Chapter 811 808 [Having not taken the imperial examination yet, I will be ranked first]
At a time when newspaper debates were fierce, this year's general examination came to a successful conclusion.
A total of twelve women went to the Ministry of Etiquette to get their exam tickets. However, only five of them actually showed up for the exam, and the rest all went home with their admission tickets.
At the end of the examination, some are happy and some are sad.
There are also some guys whose focus is obviously different. They keep looking at the list of scholars and ask back and forth: "Are there any women who have won the tribute?"
Gongshi is the candidate who has been admitted to the general examination, and can only be called this before the palace examination.
Since the list only lists names, place of origin and graduate school, it is impossible to tell which one is a girl, so many people are concerned about this matter.
"well!"
Qi Biaojia read the list several times and turned around and said to her daughter and daughter-in-law-to-be: "It's great that you can participate in the examination. Even if you fail, don't be sad."
"Father, there is no need to comfort me," Qi Deqiong forced out a smile, "There are many candidates in each province, and the midterm exam is not easy. My daughter has already expected this. In any case, my second brother has won the tribute, so we should celebrate today."
Although Qi Bansun passed the exam, he was dejected: "There are indeed so many talented people in the world. I thought I would be at the top of the list, but I didn't expect that I would only be at the bottom."
When this family came to Nanjing, everyone was full of confidence. Unexpectedly, only Qi Bansun had a narrow chance of passing the exam.
There were several candidates nearby, standing there in despair. As they stood, some started to complain.
"Your Majesty is so unkind to scholars, why can he only take the exam once? If he has extraordinary talent and happens to fall ill during the exam, wouldn't his whole life be ruined?"
"Yes, even if you can't take the exam for life, you should at least be allowed to take the exam three times."
"Instead of saying it three times, you can take the test twice!"
"..."
In fact, the imperial examinations in the Ming Dynasty also had an age limit for a while, but this gradually disappeared. Zhang Cong, who was deprived of the title of King of Confucius, did not become a Jinshi until his hair turned gray.
But now Zhao Han stipulates that a candidate can only take the exam once!
The entire education and imperial examination system is as follows:
After three years of primary school, one must take the county's unified graduation examination, but the county examination is presided over by prefectural officials. Those who pass the examination will be awarded a primary school diploma; those who fail the examination will be awarded a certificate of primary school exit. Those who rank among the top will attend middle school for free and graduate.
Anyone with a diploma is eligible to attend middle school at their own expense. Elementary school can be repeated indefinitely until you get a diploma.
For three-year middle schools (soon to become four-year), you need to take the provincial unified graduation examination. The situation is the same as for elementary schools. There are also graduation certificates and graduation certificates. The top students can enter university for free. Those with high school diplomas can study at their own expense.
University. However, the secondary school graduation examination can be taken up to three times.
When it comes to college, whether it's the college graduation exam or the following exam, everyone only has one chance.
If you say you are sick and uncomfortable, you can apply to postpone the exam before you receive your admission ticket, but you are not allowed to change it once you receive your admission ticket.
This may seem a bit unkind, but it actually has no impact.
Because those who are eligible to receive the admission ticket for the National Examination can directly become an official even if they do not take the exam. You have a university diploma in your hand. It is just that you start at a lower level when you become an official. If you are really capable, you can still climb up.
Like Qi Biaojia's daughter and prospective daughter-in-law, although they failed this time, as long as they are willing to become officials, they can still get low-level officials.
There are many students enrolling in universities in various provinces every year, but the graduation exam is really difficult. Officials from the Ministry of Rites take the exam in person. If you want to get a university diploma, the difficulty is no different from taking the Jinshi exam. The passing rate of the university's graduation exam is less than 50%——
As the number of college students increases, this pass rate will continue to decline.
While they were talking, three friends, Yan Ruocha, Yan Yuan and Tang Zhen, squeezed out of the crowd.
Qi Biaojia's family immediately raised their hands and said, "Congratulations to both of you!"
"Same joy, same joy!"
Yan Yuan ranked second in the imperial examination, Tang Zhen ranked 35th in the imperial examination, and Yan Ruochu was not qualified for the imperial examination.
