In the spring of the ninth year of Jingwu, Zhu Zhanyuan was ordered to be the president (that is, the chief examiner), which greatly brought back the limelight.

Emperor Taizu of this dynasty was born in a wealthy merchant family, so he set the rules to refer to the scientific examination system of the Tang and Former Song dynasties.

The examination is not only a test of classical knowledge, but also an evaluation, inspection and record of the candidate's ability to observe life, the use of words, flexible thinking and logical argumentation, as well as his or her strengths.

Compared with the Ming Dynasty Bagu Exam that Li Dan previously knew, it was not only more difficult, but also more practical. This is also the reason why Tang Xuan and other local officials are more pragmatic and familiar with various laws and rules.

In fact, in addition to Shangjing, there are four examination rooms in Nanjing Yingtianfu (Jinling), Xijing Xi'anfu, and Beijing Shuntianfu, and candidates can choose a convenient place or take the exam nearby.

Of course, the examination questions are the same, and the questions are uniformly issued by the President of the Scientific Examination, and four copies are transcribed and then encapsulated by fire paint and asphalt.

Then put it into four rosewood copper-edged "gold boxes", locked and sent to the four tribute courtyards by the guardianship of the wing dragon guard, after a solemn seal inspection and key handover ceremony, and then put into the three-layer locked copper cabinet.

On the day when all the students entered the examination room of the Gongyuan, the officials with three bronze keys arrived together and took out the gold box from the cabinet under the supervision of the Wing Long Guard.

The student official with the handover key opens the box, and then the Wing Loong Wei verifies and opens the asphalt seal bag and the fire paint seal bag successively, so that the student administration official can take out the exam questions and show them to the students.

This process is not only rigorous, but also standardized, which effectively prevents the leakage of pre-exam questions. From the question and topic selection to the emperor's imperial pen to the day the candidate left, all the officials related to the question lived on Xinghua Island on the West Lake.

Fortunately, I don't have to worry about eating and drinking, the scenery is good, and it is okay to miss my family for a month, just as a public holiday.

The location of Shangjing Gongyuan is not far from the "Wenbu Street" of the Guide Mansion Office, with the Guide Mansion School and Suiyang County School in the east, and the Cultural Square in the west, which is the most prosperous place in the city.

At the beginning of February, *** students entered the venue and took the "Classics" exam; On the 12th, the second entrance test was "Strategy", and on the 15th, the third test was "Judgment" and "Poetry".

The third session is the characteristics of this dynasty, and most of the judgments are based on a case, and students are asked to analyze the rights and wrongs of both parties and the applicable legal terms, and then write their own judgments.

Poetry is a test of students' perception and judgment of poetry and the agility of the work to be answered. The former requires students to have an understanding of market life and folk customs, while the latter focuses more on the ability to adapt and flexibly use words.

A total of 1,160 tribute students were taken from the four examination rooms, including 350 from Shangjing, 310 from Yingtianfu, 260 from Beiping and 220 from Xi'an.

Then, a quarter to one-third of the outstanding ones were selected to become Jinshi, and they were sent by the local tribute institutes to gather in Shangjing to participate in the palace examination.

The addition of examination rooms in Beiping and Xi'an was a strategy adopted by Emperor Taizong to resolve the long-pending dispute between the north and the south, because one of the contents of the dispute was that Taizu stipulated that:

The ratio of admission to Southern Shizi (in Yingtianfu Examination) and Northern Shizi (in Zhongjing Shangqiu Examination) is six to four.

In the time of Taizu, this ratio was appropriate, because the population of the north had declined more during the long-term war, and the culture was suppressed by the previous dynasty for a long time and was not as popular as in the south.

However, by the time of Taizong a few decades later, the situation had changed, and the situation that there were more southerners than northerners in the court had to be changed, so two additional examination rooms were added to nominally take care of northern candidates.

The actual candidates who take the township test do not take the distance of residence as the condition for choosing the examination room, which makes the quarrel between the two sides on this issue gradually fade.

After the first two examinations, everyone felt that the topic of this year's scripture was acceptable, but the topic of the thesis "On the Gains and Losses of Mining Affairs and the Mine Supervision System" surprised many people. Everyone thought that the emperor would not mention the mining issue when he suffered a loss here, but who knew that he would mention it.

"It seems that Jinshang is really a wise king, quite the style of Tang Taizong!" Fat Flin Wanyan sighed.

In the third scene, the judgment was about a maritime merchant who filed a lawsuit for compensation from the shipowner because of the dampness of the sea salt he transported, and the shipowner claimed that the other goods in the same cabin were not damp

In cases of refusal of compensation, everyone is required to analyze the facts of the case and invoke the clause to make a judgment.

It's lively now, the students write everything, and after they get out of the exam room, they are noisy. There are those who support the maritime merchants, and there are those who support the ship, and the two sides quarrel with each other.

It even made noise in taverns, restaurants and even in the Red Mansion, which made the officials of the Guide Mansion tired and crying and laughing. "Who's out of this lack of morality, aren't we the fish that were affected by the fire at the city gate?" Someone scolded.

They didn't know that the source of this topic was a story told by Li Dan and Liu Xi after drinking, Liu Xi wrote it into the secret newspaper and handed it to the emperor, and Zhao Tuole came to it as this year's exam question!

"Eh, where did the emperor find this case? It's absolutely amazing!" The examiners who marked the papers also shook their heads. Regardless of whether the judgment is right or wrong, the logic of the judgment and whether the law cited are appropriate, and if it is appropriate, it will be qualified.

