The first ray of sunlight in the morning pours through the sky into the world, falls into the main hall through the Bagua window of Chengen Hall in Xiyuan, and casts a mysterious Bagua pattern halo. Two people stand in the middle of the two poles of the Bagua pattern. One is wearing a dragon robe, and the other is wearing a gray Bagua Taoist robe.
"What's the explanation for this dream of mine?" A voice asked from inside the hall.
After listening to Emperor Jiajing's inquiry, Tao Zhongwen, who was wearing a gray and white Bagua Taoist robe, bowed to Emperor Jiajing, then closed his eyes, stretched out his right hand from the Taoist robe, and started counting with his five fingers.
"One number is the hurdle, two is the kun, three earthquakes and four sundas are the middle points, five are the middle palaces, six are the stems, seven are the eight gens and nine are the gates."
Tao Zhongwen muttered it softly while calculating.
About two minutes later, Tao Zhongwen suddenly opened his eyes, with a joyful look on his face, and saluted Emperor Jiajing, and happily announced the good news to Emperor Jiajing: "My lord, congratulations to your majesty, congratulations to your majesty."
Jiajing's nervousness disappeared after hearing this, he stretched the muscles on his face, and then asked: "Where does happiness come from?"
"Ying in the sun, full in the ridge, this is a sign of good fortune and eternal stability." Tao Zhongwen stroked his white beard in the sunshine. The sunlight hit him, making his aura of a magic stick rise several notches at once.
Jiajing was overjoyed when he heard this.
"It's just that why did Emperor Taizu Gao stand on a river bank full of green duckweeds and look at me without saying a word, and finally pointed at his feet and turned into a flying fairy and flew away?" Emperor Jiajing was overjoyed, but then he asked. He asked Tao Zhongwen with some doubts.
"This is Your Majesty's family matter. I am an outsider and it is not appropriate for me to comment."
Tao Zhongwen looked at Emperor Jiajing and shook his head slightly, with an expression on his face that I already knew but couldn't express.
This is His Majesty’s family matter!
If Zhu Ping'an were at the scene, he would definitely despise Tao Zhongwen's behavior. I've even taken off my pants, why are you telling me this?! This old bastard is too good at refusing. Emperor Jiajing took drugs and hallucinated. What a genius. Do you know what it means? This old magician’s move is amazing. This is your majesty’s family matter! Your ancestors appeared in your dream. Let me communicate with you, this is your majesty’s family matter. It is difficult for an upright official to deal with family matters, let alone It's your imperial family, I know it. But it's not convenient for me to say.
Emperor Jiajing's perspective on the problem was obviously not comparable to that of ordinary people.
After listening to Tao Zhongwen's words, Jiajing nodded and thought for a moment. He felt that what Tao Zhongwen said was very reasonable. This was the dream that Emperor Taizu Gao had entrusted to him. Naturally, he would not entrust the dream to himself for no reason. He must have given it to us. It is related to the country and the country of Lao Zhu's family. This is more appropriately said to be a family matter than a state matter.
How can the words of ancestors to their descendants be conveyed through other people's mouths? Well, what Tao Zhongwen said makes sense.
When Emperor Jiajing was asking Tao Zhongwen about his dream, in the Zhilu outside the Yangde Gate of the South Gate of Xiyuan, which was dedicated to the cabinet, Yan Song and other eight ministers appointed by Jiajing were busy grading the papers.
Yan Song is the chief minister of the cabinet and the first minister to read the examination papers. In addition to Yan Song, the other seven are also famous ministers of the dynasty. The minister of the Ministry of Personnel, the left minister of the Ministry of Rites, the bachelor of the Hanlin Academy, and the left minister of the Inspectorate.
The censor of the capital, the minister of Dali Temple, the minister of Guanglu Temple, and the remaining one is the group assistant of the cabinet.
The results will be announced three days after the palace examination, leaving them with less than two days to mark the papers. There is no selection process for the palace examination, but it is necessary to determine the ranking. This is also a huge workload, especially for the eight candidates in the palace examination.
The way the exam ministers grade exams determines how fast they can go.
The grading of palace examinations is different from that of rural examinations. Yan Song and his eight ministers sit at a big table and need to review each palace examination paper in turn. To put it simply, the first person reviews the examination paper after reading it, and then passes it to the second person.
In this way, it is not completed until the eighth minister who reads the paper. Each minister who reads the paper has to score the test paper. The scoring of the test paper is divided into five levels. According to the convention, "○", "△", "＼" are used.
The five symbols "1" and "x" represent the five grades, "○" is the first and best, "△" is the second, and "x" is the lowest grade. Everyone must use this symbol to score the test paper
.
