Due to the Ministry of Rites examination, the city gate will not be closed during this period.
Li Gongmao walked towards the city gate with a lantern, and beside him was his brother Li Gongjian, and behind him were servants who helped them carry their things.
"Private coinage is tantamount to conspiracy..."
The sergeant at the city gate suddenly shouted.
Coming again?
Li Gongmao felt very speechless. He was going to Gongyuan to take the exam, and he was actually threatened by a sergeant on the way.
There were more than one or two people entering the city at this moment, and more than a dozen candidates raised their heads in unison, their heads floating in the wind in the darkness.
After passing through the city gate, Li Gongjian whispered: "Brother, these Yi tribes have gone too far. I heard that even a boy of thirteen or fourteen years old will be beheaded."
Li Gongmao sighed: "Those who are too young should not be killed."
This has also been criticized. Many ministers suggested to the Ministry of Punishment that when compiling the "Da Ming Code", the death penalty age for those implicated should be raised. For example, those under the age of sixteen can be sent to the border areas. There is really no need to kill them all.
.
When the brothers arrived outside Gongyuan, the streets and alleys were crowded with people.
There are a particularly large number of candidates this year, 40% of whom are from Zhejiang, Fujian and Jiangxi. Because these three provinces have just been recovered, there are many loopholes between the old and the new, and local officials recommend a large number of candidates to take the exam in Beijing.
The imperial court was too lazy to investigate carefully, and the Ministry of Rites was too lazy to review it.
Anyway, the three provinces have been temporarily classified into one list, and only 20% of the 40% of candidates will be awarded Jinshi places.
Go ahead and roll it yourself!
The two brothers Li Gongmao and Li Gongjian were under great pressure from the imperial examination, and they were placed with high hopes of revitalizing the "sharpening Li family".
The Li family, the ancestor of Zhaoji, was the 11th grandson of Li Ke. He moved to Jiangxi to avoid the butcher knife of Zhu Wen, and developed into millions of descendants in the 21st century.
For example, Li Shanchang is derived from Sharpo Li.
At the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, the Modao Li family was in the worst situation because they were too closely involved with Sansu. Huang Tingjian's biological mother was also a child of the Modao Li family. After Huang Tingjian lost his mother, he was almost raised by the Li family.
of.
The line was getting closer and closer, and in the blink of an eye, two hours had passed.
Someone behind him was really bored and took the initiative to talk to the brothers: "I am Min Anguo, courtesy name Bangyan, from Yangzhou, Hanzhong."
Li Gongmao said: "I have met Brother Bangyan. I am Li Gongmao, named Zimian, from Jianchang, Nankang."
Li Gongjian also reported his name.
The three of them started chatting, mainly about the content of the exam. They also gave their accommodation addresses and made an appointment to have a drink together after the exam.
After the inspections were completed one after another, the Li brothers went to the examination rooms of the three provinces, but Min Anguo went to the ordinary examination room.
Li Gongjian held a lantern to clean up the examination numbers. The Gongyuan had not been used for a long time and there were probably spider webs and the like. Those who were unlucky might even encounter snakes and rat nests.
Soon he discovered that the hall had been cleaned up, and Li Gongjian muttered: "The new dynasty is quite considerate of Juzi."
After carefully nailing the tarpaulin, Li Gongjian stood outside the cell and stretched.
The candidates next door were also breathing fresh air. The two casually greeted each other, but Li Gongjian’s phone number next door was Hu Quan.
After a while, before dawn, a military patrol came over.
"Dangdangdangdang..."
The military officer beat the gong all the way and shouted: "The exam starts in half an hour, don't stand outside the cell, go inside and wait! No more talking, no more noise..."
Behind the military officer who beat the gong were other military officers.
Li Gongjian found out that a military envoy came to give charcoal, and couldn't help but ask: "Does the Ministry of Rites still give charcoal to Juzi?"
"No words allowed," the military officer scolded him, but he still replied, "There is a late spring cold this year. The officials are considerate of the nobles and provide everyone with charcoal to keep warm. Don't seal up the house, or you may be poisoned by the charcoal."
"Dang-dang-dang!"
The gong-beating military officer shouted: "Listen up, Southern Juzi, don't block the chant, otherwise you will be poisoned by charcoal!"
Hu Quan brought his own stove and water, lit the charcoal fire and began to cook porridge, while baking the cold white flour steamed buns.
Finally, at dawn, the examiner and proctor arrived.
The copied exam questions were pasted on a huge wooden board and held by twenty or thirty military officers as they walked slowly through the examination room, reciting the questions as they walked.
For confidentiality reasons, test questions cannot be printed in advance.
Even today's exam questions were discussed and determined yesterday.
The topics for the next exam have not yet been determined, and the examiners have just discussed the general scope.
The rules of the imperial examinations in the Ming Dynasty and the New Dynasty were very strict. Unlike the Rites Examination in the old Song Dynasty, the examiner could actually take leave and leave the Gongyuan midway - it was easy to leak the questions!
The content of the examination has also been greatly increased, not only mathematics, physics, and practical matters have been added, but even the traditional classics and meaning questions have also been changed.
For example, in today's content, the old Song Dynasty only took the test of "The Analects of Confucius" and "Mencius", but the Ming Dynasty also took the test of "The Great Learning" and "The Doctrine of the Mean".
Of course, there is still no rise in the Eight-part essay, there are only a few routines similar to the Eight-part essay.
Li Gongjian listened to the military officer read the test questions, and from time to time he stuck his head out to look at the wooden board.
The exam questions on the wooden board use punctuation marks.
