One or two days after the list will be tested, that is, the first day of the first month of March, the day of the palace examination will be the day of the palace examination, and it will not be until the beginning of the eighth year of Chenghua that the palace examination date will be changed to March 15.

The "tributes" admitted to the general examination are required to participate in the palace examination, and because the palace examination is nominally the emperor's "personal advice to the court", the emperor himself is the chief examiner, and all the tributes are protégés of the Son of Heaven, so there are only a few paper readers and deacons.

The official who reads the scroll is filled by the cabinet scholar and the other five departments except the Ministry of Rites, the Metropolitan Procuratorate, the General Administration Department, the chief official of the Dali Temple and the officials of the Zhan Mansion and the Hanlin Academy, and the promotion officials are served by the Shangshu and Shilang of the Ministry of Rites, and the two people who supervise the imperial history are supervised, probationary and supervised, and the rest of the officials who receive the scrolls, the seals, and the palm scrolls are filled by the officials of the Yamen such as Hanlin and Chunfang.

Zhu Yuanzhang once asked the imperial policy, but in the future, only the bachelors of the Hanlin Academy, especially the cabinet scholars, prepared the test questions and submitted them to the emperor, and the requirements for candidates were only four words, that is, "only the affairs are straightforward", which is limited to more than 1,000 words.

The day before the palace test, the officials of Honglu Temple preset the "policy plan" in the east room of Fengtian Temple, and Guanglu Temple prepared the test tables of the tributes and placed them in the east and west of the hall.

Under the leadership of the officials of the Ministry of Rites, the new Kegong scholars came to the front of the Fengtian Palace, which was divided into two groups facing north and stood, and the civil and military officials stood inside and outside the hall with their own official services, and then the officials of the Honglu Temple invited the emperor to ascend to the palace, set off firecrackers, and the hundred officials kowtowed.

Zhao Yan and other tributes are listed on both sides of the Danqi, as well as before and after the inspection of the imperial history, the slightest mistake will be recorded by him, and then punished according to the severity of the situation, and the heavier will be punished on the grounds that there is no king and no courtesy, which can be regarded as the disadvantage of the court to many new younger brothers, so even if Zhao Yan is very curious about the surroundings, he does not dare to look at it at will.

After following the others to kowtow honestly, the deacon came to the hall with the proposal of this time, and then the inner attendant handed over the topic to the officials of the Ministry of Rites and placed it on the case, and the officials of the Honglu Temple outside had already taken the tributes to prepare to kneel and worship.

The deacons carried the case down the left stairs and placed it in the middle of the royal road, and the tributes bowed five times and kowtowed three times to the case, and then stood in the east and west. The deacon officer then raised the policy proposal to the east of Danqi, and the officials of Honglu Temple announced the end of the ceremony, and then set off firecrackers. In the sound of firecrackers, the emperor withdrew from the palace, and the civil and military officials also withdrew in turn, and the next step was the official examination.

The military academy in the palace will prepare the test tables on the east and west sides of the Danqi to face north, the officials of the Ministry of Rites scatter the papers, the tributes kneel in shifts, kowtow in place, and then answer the papers in the open air.

The title of the palace test strategy theory is called the imperial test policy question, which is often very long, such as the Southern Song Dynasty Baoyou four years Bingchen Branch, the number of words in the title is about 500 words, to the effect that it is to ask the way to govern the country and strengthen the army, and then the palace test paper of Zhao Bingzhong, the champion of the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, is also about how to govern the country and the way of the herdsmen, and this time the policy question is to ask the emperor's government and the heart of the emperor.

I have heard that the root of the cure is the Tao, the Tao is based on virtue, and the ancient and modern rulers will compromise with Confucius. Confucius told Lu Jun that the government is in the Nine Classics, and it is attributed to the Three Virtues. To the Song Dynasty minister Sima Guangyan, there are three great virtues, and they are said to be benevolent, Ming and martial. Fruit and Confucius? The light calendar is three dynasties, and the three are dedicated to their words, claiming to be the most refined to the point......

Sprinkled with nearly 800 words, this is the topic of the palace test strategy, many tributes as soon as they know that they have complained in their hearts, do not take such a play of the boss, you ask how to represent the herdsmen of the sky, if the country is strong and how good it is, you have to ask about human nature and politics with ingenuity, how can we answer!

Zhao Yan was also stumped by this policy, although he knew a lot about the history of the Ming Dynasty, but it was only a big event in the general direction, such as when and where there was an earthquake, when and where there was a small rebellion, and the exam questions of Emperor So-and-so, he naturally couldn't know, and he didn't expect that he would cross at that time, who had the leisure to collect these things, so he could only rely on himself at this time.

Zhao Yan first thought of why the orthodox emperor came up with this topic, and where was his starting point? Do you really want the new Kogons to find a loophole in his governance and criticize him? But the orthodox emperor is a young succession, the real pro-government time is not long, in the past the inner court affairs have been decided by the Empress Dowager Zhang, and the political affairs of the outer court are handled by the cabinet Sanyang, at this time the orthodox emperor although pro-government, but there is nothing to do, but he is also a person, or a young man in his prime, his heart must also be full of ambition, want to make the Ming Dynasty prosperous under his own rule, and even more, his heart may not have the idea of surpassing his ancestors Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di in the history books.

