The Song Dynasty Jinshi were divided into three classes:

The first class is called Jinshi and so on;

The second class is called Jinshi origin;

The third class is given to the same Jinshi background.

The scope of admission has been expanded, and the number of places has increased exponentially.

In the Tang Dynasty, only twenty or thirty people were admitted at a time, and there were only a few or more than a dozen people.

In the Song Dynasty, as many as two or three hundred people were admitted at a time, or even five or six hundred.

For candidates who have repeatedly failed the exam, they are allowed to sign up for the supplementary examination when they encounter the emperor's examination, which is called the special performance name.

It can also ask the emperor to be gracious, reward birth qualifications, appoint officials, and set a precedent for future generations.

The Song Dynasty was a dynasty that inherited the past and the future of the imperial examination, and it was also a dynasty that reached maturity. After the Song Dynasty until the end of the Qing Dynasty, there was basically no essential change in the imperial examination system.

Although the early Song Dynasty was still in a semi-war state of the Southern Expedition and the Northern Expedition, Zhao Kuangyin did not slack off in the slightest on opening the imperial examination, and held the first imperial examination in the year of the founding of the People's Republic of China (960), and admitted 19 people.

Since the Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, each branch of the Jinshi has been in the hands of twenty or thirty people, and they would rather be lacking than excessive. The first subject of the Song Dynasty, of course, needs to set an example for the future, so I picked and chose 19 leaders.

The following year, the examination was held again, and only 11 people were admitted. In the following years, there were about ten Jinshi on each list, and only six people were admitted in the fourth year of Qiande (966), which can be described as rare.

Zhao Kuangyin implements the rule of literati, how can such a few people fill many positions in the country!

In order to win over the scholars, in the third year of Kaibao (970), he issued a holy decree to the Ministry of Rites who presided over the imperial examination, ordering them to sort out the archives of the Juzi in the past ten years, the Later Zhou and even the Later Han Dynasty, and count them to see how many people have not been admitted after the final examination of 15 examinations.

After careful checking, the Ministry of Rites listed the names of a total of 106 people, headed by Sima Pu.

Zhao Kuangyin waved his pen: These people are really not easy, and they all have a bachelor's degree.

In the Song Dynasty, this kind of jinshi had a special name, called "Enke Jinshi", that is, the Jinshi specially given by the emperor. Zhao Kuangyin's "Enke" played a little bigger this time, but it was not unreasonable, at least we can see how flexible this big politician is in governing the country and how generous he is in attracting talents. The subsequent "Enke" generally involved only a very small number of people, which was not uncommon in the entire Song Dynasty.

After talking about the special phenomenon of "Enke", let's go back to the routine scientific examination. The imperial examinations in the early Song Dynasty basically inherited the Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, and they were still the two major systems of regular science and system science.

"Standing subjects" are permanent subjects, similar to today's college entrance examinations and other public examinations, and the state stipulates the outline, content, time and specific procedures. In addition to the Jinshi Branch, there are also various subjects, including the Nine Classics, the Five Classics, the Kaiyuan Ceremony, the Three History, the Three Rites, the Three Transmissions, the Ming Classics, the Ming Law, the Ming Characters and other subjects.

All the lifters participate in the township examination in the autumn of each year, and the middle township lifters will gather in the capital at the end of winter, and in the spring of the following year, the Ministry of Rites will preside over the national unified examination.

The so-called "Nine Classics", that is, the nine Confucian classics set by the Tang Dynasty, the "Five Classics" are the five Confucian classics determined in the Western Han Dynasty, the "Kaiyuan Ceremony" is a large-scale book of rites compiled by the Tang Dynasty, and it can also be regarded as a practical "etiquette" college examination, "Three History" refers to the "Historical Records", two "Han Books" and "Three Kingdoms", which can be understood as a special examination of history, "Three Rites" refers to the "Zhou Rites", "Rites" and "Rites" in the Thirteen Classics, which can be regarded as a specialized examination of etiquette theory, and "Three Transmissions" refers to "Zuo Chuan" and "Ram Biography" and "The Legend of Liang Liang", which can be regarded as a special examination for the history of the scriptures, "Ming Jing" refers to the unified examination of all scriptures, and can be regarded as an examination of traditional scripture exegesis, "Ming Law" is a law examination, and "Ming Zi" is a character examination.

Regarding "Jinshi" and "Ming Jing", it is necessary to say a few more words. Since the Tang Dynasty, the two major subjects have been valued the most, and among the two major subjects, the Jinshi Department is the most.