Liu Shuying was also accompanying them to look at the rankings, and couldn't help but wonder: "Brother Yan is only in second place, what is the origin of this famous guy?"
Yan Yuan replied: "Fang Zhongtong, the second son of Dr. Fang (Fang Yizhi) of the Qintian Academy of Physics. The eldest son of Dr. Fang's family also won the Jinshi three years ago, ranking ninth on the second list. I heard that now
Already made the county magistrate."
"Oh, the origin of family education!" Qi Biaojia couldn't help but sigh.
A guy who looked like a businessman, after asking about Yan Yuan's situation, came over and asked, "Your Excellency, are you in front of Yan Yayuan?"
Yan Yuan replied directly: "I am married."
"Sorry for disturbing you." The merchant immediately apologized and left with a smile.
Tang Zhen muttered: "Why don't you come and ask me? I'm not married yet."
Shang Jinghui joked: "If Mr. Tang doesn't marry a wife, I can help you be a matchmaker."
Tang Zhen waved her hands quickly: "No, I have an engagement, I was just joking."
While several people were talking, a scholar was surrounded by people.
But it was Pu Jian, the third person who knew how to test, who came from a family of salt workers in Jiangsu. He was strong, dark-skinned, unattractive, and not yet engaged. He was the perfect target for those middle-level businessmen.
"Pugongzi, my little girl is only fourteen years old. She is also well-educated and well-educated. She is still studying in a girls' school. We can make an engagement first and we will get married when she graduates from middle school."
"Pu Gongzi, my daughter is fifteen this year and will graduate from high school in a few months. If you are interested, you can take a look at my daughter's portrait first. Not to mention she is as beautiful as a flower..."
"Hey, Liu Si, your daughter has a big mole on her face. How can it be related to her beauty? Regardless of her appearance, she is not good at reading. She always came last in the exams in a girls' school. Pu Gongzi, my daughter is a talented girl.
.After you get married in the future, you and your wife will sing poems and have endless things to talk about. You will definitely be very much in love."
"..."
Pu Jian was obviously at a loss. He was the son of a salt worker. He only studied hard and graduated from university at public expense.
Moreover, from elementary school to university, his grades were above average and not particularly eye-catching. However, he performed exceptionally well in every key exam. This time, he inexplicably ranked third in the national examination.
Pu Jian was squeezed back and stammered: "I...I...understood with good intentions, I am...I am...not going to be an official in this place. I...I...have already
He has entered Qintian Academy and is studying...physics...under Dr. Zaifang..."
The merchants looked at each other in surprise. They did not expect that the third place candidate would be a stammer. Moreover, he did not intend to be an official. In the future, he would stay in Qintianyuan and study the physics of Nalao Shizi.
This kind of person definitely has no future, and will spend his whole life as a doctor of Qintianyuan with no real power.
In just ten seconds, the merchants surrounding Pu Jian disappeared without a trace.
Pu Jian didn't care about this either. He had to rush back to write his thesis, and he didn't even pay much attention to the palace examination. Anyway, he had already been admitted to the graduate school. Even if he didn't take the imperial examination, as long as he graduated from the graduate school and passed the examination of Qintianyuan, he could enter.
Become a bachelor at Qintian Academy.
Jinling University has a dedicated dormitory for graduate students.
Pu Jian had graduated two years ago. While waiting for the examination, he went to inspect salt fields in various places. Fang Yizhi also helped him get some funds, a total of fifty taels of silver, and wrote a letter, hoping that salt fields in various places would be improved.
Cooperate with the Yamen.
The thesis thing was proposed by Zhao Han.
At first, I felt that Fang Yizhi’s academic report was too much nonsense and a waste of time, so Emperor Zhao gave me step-by-step instructions on how to write a paper.
In the past two years, Pu Jian has visited salt fields in Hebei, Shandong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Fujian provinces. He has written a paper analyzing the differences in sea salt production in these five provinces. Finally, he concluded that once the population of Hebei increases,
The Changlu Salt Field’s salt production will inevitably exceed that of the Jianghuai Salt Field.
Moreover, the salt fields in Hebei and Shandong have far greater advantages than those in the south.
Because there is more rainfall in the south, once it rains, you can't dry the salt, so you can only fry the salt the old way.
