Until the beginning of the Yiwei subject examination in the 14th year of Jiajing, Bachelor Zhang was still living in a dream. He never expected that he would be the examiner for once in his life and accept more than 300 Jinshi disciples.
Although he didn't know the truth, Zhang Xueshi could intuitively feel that his ability to be the examiner was definitely related to Qin Dewei.
I feel like my life has become more colorful after getting to know Qin Dewei. Is this Qin Dewei destined to be a master?
As a human being, you must repay kindness, so you should reciprocate kindness.
Speaking of the examination process, it is almost exactly the same as the provincial examination.
The provincial examinations are held on the 9th, 12th, and 15th day of August, and the general examinations are held on the 9th, 12th, and 15th day of February.
It is said that when the imperial examination system was established after the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the provincial examination procedures were formulated and then directly copied to become the general examination procedures.
There are some subtle distinctions, but they are also insignificant differences.
For example, the entrance inspection for the National Examination will be more gentle and decent. After all, those who can participate in the National Examination are all senior candidates, not sleazy scholars.
Moreover, most candidates will not engage in fraud at the risk of losing their precious reputation as candidates.
For another example, there are about twice as many examiners in the joint examination as in the rural examination. There are nine examiners in the Nanzhili Township Examination, but there are seventeen examiners in the joint examination in the 14th year of Jiajing.
In the future, the number of co-examiners will expand to eighteen or even twenty, forming a humanistic term called "eighteen rooms".
Seventeen fellow examiners were divided into rooms based on the Five Classics just like the provincial examination. The most common among them was the Book of Songs and the Yi Jing, while the fewest were still the Spring and Autumn Classic and the Rites.
The Spring and Autumn Classics of the Xiangshi Examination has one room, while the Spring and Autumn Classics of the Huixi Examination has two rooms.
In fact, just talking about the number of people, there are more than 4,000 candidates for this general examination, which is only about 1,000 more people than the 3,100 candidates for the Nanzhili Township Examination.
Specifically, when it comes to the Juzi in the Spring and Autumn Classics, there are only sixty or seventy more, for a total of about two hundred and five.
This means that if an examiner wants to go to the Spring and Autumn Sutra room to search papers, the burden will not increase too much...
If you want to search for papers in the Book of Songs or the Book of Changes, you may have to search through more than a thousand test papers.
This time, the examiner, Bachelor Zhang, still didn't get the test paper he wanted. He could only sigh and go to the Spring and Autumn Scriptures Room to search for papers, but he encountered an obstacle!
As mentioned earlier, it is very rude for the examiner to go to each room to search papers, which is very rude to fellow examiners.
The provincial examination was fine. The examiners in each room were instructors from schools in various places. Who dared to stop Hanlin Bachelor Zhang?
As for the examiners in each room of the general examination, there are about ten Hanlin who are also small, and the rest are all six departments, Kedao Jingguan.
Although these fellow examiners are not as good as the chief examiner, their status is not bad. They are all decent people with dignity. If Bachelor Zhang goes over to search for papers, he will embarrass the other party.
For example, a fellow examiner in the Spring and Autumn Sutra Room was named Fei Maoxian, who was a Jinshi in the fifth year of Jiajing. He was then selected as a Shujishi, and is now a compilator in the Hanlin Academy.
Moreover, his father's name is Fei Hong, one of the imperial examination prodigies, the youngest number one scholar in the Ming Dynasty, and the former chief assistant in the early years of Jiajing. He is still alive!
Facing the examiner who came to him to search for papers, Fei Maoxian, a middle-aged second-generation official, was also very unhappy. He refused and said, "Senior Zhang is just sitting in the main hall, so I will naturally select the best papers and submit them!"
Zhang Chao didn't talk nonsense, "Searching for papers and supplements is also the responsibility of the examiner. Don't stop me, Mr. Fei!"
Fei Maoxian's second-generation official got angry and contradicted him: "So what if I refuse to obey?"
Bachelor Zhang was also unambiguous and directly threatened: "If you don't comply, I won't accept any of your examination papers!"
Fei Maoxian was really shocked and asked: "Senior, how dare you do this! Aren't you afraid of ruining the system and being impeached and held accountable?"
Academician Zhang disagreed: "It is already a blessing to be able to preside over the examination once in this life. What other extravagant wishes are there?
The worst case scenario is that I will resign from office and go back to my hometown to live leisurely. I don't care. Even if you fail to win the house, how will you explain it to your superiors and subordinates?
Once the examination is over, the final decision is made. Unless fraud is proven, there is no way to change the result!"
Fei Maoxian: "..."
It's really crazy, crazy! Do you want to die together? Why did Zhang Chao suddenly look like a different person? He was so cynical and rogue!
In the end, Fei Erdai couldn't afford to offend the bachelor, so he let Chief Examiner Zhang search the test papers in the room, and then Chief Examiner Zhang picked out three or four copies and took them away.
In the general examination, you still have to be careful about concealing it from others, so Zhang did not take a separate copy, but mixed several copies together.
The examination time is very tight. The third session was only completed on February 15th. After all the examination papers are sealed, transcribed and read, it will be around the 20th.
Then according to the regulations, the list was filled out on February 27th. After filling out the main list, it was posted in the Ministry of Rites. This examination list is also called the A list, and the one for the provincial examination last year was called the B list.
After the examination, Qin Dewei continued to be a tortoise at home. He was always careful not to make any big mistakes until the final result came out.
Until February 27th, Qin Dewei, Chen Feng, and Xu Gu sent out most of their servants to look at the list.
The exam list is often released only at night, and there are many, many people who come to see the list.
It was night and crowded, and accidents often occurred. There was even an incident where a transporting officer was hit and fell into a ditch.
Therefore, Qin Dewei and others did not want to take risks themselves, but sent more people to see it. Whoever saw the results first would report back first.
The three of them set up a banquet in the hall again, drinking and eating while waiting slowly.
At the second update day, I heard the news that the list was out.
Then after waiting for another half an hour, I saw Xu Gu's servants rushing in from the outside, with ecstatic expressions on their faces, dancing and shouting: "I won! The uncle is number one on the list!"
Wucao! Qin Dewei and Chen Feng both looked at Xu Gu in shock. One of the three of them got a Huiyuan!
This person with thick eyebrows, big eyes, and no obvious features actually ranked first in the general examination!
Before everyone could react, they saw Ma Er and Zhao Si rushing into the yard together, shouting wildly: "I hit, I hit! All three gentlemen hit!"
The three of them came to their senses and laughed together.
Winning three in one gate, including one Huiyuan, was also a success in the exam!
Xu Gu saluted Qin Dewei seriously: "I don't want to be able to win the gold medal, I have to thank Brother Qin!"
He understood that if Qin Dewei hadn't shown them Zhang Xueshi's notebook, he would certainly not have been able to cater to the examiner's taste.
Qin Dewei suddenly felt a little pity for Xu Gu, because in this era, Huiyuan is not that cost-effective.
If the imperial examination culture continues to develop, there will be an unspoken rule. Huiyuan will generally be one of the three top candidates in the imperial examination, and at least he will be the best.
But at this time, the 14th year of Jiajing, there is no such unspoken rule.
There is basically no correlation between the ranking in the joint examination and the final ranking in the palace examination. Huiyuan probably only takes care of the second-class.
It is not unusual for someone to get only the top 200 or 300 in the joint examination, but to get the top prize in the palace examination.
After celebrating, seeing that it was already midnight, Qin Dewei said calmly: "I'm going to bed!"