After a while, the idea finally came, and the rest was to choose words and sentences to conceive the article, Zhao Yan was excited, and was about to make a draft on the paper, when a proctor passed by and said lightly: "If you dare to be in a daze again, the official will cancel your qualification for the exam." ”

Zhao Yan was stunned, is it wrong to be in a daze? It's inexplicable.

Who knows, when he was in a daze, Zhao Yan unconsciously turned his head to look at the direction of the Forbidden Palace, he didn't notice it, but the two inspecting invigilators had already noticed it, originally Zhao Yan was young, both of them had the intention of loving talents, and when they passed by, they either coughed lightly once or twice or stomped their feet gently, wanting to remind Zhao Yan not to peep into the palace, but his mind was not in the outside world at all, which was really flattering to the blind man for the two invigilators - it was in vain.

Scribbled and changed, a piece of scratch paper was soon filled with words by Zhao Yan, seeing that most of the time had passed, and it was too late to examine it again, Zhao Yan moved his wrist and began to transcribe on the main scroll.

Ministers right: When the minister hears that the emperor is in control of the universe, there must be the actual government of the manager, and then he can restrain the crowd, which is intricate, and there is the rule of Yongxi; There must be a solid heart of advocating the rate, and then you can quench the hundreds of workers, vibrate the general affairs, and have the principle of Zhenzhilong.

What is real government? Establish a discipline outline, the law of the law, hang the surface of the elephant Wei, focus on the order of the Jia, the first in the rock corridor Chaoning, scattered in the Zhusi Baifu, and in the corner of the county, the latitude of the warp, the giant fiber, all not prepared, full of tight, no leakage is also. What is Solid? Vibration laziness, encouragement of shrewdness, from the depths of the depths, from the secret, from the palace Mu Qing, the wind in the hub of Banggi, infused in the frontier, the fall of the harmony, the spiritual mind, all unimpeded, the skin shape, no one is also ......

After writing, Zhao Yan didn't bother to count how many words, it must be more than a thousand words.

In the article, Zhao Yan mainly wrote about three aspects. One is the unity of heaven and man, in the universal view at this time, the emperor is the sky, instead of God to manage the people of the world and all things in the world, the emperor has the power is given by God, so the royal power is supreme.

The second is the idea of loyalty to the monarch and patriotism and love for the people, whether it is the common people or the court officials, they should be loyal to the monarch, be loyal to the monarch, and contribute their own strength to the monarch. At the same time, both the emperor and court officials should love the country and the people and treat their people well.

The third is to govern the country according to law, and governing the country requires a program of laws and regulations, so that the people and officials throughout the country know the law and abide by the law and act in accordance with the law.

Yes, Zhao Yan just appropriately boasted about Zhu Qizhen, affirming the legitimacy of his monarchy, and then how to interact with the people and officials, and finally the idea of governing the country according to law, which has lasted for more than 2,000 years.

To tell the truth, these three ideas are actually a panacea, neither exceeding the norm nor having something to say, and when combined, they are relatively new compared to the trends of thought in the orthodox period, and they will not be oblivious to everyone.

The examination was finally over, and the tributes put their countermeasures to the examinee at the East Corner Gate, and from there. The examinee will send the test paper to the official to be named. Different from the township examination and the meeting examination, the palace examination is not transcribed with a red pen, so the name is directly sent by the palm of the official to the East Pavilion to read the official to determine the level. The job of the examiner is to divide the examination papers into three grades, that is, the first, second, and third grades, and the key is to determine the top dozen or so sent to the emperor for "approval", especially the top three.

On the third day of the examination, there is a "paper reading" ceremony, which is usually held in the Wenhua Hall.

After the morning of this day, Zhu Qizhen came to the Wenhua Palace, and the officials who read the papers each held a test paper, and the east and west were set up in order, and then knelt in front of the emperor to read the papers in order according to the level of the official position. After each copy, Wang Zhen, the celebrant of ceremonies, presented the examination paper to the imperial case. In the past, only three copies were read, but this time it can be said that after the death of Sanyang, Zhu Qizhen presided over the palace examination in the real sense after his pro-government, so Zhu Qizhen has been letting the paper readers read more than 20 copies, and after the reading is over, the paper readers retreat to the door to wait for the decree.

According to the convention, the ranking of the top three depends on the "royal pen". If the relationship between the cabinet and the emperor and the celebrant was harmonious, then the first papers to be read by several scholars were first, second, and third, that is, champions, lists, and tanhuas, so many people thought that "the officials who read the papers took the champions". If the emperor wanted to express that "the cadres were arbitrary," he would often break the order, but this situation was "not one or two out of ten."

Although Zhu Qizhen also wanted to make a decision for a while, but after looking at the gray-bearded old ministers waiting for the order outside the door, they still didn't make up their minds, mainly because they were afraid of trouble, even if Wang Zhen was by his side, it was the same, it was related to the imperial examination, this is the foundation of the country, and those old ministers who stepped into the coffin board with half a foot don't care if you are the emperor or not, whether you are the powerful Wang Zhen, you should spray or spray, you should still die, so Zhu Qizhen was a little cowardly, but he was not willing to be at the mercy of those old ministers.

picked up the top three articles and looked at them, and compared them with the rankings after the exam for a while, it was exactly the same, Zhu Qizhen was secretly angry in his heart, but the articles of these three people were really good, and he was not good at making a fuss, so he changed the third and second places in anger, and then picked up an article and whispered to Wang Zhen beside him: "Sir, I think this article is very suitable for me, and I have the intention to promote it to the first in the second class, but the handwriting is really difficult to get into the elegant hall." ”