In addition, Pu Jian also discovered that the salt-drying method of the Ming Dynasty was first born in Haifeng (Wudi), Shandong Province, and was not introduced from the southern coast.
The purpose of this current paper is to improve the salt-drying method at this time.
In fact, due to the government-supervised and commercial-run model, salt-making technology has developed rapidly in recent years, and salt-drying technology has become more mature and popular. However, Pujian, who has lived in a salt farm since childhood, still feels that the salt workers are too hard.
The paper has been written to the final stage, but has not been put into practice. It is all his imagination. Due to the high cost of improvement, no salt farm owner is willing to cooperate with the experiment.
This is a revolutionary improvement. The current sun salt method is called brine sun salt. It requires spreading ash or scraping soil to make brine. This step is very laborious and the yield is not very high.
The invention of Pujian is the "beach drying method", which does not require brine, greatly reducing the manpower and material resources required for brine production. While reducing costs, it can also increase salt production - historically, this method of making salt has not been used until
It was only popularized in Shandong during the Xianfeng period. Moreover, it was only popularized in Shandong and was not extended to salt fields across the country.
After writing the paper and waiting for the imperial examination, Pu Jian was a little bored, so he showed the paper to the teacher Fang Yizhi for review.
Fang Yizhi also knew something about salt production. After reading it carefully, he was shocked: "If this method can be promoted, it will definitely benefit the country and the people. Don't wait for the palace test, I will take you to the palace to meet the saint immediately!"
Pu Jian stammered: "First... Sir, the student is just... just dreaming. Although the method of sun drying... is designed... and calculated, it has not... been... verified by experience... whether... it is... whether it is...
…”
"No need to confirm," Fang Yizhi listened very hard and interrupted, "If there is no verification, then His Majesty Bingming will designate the salt field for you to verify."
While the two were waiting in the Forbidden City, some literati were already cheering and celebrating. They felt that they had won: in the current examination, there was not a single female imperial examination, and all the female candidates failed. This proves that women are not suitable for imperial examinations, let alone for jobs.
Officials, women are inherently inferior to men when it comes to becoming officials in the imperial examination.
Zhao Han had already received the news, and he was neither sad nor happy about it.
If a woman takes part in the imperial examination, it is already a breakthrough. Whether she will pass the exam or not is just a matter of time.
However, the salt-drying method has been improved, which made Zhao Han very happy and ordered the master and apprentice Fang Yizhi to be brought in immediately.
Zhao Han asked: "Can this law be implemented nationwide?"
"Hui...Hui Hui Hui...Back to...Your Majesty..." Pu Jian was already stuttering. Seeing that the emperor was even more nervous, he was already a little unable to speak.
Fang Yizhi was afraid that the emperor would be impatient, so he rushed to say: "Your Majesty, this method can be promoted in Hebei and Shandong. Once successful, the salt production will inevitably double. This method can also be used in the Jianghuai Salt Farm, but due to weather conditions, it may
It won’t work as well as in the north. The less rainfall there is in the salt field, the more useful this salt production method will be!”
Zhao Han said to Pu Jian: "You don't need to take part in the palace examination. You will be the number one scholar in this subject. This paper will be your palace examination article. You go to Changlu Salt Field immediately. I will order the local officials to cooperate and dry your beach first."
If it fails, we will summarize the reasons and give you five years to do it. If it succeeds, we will slowly improve it and keep you as a salt-maker at Changlu Salt Farm!"
The emperor is the greatest and has the final say.
Candidates who are admitted to the joint examination can 100% become Jinshi. The palace examination only determines the rankings.
Whoever Zhao Han wants to be the top scholar can be selected directly as the top scholar as long as he does not turn in a blank in the imperial examination. In this case, Pu Jian does not need to take the imperial examination, and this paper is his imperial examination article.
"Salt Making Envoy" is not a serious official position, but a temporary invention by Zhao Han. It can probably be understood as "Ambassador for the Improvement and Promotion of Salt Making Technology".
Some candidates may be dissatisfied with this approach, but who dares to say no?
Zhao Han did this purely on purpose to show his emphasis on technology. With Pu Jian as a role model, more students will study the technology that benefits the country and the people in the future instead of studying Confucianism all day long.