The reason is very simple: those who are in the middle of the rank are very optimistic in their future careers, and they can often climb to the high position of Zaifu, and the future of the Ming Jing is much more bumpy, and there are very few people who can finally become high-ranking officials. At a glance in the other sub-subjects, I knew that even if I passed the exam, I would only be a small business officer for life, and it would be difficult to grasp power.

"Subject" is a small-scale examination presided over by the emperor himself, this form of examination originated from the Han Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty has been very common, to the Song Dynasty, gradually formed some "regular" nature of the subject, that is, often repeated examination subject questions.

The virtuous and virtuous Fang Zheng set up by Taizu can speak outright, the scriptures are excellent and profound, and the teachers can be teachers, and the detailed and idle officials are able to reach the three subjects of education;

The virtuous and virtuous Fangzheng who was able to speak outright, the broad tomb is clear in education, the talent and knowledge are in the body, and the detailed officials can make the six subjects of politics, insight and strategy, and military planning and far-sightedness, all inherited from the Tang Dynasty. Although the scope of the examination is not large, the qualifications of the candidates are very broad, and both incumbent officials and small people in the mountains and wilderness can be recommended by the prime minister and important ministers to take the examination.

Even those who have already passed the Jinshi can take the exam. Fu Bi, a famous minister in the Northern Song Dynasty, originally wanted to take the Jinshi exam, but it happened that his father-in-law Yan Shu was the main exam, and he needed to avoid it, so he had to take the exam that year;

Another example is Su Shi and Su Zhe brothers, in the second year of Jiayou (1057), they had already won the Jinshi, and they were not reconciled, and they both participated in the examination of the sixth year of Jiayou (1061) and entered the third class.

According to Song Renlang Ye's research, Su Shi should be "virtuous and honest and able to speak out", which is very consistent with Su Shi's later self-deprecation - after experiencing multiple tribulations, Su Shi sighed with emotion: "When I took the subject exam, my grades were very good, so I thought I could really 'speak out'." As everyone knows, the admonition has been extinguished once, and now it is almost cool to Huangzhou. ”

The number of questions in the Song Dynasty scientific examination was quite large, and it was not like what we imagined that we could gain fame by answering a single paper. Taking the Jinshi examination as an example, it is necessary to "try one poem, one poem, one comment, five strategies, ten posts of the Analects, and ten articles of Moyi for the Spring and Autumn Period or the Book of Rites". Among them, poetry, fu, and theory are the most important. The so-called "Ti" is called "Tijing", that is, the passage in the scriptures is silently written; The so-called "ink meaning", that is, the meaning of the written answer, is stipulated as ten articles.

Why is the silent scripture called "post", because this kind of examination is to cut out the first and second sentences of the original text, and only expose one or two sentences or one or two lines in the middle, so that the lifters can fill in the front and back. In addition to the "Thessalonian" and "Moyi", there are also three answers to the "current policy". These three items belong to piggybacking in the Jinshi test, not very important, but they are very important in the Ming Jing subject, almost all of the subject exam, otherwise why do Jinshi Li look down on the Ming Jing and the first, just because most of the Ming Jing is memorized, not like the Jinshi can be brilliant. Because of the large number of questions in the exam, whether it is the township exam or the general exam, the lifters have to stay in the examination room for three or four days before they can answer all the content.

The Song Dynasty perfected many of the previous shortcomings and established the best test content. Compared with the Tang Dynasty, the Song Dynasty had many new changes in the imperial examination.

The most certain thing in this regard is the establishment of the name obfuscation system, that is, all the information and information that may cheat such as the name and place of origin filled in by the candidates are sealed, so that the examiner and the marking officer cannot know who each paper is. In the early years of the Song Dynasty, the custom of asking for entrustment and offering was still the same, and it was not until the time of Zhenzong that the vague name system was adopted.

At that time, many people were opposed to the fame, such as Fan Zhongyan, Su Song, etc., and they all mentioned that the fame was too risky: usually notorious and with good test results, do you admit him or not?

Over time, proving the obfuscation is the most reasonable, fair, and unspeakable means. In the year when Su Shi participated in the Ministry of Rites examination, the chief examiner was Ouyang Xiu.

At that time, Ouyang Xiu was most optimistic about Zeng Gong, and when he got Su Shi's exam paper, his eyebrows danced, and he decided that it must be Zeng Gong's answer sheet, and it was determined to be the head. When I opened the name, it turned out to be Su Shi. Regardless of whether Ouyang Xiu is out of business or private, in short, when he is the main exam, it is difficult to give a high score to his protégé.

