Early that morning before dawn, Zhu Hao entered Dong'an Gate and waited to enter the palace from Donghua Gate to take part in the imperial examination.
The tributes present were in high spirits, and everyone was waiting to be named on the gold medal list.
More than a year has passed since the end of the joint examination. One of the successful candidates has died, and one has returned to his hometown to guard the system. For everyone, it feels like times have changed.
At the end of Yin Shi, the sky and the earth were gray and no one could see clearly, so a group of tributes began to enter the palace.
Led by the eunuchs of the palace, Hanlin bachelors walked in front of the procession and led the tributes into the Donghua Gate.
Donghua Gate belongs to the southeast gate of the palace, to the north is Wenhua Gate connecting Wenhua Hall, and further north is where the East Palace is located.
To the south are the row houses such as the Cabinet Office and Youguo Hall. Directly opposite is the Zuoshun Gate, which was renamed Huiji Gate forty-one years after Jiajing.
Entering Zuoshunmen, this area is considered the boundary of the palace, but entering Fengtianmen is not yet included in the palace.
A group of people walked across the Jinshui Bridge. At this time, a desk had been set up in front of the west corner gate. All candidates were required to sit on the ground to take part in this palace examination.
"Huang Ming Da Zhi Ji" contains: "... In May of the 16th year of Zhengde's reign, the court held a Chinese-style examination... The Ministry of Rites reported that Wuzong's funeral matters should be simplified, and he went to the west corner gate of the Imperial Palace to ask questions..."
The seating arrangement of the tributes was based on the results of the joint examination. As a member of the joint examination, Zhu Hao naturally sat in the leftmost position in the first row.
This location looks good, but if you look up at the emperor's throne, it's still a little bit off.
But I'm so familiar with Zhu Si, it doesn't matter whether I look at him or not.
When the sun rises.
Zhu Si, as the nominal examiner of the palace examination, appeared at the examination site in person.
The tributes did not need to kneel, but they had to bow and salute the emperor. However, because the tributes had not received basic training in court etiquette, the scene was a bit chaotic and not orderly at all. After the ceremony, the tributes returned to their seats and knelt down.
Immediately after sitting down, a waiter will hand out test papers to the candidates one by one.
Compared with the general examination, the examination paper format of the palace examination is more regular. After each copy is printed, it will be checked in detail for errors and omissions to ensure that every candidate's examination paper will not be damaged.
On the examination paper, the questions asked by Zhu Hao for the palace examination were clearly listed:
"The Emperor Zhi said: I am only a human king, and I am the lord who has been appointed by Heaven to control billions of trillions. I must first live a happy life, so that I can have peace of mind, and then I can fulfill the responsibilities of my parents and the people, and I am worthy of it.
Clothing and food must be the first things that the people want to live in and live in. If they are without food or clothing, they will die from cold and exhaustion, and they will be homeless and miserable. How can you get food if you don't farm? If you don't have silkworms, how can you get clothes?
These two are also what the king thinks about and worries about.
"Nowadays, there are few cultivators but many eaters, there are very few silkworms and many clothiers. In addition, there are disasters caused by floods, droughts, insects and locusts, and the harm caused by wandering idlers. There is smoke and dust around, and there are thieves inside. It is no wonder that the people are suffering from it.
The calamity is getting worse day by day. I am not caused by ignorance. I am unable to coordinate the changes at the top, and cannot promote governance at the bottom. I am really worried and ashamed. However, there is a past and a present, and there are changes in power. I don’t know how to do it.
What if there is a rainy season? No disasters will occur, the people will have enough food and clothing, they will devote their energy to farming but to their duties, and they will follow the Tao and return to transformation?
"Sirs, all of you, who are well versed in principles and know each other, have kept them within themselves to support me for a long time. You should directly state what you see and know, and prepare a description in the article. I will read it personally, and do not be afraid or hide it.
"
This book is from the imperial examination questions of the 11th year of Jiajing reign.
