Chapter 101 Dragon and Tiger List

Song.

Song Shenzong Zhao Xu and Wang Anshi, who were called by their names, looked up at the sky.

Song Shenzong was quite hesitant. Tianmu specifically cited my example. Was it just an example? Or did he want to warn me about something? Was my reform really inappropriate?

Wang Anshi was calm inside and had a determined look in his eyes. He was determined to carry out the reform!
[After talking about Zhao Guangyi's military and people's livelihood issues, let's take a look at his series of initiatives in civil administration.

First of all, one thing must be stated: Although Zhao Guangyi suffered repeated military failures, there were also uprisings such as Wang Xiaobo and Li Shun in the country, which also caused serious problems of emphasizing culture over military.

But in terms of civil administration, Zhao Guangyi also deserves the title of "ruling the world with civil officials". He thoroughly perfected the imperial examination system and laid the foundation for the civil service rule of the Song Dynasty.

Song Dynasty, the fourth year of Chunhua.

Zhao Guangyi felt that he was praised by heaven and recognized by God - his virtue and governance had been finalized!
That's right, he perfected the imperial examination system. It was also he who vigorously promoted the imperial examination, expanded the number of candidates admitted, and allowed the scholars who passed the imperial examination to quickly become officials. This was how he suppressed the unhealthy tendencies of arrogance among military generals since the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties!
The foundation of the civil service rule of the Song Dynasty was laid by him.

Zhao Guangyi was in a good mood and whispered to himself: "Brother, I have done what you failed to do. The prosperity of the Song Dynasty also started with my civil service system."

Well, as for the descriptions mentioned above, just pretend you didn’t see them. They have already happened and there is no way to change it.

Many ministers in the hall were also in high spirits. After all, it was already the fourth year of Chunhua, and many of the officials standing in the hall at that time were beneficiaries of Zhao Guangyi's promotion of the imperial examination system.

Even if there are still people who are dissatisfied with "civilian rule", it is difficult for them to resist the general trend.

Tang Dynasty, the third year of Zhenguan.

It feels like whatever you want will come true.

People in the Tang Dynasty were already quite interested in the imperial examination system of later dynasties. At this time, Zhao Guangyi came to improve the content of the imperial examination system.

Li Shimin and the other ministers of the Zhenguan period could not help but sit up straight and become more serious.

In the second year of Taiping Xingguo, Zhao Guangyi held the imperial examination for the first time, which was the "Longfei List". A total of 109 Jinshi candidates, 207 candidates from various subjects, and 191 candidates were specially recommended.

Starting from the eighth year of Taiping Xingguo, it became a custom to give a banquet to successful Jinshi in Qionglin Garden, and it continued to develop.

In the second year of Yongxi, the system of separate examinations for relatives of examiners was implemented for the first time, that is, a separate examination room was set up and separate examiners were assigned. This avoidance method was later promoted.

At the same time, the system of calling out the names of Jinshi scholars and awarding them a rank began from this section, which is the so-called Donghuamen calling out the names. Han Qi's later remark to Di Qing, "The one who is called out as the top scholar outside Donghuamen is a good boy!" also came from this.

The imperial examination in the first year of Duangong established the Gongyuan system.

The general content is as follows: Before the provincial examination, an official from the Censorate would be sent to guard the gate, set up a desk outside the curtain of the hall, and call out the names of each candidate and print the test paper.

If the examination papers are qualified, the Jinshi examination papers will be recorded for the emperor to review, while only the names of the candidates will be recorded for other subjects. After the emperor's approval, the names of the candidates will be announced separately, and the list will be announced the next day.

After expressing their gratitude to the emperor, the scholars went to the Imperial College to pay homage to the statue of Confucius. Then a two-day Wenxi Banquet was held in the Qionglin Garden. On the first day, there was a banquet for the Jinshi scholars, and on the second day, there was a banquet for all subjects. Both were considered banquets granted by the emperor.

After the banquet, the successful candidates would have their names carved on stone in the Imperial Examination Hall. The top scholar would then take the lead and call upon all the other successful candidates to gather on a chosen day, called a "qiji". They would list their names, hometowns, three generations, and describe their relationship as classmates.

Finally, those who passed the exam went to the Ministry of Personnel to take three tests, called the "guanshi", which served as a reference for the Ministry of Personnel when selecting officials.

In the third year of Chunhua, Zhao Guangyi held the imperial examinations for the last time and also innovated two systems.

First, a lock-in system was implemented for the chief examiner, that is, when the examiner was ordered to be in charge of the imperial examination, he would go to the imperial examination hall on the spot and be cut off from the outside world, so that he could not accept requests or bribes in advance.

