The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 387 There is a Problem with the Imperial Examination
Wang Yinzhi was quite satisfied with the reaction of the Russian people, but he did not take them to see the emperor immediately. Zhu Jianxuan was not planning to meet them alone now.

For the following period of time, the former Russian senior officials headed by Alexander were arranged to rest in Shuntian Prefecture, allowing them to experience life in the Ming Dynasty for themselves.

At the same time, senior officials from several European countries that had just surrendered to Spain were also arranged to come to the Ming Dynasty to pay homage to the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty after completing the formalities with the Honglu Temple.

Before meeting the emperor, he was also arranged to go out for sightseeing. After disembarking in Guangzhou for the sightseeing, he took a train through the inland hinterland and entered Shuntian Prefecture.

After these envoys and kings began their tour, they soon began to feel a wave of fear.

If we had known that the situation in Ming Dynasty was like this, we would not have had any hesitation or consideration on the issue of whether to submit to Ming Dynasty.

At the same time, they were secretly glad that they had made the right decision, otherwise the final result would have been Russia.

It was not until the end of the 24th year of Tiangong, a few days before the winter solstice court meeting, that Zhu Jianxuan formally summoned these people.

When this group of princes and nobles from Europe saw Zhu Jianxuan, they no longer had any extra thoughts.

They are all extremely steady and serious.

They all followed the etiquette they had learned in the Honglu Temple and the process they had practiced and simulated countless times before coming here, and greeted Zhu Jianxuan with great respect:
"Your subjects pay homage to our emperor. Long live the emperor. Long live the emperor. Long, long live the emperor."

The Persian King Fateh originally wanted to ask Zhu Jianxuan why he didn't use the school to make money.

But looking at the atmosphere at the scene, there was no chance to bring it up.

The formal homage of monarchs from countries such as Spain and Persia meant that all countries in the world were now formally incorporated into the Ming Dynasty system.

The emperor of the Ming Dynasty was the supreme leader of the world.

All other countries and tribes on this planet are subjects of the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Jianxuan was quite satisfied with these people's attitude.

Zhu Jianxuan had already heard reports from Wang Yinzhi, Ma Weiguo and others, and knew that these Europeans had now been completely subdued.

But these last few countries are not important in themselves.

Zhu Jianxuan didn't ask them or give them any specific instructions.

He just sat behind the imperial desk, watched them silently after they finished their ceremony, then waved his hand for the cabinet to announce the decree and tell them the official arrangements.

For the monarchs of Spain, Persia and other countries, it was a reconfirmation of the arrangements that had already been coordinated.

Now they will be formally conferred upon them in person.

Then, the surrendered nobles and high-ranking officials such as Alexander were basically stuffed by Zhu Jianxuan into the Siyi Hall of the Honglu Temple as interpreters, and were later responsible for translating documents in their native languages.

Including the former Russian Tsar Alexander, and the real former Ottoman Sultan.

Although this group of people are most likely convinced, we still cannot let them move freely. They have to stay in Shuntian City and work.

These people later became clerks in the Ming Dynasty court.

Alexander was certainly not satisfied, but he had to accept this reality and did not dare to complain.

If I can still live in the future, I won’t seek death.

From then on, Alexander and other Russian high-ranking officials settled down in Shuntianfu, the capital of the Ming Dynasty, and later lived in the official housing provided by the Honglu Temple.

Representatives from several new vassal states, including Spain, returned with official enthronement documents.

Zhu Jianxuan has achieved the most important achievement and is now basically satisfied. His mentality has begun to change again.

The next morning, Cabinet Grand Secretary Shen Fu came in to report and submitted a request to Zhu Jianxuan.

Mainly because a while ago, the ministers proposed to change Zhu Jianxuan's title, and now the Ministry of Rites finally has a preliminary plan.

Before it is brought up for public discussion, it should be reviewed by Zhu Jianxuan alone first.

