Fengtian Temple.

With the CRRC government ordering Liu Zhi to announce "go to the court", the civil and military officials who had been waiting outside the hall for a long time were all in order, and entered the Fengtian Hall with low eyebrows.

And Ran Min was already sitting on the dragon chair, looking down at the ministers condescendingly.

At this time, it was not as strict as the Ming and Qing dynasties in later generations, the etiquette system was strict, and the emperor ruled with a bow, relying on the scholars and doctors to rule the world.

Since ancient times, there has been a style of "corporal courtesy", and the monarch treats the ministers, and generally sits on the table when discussing the court. It's just that since the Qin and Han dynasties, all dynasties have used the Confucian etiquette system, so in order to show the dignity of the emperor, Confucian scholars often advocate that ministers stand in the court, and the monarch mainly sits.

Ran Min restored the ancient Chinese rituals, so he naturally would not stick to this kind of ritual.

Generally speaking, the ministers of the Great Wei Empire still had to kneel when they went to court, and the simple court meeting was to stand, but there were also special circumstances.

"Sit!"

As Ran Min waved his hand, the ministers all sat on the futon in an orderly manner according to the level of their positions, and sat upright.

"Long live my emperor, long live, long live!" The ministers still saluted and kowtowed.

"Excuse me!"

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

After all the ministers stood up, Ran Min said lightly: "Zhuqing, I recently made a private visit to Weifu and found that there are some shortcomings in the imperial bureaucratic system, which have to be changed!" ”

"The empire is so vast that it has never been seen before, so the territory is so vast, the cities and the population are so large, and it needs many officials to govern it. I have a lot of talents in the Great Wei Dynasty, and there are many capable people like carp crossing the river, but I found that many officials are talented but not virtuous, and over the years, they have unknowingly become corrupt officials! Coupled with the fact that the empire is expanding so rapidly, it is obviously not enough to rely on the existing officials or the talents reserved by the imperial court. ”

"I wonder what Your Majesty plans to do?" Cui Hao had already guessed what Ran Min was going to do, but he still asked hard.

Ran Min bowed slightly: "Guozijian and Jixia Academy Palace are the highest institutions of learning in my Great Wei Empire, and the students who come out of these two academies are basically serving as officials in the court or in the local government. The ministers of the DPRK and the central government, or officials from all over the country, will recommend some talents every year, but whether the filial piety and honesty they recommend are really talented and learned, I am not very clear, and the imperial court is not very clear. ”

"It can be said that the inspection system since the Han Dynasty and the nine-product Zhongzheng system since the Wei and Jin dynasties are no longer applicable to the current situation of the Great Wei Dynasty!"

As soon as they heard that Ran Min was going to reform the country's system of selecting talents, many ministers from the scholar clan chuckled in their hearts, and they had an ominous premonition.

Sure enough, Ran Min then said: "I want to establish the 'imperial examination system' and open the department to replace the inspection system and the Jiupin Zhongzheng system. ”

"Your Majesty, I don't know what is desirable about this imperial examination system?"

"The imperial examination system, in line with the principle of fairness, impartiality and openness, is divided into two categories of subjects and two categories, and the permanent subjects include more than 50 kinds of subjects, such as the scriptures, Moyi, poetry, Xiucai, Mingjing, Jinshi, Junshi, Mingfa, Mingzi, and Mingsuan. The scientific examination is divided into four levels: the township examination, the solution examination, the provincial examination and the palace examination. The township test was held in the county, the solution test was held in the prefecture, the provincial test was conducted by the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Officials, and the palace test was personally controlled by me. ”

"Those who have passed the township test are called Xiucai, those who have passed the examination are called lifters, those who have passed the provincial test are called Jinshi, and those who have passed the palace test can be obtained such as champions, tanhua, and lists. In addition, I also plan to set up a martial arts examination, which will be conducted by the Ministry of War, and the examination subjects include horse shooting, infantry shooting, flat shooting, horse pistol, weight-bearing wrestling, etc., which are basically the same as the imperial examination. ”

When the ministers heard this, they were all frightened.

In the imperial history, Cheng Wei hurriedly got up and said: "Your Majesty, the minister thinks that it is not easy to implement this kind of imperial examination system throughout the country. Moreover, since the establishment of the Jiupin Zhongzheng system, the scholars have all praised it, and His Majesty suddenly launched the imperial examination system and opened the department to take scholars, lest the people be dissatisfied. ”

"Hmph, what is the people's heart? I think it's the heart of a scholar, right? Ran Min pursed his lips and said: "I admit that the inspection system and the Jiupin Zhongzheng system have their merits, but there are many slots, which are applicable to the time, not the present!" We should keep up with the times! ”

Although Xu Ji, the Qing of Dali Temple, was born in the scholar clan, he was a hardcore emperor, and he had always been Ran Min's dog-legged existence, and now when he heard Ran Min say this, he immediately stood up.

