In the Huagai Palace, Zhu Di sat on the head, Lu Zhen, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, Leng Aoyu, the bachelor of Hanlin, Chen Ying, the imperial official of the left capital of the Imperial Procuratorate, and Chen Anzhi of the Guozijian all led the subordinates who were outstanding in their own talents and learning, and there were ten articles on the imperial case, which were the articles of the top ten in the undergraduate program.

Lu Shangshu, Bachelor Leng, Chen Buyuan and his subordinates all gave them seats, and the hall was quiet, even the sound of people rubbing their sleeves between their gestures and their hands, and the sound of paper when they unfolded the test papers, Mu Si and a few little eunuchs sent the test papers to the adults one by one, the first one was Lu Zhen, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, Lu Zhenzai looked at it carefully, tasted it, and then transferred the test paper to the hand of Hanlin Bachelor Leng Aoyu, and then took the second test paper and continued to review. Zhu Di stopped even the morning court today, and gathered these people early in the morning to start reading the scrolls.

The scientific examination is divided into three sessions, each of which is three days, the first test is the three ways of righteousness in the "Four Books" and the four ways of righteousness in the "Five Classics", which tests the candidates' familiarity and understanding of Confucian classics. In the second test, the students were examined to distinguish between right and wrong. Ability to write various official documents administratively. The third session examines the scriptures, history, and strategies, and examines the students' knowledge of ancient and modern political affairs.

The examination is a national selection ceremony, and its importance is to mention the degree of the rise and fall of the country. However, in the actual marking, because of the large number of examples, the mountains and seas of test papers, the time for marking papers is tight, the task is heavy, and the words and sentences must be carefully considered, and there is no room for sloppiness, and God cannot complete all the marking work with quality and quantity, so the routine examiners have formed an unwritten rule: the marking only focuses on the first seven articles and eight strands.

Why only eight strands? Because this is a style with an extremely strict format, it is easier for the examiner to grasp the advantages and disadvantages of its right and wrong, greatly improve the speed of marking, facilitate the evaluation of the suitability of the test papers, so that all the test papers can be reviewed as scheduled, and minimize the subjective factors of the examiner, so as to ensure the seriousness and fairness of the official selection examination.

Therefore, although its rigid procedures and rigid constraints are criticized, it is indeed that candidates can only follow the trend and dare not take half a step beyond leisure. However, it is precisely because it has strict regulations on the beginning, inheritance, transfer, and combination, and even there are strict regulations on the number of words and sentences, which can minimize the subjective factors of the examiner, so as to ensure the rights and interests of the candidates to the greatest extent, so that the truly outstanding ones can obtain fame.

Those who are outstanding in learning, few of them can't even do well in the most important eight-strand articles of this scientific examination, and if you want to say how to produce his knowledge in other aspects, it is really limited. In the era of the official standard, if the examiner's marking standards are too free, there is a lot of room for cheating, so Bagu is a relatively standardized examination in that era, and it is the most objective and fair way to take talents at that time.

However, the degree of its standardization is still limited after all, if it is not for the articles that are too different from each other, who is good and who is bad, the examiners are different, and the appreciation angle is different, it is natural to draw different conclusions, and Lu Zhen is just doing things from this aspect.

When everyone had finished reading the test paper and needed them to make comments, Lu Zhen, Leng Aoyu, and Chen Ying whispered with their subordinates, and then gave in to each other, and finally Lu Zhen made comments first.

Lu Zhen said respectfully: "The emperor has carefully read the papers selected by the first and second places in the first class and the first and second places in the examination papers, and from the four aspects of 'reason, law, speech, and qi, it is indeed a masterpiece. The three articles are very good for mastering the scriptures and understanding Cheng Zhu's annotations, and the interpretation of the structure of the texts, the students' writing ability, and the literary heart. But ・・・・・・"

Zhu Di opened his eyes and asked, "But what?" ”

Lu Zhen said: "However, the article of You Tingguang, the seventh place in the minister's view, is halal and elegant, full of emotion, vivid writing, and stable work. Although it is not as gorgeous as the first, second, and third candidates in the University Bachelor's Degree, it has to be passed on by the decree, and the literature and science are sufficient, which makes the minister very appreciative. If the minister is the main exam, this person should be the first.

In addition, the ninth place is Chang Hui, whose text... ・・・”

Lu Zhen said tactfully, but in the end, he rejected all the first and second places taken by Xie Jin, ranking You Tingguang as the champion and Chang Hui as the leader, and only the third place Tan Huā did not move. Zhu Di frowned, and said in a deep voice: "In other words, it's not fair to take the scholar?" ”

Lu Zhen is such a slippery and old person, how can he directly come out to fight with Xie Jin, and said busily: "This, the minister dare not decide." It is normal for the examiner to have different likes and dislikes, and to have some emphasis on the marking. ”

Zhu Di snorted, and his eyes turned to Hanlin Bachelor Leng Aoyu, this Leng scholar had been humiliated in public when Xie Jin's poem was written against him, he was a noble loose official, and Xie Jin rarely fought Jiāo, but he was not afraid of Xie Jin's power, and he was talking endlessly at the moment, and criticized the articles selected by Xie Jin. He doesn't say whose article is good, only that Xie Jinxuan's article is not good, and that as long as you want to find máo disease, you can find it.

