【Ticket Request】

On the eighth day of February in the 47th year of Wanli, this year's spring equinox is much earlier than in previous years.

On the first day, the list of vice presidents and eighteen room examiners who had been set earlier was finally announced, and as Wang Zunde said, the examiner was Shi Jikai, the right attendant of the Ministry of Officials, and the deputy examiner was Han Yi, the right attendant of the Ministry of Rites. As soon as the list came out, several families were happy and some worried, and those who had the same scripture as the examiner were extremely happy, Yuan Chonghuan was one of them, and his scripture was the same as Shi Jikai's "Book of Songs". Fujian and Shanxi Juzi, who are fellow villagers with the two presidents, also feel comfortable.

On the eighth day of the first lunar month, the emperor ordered the scholars of Dongge University to lay Confucius from the philosophical interpretation, and the triennial rite examination after the completion of the ceremony officially began.

Yang Wencong, Yuan Chonghuan and Qi Biaojia, as well as thousands of people who Wang Xingping knew and didn't know, also walked into the examination room in the middle of the night on this day, and the three of them all looked full of confidence.

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After the vernal equinox, the air in the capital is filled with a lingering smell of filth, and the same is true of the downtown entrance in the middle of the framed alley, which is the place in charge of the Dongcheng Terracotta Division, but although the street is quite thick with books, and you can see the shops with framed calligraphy and paintings everywhere, it is also impossible to avoid the filth of the city, which is really depressing.

There are five city soldiers and horses in the capital, which is responsible for the wind and fire inspection and ditch dredging on the ground of the capital in addition to the daily daytime arrest of thieves and anti-rape inspection, which can be said to integrate public security, fire protection and urban construction in later generations.

Dredging the large and small culverts in the capital after the spring equinox every year is a tedious work, today it has been eight days since the ditch was opened, it is February 16, the ditch cover that should be opened has already been lifted, the silt in the seepage well has also been all cleaned up, the streets of the middle of the capital have long been piled up with sludge and filth, it is no wonder that the soldiers and Taofu who are responsible for cleaning have been fainted, not to mention ordinary pedestrians.

However, the business of the large and small crude medicine shops in the capital has suddenly improved recently, and people everywhere buy rhubarb and atractylodes to carry with them to avoid the stench.

Because every year the ditch is rushing to the day when the lifters go to Beijing for reference, the spring breeze blows and the smell is stinking, and the folk of Beijing have already spread the proverb, 'the stinky ditch is opened, the son comes', but Wang Xingping feels that this seems to be the opposite, even if the Jiangbei Juzi who comes the latest, at most it will arrive in Beijing at the end of January, even though the Beijing city at that time is also raining and sewage flows sideways, but it is not as pickled as now.

If it weren't for the fact that he was going to pick up a few friends out of the examination room, Wang Xingping would be very willing to go to the city with Ma Shiying to find a Zhuangzi to play, after all, it is the season at this time, no matter how bad it is, it is better than holding his breath in this city, looking at the street scene, he even regretted giving the golden chicken Nadan to Li Kezhuo, so he had to leave more for himself, the sanitary conditions of this era are really shocking.

Every year, the entrance examination is in the middle of the night after the eighth day of the second lunar month, and the first session officially starts on the ninth day of the first lunar month. The second session on February 12 and the last session on February 15 began on the ninth day of the first month and was handed in at noon on the 16th. If you bring food and food, you can only call in vain, so when you enter the market, you are also prepared with all kinds of household items, charcoal stove water bottles, raw rice and cooked vegetables.

The eight-day interval of the exam is torment for the candidates, and the same is true for the relatives and friends of the candidates who are outside the venue, but because of this, the curfew will also be lifted in the capital during the examination, but the weather is cold, except for the examiners and their families, there will be no more idlers walking around the streets of Beijing on the cold night.

The examination hall is located in the easternmost Gongyuan of Mingshifang in the southeast of the capital, which is not far from the east wall of Shuntianfu City, and is facing the north and south of the stargazing platform. The west side of the Gongyuan is followed by the east framed alley, and when the juzi is sent in the middle of the night on the eighth day of the first month, the appearance of the crowd of people on the square outside the west wall still left a deep impression on Wang Xingping. Looking at the bright lights outside the Gongyuan at night, and then thinking that the thousands of people crowded in the square were all selected from the millions of scholars in the two capitals and thirteen provinces, and some people even started from Tongmeng for decades to get to today's place, even Wang Xingping couldn't help but be moved.