After the European war, Shen Fu served as the acting governor of Europe for a period of time, and was then transferred to the capital to serve as the Minister of the Ministry of Rites, and then he was named to join the cabinet.

Among the officials of the Ming Dynasty court, Shen Fu's performance could be considered good, but it was not particularly outstanding. However, Zhu Jianxuan had an impression of him.

So I feel that he is doing a good job and there have been no problems, so he will be promoted normally as long as he completes his term of office.

Zhu Jianxuan opened the report with a scrutinizing look, and Shen Fu also gave a brief introduction.

The Ministry of Rites should have made preparations in two aspects.

The first plan was to add a series of good words, such as "divine literature, holy martial arts, and benevolence to the common people", and more than twenty words were arranged in one breath.

The second option is simpler and is called "The Emperor".

If Zhu Jianxuan thinks it's okay, the Ministry of Rites will prepare to bring it up around the winter solstice, or directly at the grand court meeting, and start changing the title after the New Year.

Zhu Jianxuan was not very satisfied with either of these two proposals. The proposal with a long list of flattering words made people feel like a posthumous title.

The title of Emperor Mikado seems okay, but Zhu Jianxuan doesn't want to be called Emperor.

Although the terms Emperor and Empress were first used by Li Zhi and Wu Zetian, he would still instinctively think of the Japanese one.

Besides, Zhu Jianxuan also looked down on Li Zhi and Wu Zetian.

Zhu Jianxuan was not angry. Zhu Jianxuan was a rather selfish person and he usually did not blame his subordinates when they could not come up with a good solution.

Subconsciously, I felt that this was the result of not giving any instructions.

Zhu Jianxuan himself couldn't think of any good words, so he hesitated for a while and put the report aside:
"Let's put this matter aside for now. I'll take a look. The court meeting will still be held as usual, but don't mention this matter at the meeting."

Shen Fu breathed a sigh of relief and quickly accepted the order.

This job was difficult to begin with. Most of the people in the Ministry of Rites were just picking out sentences from books. They really had no idea what the title above the emperor should be.

Fortunately, they were used to taking the initiative to take responsibility when serving this monarch and would not blame their subjects for not having good ideas.

Then Shen Fu quickly handed over another memorial and introduced it next to it:
"The governor of Jiangnan and the education official of Jiangnan jointly stated that in recent years, when local students took the examination, they would occasionally encounter gentry asking whether female students could take the examination.

"From time to time, gentry from Suzhou, Songjiang, and Yingtian Prefecture would come to the government office to ask if there could be a women's section in the future imperial examinations.

"Because it involves the imperial examination and education, all the officials below dare not make any comments, so I ask Your Majesty to make the decision."

Zhu Jianxuan listened to Shen Fu's explanation and briefly flipped through the memorial from the Jiangnan Governor. The content was not complicated and was basically the few sentences that Shen Fu had summarized.

Some gentry in the Jiangnan region wanted the court to open a special department for women.

Zhu Jianxuan was a little surprised about this matter, but after a little analysis, he felt that it was reasonable.

There was no explicit prohibition in the dynasties of Shenzhou on whether women could take part in the imperial examinations.

If we follow the modern idealized Western legal logic and use the standard of "anything is allowed unless prohibited by law", it seems that it should be allowed.

However, even Europe and the United States do not completely abide by this logic, let alone ancient China.

The imperial examination was not a routine matter, nor was it a matter for one or a few people involved, but a matter for the entire ruling group of the country.

That is to say, it is a matter that involves many people. This kind of thing is not something that can be done unless it is prohibited by law. Instead, it must be done with caution if it is not allowed by law, or even "it cannot be done without legal permission."

Whether women could take the imperial examinations was not clearly allowed in previous dynasties or the Ming Dynasty.

During the Song Dynasty, there were cases where girls took the imperial examinations. People at that time and later generations privately commented that it was not advisable to do so.

However, the Song Dynasty government did not issue any formal laws to prohibit it, and the Ming Dynasty did not have any clear regulations.