If the captain is judged to be irresponsible, and the merchant bears the loss on his own, it is superior. If you can emphasize the packaging problem and remind the maritime merchants that they can hold the packaging merchants accountable, it is the best choice.

Zhou Wu didn't understand maritime merchants and salt goods, so Han advocated an idea to make a debate between Deng Xun (a son of a salt merchant) and Lin Wanyan (a son of a maritime merchant) in a brocade robe, and everyone suddenly realized.

"Fengzhi, you don't have to worry, your scriptures and strategies are good, you should be able to pull your grades back." Han Zhan comforted him and said.

The new scholars from the other three places have already entered Beijing, where they are waiting for the ranking and release of the papers after the big school review, and then they will prepare for the palace examination next month. Through the temple examination, the top three are distinguished, namely:

The first (top three) is given to the Jinshi and the first born and the official positions of the Hanlin Academy (from the sixth grade) and the compilation (seventh grade),

The second class was born as a jinshi, called Shu Jishi, and entered the Hanlin Academy to study and reserve (only the first place in the second class can be reviewed from the seventh grade),

The third Jiaci was born with a jinshi to go to the six ministries to observe politics, and then engaged in low-level bureaucrats or county magistrates.

On the day of the release, the gate of Gongyuan Street was crowded. After the gong sounds, the tolerance begins to paste yellow paper from left to right, and the beginning is a big "list" character, and then the noun, name, and place of origin are written in gold ink, which is called the title of the gold list.

From the top three to the first grade, how many people poured into the sensation.

Zhou Wu saw that he had won the top three, which was the third and seventh, wiped the sweat from his head, and said with a wry smile: "I don't want the emperor to have eyes, so I actually gave me a chance." Shame, shame!"

He was originally from Xi'an, and he failed to take the exam in Xi'an the first two times. Fortunately, I can afford it at home, so I specially came to Shangjing to take the exam, and I don't want to be here anymore, and I am very happy in my heart.

Han Advocate won the top three hundred and twenty-six, he himself knows how much ink there is, anyway, he just hits! Deng Xun is one hundred and seventy-four in the second class; Xu Baozhong is the 93rd in the first class.

Now there are still four left, Su You, Fang Wei, Lin Wanyan and Wei Congxi have not come out, and everyone is anxious, but they have been comforting others.

Looking at the next one carefully, it was written that Fang was sixty-second, and Su You was thirty-fourth. "After that, that's the top ten!" Someone whispered.

Lin Wanyan was no longer hopeful, he shook his head: "Alas! It seems that there is no drama in Jinke!"

"Wait, it's not out yet." Han Zhan said that he didn't think it was possible, he knew the Fat Buddha's skills, especially in poetry, he was really far behind!

posted it again, but it was in the top ten to four, and there was still no Wei Congxi. He frowned, turned and left! Fang Wei wanted to hold him, Su You waved his hand: "Let him go, his temper is ......!"

Wei Congxi's family was poor, and he couldn't afford to live in the inns around the Literature Workshop, so he found a place to live in the Huanglin Temple on the east bank of the Bao River. Wei Congxi walked fast on his feet, returned to his residence and began to pack up his bedding and clothes, and prepared to go home.

Suddenly, I heard a knock at the door, and when I looked back, I saw that it was the monk of the temple who was folding at the door, and asked him, "Is the donor leaving?"

"Ah, I'm ready to go." Wei Congxi blushed, he thought that the other party had seen through him, and felt ashamed and ashamed:

"Master, this is here to give alms? To tell the truth, I only have fifty wen left on me, if I don't leave Jingshi again, only

I'm afraid I won't even be able to drink water." He said with a slight self-deprecation.

"Amitabha!" The monk also smiled: "It's not easy for Jingshi to live in a big place, and it's difficult to be a donor.

However, the little monk did not come for alms and tea money, and the poor people who went to Beijing to take the exam were not the only donors? Our temple has never cared about it. Besides, there are already people who have given alms in our temple on behalf of the donor."

"Huh? And such things?" Wei Congxi wondered, "Master, do you know who the other party is?"

The monk shook his head, "The monks don't ask about mundane affairs. The man left only one sentence, that whoever wants to learn from things will be able to endure what others can't, endure it, and wait for it." After speaking, the monk bowed slightly and disappeared outside the door.

"What does it mean to be able to endure and wait for ......?" Wei Congxi was stunned for a while, sitting on the neatly folded quilt and remembering in a daze. After some time, he was awakened by the sound of drums.

Wei Congxi raised his head and looked out the window blankly, thinking to himself that it was a student in this temple who lived in the same high school as himself?

The footsteps sounded again, and the monk appeared at the door again. Seeing that he was still there, he seemed to breathe a sigh of relief: "Donor, there is a guest visiting."

"Looking for me?" As soon as Wei Congxi asked this, he saw an official and a man in brown appear in front of him. "May I ask if Mr. Cong Xi, the old man of Xi'an Mansion, is in person?"

"Yes!" Wei Congxi's mouth opened, but he didn't say anything, only replied one word.

"Congratulations, Master Wei is the third place in the first class of Jinke High School! This is Lord Huangmen Langyou, he has come to teach you the etiquette of entering the palace, please prepare to go down to the noon gate to thank you!"

"Ugh...... Ah, adults, students and students come from poor families, and only this dress ......." Wei Congxi was excited and embarrassed, and his hands were shaking irrepressibly.

The official pursed his lips and smiled: "Tanhualang, don't worry, everything has been arranged, even if you listen to him."