When candidates received their ticket numbers from the Ministry of Rites this year, officials from the Ministry of Rites repeatedly emphasized that they must use punctuation marks when answering questions. If there are too many symbols to remember, at least use commas and periods.
This is very simple for the candidates, because they have learned "sentence reading (du)" since they were young, and it is the core part of the knowledge imparted by teachers.
Completed in one breath, it is called a sentence.
The pause interval during the movement of Qi is called reading.
When scholars usually read, they would mark sentences for reading. Ju Ming just made the periods and commas more standardized and unified.
Li Gongjian first copied all the questions and finished answering "Mencius" and "The Analects of Confucius" in the morning.
As for "The Great Learning" and "The Doctrine of the Mean", Li Gongjian seemed a little flustered.
These two things were not compulsory exams in the old Song Dynasty. Although they have long been famous, there are still many candidates who have never learned them, or have only learned them briefly.
After Li Gongjian came to Tokyo, he specially bought the "Great Learning Justice" and "Zhongyong Justice" written by Prince Edward. He had been locked in the inn and recited them. The article was not long enough to be able to memorize it, but at this moment, he had forgotten some of it.
Fortunately, the imperial court was also aware of this situation, so there was only one question each in the "Great Learning" and "The Doctrine of the Mean" exams.
Moreover, there is no need to answer according to Prince's annotations to avoid candidates who have not studied carefully from getting too many marks.
In general, this imperial examination is just a transition.
Li Gongjian searched his guts and finally finished two articles. After repeated revisions, he felt that there was no problem, so he copied them carefully.
In the evening, the sky is getting darker and darker, and there are still candidates writing furiously.
No candles are given, just take up the roll.
Because candles are very expensive now, not as cheap as they were in the Ming and Qing dynasties.
In the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, Kou Zhun only lit candles at home and did not like to light oil lamps. He was criticized by Ouyang Xiu for his problematic lifestyle.
A complete luxury product!
With the development of productivity, by the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, a candle was worth about 100 to 500 Wen, depending on its quality.
When two high-quality candles are burned out, all the money is lost, and even officials dare not use it every day.
I slept in the examination room at night, ate, drank and had sex here.
Continue the next day.
Today's Five Classics test will be held, and the content of the test will remain unchanged.
On the third day, there are tests on mathematics, physics, and document writing.
Li Gongjian finished writing the official documents first, and got a headache looking at mathematics and physics.
You can use the emperor's and prince's new mathematics to solve problems, or you can use traditional arithmetic from ancient times.
The first question is, chicken and rabbit in the same cage.
Although Li Gongjian had learned traditional arithmetic, he was limited to the multiplication tables and the like. His mind was blown. He repeatedly gave different data, calculated and compared group by group, and finally came up with the answer.
The second question is to calculate the actual area of irregular land.
Li Gongjian has been caught blind.
He can calculate the area of squares and rectangles, but how to calculate the area of irregular land?
After all, he was involved in Juren in Jiangxi. After dilly-dallying for more than half an hour, Li Gongjian figured out the auxiliary lines on his own and divided the land into several regular shapes.
The third question is, a bucket is placed on a flat ground with no wind. What forces are exerted on it?
Li Gongjian scratched his head and scratched his head. No living people or animals came to touch it. What force could a bucket withstand?
Li Gongjian's understanding of force is probably the force of humans or animals, and further divergence is the force of wind and water.
Seriously out of line!
The fourth question is, use two iron bars to pry the lock. One bar is one foot long, one bar is two feet long. Which one is more labor-saving?
Li Gongjian was completely confused and felt that the person who asked the question was a lunatic.
I came here to be an official in the imperial examination, not to become a thief. Why do I need to take a test on my lock-picking skills?
The author of the mathematics and physics questions was none other than Huang Shang, who compiled the Taoist Canon for Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty.
This man has already finished studying "Tao Yongce" and has a good grasp of other knowledge except agriculture, which he is too lazy to study.
Huang Shang was afraid that the candidates would not be able to answer the question, so he deliberately lowered the difficulty.
Li Gongjian thought carefully for a long time and suddenly had an idea.
He took out his spare writing brush and turned the eating bowl upside down on the table. He pressed the writing brush under the bowl, first used half of the writing brush to pry it, and then used the whole writing brush to pry it.
After repeated trials to understand the strength, Li Gongjian wrote the answer with a smile.
Hu Quan studied with Xiao Chu all year round and learned a lot of miscellaneous subjects. In the past two months, he also read "Tao Yongce" and answered various test questions easily.
Although Li Gongmao had never learned these things, he performed very magically.
He didn't need to do experiments like his brothers. He was able to answer the test questions correctly through the imagination in his mind and combined with his daily life experience.
On the last day, the strategy assessment was conducted.
One essay question and three strategy questions are the same as the Rites Examination in the old Song Dynasty.
But the specific content is more practical, including thinking about big issues and elaborating on practical work.
For example, if there is a famine in a certain place, the question will tell you how much grain is left, how much grain is needed to maintain the original order, and how much grain is needed by the hungry people fleeing the famine. There are still people among the hungry people who want to cause chaos. How to relieve the hungry people, and how to avoid or suppress civil unrest.
This kind of question is divergent and can be answered beyond the given materials.
It can even be traced back to before the disaster, saying that through certain phenomena, he had a premonition that there would be a famine this year, so he made various arrangements in advance, etc. - This type of answer method, few candidates would have thought of it, and once it is written down, it will definitely get a higher score.
point.
After four days of exams, countless candidates left Gongyuan, and many of them seemed lost.