In Zhu Jianxuan's view, there is no social foundation.

As the imperial examination process continued to change, the examination system became increasingly strict.

In the normal imperial examination process of the Ming Dynasty, there were soldiers who verified and searched the candidates. At that time, the social cognition of ordinary people did not support women to show their faces in public, and there was also no physical contact between men and women.

The soldiers in charge of invigilation and examination were all men, and it was a huge hassle for them to deal with female candidates.

In the past, few girls had ever taken the actual exam.

However, the social environment and social cognition of the Ming Dynasty should be changing rapidly.

With the deepening of industrialization, the size of the urban citizen class has expanded rapidly, and there will be more and more people with various new ideas.

More and more girls went to school. After reading and understanding the imperial examination process, some of them hoped to take part in the examination.

Among these people, there should be some who were more doted on by their parents and mobilized their fathers to ask the court for instructions.

When faced with this problem, the first thing that came to Zhu Jianxuan's mind was whether industrialization and urbanization would lead to the expansion of women's liberation ideas?

How many female students nowadays hope to take part in the imperial examinations, or even particularly want to take part in them?

How many people are clearly against this kind of thing?

How I deal with this matter, and what impact will it have on the present and future of the Ming Dynasty.

These issues were so complicated that the ministers of the cabinet and relevant departments did not dare to interrupt and directly sent the questions to Emperor Zhu Jianxuan.

But Zhu Jianxuan couldn't let them get away like this, as the Ming Dynasty's cabinet was the communication center between the inner and outer courts.

They had to convey the emperor's will to the ministers of various ministries in the outer court through formal or informal means.

At the same time, the general attitude of officials in the outer court must be conveyed to himself, the emperor.

At the same time, according to Zhu Jianxuan's understanding of the bureaucratic system, the last thing they want to do is change the tradition.

According to traditional customs, only men have always been able to take the imperial examinations. Suddenly, women wanted to take the exam, so the relevant bureaucratic agencies had to change the tradition.

For these bureaucracies, everything is running smoothly and they just need to do their job on time.

As a result, now some people are demanding changes to traditions, and the things they are used to have to be adjusted, so they should instinctively resist.

If a woman asked to take part in the imperial examination, the relevant officials would instinctively suppress it.

But now it has been delivered to me, which is not logical.

Zhu Jianxuan glanced at Shen Fu:
"The content of this memorial, judging by traditional etiquette and teaching habits, is definitely not worth mentioning.

“But the governor of Jiangnan sent it to me because the local prefecture and county government also strongly supported it, or did someone use special channels?
"Or, is there any other hidden secret besides this memorial itself?

"Does anyone in the Ministry of Rites know about this?"

Shen Fu said quite simply:

“Your Majesty, this memorial was sent directly to the Cabinet by the Jiangnan Provincial Governor through the Tongzhengsi.

“Because the matter is rather special, the Ministry of Public Administration believes that we should consult with His Majesty first.

"The memorial has not been made public yet, and the ministers of the various ministries are still unaware of it."

Zhu Jianxuan threw the memorial aside:
"There must be something hidden. Go call the governor of Jiangnan and ask him, as well as the chief judge and the provincial governor of Jiangnan.

"Find out what happened over there and find out the whole story of this petition."

Shen Fu quickly bowed and accepted the order and left.

Zhu Jianxuan continued to deal with other things.

The next afternoon, Shen Fu came to see Zhu Jianxuan again. After greeting him, he said:
"Your Majesty, I have basically found out that there is a girl student in Shanghai County, Songjiang Prefecture, who is also a widow.

"She has passed the county and prefectural examinations, and now it is time for the annual examination presided over by the education official.

“The widow claimed that there was no law in the court prohibiting women from taking the exam, and she was determined to take the annual exam, and was even willing to allow soldiers to examine her.

"But no matter how much the school officer tried to persuade her, she would not listen, and she did not dare to let the soldiers search her.