Zhu Hao took a clever trick and used the palace examination questions twelve years later at this time. Such an examination question with a sense of compassion for heaven and earth allowed the candidates to discuss the way to govern the country and secure the country. It can be said that it is very suitable for the new emperor today.
After ascending to the throne, everything was in ruins and waiting for improvement.
After the Ming Dynasty experienced the chaos of the Zhengde Dynasty, the emperor raised such a topic, which fully reflects his excellent qualities of loving the people like his own son and caring about the world.
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The palace examination does not require too many cumbersome etiquette.
The only purpose is to recruit scholars for the country.
Since the tributes entered the palace, there has been almost no unnecessary noise. After the exam began, the candidates either meditated on the exam for a long time, or wrote and drew on the draft paper to straighten their thoughts.
The rules of the Ming Dynasty palace examination are listed in the "Ming Huidian": "Every palace examination in the third year of Hongwu's reign must state the affairs and policies directly, and the limit is no more than one thousand words."
This is different from the usual way of writing about the meaning of the classics in the Four Books. There is no need for eight-legged parallelism, but it is required to write up to 1,000 words. Although the number of words is not as high as possible, basically if you want to rank high in the palace examination, you have to write 2,000 words.
Even if it goes up to 3,000 words, it is required that there are no typos.
In the palace examination, in addition to examining the candidates' literary and military skills, understanding the hardships and difficulties of the emperor's governance, and providing suggestions and strategies to address current shortcomings, it is also required that candidates must be able to write well in handwriting.
Because the palace examination papers are not transcribed, this means that the candidates' examination papers will be directly seen by the palace examination marking officials. Although the palace examinations in the Ming Dynasty have not reached the point where "the text is suppressed and the characters are emphasized" like the Qing Dynasty, the actual situation is not much different.
If you want to be ranked No. 1, you will be rejected if your handwriting is ugly.
Most of the candidates present need to think hard and think about how to solve the questions, but for Zhu Hao, there is nothing more relaxing than making up the questions and answering them by himself?
He raised his head slightly and glanced at Zhu Si on the throne in the distance, and found that Zhu Si was also looking towards him.
There was no way, among so many candidates present, apart from Zhu Hao, he knew Zhang Cong, but he only met Zhang Cong once. At this time, Zhang Cong was not conspicuous in the crowd, and Zhu Si only talked to one person a few times.
The old scholar will not have any deep impression.
In the past, Zhu Si was envious of Zhu Hao's imperial examinations and his continuous ranking at the top. This time he finally had the opportunity to witness Zhu Hao's imperial examinations in person. He was also the examiner. Of course, he had to pay more attention to the performance of this good friend who had grown up together.
The Cabinet Office and the Ministry of Rites are not in the examination room.
But after the palace examination, they will fill the position of examiner. In addition to cabinet bachelors, the examiners of the palace examination also include Hanlin bachelors, ministers, chief ministers, ministers, general affairs envoys, etc. The number of examiners for each session of the palace examination is approximately
There will be around thirteen or four people, as few as ten, and the candidates will be announced on the day of the palace examination.
In the early Ming Dynasty, the results were usually released on the second day after the examination. After the Xuande Dynasty, the results were usually released on the third day after the examination, and a banquet was given on the fourth day.
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There is no mention of handing in papers in advance for the imperial examination.
After you finish writing, you wait there. At sunset, everyone leaves the palace together. After all, the examination room is in the palace. It is impossible to send you out of the palace one by one. We all come together and leave together.
There is no meal at noon.
Although the emperor is nominally in charge, he usually shows his face, sits for a while and then leaves.
But there will also be situations where the emperor "misses the exam", that is, "does not attend the palace". Before Jiajing, the emperor "missed the palace" happened four times in total, in the eighth year of Tianshun and the sixth, ninth and twelfth years of Zhengde respectively.
In the eighth year of Tianshun's reign, it was because Yingzong had just died and there was a transition of imperial power, and the three times of Zhengde's reign... it was purely because Zhu Houzhao didn't want to go.
