Chapter 77 The Imperial Examination Begins [Part 1]
Soon after, the imperial court issued an edict, and the imperial examinations for the third year of Zhenguan were officially held in early February.
To be honest, this news was like a pebble dropped into the sea, basically causing no waves.
Because at the moment, no one thinks anything about the imperial examination.
Look at the important ministers in the central government, look at the political affairs hall and the prime minister.
How many of them came out of the imperial examination?
Nowadays, the imperial examination is not prepared for ordinary people, but more like it is prepared for the down-and-out poor families.
A poor family is not a common person, but a high-ranking family that is down and out.
It is rare for the children of real aristocratic families to take the imperial examination. Most of them can successfully enter the official career by relying on the recommendation of their parents.
This was the rule for entering officialdom in the early Tang Dynasty.
In other words, this is a rule that has lasted for nearly a thousand years.
The ordinary response made Li Zhiyun a little angry, but he is now used to restraining himself.
There's no way, it's too difficult.
Knowledge is in the hands of aristocratic families, and he wants to promote poor families and ordinary people, which is not something that can happen overnight.
No matter what, this year's imperial examination must be held.
After receiving the emperor's order, Zhao Cijing, the Minister of Rites, followed up and asked each state to send scholars to Chang'an to take the exam.
In February, not many people actually came to Chang'an. Firstly, due to successive years of natural disasters, children from poor families had too much time to take care of themselves, and their survival was a problem, let alone their future. Secondly, in this era, most of the truly talented children came from aristocratic families, and aristocratic families
Disdainful of the imperial examinations.
Due to interference for various reasons, only a hundred scholars finally came to take the exam, and most of them were locals from Chang'an.
The exam was held at Wubenfang Imperial College and Chang'an Primary School. Since there were few people there, the exam happened to be held while students were on holiday.
Time flies to late February.
On this day, the scholars came towards Wubenfang in twos and threes.
A young man with fine features got off the carriage and his eyes fell on the plaque of Chang'an Primary School. After looking at it intently for a while, he looked back.
Not long after, another young woman stepped out of the carriage and handed the young man an examination basket.
"Husband, I have prepared dry food, water, and a change of clothes for you. Is there anything missing?"
Han Yuan shook his head, "That's enough. This time, we will take the exam for three consecutive days. Dry food and water are enough. I heard adults say that these are not prepared in the exam room to prevent someone from bribery and passing on exam answers."
The young man was Han Yuan, the son of Han Zhongliang, the minister of Dali Temple.
Han Zhongliang was a member of the imperial family but not from a noble family. This time the emperor held the imperial examination. He wanted to support the emperor no matter what, so he asked his son to participate.
The young woman was born in the Changsun family and was the daughter of Sun Cao, the chief governor of Shaanxi Province.
While the couple was talking, a young man walked over from the other side.
This man's name is Wang Dezhen, and he is the nephew of Wang Changxie, the minister of Honglu Temple.
Unlike Han Yuan, Wang Dezhen wanted to take the imperial examination on his own. Because relying solely on his uncle Wang Changxie, he would never have the chance to be discovered by the emperor in this life. What's more, his uncle was a hero of the late emperor's army, not His Majesty's.
confidant.
To some extent, he is inherently weak.
After his careful analysis, he felt that His Majesty's reform of the imperial examination was obviously to pay attention to the imperial examination. This might be an opportunity for him.
When the scholars were almost gathered, Kong Yingda opened the school gate and let the scholars enter the examination room.
However, this doesn't mean you can go in directly.
Because when they actually entered the examination room, there were guards checking everything the scholars were carrying from beginning to end. Even if it was a hand cake, they had to tear it into pieces to see if there was a small note inside. It was so harsh.
Point out.
If contraband is found, the person will be immediately disqualified from taking the exam and will be banned from participating in the imperial examination for life.
Contrary to expectations, no one was found out this time, and everyone was clean. In fact, this is not surprising, because with this reform of the imperial examination, all the things that were tested in the past are invalid, and even if you want to cheat, you don't know how to cheat.