Zhu Di's face turned a little dark, and then asked Chen Ying for his opinion, but Chen Ying did not directly attack Xie Jin, but instead said good things for Xie Jin, any marking and evaluation are the same examiner, and the chief examiner is just the last to check the screened articles, + decide a ranking; When the time is tight and the amount of marking is large, it is inevitable that there will be negligence; In the end, he only pointed out two small mistakes with a little regret, such as the lack of grace in the handwriting of the champion scroll selected by Xie Jin, and a small ink blot on the scroll with his eyes, which made Zhu Di's heart even more blocked.

The last turn to be Chen Anzhi of the Guozijian, Old Master Chen is more idle than the Leng scholar of Hanlin Academy, and he is not afraid of how Xie Jin will retaliate against him if he does not fall, so he rolled up his arms and sleeves and went into battle shirtless, and said eloquently: "The title of this article that was taken as the champion by Xie Bachelor is vague, the question is low, and the question is depressed. On the other hand, the article taken at the end of the top ten lists by Tingting yù Lichang of Zhejiang Juzi Dongfang Mingyuan is very clever than the article taken by Bachelor Xie.

Your Majesty, please see, this article is divided into eight strands, like a chain of chains, and the bones are intertwined. There is no need to transfer in a single sentence, and the bureau is the most old. After the middle strand is picked up, there is a wonder of breaking the thread. Each strand is swaying. The real meaning is interpreted in the stock, and the words are clear and detailed. At first glance, it looks unremarkable, but the careful thinking of the case is amazing. The way to jīng, the road to the road is extremely clear, and you can speak on behalf of the sages! On the other hand, the article taken by the scholar Xie ......"

Chen Anzhi pursed his mouth and said disdainfully: "Your Majesty, please take a look, the minister only took a cursory look at this strategy of the top talent selected by the bachelor, and found two typos in the text, and one of the sentences did not make sense, and if you look at it carefully, you have never read it!" Whether Bachelor Xie follows sī, the minister does not dare to assert, but Bachelor Xie is a sloppy and sloppy candidate for the imperial court, which can be seen! ”

As I said earlier, at that time, because of the large number of exams, the large number of test papers, and the time to unveil the results was urgent, there was no time to read all the papers of the candidates, so the examiner only weighed eight shares, but according to the rules, all the articles should be carefully reviewed and reviewed. Others act according to the unspoken rules, and it naturally doesn't hurt if something doesn't happen, but if Xie Jin commits something at the moment, then he will be sick with a máo disease.

There were no punctuation marks in ancient China, but in order to pause, break sentences, and facilitate understanding and reading, readers gradually invented symbols similar to modern broken marks and full stops.

Now that Chen Anzhi has brought it up, it is an undeniable question, and whether Xie Jin is doing his best for the imperial court has naturally become a big problem.

Zhu Di said with a cold face: "Today, I only asked Zhongqing to read the top ten volumes, and he came to this kind of conclusion, among the people who ranked last or even fell off the list, there is no virtuous and talented?" It takes decades for students to study hard from a small méng child, and to be eliminated layer by layer, and it will take decades for those who can be admitted to the Jinshi examination. For decades, a doll with nǎi sound nǎi qi can only learn and succeed in the near future, or even longer, how can the imperial court not cherish it? ”

He slapped the royal case and said in a deep voice: "Convey the decree, the undergraduate list is invalid!" All the test papers will be re-evaluated by the Ministry of Rites in conjunction with the Hanlin Academy and the Guozijian, and then announced by the Zhang Bang! ”

All the ministers in the palace stood up one after another, bowed down together and said, "The ministers are ordered!" ”

Nei shì Mu Si whisked the dust, slowly walked out of the Huagai Palace, glanced left and right, beckoned a little eunuch, and commanded in a low voice: "Go to the East Factory quickly, tell the godfather, Xie University Scholar, ...... Finished! ”

The emperor overturned the original list and ordered the test papers to be re-examined, which naturally proved that Xie Jin's taking of scholars was unfair, and since it was unfair to take scholars, he would naturally be severely punished, such a simple truth, why didn't Mu Si understand?

In the Wenyuan Pavilion, Xie Jin was uneasy, in the Huagai Palace, the emperor was convening the officials of the Ministry of Rites, the Hanlin Academy, the Metropolitan Procuratorate and the Guozijian to discuss the matter, there was no need to ask, the matter discussed must also be related to the accusations of the princes, Xie Jin had the heart to inquire about the movement over there, but at the moment he really should not make a move.

His in-law Hu Guang originally plucked him to compete for the examiner, but now he stabbed the big basket, Hu Guang felt ashamed, he didn't even meet him, and several other cabinet scholars also looked weird when they saw him, a little bit of a feeling of avoiding the plague, nòng didn't dare to go to the corridor for a walk, for fear of bumping into colleagues, everyone was uncomfortable.

He regretted it, he really regretted it, and he thought about why he didn't listen to the admonition of the auxiliary prince in the first place, and he was so heartless that he went to fight for the main exam! Seeing that this "Yongle Canon" is about to be compiled, are you afraid that you will not be able to regain your holy favor with this great achievement? Now that a group of villains have fallen into the well, how should this ・・・・・・ be good? ”

The more Xie Jin thought about it, the more anxious he became, and at this moment, a little eunuch walked in with a stack of concerto, and Xie Luo hurriedly swept his eyes, and it was actually the recital that the emperor transferred to the East Palace for approval. The East Palace and his Jiāo Succession Chapter have always been in charge of Yang Shiqi, the left of the East Palace, but now why has he changed to a little eunuch?

Xie Jin asked in surprise, and the little eunuch said: "The prince asked the slave and maid to send the chapter over, and the slave and maid just obeyed the order, and the slave and maid didn't know what the pavilion elder asked." ”

Xie Jin's heart sank suddenly.