"Your Majesty's words are extremely true! In the past, the inspection system of the Han Dynasty and the nine-product Zhongzheng system since the Wei and Jin dynasties were because there were many talents from the family gate, and the children of the poor family were not all talented, but there were too few, so the officials of the previous dynasties were mostly from the family. But now it's different, Your Majesty has been running official schools in various places for more than ten years, and the students he has cultivated are unknown, including the noble clan and the Hanmen, they are all in the people, doing things in all walks of life, but their talents should not be buried! ”

Hearing Xu Ji's loud words, Ran Min glanced at him appreciatively.

Ran Min actually wanted to implement the imperial examination system for a long time, but for more than ten years, he has been holding back, just running official schools in various places, absorbing a large number of children from poor families to enroll, in order to confront the scholars and lords.

Official learning, in fact, is the foundation of the imperial examination system.

The system of selecting officials in the past dynasties of China has always changed, but it has never deviated from its roots, and the core idea is still "people-oriented".

In the Zhou Dynasty, the "township elders" (patriarchs) selected the wise men of their own country, and went directly to the central government through the layers of tribute from the local governors.

The Magi who paid tribute to the king were personally examined by the king, and the content was archery.

In the society before the Zhou Dynasty, only members of the ruling group family could be educated to become intellectuals, and the various components of the state apparatus were in fact mainly hereditary by the members of the ruling group, which was embodied in the Zhou Dynasty's "Shiqing Shilu" system.

Under this system, even if there is some kind of recommendation selection, it basically does not go beyond the scope of the patriarchal family. Recommendation and selection transcend the net of hereditary blood ties and rise to high positions can only be extremely fortuitous exceptions.

In the Spring and Autumn Period, "etiquette collapsed and happiness was broken", the system of Shiqing Shilu was seriously damaged, and some lower-class people who were not originally nobles were exceptionally appointed, and there were more and more cases of selecting and promoting talents through recommendation and assessment.

A bureaucratic system of appointments (and merit-based promotions) by recommendation and appraisal gradually emerged. At that time, the social and economic development and the expansion of cultural and educational areas accelerated this process.

In the Han Dynasty, the promotion of civilian talents was carried out through the inspection system and the expropriation system.

In the eleventh year of Gaozu (197 BC), Liu Bang issued an edict ordering his subordinates at all levels to recommend talents, forming the initial form of township tribute in later generations.

In the second year (178 BC) and the fifteenth year (165 BC), Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty issued two edicts ordering officials at all levels to recommend "virtuous and upright people who can speak outright", and to conduct examinations in the form of questions for the recommended people. According to Dong Zhongshu's suggestion, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty ordered each county to raise a filial son and an honest official, and later the two departments were gradually merged into one department, which was called "filial piety".

In addition, "Xiucai" is also one of the important subjects of the inspection. Filial piety is important in virtue, and talent is important in talent. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, in order to avoid Liu Xiu, it was changed to "Maocai".

In the Han Dynasty, all subjects had to pass the imperial court examination. However, the important difference between the Han Dynasty examination examination and the imperial examination of later generations is that the examination is mainly based on recommendation, supplemented by examination, and there is basically no dethronement in the examination.

Examinations are not important in the examination, and the recommendation is decisive. The power of recommendation was in the hands of bureaucrats and magnates at all levels below the emperor. Investigation is not the biggest channel for the two Han Dynasty to advance.

Since the beginning of the Han Dynasty, the direct recruitment of "Renzi", "Xuanxuan", the emperor and bureaucrats at all levels is still going on. Ordinary scholars are often recruited as state and county officials first, and then their superiors are promoted to the central government as talents, filial piety, and so on.

However, civilians in cloth clothes who generally have no way out have almost no possibility of being investigated.

During the reign of Emperor Wen of Wei, Chen Qun established the Jiupin Zhongzheng system, which was divided into nine grades of recruitment by specific officials who assessed civilian talents according to their background and morality. This system was used during the Jin and Six Dynasties.

In the Nine Pins, it is the improvement of the inspection, mainly the change of the inspection from the local magistrate to the appointed official.

However, in the Wei and Jin dynasties, the power of the scholars was strong, and they often influenced the evaluation of talents by the central officials, and later even the criteria were limited to family backgrounds.

As a result, the phenomenon of "no poor family in the upper grade and no scholar in the lower grade" has been created. not only blocked the collection of materials from the people, but also allowed the scholars to control the imperial court materials.

Ran Min decided to implement the imperial examination system throughout the country, and his will was irrevocable, and the ministers had to agree.