(Thanks to the information provided by the study committee, the Ming Dynasty Township Examination and the General Examination do not have admission tickets, but take the prepared standard answer sheet and go to the Yamen to fill in the candidates' information and stamp it.) The previous errors have been corrected in their entirety. ）

A few days before the examination, the scholars had already gone to Honglu Temple to register with the road guide and official documents.

Then, I brought the test papers I had prepared and went to the Ministry of Rites to stamp, which is the so-called "printing paper". Wang Yuan and Jin Wei are good for new imperial examination personnel, but those who have been promoted in the previous examination still need to bring their township examination articles with them. Fill in the detailed information on the test paper so that the Ministry of Etiquette can arrange the examination room and seat number.

The process of the examination is similar to that of the township examination, which is also a black light and blind fire to enter, and the candidates also nail their own tarpaulins to prevent rain.

Historically, this situation was not changed until Zhang Juzheng was the first assistant.

Because there was a fire in the Gongyuan during the Tianshun period, the superintendent of the imperial history was a dead brain, and he did not dare to open the door lock of the Gongyuan without authorization, and burned to death more than 90 candidates for the examination, and countless people were injured. Zhang Juzheng learned the lessons of the past and thought that the conditions of the examination shed were too difficult, so he demolished the wooden examination grid of the Gongyuan in the capital and changed it into an examination house with brick walls and tile roofs.

From then on, candidates for the examination finally did not have to nail their own tarpaulins.

This year's competition was not as fierce as expected, and the number of examinees was more than 3,500, which was 300 fewer than the general exam three years ago.

Of course, it mainly depends on how many admissions are made.

No one can say for sure, the number of jinshi is often changed, and 350 jinshi were admitted last year.

In the middle of the night, three watches.

The spring was cold, and the scholars were waiting outside the tribute courtyard, and many people were shivering with cold. I don't know if it's really cold, or because I'm too nervous.

At this time, there were 9,000 seats in Gongyuan, and I looked at the seat map two days in advance to prevent I from finding a place when I was taking the exam.

Wang Yuan and Jin Wei were not far apart, and there were only more than 60 numbers in between.

This is not a coincidence, it is related to the scriptures they treated, one governed the "Book of Rites" and the other governed the "Spring and Autumn Period". And the scholars who govern "Spring and Autumn" and "The Book of Rites" are often arranged in the same room when they take the exam in the capital.

According to the rules of the early Ming Dynasty, the ratio of "Book of Changes", "Spring and Autumn", "Book of Rites", "Book of Rites" and "Book of Songs" with the examiner is 1:1:1:2:2.

This was based on the number of candidates in each period before the Orthodox Dynasty, but by the time of the Orthodox Dynasty, it had changed dramatically.

Take the Jinshi in the fifteenth year of Hongzhi as an example, there are 21 people in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Book of Rites, 76 people in the Book of Changes, 70 people in the Book of Songs, and 112 people in the Book of Songs.

See if there is an anomaly?

There are too few Jinshi in the "Spring and Autumn" and "Book of Rites", which is not an isolated phenomenon, every year!

The reason is very simple, the scriptures and meanings of "Spring and Autumn" and "Book of Rites" are too mixed, and it is easy to be confused during the exam. Although "Shangshu" is recognized as the most difficult to learn, as long as you learn it, the exam is actually very good. And "Spring and Autumn" is difficult to learn and difficult to test, and "The Book of Rites" is easy to learn and difficult to test.

In the long run, there are fewer and fewer scholars who rule these two scriptures. And there are so many people who govern the "Book of Songs" that they explode, because the "Book of Songs" is easy to learn, and it is easier to take the exam.

How did Wang Yuan know this, he was purely taken into the pit by Wang Yangming and Shen Fuxuan.

But who made Wang Yangming and Shen Fuxuan from Yuyao, where many families have governed the "Book of Rites" for generations. If divided by region, Yuyao's "Book of Rites" is the first in the world!

By the Zhengde period, although the proportion of housing officials had not changed, the actual operation had changed.

Take this examination as an example, there are a total of seventeen house officials, two of whom are responsible for the "Spring and Autumn Period" and the "Book of Rites", and the remaining fifteen are responsible for the "Book of Changes", "Book of Songs" and "Book of Songs".