He secretly said in his heart, as long as he passed the level of the Tribute Academy, he could be regarded as a step to the sky, and the status of the Jinshi was transcendent, and Wang Xingping had already learned it in this year.

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In the West Mounting Hutong Street, the most conspicuous is not a calligraphy and painting shop, but the rebuilt in the second year of Chenghua Yu Zhongsu Gongzhong Festival Ancestral Hall, this place was originally Yu Qian's former residence, Xianzong changed it to his ancestral hall after its rehabilitation, the small people feel nostalgic for the kindness of the public to defend the capital in those years, and now it is also quite fragrant. However, at this moment, the entire west framing alley is very quiet in the east compared to the east, and the gate of the Zhongjie Temple is also closed.

In an inn on the street outside the ancestral hall, Wang Xingping and Ma Shiying were sitting opposite each other and chatting.

It was still early, and they also deliberately got up early to arrive, and Wang Xingping was only busy with his own affairs after sending everyone in on the eighth day of the first month, and he also took the time to visit Zhang Jingyue and the Wang eunuch, because he and Ma Shiyingcai could wait here for the last handover before this afternoon, and they would inevitably have a banquet tonight.

On the eighth day of the first month, the dragon gate of the Gongyuan began to fire a roll call on the fourth watch, even if the search for the test should take into account the dignity of the lifter, it will not be too harsh, and the weather in the capital at this time really wants to let the candidates loosen their clothes and untie the belt, I am afraid that something will happen, and on the fifth watch, the last Guizhou candidates have all entered, since then Wang Xingping has not seen Yang Wencong and others again, although it has only been a few days, but there are also some misses.

In the whole city wall of Shuntianfu, since the Shangyuan put the lights, these days I am afraid that only this Ming Shifang is the most lively, to the east past the downtown entrance, the east mounting Hutong until the stargazing platform by the city wall, and then north to the east of the alley with the mill and the Guanyin Temple alley, all the shops that can be opened no matter what the business is on weekdays have all been changed to a hotel tea shop. That is, Wang Xingping and Ma Shiying are very clean, so they chose to settle outside the Zhongjie Temple in the west.

Ma Shiying looked at the sky and said, "It's almost time, why don't you go to the back and take a nap first." ”

"It's not time yet." Wang Xingping pouted on the street, "The Soldiers and Horses Division have not come to change shifts." ”

When Ma Shiying heard this, he suddenly realized that the Five Cities Soldiers and Horses Division was responsible for the arrest of thieves in the city, but the official affairs were becoming more and more complicated, so a patrol camp was added during Hongzhi. Since he was a soldier and horse division, he was only in charge of patrolling the streets during the day, and he was only on duty after midnight every day, and after the time of application, he returned the errand to the patrol camp. Although the curfew was lifted in Beijing during the examination, it does not mean that there is no one in the neighborhood, and the street patrol at this moment is the same as always.

It's just that it didn't take long for Wang Xingping to say this, and he saw a team of people coming from the west to hand over, and the leader took out a cyan token, with a big wooden character on it (note: the five-city terracotta and horses can be combined with the token issued by Shang Baosi, the east city wood word, the west city gold word, the south city fire word, the north city water word, the middle soldier horse division soil word), the first moment of the time finally arrived.

"I don't know if Longyou Jinke can pass the test, although Jizhi (note: Ruan Dacheng) is not on good terms with Shi Shaozai, I don't think it will affect Longyou."

"Senior brother relax, today is just an additive, it's too early to pass, it's useless to worry, we're here to do our best, it still depends on his luck."

Wang Xingping said that Ma Shiying naturally understands that there will be three tests, the most important is the first test, and the first test is the first test, and the first test on the ninth day of junior high school is the same for all candidates, and the three articles and four books are the same for all candidates, and the four questions of the Five Classics are based on the scriptures they have reported, and there are a total of five questions. These seven essays are the most important, so in principle, they are allowed as long as they are submitted before the next exam. Because it's boring anyway, and you can't walk outside, almost all candidates still grind the time to the end, after all, it takes time to cook and check the transcription.

