Daming Town Haiwang

Chapter 2015, a relatively fair imperial examination system
The reason why the mature imperial examination system of the Ming Dynasty can continue to operate is inseparable from the selection and promotion of officials after the imperial examination.

Because if you do well in the exam, you can be promoted faster and have a better future. In addition, the imperial examination is relatively fair and just, and people who pay attention to talent and learning are recognized and convinced by everyone.

This system can also be recognized by everyone, and everyone has been silently obeying this rule.

Even Liu Jin cannot violate this system and rules, and this system also has its rationality, and it is relatively more just and fair.

Under the imperial examination system of the Ming Dynasty, if you failed to pass the imperial examination, even if you were the son of a cabinet minister, it would be difficult to get ahead. For example, Liu Jian’s son and grandson could not pass the imperial examination, and they would never be able to get ahead.

And things like this are very common. The sons of great ministers in the court have been unable to pass the examination until they are forty or fifty years old. No matter how powerful their parents are, they still have no way to make their children rise to the top.

Only after being admitted as a Jinshi, and with such a background, can you have the opportunity and possibility to rise to the top. Even children from poor families, like Liu Jin, can still make it to the top.

This is the characteristic of the imperial examinations in the Ming Dynasty, and only the imperial examinations are the standard!
Everything depends on the situation of your imperial examinations. If you fail to pass the Jinshi exam, you are doomed not to be able to get ahead.

The imperial examination system is very strict, and there are very few incidents of cheating on the test questions. Once it occurs, it will be given the most severe punishment, no matter who is found, it will be severely punished.

Under such a system, do you dare to say that reading is useless?
Even if you have a lot of money, you still have to be inferior in front of scholars, otherwise there would not be so many rich men desperately wanting to marry their daughters to those poor scholars.

People like Xie Qian, Yang Tinghe, and Zhang Juzheng were very talented when they were still young, and they were very famous. They were attracted by famous local gentry early on, and they rushed to betroth their daughters there, and there were quite a few of them. stories passed down.

There is also Liu Jin, although he came from a poor family, but he is a scholar and talented, and if he is admitted to the number one scholar, he can marry the granddaughter of Ding Guogong and the Minister of Rites at the same time.

It can be seen from all these aspects that in the Ming Dynasty, the identity and status of scholars were absolutely very high, and the whole society recognized them.

The entire imperial examination system is relatively fair and just, giving children from poor families a chance to get ahead.

Because Liu Jin was a time traveler, he had conducted in-depth comparison and analysis early on, and he also felt that the ancient imperial examination system was relatively fair and just, leaving opportunities and possibilities for the poor.

Especially in the current Ming Dynasty, everyone's income has increased and their living standards have improved. Although there are free new schools to study, there are still a large number of ordinary people who send their children to reading institutes and private schools for their own sake. You can take the imperial examination in the future.

This is also an important reason for the increasing pressure of the imperial examinations in Ming Dynasty.

Because there are many times more traditional scholars than before, the pressure of competition is naturally greater.

In the past, those who could study were naturally wealthy families with extremely good family conditions, and ordinary people were simply not enough to support their children to study.

Because the cost of studying is really too expensive. Shu Xiu, pen, ink, paper and inkstone, long-term separation from production, rushing for exams, making friends, etc., all of these cost money, and they all cost a lot, a lot of money.

Relying on this method, high walls and courtyards are erected high to isolate ordinary children. Only families with conditions can afford to study.

This is somewhat similar to the education system in Europe and the United States in later generations.

In an ordinary family, your children are sent to public schools to implement happy education, mainly all kinds of fun. When they reach the junior high school stage, they can't even count ninety-nine, and they can't count. One-half plus three It is impossible to calculate how much one-third is equal to.

This is definitely not nonsense here, but the real side. People who are educated happily are almost useless people, but there are still countless people who say that happy education is good and cultivate children's nature. It is pure nonsense .

If you want to acquire knowledge, you must go to a private school, and the tuition fee of a private school is extremely expensive, and it can be tens of thousands of dollars a semester, and you can't afford it if you don't have a little money.

And only by going to a private school can you go to a good private high school, a good private high school can go to a good university, and only a good university can you become a social elite.

Relying on such a method to build a high-walled compound, which cuts off the opportunities for ordinary children to succeed, only a small number of elites can continue in this way and control all aspects.

This is very similar to the ancient imperial examination system, which isolated ordinary children through expensive education fees.

But now that the income level of Ming people has increased, more and more people can support their children to study in academies and private schools. This has increased competition and pressure on traditional scholars, and the imperial examination has become more difficult.

But in general, it is fair and just, and everything depends on the results of the imperial examination.

Conservative officials were able to stand up and not be suppressed, because the foundation was the imperial examination system, which was recognized by everyone and recognized by the entire Ming society.

It is continuously sending officials and high-ranking officials to the Ming court. Even the current hard-working officials are actually Confucian children who were born in the imperial examination.

It is just because of the different ideas of governing the country that they are divided into the practical school and the old-fashioned school. In essence, they are all children of Confucianism.

There are only a few of the new school's children who are officials, and they are all small officials, so they can't influence the ruling and opposition parties of Ming Dynasty at all.

If the imperial examination system is not changed, it means that it is still impossible to completely defeat the old school.

But if the imperial examination system is changed, what system should be used to replace it?
The civil service examination system of later generations is not essentially similar to the current imperial examinations, and there is no difference, at most, the content of the examinations is different.

It is absolutely possible to add corresponding disciplines and content to the imperial examination, and there is no need to abolish the imperial examination system. This system has been in operation for thousands of years since the Sui Dynasty, and it is already very perfect.

Liu Jin has been thinking about this matter, which is also the reason for maintaining the current situation.

Because Liu Jin also approves of the imperial examination system from the bottom of his heart, because it gives opportunities to the poor, and it is a relatively fair and just system, at least much fairer than later generations.

Everyone agrees that everything is inferior, but reading is high, respecting knowledge and respecting scholars, this is a good social atmosphere.

The learning atmosphere in Xinxue is very good. Everyone is serious about studying and cherishes the rare opportunity to study. The society also recognizes scholars more.

In later generations, there are countless people who believe in the theory that reading is useless. This is a very common social atmosphere, which does not respect knowledge and intellectuals.

(End of this chapter)