These two people, one is Wang Yangming and the other is Wen Renhe, and they jointly corrected the volumes of "Spring and Autumn" and "Book of Rites".

Wang Yuan's test paper will be 100% seen by Wang Yangming, because the two room officials must repeat the paper and give comments on each of them.

Tapping and nailing the oilcloth, Wang Yuan took a nap for a while, and was woken up in a daze.

Could it be that after the title, Wang Yuan directly looked at the title of "The Book of Rites", because "the first art of imperial weightlifting". This phrase was understood in the Qing Dynasty as "the first scene", which included the Four Books and the Five Classics, while in the Ming Dynasty, it specifically referred to the first scene of the Five Classics.

As long as the Five Classics questions are answered well, and the Four Books questions are slightly worse, it is also very likely to be among the best.

In addition, the imperial examination in the Ming Dynasty did not require you to do eight-strand essays, and you can write them yourself. However, the Bagu essay is a style summarized by scholars in the past dynasties, as long as the composition is in accordance with this format, the article can be written in the shortest time, in the most concise text, and it is the most convenient for the examiner to quickly review.

The answer sheet of the "Spring and Autumn" of the Ming Dynasty Jinshi occasionally appeared in non-eight-strand texts.

This is because the "Spring and Autumn Period" is sometimes too difficult to come up with, and the meaning of the scriptures is very complex, and it is not easy to summarize it into one sentence to solve the problem. In this case, the scholar who governed the "Spring and Autumn Period" chose not to write Bagu, but to write in the form of "theory" - the risk was very high, and when he encountered an irresponsible grader, the answer sheet was directly judged to be a failure.

The first "Book of Rites" is entitled: "Judging music is to know the government, and governing the way is prepared." ”

In connection with the previous text, it can be translated as follows: "If you examine the sound, you can understand the sound; Reviewing the tone, you can understand the music; If you are happy to censor, you can understand politics, and the method of governing the world will be complete. ”

Of course, it can't be literal, there is another meaning here.

It is often related to the code of ethics, the music has five tones, and the palace and the merchant horn are the feathers, which represent the things of the monarch and the subjects.

Reviewing music is to observe the situation of the society in the world, so as to find out the various problems in governance. A certain sound is wrong, which means that there is a problem with a certain class, such as a weak palace sound and a chaotic business sound, which means that the relationship between the monarch and the minister is unstable, and there is a faint image of war.

The music of the prosperous era is harmonious and harmonious; The music of troubled times, resentment and perverseness; The music of the dead country, the sorrow of hardship.

Etiquette and music have the function of education, as long as the etiquette can be made to be festive and musical, the normal operation of the country's society can be achieved.

This question is not about music, but about the rule of the world.

The title is another sentence in the "Book of Rites": "Only a gentleman can know and be happy." ”

Only gentlemen, that is, scholars, scholars, can understand the connotation of music, and can examine and correct political gains and losses by listening to the pleasures of the world.

If you want to understand this, it will be very easy to solve the problem, Wang Yuan wrote: "The gentleman looks at the deep meaning of music, and the reason for governing it is reasonable." ”

Why is it difficult to get the "Book of Rites"?

This question can reflect one or two.

In this paragraph of "The Book of Rites", Zhu Xi did not annotate. The compiler cites Shao Yong's annotations to illustrate the Compendium of Ethics, and Fang Fengchen's annotations to illustrate the difference between the five tones, while not mentioning anything about governance. Scholars need to combine the context and figure out and understand on their own, and they must have a good teacher.

During the imperial examination, it is best to take the annotations of Shao Yong and Fang Fengchen and pick out some key words casually and use them in the Bagu essay as examples. In this way, you can stand out among the candidates and show that you are knowledgeable without departing from the syllabus of the exam - the annotations of the "Book of Rites" are too miscellaneous and so numerous that it makes people's scalps tingle, and this kind of annotation quotation is purely tormenting.

Therefore, there are fewer and fewer scholars who govern the "Book of Rites", and the "Spring and Autumn Daquan" is even more disgusting than the "Book of Rites"!