This shows that the Ming Dynasty's imperial examination selection of talents was irregular in the Zhengde Dynasty. Before this imperial examination, the emperor did not come for three imperial examinations. Finally, after Zhu Si ascended the throne, the situation improved.
This time Zhu Si presided over the imperial examination, showing unprecedented importance. Even at noon, Zhu Si was not in a hurry to go back to eat, and even seemed to be slacking off on court affairs.
At this time, Zhu Hao had already finished answering the exam papers and was sitting there waiting for them to be handed in and sealed.
It wasn't until the sun set that a eunuch came over to remind Zhu Si that he should take care of himself and go back to rest. Zhu Si then got up without finishing his thoughts. Before leaving, he looked at Zhu Hao with a smile on his face.
After the emperor left.
The people in the Hanlin Academy who were in charge of supervision were a little more relaxed, but according to the rules, they could not get close to the candidates or read the articles, so as not to be suspected of collusion.
Zhu Hao noticed that Yang Shen was also present.
The two had met before and had a brief conversation. Yang Shen didn't seem to pay much attention to Zhu Hao. He looked over occasionally, and then turned his attention to some candidates he knew, such as Yang Weicong and others who were born in Beizhili or Sichuan.
Scholars, those are his allies.
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At sunset, it was finally allowed to hand in the papers.
The eunuch came over to receive the examination papers and sealed them, with Zhu Hao's papers sandwiched in between.
When the sun completely set behind the horizon, even the candidates who had not finished answering were required to hand in their papers... After all the papers were handed in, everyone stood up, lined up in order, and followed the eunuchs and Hanlin Academy officials outside the palace again.
After leaving Donghua Gate, there was finally no restriction on "noise" and all the candidates could talk as much as they wanted.
"Master Zhu..."
Since there was no need to line up, as everyone walked towards Dong'anmen, 30 to 50% of the people were already whispering to each other.
At this time, Zhang Cong quickly followed from behind and saluted Zhu Hao.
Zhu Hao was discussing the questions of this palace examination with several candidates from Huguang who were listed in the front. Hearing this, he looked back at Zhang Cong, smiled and nodded.
I wanted to discuss the gift with Zhang Cong before, but I couldn't find anyone. I didn't expect that Zhang Cong took the initiative to ask for a meeting after the palace examination.
Zhu Hao said goodbye to several Huguang candidates, and then walked side by side with Zhang Cong.
"I noticed that Your Majesty was staring at you before..."
Zhang Cong mentioned something.
Zhu Hao couldn't help but squint his eyes.
This Zhang Cong is indeed very good at maneuvering. After all, the historian did not accuse you wrongly. If it were not for the meritorious service of Da Liyi, you might have become Yan Song. Fortunately, you were already an old man when you were admitted to the Jinshi.
Zhu Hao smiled and said, "Brother Zhang, are you mistaken? With so many people present, how can we be sure that His Majesty is looking at me?"
Zhang Cong did not dwell on this topic and instead said: "I have been studying behind closed doors before and have never visited you. I wonder if your majesty is worried now and needs someone to relieve him?"
Zhu Hao said: "Brother Zhang, you should know, right?"
Zhang Cong nodded.
Before the imperial examination, the court discussed the ceremony for the first time, which ended with the new emperor's complete failure. The new emperor's father was not his father, and his mother was not his mother. As the initiator of the ceremony in history, Zhang Cong couldn't see that the emperor urgently needed a voice.
Stand up for yourself?
But Zhang Cong probably also knew that he was a humble person and was not qualified to discuss large gifts.
"It seems like it's time to have a good talk with Brother Zhang. How about we make an appointment? It's not early, it's still dark, and it's time to go back and rest..."
At this time, we have arrived in front of Dong'an Gate. Zhu Hao means to say goodbye at the door.
However, Zhang Cong seemed very anxious: "It is better to choose a day than to hit it. It is better for me to host a banquet for Mr. Zhu... Please be sure to show your respect to Mr. Zhu."