Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 106 Mock Exam
Listening to the noisy officials in the court, Zhu Youjian couldn't determine their opinions for a while.

I just saw that most of the people who spoke out were opposed to the establishment of the Mingfa Section. But Zhu Youjian knows that there is still a silent majority——

The expansion of Jinshi enrollment will help their relatives and friends become officials, so how can many people really oppose it?
So after Zhu Youjian thought about it, he ordered:
"Those who oppose raise their hands, and Honglu Temple officials will count the votes."

“As long as no more than half of the votes are against it, the establishment of the Ming Law Department and the Ming Accounting Department will be approved.”

Vote directly at the court meeting to decide this matter.

Then things get fun.

Those who are silent continue to be silent, and not everyone who opposes raises their hands. It's OK to let them express their opinions, but it's not OK to raise their hands to object. After all, their relatives and friends also need to take the exam, and if they know that they object, they will probably scold him for blocking the way.

In this way, the establishment of the Ming Law Department was successfully passed in the court. The Mingshu subject was also added to the list by Zhu Youjian. Taking advantage of the previously rumored mindset of connecting the two subjects, it was also passed.

It was confirmed that the Ming Law Department and the Ming Calculation Department would be formally established next year, and Zhu Youjian ordered:

"Yuan Keli, Assistant to the Third Law Department, and Guo Yunhou, the Secretary of the Ministry of Household Affairs, are the chief examiners of Mingfa and Mingshu respectively, responsible for next year's exams."

"How will the exam be carried out specifically? Do you have any regulations?"

Yuan Keli thought about this problem and said:

"The Imperial College, the former Imperial College, has been teaching the number of laws and regulations, and the monthly exams have relevant content."

"I plan to discuss with the teachers and students of Taixue to determine the regulations for the Mingfa Examination."

Zhu Youjian nodded slightly and said:
"This is a safe approach, but it is not enough."

"Read this memorial and express your opinion."

Take out the memorials of Qian Jiazheng and Wang Lin and have them read at the court meeting.

When the ministers heard the two requesting permission to take the Gongsheng examination, they all angrily criticized the absurdity.

Only high-ranking students can participate in the examination. How can Gong students be allowed to directly participate?

In particular, each province has a fixed number of rural examination places. If Gong students can directly participate in the joint examination, it is equivalent to bypassing the local provincial examination quota.

This is a great damage to the imperial examination system and will not be allowed by any Jinshi.

Therefore, this matter was not unexpectedly rejected in the court, and some ministers even wanted to issue an edict to strictly prohibit such things.

Zhu Youjian did not expect that the ministers would react so strongly and that they valued the quota for the provincial examination so much that he had no choice but to give up the idea of ​​allowing Gong students to take the examination and tentatively said:
"In the former Song Dynasty, there was a three-part family law. The outer house gave birth to two thousand people, the inner house gave birth to three hundred people, and the upper house gave birth to a hundred people."

"I think we can relax it appropriately and allow the top 100 Taipei students to take the exam next year."

"After all, the Mingfa and Mingshu subjects are newly opened. If there are not enough people to take the exam, the imperial court will lose its glory."

The ministers laughed in their hearts, thinking that such a thing could not happen.

Not to mention that there are not enough people to take the exam, there will definitely be more people to apply for next year than usual.

After all, the emperor had said before that he wanted to get more Jinshi, and now he has opened the Mingfa and Mingshu departments. There must be many people who want to take part in the exam next year.

Regardless of whether these people are familiar with law or mathematics, most of them will take Mingfa and Mingshu subjects to increase the possibility of becoming Jinshi.

Therefore, in these two subject examinations, students of Taipei University cannot be allowed to seize the opportunity.

Even those who had children studying in Taixue were unable to stand up and support him at this time. There were too many people who opposed it, and even the minister could not bear it.

Tai students and Zhu Youjian have no friendship, and Zhu Youjian certainly will not force this matter on their behalf. However, in order to gain the favor of the Tai students and to encourage the Tai students to study hard, Zhu Youjian proposed something and said to the ministers:

"The Ming Dynasty has never held exams for the Ming Dynasty's law and science subjects. It's best to find some people to simulate them a few times."

"In the two months of December this year and January next year, two mock exams will be held every month in Gongyuan, allowing all Taipei students and people in Beijing to participate."

"Those who rank in the top 100 in both exams will be awarded the official rank of Ninth Grade. Those who rank in the top 100 once will be awarded the rank of Ninth Grade."

"Those with meritorious titles will not be awarded official positions for the time being, but will still be allowed to participate in next year's general examination."

There is not much controversy about this. As long as Tai students are not allowed to directly participate in the examination, the officials will have no objection. They don't care about the ninth-grade official position or the ninth-grade official position. They can be awarded higher official positions even if they are from a tribute position!
After asking clearly whether these people were from non-Jinshi backgrounds if they became officials, the officials agreed to hold a mock examination.

