Chapter 328 Spring Examination
Rich families don’t have to buy good land, there are thousands of berries in the books;
There is no need to build a high hall to live in peace, and there is a golden house in the book;
Don’t hate the lack of a good matchmaker when marrying a wife, and there is a beauty in the book;
If a man fulfills his life's ambition, read the Six Classics frequently to the window.
The name of this poem is "Encouragement", which is an advertisement poem. The reason why it is said this is because its author is named Zhao Heng, and his profession is an emperor. This emperor promoted their family's imperial examination by depicting the temptation of fish jumping into the dragon gate and getting rich overnight, and a bachelor marrying a wife. The purpose is to make people all over the world go crazy for their family's imperial examination.
But advertising is an advertisement after all. It only exaggerates the efficacy but does not talk about how long and painful this road is. In fact, the imperial examination is a real choice of one out of ten thousand. Not to mention passing the Jinshi, just to become a juren who is considered a preliminary success, you need to go through the third-level child student examination, and the admission rate is one out of three thousand. After the provincial examination and its preparatory examination, the admission rate is one out of two hundred and fifty. Of course, because you can repeat the examination, the actual elimination rate will be much lower, but the admission rate of "choose one out of ten thousand" is still available.
There is a saying that "one general succeeds and thousands of bones are undone." Isn't this the case of fighting in the literary world?
Even those lucky ones who broke through the siege did not pay a heavy price? They took an average of thirty years to get a small child who studied hard and took exams with an astonishing elimination rate.
Thirty years are enough to turn a child with a slutty voice into a wretched uncle with a beard. The most beautiful and precious young man in his life. His youth wasted his time, and the price was heavy.
But even such a cruel reality still cannot stop the society from worshiping the imperial examination. Almost all families will let their children study as long as they have the conditions. They will participate in this imperial examination with little hope, just because in the Ming Dynasty, if they want to become an official, there is no other way!
In February of the 35th year of Jiajing, after three years of selection, a new group of juren was produced, and the past failed candidates gathered in the capital to participate in the three-year Ministry of Rites Examination and launch a new round of impact on the last level of the imperial examination... Although passing the examination of juren is equivalent to joining the ruling class, being able to find a job with only one or two positions, having food and clothing for the rest of your life, being respected, and having a place to support you, and being able to be considered a successful person. But if you want to make a fortune and live a top-notch life of "golden house, thousand beans of millet, and beauty," it is impossible not to take the Jinshi exam.
In order to fully adapt to the cold climate of the capital and prepare for the pre-exam, the students from all provinces usually arrive in the capital around the year-end. The results of the examination will come out in March, so they need to stay in the capital for at least three months.
There are 4,500 candidates in two capitals and 13 provinces, and each juren has three or five or even a dozen members. One hundred or twenty thousand people flock to the capital at once, and accommodation has become the primary problem. Inns are of course the main place to live, and smart merchants will naturally not miss this golden business opportunity. Inns are the original inns, they rented the property near the Gongyuan in advance and converted it into temporary hotels. These hotels will definitely be full in the months of the examination, allowing merchants to make enough money for a year.
Even inns far away from the examination room will be temporarily renamed to "Zhuangyuan Store" or "Zhuangyuan Guyuan" in order to attract candidates, so that candidates can get a kind of spiritual comfort and can also have a good deal and get a five to ten times the harvest.
Correspondingly, prices in Beijing have also risen in recent months, several times higher than usual. According to statistics, the accommodation fee in these three months costs at least 40 taels of silver. In addition to food, clothing, housing, and human relations, they can save money by spending 180 taels of silver. If the travel expenses are included, the cost of a test may be 150 and 60 taels.
Obviously not every candidate can take out such a large sum of money, especially those who fail to pass the exam and travel between the two places for many years, can't afford it.
Fortunately, various provinces and even some major prefectures have built guild halls in Beijing, which can provide free food and accommodation for the students. These guild halls are generally built by officials of the same hometown, donating money or raising funds. They usually provide accommodation for people entering Beijing in their hometowns and charge relatively low fees to support themselves. However, in the year of the competition, all personnel who have nothing to do with the exam must temporarily move out to receive candidates and their entourage, and basically all have free food and accommodation to solve the candidates' worries.
There are more than 200 such guild halls in the capital, and the most famous this year is the Shaoxing guild hall. This is not because it is so big or luxurious. It is because the Juzi who lives in it is too strong.
Just like the provincial examination, the students also hold literary meetings before the exam, and invite Hanlins who are in pain to attend the evaluation. These Hanlins are all top students in the top subjects, and their knowledge is naturally excellent, and their evaluation is also of great reference value.