At the end, the more "○" there are on the test paper, the better the test paper is. All other symbols are also counted, and the final ranking is determined by comparison. According to the convention, eight test-reading ministers will review the test paper. If you want to get first or second place,
You must get at least seven "○"s. If you score less than seven "○"s on the test paper, you will basically miss the first or second place, let alone the number one and second place.
They can independently decide the ranking of the 11th to 400th imperial examination papers. The emperor will not care about it. The emperor doesn't have the energy to care about it even if he wants to.
The main task of Yan Song and his eight test-reading ministers was to select the ten best test papers with the most "○" on the test papers and submit them to Emperor Jiajing. Emperor Jiajing selected the number one and second place winner from these ten test papers.
Come to explore the flowers.
Yan Song is very responsible. Every sealed test paper that comes into his hands, he does his best and reviews impartially! Except for two test papers! No, Yan Song does his best and reviews all the test papers impartially.
Yan Song gave points entirely based on the quality of the test paper. He could figure out what Jiajing meant and could even tell the quality of the test paper.
Fonts, current policies and arguments, etc. are all reference factors, but as long as the test paper fails to improve the performance of Emperor Jiajing, the highest it can only get is a "△"!
Yan Song leads by example, and the other seven marking ministers naturally do their best as well. They are all masters in this field, so it is no problem to review the examination papers, and they all do so impartially.
However, only two marking ministers made an exception for the two-point examination paper!
One is a test paper that contains the words "The administration of officials by the superiors and subordinates is the most important thing in the country. Respect the authority of the monarch, select officials for appointment, teach officials their duties, supervise the officials' conduct, and provide rewards and punishments."
The other is that the test paper contains "The world is for the common good, the saint is unified, inherits the destiny from above, and the sentiments of the people below."
For these two examination papers, Yan Song gave the highest score of "○", and five of the other seven scoring ministers also gave the highest score of "○".
But there were two exceptions, one was the Minister of Rites Zuo, and the other was the Assistant to the Cabinet Group. The two of them gave "△" to the first test paper, but the highest score "○" was given to the second test paper.
When Zuo Shilang of the Ministry of Rites saw the words in the first test paper, "The administration of officials by the superiors and subordinates is the most important thing in the country. Respect the monarch's authority, select officials for appointment, teach officials their duties, supervise the officials' conduct, and provide rewards and punishments", he immediately thought about it.
I didn't want to give him a "△". After the left minister of the Ministry of Rites finished his review and passed it to the cabinet group assistant for review, he gently pressed his hand twice without leaving a trace, and then the cabinet group assistant nodded clearly.
Also given a "△".
The left minister of the Ministry of Rites remembered this passage in the first examination paper so clearly that he could never remember it wrong. This sentence was written by the first person sitting on the east side of the palace examination!
Everyone has their own preferences for radish and green vegetables. Reasonable errors are allowed in the imperial examination marking, but the score difference cannot be too large. What is within a reasonable error is that the eight marking ministers must not give more than three grades to the same examination paper. In other words, someone
It’s unreasonable to give someone first class, and someone is given second class, and then you give someone fourth or fifth class. Even if everyone has their own preferences for turnips, greens, and vegetables, you can choose vegetables, but you can’t eat meat. There’s a difference.
It’s too obvious. The difference is too big, but you need to be held accountable, and the responsibility is heavy!
The left minister of the Ministry of Etiquette and the group assistant of the cabinet are very clever in giving grades. Others give first class, but we give second class. It is normal. I just don't like it very much. What's wrong with giving second class? This is a reasonable error.
As a result, the test paper that contains the words "The government attaches great importance to the government, respects the authority of the monarch, selects officials, assigns them, supervises their actions, and rewards and punishes them publicly" only received six "○".
Another test paper with the words "The world is for the common good, unified by the Holy King, inherits the destiny from above, and the people's sentiments from below" received eight "○"s.
Only the top ten will be sent to Emperor Jiajing to compete for the top prize in the Enke competition, while the rest will have no chance.
The first test paper scored six "○" and two "△". If you get less than seven "○", you will basically miss the first or second class. It is also far worse than the top ten in this palace examination. This palace examination is the only one
There are quite a few who get 8 "○"s, let alone 7 "○"s.
Therefore, there is no chance that Emperor Jiajing will read this test paper! Don’t even think about being number one or second in the rankings! Don’t even dream about it!
The Minister of Rites, Zuo Shilang, looked at the scoring marks on the test paper and showed a satisfied smile. (To be continued.)
ps: It’s 2016. I wish all my book friends good luck and happiness in the 20th year.