The second is the final determination of the examination time. The Tang Dynasty took an annual test, and the financial, material, and human resources used by the state can be imagined. In the Song Dynasty, the second year of Zhiping (1065) during the Yingzong period was set as a three-year ratio. This time did not change until the last imperial examination in the Xuantong period. The "year of Dabi" mentioned in the year refers to the year when the Ministry of Etiquette will take the exam, and the champion will be released.

The third is the change in literary style. In the second year of Jiayou, Ouyang Xiuzhi paid tribute. He has always hated stylized articles that moaned without disease, and when he obtained the absolute right to speak, all the Chengwen examination papers that had lasted for a hundred years were dethroned, and the articles he took were all "ancient texts" that made sense of things, so Su Shi and Su Zhe took a big advantage, because these two brothers are the best at discussing the principles of success and failure in ancient and modern times. It is said that Ouyang Xiu was the "standard-bearer" of the ancient literature movement of the Song Dynasty, and it was established from this time.

The fourth is the transformation of the content and subjects of the examination. In the early Song Dynasty, the best work was poetry, fu, and theory, and the first two were the best of the best jobs, which were to be written according to the rhyme book, and once the rhyme was produced, no matter how good the article was, it was also zero points. The change in the content of the exam was one of the consequences of Wang Anshi's change. He wrote to the Divine Sect and said: "The ancient scholars are all based on learning, please build a school to retro." The Ming scriptures and various departments want to be deposed, and the number of people who take the Ming scriptures increases the number of scholars. "It means that there should not be so many subjects, and all the Ming scriptures and laws will be cancelled, and only one subject will be left for Jinshi. Also, in the future, the examination will only test the scriptures, and there is no need to test poetry and fu. The reason is: a person has written poems since he was a child, is familiar with rhyme, but knows very little about the words of the sage, once he becomes an official, how can he know how to govern the country and the people? From this point on, the imperial examinations of later generations no longer test poems and endowments, but focus on scriptures and meanings.

When reading ancient books, I often see words such as "Jinshi Jiake" and "Jinshi Bke", and there is always a feeling that I don't understand it. The imperial examination of the Tang Dynasty originally did not have the distinction between A and B, from Gaozu Li Yuan to the early Tang Ming Emperor, all Jinshi were called "B Branch". In order to highlight the virtue of Wende, Emperor Tang Ming issued an edict saying: "There is no Jiake in modern times, and from the beginning of me, we must open the door of Jiajia, so that the best talents can become models for the people of the world." In the final Tang Dynasty, "Jiake" became the name of the top three in Jinshi.

The Song Dynasty has undergone great changes, and in the early stage of the Jinshi examination, subject A and subject B both refer to Jinshi, and subject A must be better than subject B. For example, the famous minister Zhang Yong, this biography clearly records that he is the fifth year of Taizong's Taiping rejuvenation (980) "Jinshi B Branch". Ouyang Xiu's son Ouyang Di and the great writer Su Shi are all in the B family. Until the late Northern Song Dynasty, the A and B departments were still the concept of Jinshi binding, that is, the first grade of the A department, the second grade of the B department, and even the third grade.

In the Southern Song Dynasty, it was clearly stipulated that the Jinshi examination was divided into five grades. For example, in the fourth year of Emperor Lizong Baoyou (1256), Wen Tianxiang admitted a total of 601 people, including 21 people in the first class, 40 people in the second class, Xie Fangde was the first in the second class, and the rest were the third, fourth, and fifth grades. "The History of the Song Dynasty: The Biography of Xie Fangde" said that he took the Jinshi examination in Baoyou, "meaning to be promoted to the first place, and the name of the performance, and the second subject." Except for Fuzhou Sihu to join the army, that is, to abandon". It means that Xie originally wanted to be ranked first, but the result was only "Zhongyi", and he was not convinced, so he simply didn't want it. It can be seen from the comparison of these two materials that the "second class" and "second branch" of the Southern Song Dynasty are equivalent concepts, so there is no official "second branch" after the Southern Song Dynasty, but the people still call the second grade jinshi "second branch".

In the Ming and Qing dynasties, the names of A and B appeared, and it was easier to distinguish: all the regular Jinshi who had passed the palace test were called A branch, and those who had not been tested by the palace were called B branch.