, and the red candle was blown out and taken out to give it to others. It was a good gift - according to legend, the candles lit by Wukui can be procreated; it was also said that after children's enlightenment, the "Not to Wukui" would light this wax on the first night is of good use.

The title of Wukui was broken up from the fifth place. The clerk chants the title, and the fifth place was Zheng Xuncheng, a juren from Zhejiang. Zhuo Bingtian immediately marked the ranking on the red scroll, and casually uncovered the floating mark with a clear character written on the corner of the scroll. The fourth president read the papers presented in each room again and marked them with the four words "Only and Openly".

If the vice president likes it, he will pick up the words; then send the letter to the president to approve it, and then the final decision will be made. As for the five Kui, in addition to Huiyuan (first place), the second to fifth, according to the sequence of the chief and vice president, that is, according to the four characters Zhengda Guangming, each occupy one. The fourth is Xu Qiguang from Jiangxi, and the third is Xie Zeng. Zhuo Bingtian took off the floating sign of the big characters and smiled at Jia Zhen, who was sitting on his left and the nickname Yuntang, and said: "Tang Weng, congratulations, congratulations! Xie Mengyu, the three masters of Wu. I really admire him!"

"The award was awarded in the middle hall." Jia Zhen smiled: "The first two arts in this life are mediocre, and the atmosphere is very insightful. It seems that they are a talent for the world and the world."

"Authentic, it's true! Xie Meng ranked fourth in the fishing township list; third in the imperial examination; if he wins the second place, it's a good story!

"Then it depends on who are the officials of the palace examination? If there are many good things, it will become a good story as the Zhongtang said."

Speaking of this, the clerks are singing the title again. The second place is Wu Kedu from Gansu, and Huiyuan is Sun Yiyan from Zhejiang. There are 267 people on the first list, called tribute scholars. After the palace examination, the gold list is high, and he is considered to be a Jinshi.

On April 20th, the Ministry of Rites will list the first and second-rank officials who were from Jinshi in the court and request to send a reading officer to circle the reading officer - commonly known as the reading minister. The palace examination was taken by the emperor himself, so the minister who actually reviewed the paper can only be called the reading officer.

The eight members of the reading officers were customized. The emperor took the list and took a look. He picked up a red pen to circle the co-organizer Qi Junzao, the Minister of Personnel Jia Zhen, the Minister of Rites Sun Ruizhen, the Minister of War Bai Qi, the Minister of Works Du Shoutian, the Minister of Justice Zhou Zupei, the Right Minister of Works Linggui, and the Bachelor of the Cabinet Che Keshen was the official of the palace examination paper reading.

Then there are the test questions for the palace examination. Because it was the emperor Linxuan's clerk, he would not write those eight-part articles, but a single-part strategy discussion question. The questions were selected by the ministers and converted into four-character titles. There were eight in total, written in regular script of the big white memorial and submitted immediately to the internal memorial office for presentation. In just one cup of tea, an eunuch passed the eunuch: "The eight people of Xuan met in the East Warehouse Pavilion of the Qianqing Palace."

Eight people led by Qi Junzao arrived at the Dongnuan Pavilion. The area here is much smaller than that of the Yangxin Hall, and the layout is east-west. On the soft kang-style throne, there are yellow silk satin cushions. The emperor was very leisurely and comfortable to lean on the cushion. Until a few people kneeled down to greet the court, they sat up and down slightly: "I have seen the drafted topic: the way to appoint virtuous people to remove evil; the principles of learning and reading ancient things; the principles of establishing politics and being good at the people; the principles of being good at the roots and being good at customs; of course, they are all the appropriate meanings in the topic. I just want to explain and discuss the major issues of current affairs, but these four questions cannot be perfect. Therefore, I want to give another question, but I don't know if there is such a precedent?"

Qi Junzao immediately kowtowed: "There is a precedent to reply to the emperor's words. During the reign of Emperor Gaozong, military troops in the northwest were still frequent. Emperor Gaozong once made arbitrary decision on the test questions in the palace. He gave another question."

"That's good." The emperor stood up under the service of the eunuch, walked to the desk of the side and picked up the imperial pen and wrote a line of words, and handed it over to the eunuch, and handed it over to Qi Junzao. The latter went on to look at it, and the above passage was: "I have given birth to Hongzuo, Yin Shaopi Ji, He Qionghao's blessings, and the Yishuo of My ancestors, and I have been struggling to govern, and I have been busy every day. I have always thought that since the ancestors of the Qing Dynasty, disasters have been frequent, and invaded all directions have been endless. On the day of his life, this is often regarded as the first priority of heartache. I think: My Qing Dynasty established a country with benevolence, to support the country's security, and to maintain the people's livelihood. However, there are barbarians and foreign countries who are lightly invading the seas, which is truly a proof of not being educated and not reading poetry."

"... It is easy to say that if you are poor, you will change. If you change, you will be open. If you are open, you will be open for a long time. Now you will be unprepared for the law. If you are lazy and engage in activities, you will be vulnerable and not recommended. If you are accumulating, it will be difficult to reverse. If you have major issues in Yancai River, how can you make a perfect plan? To achieve national economy and people's livelihood, both benefits. The simple customs of the people depend on politics and religion."

"... Most scholars from all over the world come from the people, and they have seen and heard intimately. They recommend them in the past and verify them in the present. They will teach me carefully. Do not spread or hide, and I will personally read it."

These words made Qi Junzao feel embarrassed. One of the main problems was that there was no limited content, which seemed to include the British offensives and the ills of salt and grain. If you hand over such a plan, the fate of the scholars would really be handed over to God!

Because it was a personal title by the imperial pen, it was naturally not to be ignored. So I first sealed it with yellow paper. The sealed seal was stamped with the imperial seal, which was the four words "Haihan Chunyu" in Zhuwen. Qi Junzao personally held it and led the same official to go out of the Ganqing Palace to the cabinet lobby. The censor sent by the Censorate of the Censorate had already arrived. After seeing each other, Qi Junzao sat down in the middle and said first: "There have been questions in history, and they have been written and engraved in the cabinet. In order to prevent leakage, they must be closely monitored. Even if this is the case, they are still not allowed to be careful. We must be careful in the rituals of talent. I want to change the charter this year, so we should work harder for ourselves. How about it?"

This means that when writing a question, there is no need to pretend to be a secretary of the cabinet, and the minister who reads the document himself. Jia Zhen, who was sitting below him, should speak on behalf of the same official in order, but such a thing is inconvenient and difficult, so he looked around for a week and asked in a solicitation tone: "Who volunteers?"

This is of course the last-place cabinet bachelor Che Keshen had to do anything. He bowed and replied, "I'm afraid my handwriting is too ugly and it's hard to get to the eyes of the Fang family."
Chapter completed!