The Hanlins are so full that they have nothing to do. In addition to reviewing the articles, they will also predict whether the candidates will win or not, and what the final ranking will be. Of course, because they are facing their respective fellow villagers, this kind of topic will always cause a lot of disputes.
The dispute this year is still quite large, but one thing is recognized by the Hanlin people... Shaoxing must be the one with the largest number of people, and one of them is Zhu Dashou and Tao Dalin, who is a strong competitor to the top scorer of the Bingchen Certificate.
Now the two of them became famous before the exams were taken. Many people came here to visit, some to ask for advice, and some to play the club, which made people feel annoyed. Fortunately, both of them have good demeanor, neither arrogant nor impatient, nor humble, and patiently receiving every visitor, winning a very high reputation.
Many people asked them why they could maintain such a humble attitude. They would both tirelessly repeat the sentence: "I am not as good as Shen Zhuyan, and my talent is not as good as Xu Wenchang. What can I rely on?" Translated into a common saying, even if we cannot get Shen Zhuyan's test, our talent is not as good as Xu Wenchang, so why are we proud?
This undoubtedly made everyone very interested in these two people, and asked again: "Where are the two men?"
"Never arrived." The two of them had to answer depressedly, and said anxiously: 'If you two don't come again, the daylily will be cold now.'
Until the registration deadline for the seventh day of the lunar month, and the two of them had not appeared yet. The five-member Qionglin Society in the Shaoxing Guild Hall were completely disheartened. They spent the night in infinite regret. The next day, they got up, washed their faces, dressed and ate, carefully checked the exam tools, and arranged them one by one in the exam box. This was already familiar.
The test box they used was given by Ms. Yin before the provincial examination. While patting the well-made test box, Sun Ying sighed: "At the beginning, all of us had insomnia before the provincial examination. They all had dark circles and were still stubborn in their mouths. They really wanted to laugh when they remembered it."
Wu Dui nodded and said, "Yes, I thought the seven of us could still take the exam together."
Sun Jian's sadness flashed and said in a deep voice: "Pray that they are safe and sound. The exam is once every three years. As long as the person is fine, it doesn't matter how many years you take the exam later." They had heard from Zhejiang, saying that they were sued for Hu Zongxian's affairs and were escorted to the capital for trial. Xu Wei also disappeared at the same time and there is no news yet.
They also asked someone to inquire about which yamen the silence is now, but no one knows it, as if he hadn't arrived in the capital at all. What does this mean? The children of officials like Sun Jing know the most, so this is why they say this.
"It's getting late, so it's time for us to set off." Tao Dalin whispered: "Senior Brother must hope that we can get a good score and bring glory to our Qionglin Society!"
"Yes," Zhu Dashou finished checking and closed the examination box and said, "Zhu Yan has always hoped to make Qionglin Society famous all over the world. Now he can't come, so we have to complete this task!"
The other three people also nodded and said, "This shot must be fired!"
The five people left the guild hall and rushed to Shuntian Gongyuan with stars and moonlight. They were less energetic than last year, and they felt a little cold and cold... I have to admit that as the backbone of these people, the silent absence and even accident had a great impact on them.
When I arrived at the southeast corner of Chongwen Gate, I saw a large archway with "Tiankai Wenyun" and looked at the bustling crowds under the archway. The five people knew that the examination room for the imperial examination... Shuntian Gongyuan arrived. This most noble examination room in the country, except for the one in Hangzhou, was exactly the same in terms of regulations. I saw the ink-shaped plaque with "Shuntian Gongyuan" hanging in the middle of the gate, and there were plaques with "Ming Jing to Recruit the Scholars" and "Seeking Talents for the Country" standing in the east and west. The candidates gathered outside the gate by provinces, waiting to be named and entered. All the steps were no different from the provincial examination.
This time, the adults who were taking the exam in Zhejiang were very lucky and were the first to enter the venue. As soon as the gate opened, the students from Zhejiang were surging in the eyes of others, carrying things in their arms, ready to undergo the examination.
Zhu Dashou and five of them were behind intentionally or unintentionally, but they only delayed for a moment and still had to enter the venue.
When they walked to the gate of the yard, the five of them looked back for the last time, thinking that there was no hope at all.
Amid the urging of soldiers, the few people were about to turn around, but they heard a faint voice in the distance: "Wait a minute..."
The five people looked back and saw two figures running from the streets of Gongyuan. When they were a little closer, wouldn’t it just Chen Mo and Xu Wei?
Chapter completed!