On January 30, 1649, King Charles I of England was executed, the feudal rule of the Stuart dynasty was overthrown, and England entered the republican era.

This year was also the twenty-ninth year of the Empire's Apocalypse, and just one month after Charles I was executed, Zhu Youxiao decided to implement his tenth new policy.

Zhu Youxiao originally wanted to revise the Article 10 New Deal, but in the end he decided to continue the original Article 10 New Deal. Zhu Youxiao reformed the imperial examination system with reference to the national examination of later generations.

Zhu Youxiao's biggest change in the imperial examination system was the change of history, current affairs, mathematics and Baguwen, Zhu Youxiao originally wanted to abolish Baguwen, but considering the pressure from the top and bottom of the empire, Zhu Youxiao decided to keep Baguwen.

However, in order to gradually abolish the Baguwen in the future, Zhu Youxiao stipulated that the Baguwen only accounted for a quarter of the proportion of the scientific examination, and the three subjects of history, current politics, and mathematics accounted for three-quarters. Moreover, in order to achieve his own goals, Zhu Youxiao proposed for the first time to adopt a 100-point system, each subject is 100 points, and it is ranked according to the total score, which greatly weakens the status of Baguwen in the scientific examination.

In the past imperial examinations, Baguwen occupies an extremely important position, in addition to the palace examination, the government, province, and capital three levels from the small examination to the middle jinshi examination are mainly based on Baguwen. Because of the eight-strand essay in the first game, the examiner did not win the evaluation, and all looked at the first one, and the first one did not enter the examiner's eyes. I don't read the theories, judgments, and cases written in the second and third places. Therefore, Baguwen is the only text in the examination room, and whether you can pass the exam depends on the student's ability to write Baguwen.

After Zhu Youxiao's reform, the status of Baguwen in the scientific examination has changed from a monopoly to a quarter, and Zhu Youxiao believes that after more than ten years, if we talk about abolishing Baguwen, the opposition will be much smaller. In fact, in China's feudal history, there were several plans to abolish or abolish scientific examinations.

Although Zhu Youxiao made huge concessions, there were still many voices of opposition from all over the empire. The change in the content of the imperial examination made the students of the empire very confused and disgusted.

"Your Majesty, just in the examination of history, the empire has a history of thousands of years, how should this be asked?"

"I have already thought about this matter, and the Ministry of Rites can compile a textbook, and the topics can be selected from the textbooks prepared by the Ministry of Rites, and the topics can be divided into fill-in-the-blank questions and essay questions. Zhu Youxiao had already prepared.

"Your Majesty, what should be tested in politics at that time?"

"The current politics exam questions are about the major political events that occurred in the empire and abroad within five to ten years, and they are relatively generalized events that start from the overall situation, and of course the Ministry of Rites can also compile corresponding teaching materials. Questions can also be divided into fill-in-the-blank and essay questions, such as the tulip bubble that occurred in the Netherlands ten years ago, which affected not only the West but also the Empire. In fact, the current affairs article in the "Empire" newspaper is the best current political topic. I don't need people who 'don't listen to things outside the window and only read the books of the sages', because once they are in power, they will only mislead the country and the people. Zhu Youxiao explained.

"I understand."

"What should I do in mathematics? I don't need to say anything about it. ”

……

The second biggest change is that all officials in the future must start as Xu officials, and they must serve as Xu officials for more than one year before they can be promoted. In the past, Zhu Youxiao only gave Xu officials a channel for promotion, but now Zhu Youxiao requires all officials to start from Xu officials, which means the improvement of Xu officials' status in another aspect.

"Your Majesty, all future officials must start from the officials, isn't it too unfair for the scholars who study hard in the cold window?" Sun Yuanhua asked.

"Since the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, it has been stipulated that all the children and supervisors of the country need to serve in various ministries for three months, and what they do during the period is no different from that of the officials. It's just that the difference with Xu officials is that they have the opportunity to improve, and Xu officials have been Xu officials all their lives, isn't this unfair to Xu officials? In fact, after the empire activated the Xu officials, the imperial court found that the Xu officials were better than these state supervisors in terms of their ability to govern the local area. I think that the officials are strong because they have been at the grassroots level for a long time and know the situation at the grassroots level well, which makes them stronger than the so-called prisoners in governing the local area. Zhu Youxiao explained.

In fact, when Wang Anshi changed the law, Wang Anshi advocated that those who were about to take up public office should first take up the position of Xu officials, so that they could learn in advance the work they would guide and supervise in the future. Second, he advocated the elevation of the status of officials and subordinates in order to close or reduce the gap created by their isolation from the civil service, hoping to bring them under the constraints of Confucian ethics and social norms, and to inspire them to be loyal and dedicated.

Zhu Youxiao borrowed some ideas from Wang Anshi's reforms.

The third difference is that Zhu Youxiao abolished the children's examination and the township examination, since the empire implemented compulsory education, the children's examination has lost its original role, and students who graduated from the township school can automatically obtain a graduation certificate, and the role of the graduation certificate is already equivalent to that of the children's examination.

The county school is not compulsory education, you must participate in the local examination, and those who pass the examination can enter the county school, and the county school examination has played the role of the township examination, and obtaining the graduation certificate of the county school is equivalent to passing the township examination.

Zhu Youxiao only abolished the children's examination and the township examination for the time being, but retained the general examination and the palace examination. Zhu Youxiao knew that there were hundreds of thousands of talents in the empire now, and they could be said to be a pillar of the empire, and it was impossible for Zhu Youxiao to force all these people to a dead end, which was no different from digging his own grave.

After all, compulsory education has been implemented for such a long time, and township schools, county schools, and government schools have been very well established at the local level, and the empire's annual investment in education of tens of millions of taels of silver dollars is not without a little effect.

The fourth difference is that Zhu Youxiao encouraged the provinces to set up institutions of higher learning, and at the same time, Zhu Youxiao encouraged all ministries of the imperial court to select and allocate talents not only from the Guozijian but also to other institutions of higher learning to serve as officials.

"The Ministry of Agriculture can select talents from the Agricultural College, not necessarily from the Guozi Supervisors, and the students of the Agricultural College have a better understanding of agriculture than the Guozi Supervisors." Zhu Youxiao explained.

……

So far, Zhu Youxiao's ten new policies have all been promulgated all over the world. Zhu Youxiao's Ten New Policies are not too advanced, and in general, some of Zhu Youxiao's New Policies may only be half a step ahead of this era, and some may be one step ahead of this era, but there is no new policy that is too advanced, and the new policy can be said to be formulated according to the characteristics of this era.

(End of chapter)