“Even if the widow didn’t care about her reputation, the school inspector still cared about his own reputation. He didn’t dare to arrange for soldiers to search her body, and he didn’t dare to allow a widow who hadn’t been searched to take the exam.

"So the education official asked the governor to come forward and together they tried to appease the widow and asked her to go back and wait patiently for another year.

"Then the education officials and the provincial governor wrote to the court to ask whether it was allowed to arrange for female students to take the exam."

The imperial examination process in the Ming Dynasty was county examination, prefectural examination, and annual examination. Those who passed the annual examination became students, commonly known as scholars, and had formal academic titles.

After that, after passing the provincial examination, one can become a Juren, and finally after passing the metropolitan examination and the palace examination, one can become a Jinshi.

After listening to the speech, Zhu Jianxuan discovered two problems:
"She has already reached the annual examination for the education officials? How did she pass the county and prefectural examinations before? Why did the education officials of the county and prefectural yamen allow her to take the exams?
"And how did she pass both tests? Did she have a body search by the soldiers?"

Obviously, the matters of the county examination and the prefectural examination would not come before Zhu Jianxuan, but this matter must be made clear.

Whether there is a body search or not, it is a hassle...

Shen Fu also discovered this problem, so he also asked about it specifically:
“In the previous two examinations, the academic officials of Shanghai County and Songjiang Prefecture asked their wives or daughters to search the widows.

"But the Jiangnan Governor's Office of Education believed that his own and other officials' wives were not appointed by the court and were not qualified to search the candidates.

"So the Jiangnan Provincial Governor Si Ti Xue Guan refused to adopt a similar approach and stuck this widow in the annual examination..."

When Shen Fu said this, he hesitated a little.

When Zhu Jianxuan heard Shen Fu pause, he directly pointed out the reason why Shen Fu hesitated:
"The wife of the school official of Shanghai County and the daughter of the school official of Songjiang Prefecture are not officials of the imperial court.

"So what qualifications do they have to confirm whether the widow is really her? To declare whether the widow cheated?

“It may not seem like a big deal if it’s not on the scale, but if it is, it’s a huge weight!
"The actions of the first two levels of academic officials are suspected of cheating in the imperial examinations."

Zhu Jianxuan stopped talking here.

Although this is the truth, there are many things to consider when deciding whether or not to weigh something.

However, Zhu Jianxuan's considerations were somewhat different from those of the officials involved and Shen Fu.

In the view of the officials involved and Shen Fu, although this matter was quite troublesome, it was still a trivial matter. Is it necessary for the court to make a big fuss about it?

Zhu Jianxuan, however, was considering issues at the social development level.

It was not just a question of whether he should deal with the two levels of prefecture and county school officials, or whether he should allow this widow to formally take the exam.

Instead, he had to issue an imperial edict himself, clearly allowing or prohibiting women in the Ming Dynasty from taking the imperial examinations.

Should it be banned or allowed? What should be done to benefit the Ming Dynasty and the world's development?

The world today is completely different from the world of previous lives, and it is difficult to directly refer to past life experiences.

What's more, this matter itself did not bring any good experience in the previous life.

The scene was silent for a few seconds. Shen Fu did not hear Zhu Jianxuan continue speaking, nor did he make any final statement about the imperial examination cheating.

So I opened my mouth carefully to confirm:
"So, Your Majesty, how should I respond now?"

Zhu Jianxuan hesitated for a few seconds:
“Draft two decrees. First, transfer the current Jiangnan Education Commissioner to the Ministry of Rites in the capital.

"Then adjust the training arrangement for the eldest son Jingkun next year and let him serve as the counselor and education officer of the Jiangnan Provincial Government. He should reach this level next year.

"And ask him to come back before the New Year. I will arrange with Jingkun how to deal with this matter."

Shen Fu quickly bowed and accepted the order to draft the imperial edict, and the matter itself was temporarily suppressed.

(End of this chapter)