Zhu Youjian ordered Yuan Keli and Guo Yunhou to preside over the simulation of next year's Mingfa and Mingshu exams.

I believe that after two simulations, the Mingfa and Mathematics exams will mature and will not be a joke next year.

After seeing the mock test questions and answers, test takers will know how to answer them and will not be left clueless.

Then, the ministers discussed the number of students admitted to Mingfa and Mingshu and the proportions in each place.

After arguing for a while, no one took advantage. In the end, we decided to refer to the Jinshi subject and divide the candidates into Southern, Northern, and Middle schools. The ratio was still 55:35:10.

The three volumes of the Northern and Southern Middle Schools are the gradually established proportion of Jinshi after the Northern and Southern Ranking Cases during the Hongwu period. Initially, it was simply divided into northern and southern scrolls, with six southern scrolls and four northern scrolls being used. Later, it was further refined, and five volumes from the north and south were withdrawn into the middle volume, which was divided into three volumes from the north to the south. The ratio also became 55:35:10.

Among them, the southern volume corresponds to the southern Zhili Yingtian and Su and Song prefectures, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Fujian, Huguang, and Guangdong. The northern volume corresponds to Shuntian and other places in Northern Zhili, Shandong, Shanxi, Henan, and Shaanxi. The middle volume corresponds to Sichuan, Guangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou, as well as the two prefectures of Fengyang and Luzhou in South Zhili, and the three prefectures of Chu, Xu, and He.

It seems that Nanjuan has admitted the largest number of students and takes the best care of them. In fact, because of the uneven education level, more attention is paid to the northern and middle volumes. Take the rural examination for example. Southern scholars often pretend to be from Zhili, Yunnan and Guizhou and other places in the north and south to seize local quotas.

Zhu Youjian also considered the problem of illegal citizenship by restricting the registration of donors to those outside the northern and southern Zhili. If he allowed public servants to register directly in any state capital directly under the control of the North and the South, it is estimated that the southern scholars who donated money to the public servants would have to queue up.

However, as the northern and southern Zhili areas were directly ruled by the imperial court and the basic foundation of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Youjian could not infringe on the interests of the two places. Any adjustments made in the two places will be done with caution.

On the contrary, in places such as Yunnan and Guizhou, Zhu Youjian would welcome people who settled there for the imperial examination, as if they were supporting the frontier, and they would naturally receive preferential treatment in the imperial examination.

Zhu Youjian actually has an opinion about this usage ratio, but he is inconvenient to say it out:
"There is no problem with Mingfa Division's distribution according to this ratio. There is no restriction on the judicial officer's place of origin."

"But there is a problem with the ratio of Mingshu Ke. Taizu clearly stipulated that officials in the Ministry of Household Affairs are not allowed to use people from Zhejiang, Jiangxi, and Susong."

"Due to various reasons, this ban was not repealed like Taizu's other edicts and has been continued."

"Even if people from Susong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang are admitted, they cannot serve as officials in the Ministry of Household Affairs."

Thinking about this problem, Zhu Youjian did not say it in the end.

If we can establish the Mingfa and Mingshu departments, it will be considered a success, but it is better not to create extraneous problems in other aspects.

Those in the Ming Accounting Department do not necessarily go to the Ministry of Household Affairs to serve as officials. They go to the General Accounting Office, the Jinyiwei Statistics Department, and the financial departments of various yamen.

　"Da Ming Hui Dian"

　　The number of trial quotas will be determined. In the third year of Hongwu's reign, the Ministry of Rites was ordered to hold an examination to select a hundred candidates.
　　○In the first year of Hongxi's reign, the imperial examination was completed, and scholars were selected through examinations. However, only a hundred people were invited for the imperial edict at the last minute. The southern volume takes six out of ten. The northern volume takes four out of ten. Later, the order was divided into hundreds, and five volumes were withdrawn each from the north and the south as the middle volume.

　　[The sixteen provincial capitals of Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Fujian, Huguang, Guangdong, Yingtian, Zhili Songjiang, Suzhou, Changzhou, Zhenjiang, Huizhou, Ningguo, Chizhou, Taiping, Huai'an, Yangzhou, and Guangde are the southern volume.

　　Shandong, Shanxi, Henan, Shaanxi, Shuntian, Zhili Baoding, Zhending, Hejian, Shunde, Daming, Yongping, the 12th provincial government of Guangping, Yanqing, Baoan Prefecture, Liaodong, Daning, Wanquan, For the Northern Volume.

　　The seven provincial prefectures of Sichuan, Guangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou, Luzhou, Fengyang, Anqing, Xu, Chu, and Sanzhou are in the middle volume].

　　
　
(End of this chapter)