The second session is 'Commentary', 'Table' and 'Judgment', this one is much more relaxed, although the title is still from the scriptures, but you don't have to stick to the eight strands. The first stage of the art of making attention is to speak on behalf of the sage, and in the second field, the "theory" and "table" are the words of the superior, which is a combination of argumentative essay and practical essay, and the general examination questions are similar to "the proposed Tang Dynasty to Zhang Jiuling as the Chinese book order" or "the proposed Song Qunchen He Xiaozong to do the chart of respecting the sky" and so on. 'Judgment' is a comment on the official documents submitted above, which is used to examine the application of specific official documents such as the "Da Ming Law" by scholars, which is a step forward in cultivating talents who can be used in the world.

As for today's last session, it is 'Strategy', as the name suggests, this is the most comprehensive investigation to examine the views and understanding of history and current affairs, but now the examiners do not pay much attention to this last examiner.

After the official start of the examination on the ninth day of the first month, the list will generally start to be filled in on February 25 and 6, usually on the 28th or 29th, which seems to be abundant, but in fact it is very tense. The examiners are not only cumbersome to read the papers, but also because they can no longer go out of the examination room, they can only drink and feast every day for entertainment during the exam. Almost every link of the test examiners have to find a reason to relax, there is a question banquet when the question is sitting, there is a curtain banquet for the curtain, and there is a banquet for taking the paper and filling the list, so when the actual marking is made, the examiners can only focus on the seven articles of the first session, basically the text is not dethroned, and the next two games are usually fine as long as they do not avoid the literature and science.

It is precisely because of this that Wang Xingping said that today's last exam is just the icing on the cake, in fact, before the second exam, the first exam paper has been sent to the examiners in each room, from the afternoon of the 11th to the 15th, there are five days for the first marking, and today from noon to the 19th is the second marking, at most only three days, almost two days to finish. The third marking starts on the 19th, but it includes the review of the first two sessions and the re-reading of the dethroned examination papers, although there are six days, in fact, the last two sessions are not as careful as the first one.

The two talked about sex without diminishing, and gradually said that there was fraud in the examination room.

After the candidates submit the papers, they will be classified by the collector, and then the sealing officer will fold the candidate's name and stamp the customs guard, and the transcription officer will copy a copy of the pen as it is, and the copied paper will be handed over to the examiner after reading it correctly. In this way, it is useless to mark any candidate, and the process of transcribing the Zhu scroll itself is a kind of screening, and anyone who fails to avoid it or confesses his family background in the paper will be deposed before he can see the examiner.

But the rules are the rules, the way is always people think, there are always a number of marking officers in each room, and there are two or three hundred students who assist from the side, plus the invigilators, miscellaneous servants and cooks, as long as there is a heart, there are still countless things to take risks. Ma Shiying talked about the fraud case of Shen Tonghe, the son of Wu Jiang, who had his own experience in the previous subject, which led to the reopening of the re-examination, and Wang Xingping also talked about Shen Defu's joke about cheating in the trial.

As long as the benefits are, even if the officials in the examination room can also have the means, there are many tricks in the middle, such as cutting the roll and reconnecting, there are the so-called 'live cutting heads', 'bees collecting honey', etc., the shops in this framing alley are not only for the scholars to mount books and paintings, if you have a glimpse of the doorway, maybe you can see a new world.

Time passed quickly, and before I knew it, it was almost noon, and the store was preparing lunch, but I heard Xiaoliu next to him say in surprise: "Come out, come out." ”

[References.]

1, "Daming Huidian"

2, "Records of Emperor Mingshen Zongxian"

3, "History of the Late Ming Dynasty" Fan Shuzhi

4. "The Economic Life of Beijing in the Ming Dynasty" Xu Daling

5, "Wanli Shuntianfu Chronicles"

6, "Wanli Ye Ed" Shen Defu

7, "Chronicles of the Middle" Liu Ruoyu

8, "Wan Department Miscellaneous Notes" Shen Bang

9. "Wanli Shuntianfu City Restoration Map"

10, "The Public Security of Beijing in the Ming Dynasty" Yang Jinye

11, "A Preliminary Study of the Ming Dynasty" Huang Mingguang

12, "Ming Dynasty Examination Examination Standard Examination" Tsuru Cheng Jiuzhang (Japanese)

13. "Research on the Examination Examiners of the Ming Dynasty Township and General Examination" Li Yiying

14. "On the Brief Situation and Characteristics of the Ming Dynasty Entrance Examination - Three-color Roll Scholars" Huang Mingguang and Xie Jingdong