Daming Town Haiwang

Chapter 285, Township Exam

The ancient imperial examination system was very cumbersome. During the exam, several subjects were taken in a row, and the exam lasted for three days and three nights.

The test environment is very poor, the test booth is very cramped, with walls on three sides, and a wooden board in front of it, used for writing and writing during the day, and used as a bed for sleeping at night.

As for the food for these three days, the examination room will be responsible. The food will not be very good, similar to the fast food in later generations. For drinking water, there will be a water tank in front of each row of examination booths, which is filled with clean water.

Before entering the examination room, besides pens, inks, papers and inkstones, each examinee also needs to bring candles, kettles and other daily necessities in case of emergencies.

The conditions of the exam can be said to be extremely difficult. The small test room has to take the exam and rest for three consecutive days. Without a healthy body, it will be very difficult to survive.

Moreover, during the three days of the exam, every time you go to the toilet, you will be followed by the servants of the exam room. Basically, you will stay in the exam booth, and most people will suffocate to death.

Some people will say, I am a top student, can I hand in the test in advance?

The answer is no, the imperial examination has many cumbersome regulations, one of which is about submitting papers in advance, even if you are talented, you have already finished writing and handing in the papers in advance, you still have to stay in the examination room honestly, You can't come out until the end of the exam on the third day.

The imperial examinations are always suffering. Of course, one has to endure hardships to become a superior person. Since ancient times, many powerful figures have come out of these simple examination sheds, ranging from senior cabinet ministers to ordinary people. The Qipin county magistrates all came out step by step through this imperial examination.

"Wow, this one is young and still comes to take the exam. If he dies in the exam booth, who is it?"

In the [-]th year of Hongzhi, the Northern Zhili Township Examination finally arrived. On this day, before dawn, Liu Jin was woken up by the servants at home. After a delicious breakfast, he came to the Gongyuan with Huang Jinquan and Tong Yuan , Prepare to take this year's imperial examination.

There were a lot of people who came to take part in the township examination. There were more than [-] people, ranging in age from young to old. Liu Jin was the youngest group. Most of them were in their thirties or forties, in their twenties. They are all young people.

Among them, there are even many people in their fifties and sixties. Liu Jin even saw an old man with full hair, trembling when he walked, and carefully supported by his sons, who came to participate in the rural examination.

"Forehead……"

Hearing Liu Jin's words, Huang Jinquan and Tong Yuan couldn't help but their eyes darkened. The brain circuits of their mentors are always so strange. You must know that for scholars like them, it is a lifetime of studying books and taking imperial examinations for a lifetime. It's a very normal phenomenon, if you can die in the examination room, it will be a beautiful thing through the ages.

However, the reason why so many people came to participate in the rural examination was because the rural examination was a very important hurdle. Passing the rural examination could become a juren, and juren was a privileged class, exempted from tax and corvee, and even had the opportunity to become an official.

In contrast, although scholars also have some privileges, they do not have such great benefits as Juren. Once they become Juren, among other things, a large number of people will immediately donate their fields to avoid taxation. .

There is no age limit in the ancient science and technology examinations. This is still very humane. It doesn’t matter if you fail the exam. You can come again next time.

The number of scholars is increasing every year, but the provincial examination is only once every three years, and each province has strict regulations on the number of candidates in the provincial examination. Generally speaking, the entire Ming Dynasty admits [-] candidates once every three years To around [-] people.

When there are few people, there are only a thousand people. When the emperor is in a good mood, he may give one or two hundred people more places, and these places will be divided among the provinces. Calculated, the provincial examination once every three years in a province can only admit about [-] people. Multiple looks.

As the foot of the emperor, Beizhili had the largest number of admissions in the provincial examination among the provinces of Ming Dynasty, but it was not too many. At the top, it was about [-] people.

More than [-] people came to take the exam, and the probability of passing the provincial exam to obtain Juren status was only one in [-], which was comparable to the civil servant exams of some popular departments in later generations.

"Clang~clang~"

"Admission to the exam~"

A large number of examinees came early, and the exam started very early. Some government servants began to get busy beating gongs and drums, and all entrance exams had to go through strict inspections.

This inspection not only includes whether there is entrainment, but more importantly, whether there is a substitute for the test, whether the candidate himself came to take the test in person.

The ancient imperial examinations were extremely strict. Candidates should not only have official certificates to prove their identities, but also records such as appearance characteristics, family conditions, etc., which will be asked when entering the venue, and more importantly, whether to take the exam or not. Someone needs a bond.

The guarantor must have prestige. It can be your mentor when you were studying, or someone who has achieved fame. Similarly, several candidates who took the exam together need to jointly guaranty.

Once there is a phenomenon of replacement, the guarantor will follow the bad luck, and it is still a trivial matter to get rid of fame, and if it is not done, it will be exiled for three thousand miles.

So in this regard, no one dares to cheat at all, because once someone finds out, the consequences will be too serious.

After some strict inspections, Liu Jin finally entered the examination room and found his seat according to the seat number issued when he entered.

"It's okay~ it's okay, it's not a stinky number, otherwise, I would probably vomit jaundice in three days."

Liu Jin carefully observed his seat number, the seat is still good, far away from the toilet.

The location of the examination room is also very important. Some locations are very close to the toilets. These locations are generally called stinky numbers. You can imagine that you spent three days taking the exam next to the toilet, but the ancient toilets are just a matter of thinking. I knew the mood of the candidate who got the stinky number, and he was definitely hit hard by the negative state.

People who can still pass the exam in such an environment are definitely people with unimaginable perseverance, at least in Liu Jin's view. If Liu Jin gets a bad name, Liu Jin feels that he wants to die. , Most of them will directly choose to give up the provincial examination this time, anyway, the opportunity comes once every three years.

As candidates entered the arena one after another, the entire Gongyuan began to become lively, but because the imperial examination environment was very serious, so the excitement was lively, but there were not many voices coming out.

Everyone quietly sat in their seats, prepared pens, inks, papers and inkstones, etc., and waited quietly for the start of the township examination. Even if someone got a bad number and was very close to the toilet, at this moment, they could only bear with it. .

Because everyone knows that only by passing through this test can they really stand out, just like Fan Jin written in "The Scholars", who was just a scholar before he won the exam, but after he won the exam, he was just a scholar. It's just that the status of Juren varies greatly, and it is not an exaggeration to describe it as a carp leaping over the dragon's gate.

In layman's terms, once the weight is lifted, it is the real salted fish turning over.

　The importance of the township exam seems to be really nothing compared to it~
　　
　
(End of this chapter)