Han Yuan packed up the basket, took the wooden sign representing the examination room number, and followed the soldiers to find his own examination room.
Seeing the small independent house, Han Yuan only had two words in his mind.
So small!
When I think about it again, it's a bit like a dressing room at home.
However, the area is a little larger than the dressing room. There is a table, a chair, and a simple bed behind it with a linen quilt placed on it.
Han Yuan put away his things and tidied the quilt again, and found that it was still clean.
At this moment, soldiers' voices sounded outside.
"You still have two hours to prepare. If you want to change, go change immediately. If you want something to eat, eat immediately. Once the exam starts, changing can only be done in your respective examination rooms..."
Hearing this, Han Yuan subconsciously looked back at the clay pot with a wooden lid in the corner.
Oh my gosh.
Will he have to eat, drink, and defecate for the next three days in this small room?
He didn't dare to think about the smell.
Soon, complaints from other scholars could be heard outside.
"If you don't want to take the exam, get out!" shouted loudly, and the complaints disappeared.
Immediately afterwards, Kong Yingda led others and read out the examination rules in each examination room. In general, don't cheat. Whoever cheats will be finished.
In addition, if you feel unwell, you can submit your application in advance, and the court will let the imperial doctor provide free diagnosis and treatment.
In addition, early submission can only be done in the afternoon of the third day, etc.
Then, at noon, the exam officially started!
A total of three test papers were distributed to the scholars together. Three days were enough for them to consider their answers slowly.
Each test paper is worth one hundred points, and the total score is three hundred.
This part is public information. Han Yuan knew that this exam adopted the emperor's original scoring system.
He quickly glanced at the three papers, and then his eyes became slightly distracted.
Sure enough, His Majesty personally reformed the test paper. This test is too complicated!
He is a smart man and quickly made a simple summary of the three test papers.
For example, in the first exam, the test items are mostly poems, songs, and classics and history questions. But this is not the point. The point is that the question types are quite novel, or have never appeared before.
The test papers that Li Zhiyun personally reformed are naturally very close to the question types he took in his previous life.
There are three test papers, namely 'Wen', 'Li' and 'Ce Wen'.
Wen is the deformed test paper of liberal arts.
There are ten multiple-choice questions, each worth four points.
There are four fill-in-the-blank questions, worth five points each.
The remaining forty points are divided equally among four short-answer questions, each worth ten points.
Han Yuan looked at the multiple-choice questions.
‘Each question has only one correct answer. You can choose the correct answer from the four options [A] [B] [C] [D] and fill in the brackets.
Note: There will be no points for filling in more or not filling in more.’
"Parentheses..." Han Yuan glanced at the strange symbol in front of the first question.
【()】.
"This is knowledge from the arithmetic class in Chang'an Primary School." He had heard of this novel arithmetic class and had studied it a little, so he knew this magical and weird bracket.
Soon, he began to read the first multiple-choice question.
The title is as follows;
() Who originated the system of renting mediocre tunes?
[A]; Su Chuo [B]; Yuan Hong [C]; Cao Cao [D]; Yu Wentai
After reading it, Han Yuan swallowed.
It's really hard to get these four points.
In this question, the first one he eliminated was definitely Cao Cao. Then he ran into trouble. He felt that each of the remaining three options was possible.
Because the system of renting and transferring taxes started in the Northern Wei Dynasty.
After thinking for a long time, he couldn't think of anything, so he looked at the next question.
The title is as follows;
() Anyone who openly offends a strong man will be killed no matter how far away he is. Who said that?
[A]; Huo Qubing [B]; Liu Xiu [C]; Wei Qing [D]; Chen Tang
Then, Han Yuan's face turned slightly pale.
He finally understood why he had to take exams for three consecutive days.
Test papers of this difficulty are simply not comparable to previous imperial examinations.
It’s not that the questions are difficult, but the knowledge tested is too broad. If you are not a person who likes to read, it is really difficult to write all the answers.