Second, the first time the palace examination was conducted, the name-covering examination method was implemented, that is, the names and hometowns of the candidates were covered up to prevent favoritism and fraud. This system was later extended to various examinations in the imperial examination system.

Song Dynasty, the fourth year of Chunhua.

Zhao Guangyi nodded approvingly, relaxed his body, and sat down. This is all his credit! The previous imperial examinations were all quite chaotic, and it was he who led the formation of various systems. Moreover, since Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty started the imperial examinations, the number of admitted people was really small, resulting in the imperial examinations being just a way of selecting talents with a nice name. Even his brother did not have many scholars admitted in each subject.

How can this really make the imperial examination system work?
It was also him, Zhao Guangyi, who greatly expanded the number of admissions, which allowed the imperial examination to extend its tentacles to the court and all over the country, turning the imperial examination system into a real imperial examination system.

The prime ministers and important officials were all proud of it. Although some of the important officials in the court and the government were not from the imperial examinations of the current officials, many of them were scholars who had been admitted since the second year of Taipingxingguo. Moreover, in the imperial examinations in these years, there were also people who were already officials who took the exams just to get a good reputation.

Furthermore, after the Wenxi Banquet, the scholars who had passed the imperial examination gathered together, and they had formed many inseparable groups based on their hometown, age, and teacher. For this reason, they must praise and insist on promoting the current imperial examination system.

Song Dynasty, the first year of Kaibao.

Zhao Kuangyin instructed his attendants to write down the key points about the innovation of the imperial examination system one by one. After all, his Song Dynasty had already decided to vigorously promote the imperial examination system, and he himself had been holding imperial examinations. These new systems could be implemented right now without any resistance.

Unlike the Tang Dynasty, there were still powerful aristocratic families who obstructed the promotion of the imperial examination.

Then, he noticed another sentence: "The one who sang the first prize outside Donghua Gate is a good boy!"

This seems to be praising the imperial examination candidates, but the conclusion that he is a good person seems a little inappropriate. Han Qi must be a person who passed the imperial examination, but who is Di Qing?

Ming Dynasty, Hongwu Years.

After Zhu Yuanzhang became emperor and founded the country, he did not neglect the imperial examination. Although many of the trusted ministers present were old ministers, their sons and nephews also participated in the imperial examination and obtained official positions, so they naturally had a positive attitude towards the imperial examination.

What's more, after hundreds of years of the imperial examination system and civil service rule in the Song Dynasty, the imperial examination seems to have become a natural thing today. Since it is a natural thing, what is there to question?
As a result, many people's attitude towards Zhao Guangyi changed a lot: "Although Emperor Taizong of Song was not good at border affairs, he did improve the imperial examination system, which will be of great benefit to future generations..."

The princes did not feel as strongly about this as the ministers did. After all, they would not take part in the imperial examinations.

Zhu Biao said: "But no matter what, Song Taizong's improvement of various aspects of the imperial examination system has indeed greatly increased the channels, quantity and convenience of selecting talents for the court, which is also beneficial to our Ming Dynasty." Tang Dynasty, the third year of Zhenguan.

"Giving a banquet, recusing, calling out names, locking the court, covering names..." Li Shimin counted several of Zhao Guangyi's innovations and compared them with the current situation in the Tang Dynasty, intending to see how many of them could be directly applied to the imperial examinations in the Tang Dynasty or with slight changes.

Fang Xuanling and Du Ruhui looked at each other and said, "Your Majesty, I think... it may be difficult to cover the names." It goes without saying that calling out the names at the banquet is not a big deal, and this kind of honor is not a big deal. Although it is difficult to avoid and lock the courtyard, it is not impossible to implement it. But covering the names will probably be very difficult.

After all, even if they were avoided or the school was locked, as long as the name was not obscure, wouldn't the admission of the children of the aristocratic family be a sure thing, right?
As for the banquet and the roll call, although it was intended to improve the status of these imperial examination candidates who theoretically came from the grassroots, according to the current situation in the Tang Dynasty, most of the candidates who participated in the imperial examination were children from wealthy families, so their status was improved.

Li Shimin frowned, he had also thought about this problem, but the division and elimination of the aristocratic families was not something that could be accomplished in a day or two.

He mentioned another crucial move by Zhao Guangyi: "Song Taizong's imperial examinations admitted a large number of people."

In fact, there are more than a lot. Compared with the Sui and Tang dynasties, the number of Jinshi alone has increased several times.

"As the name of the Jinshi exam suggests, what do you think the other exams and the special exams are?"

Du Ruhui said: "In the Tang Dynasty, the various subjects refer to all subjects in the imperial examination, but the Song Dynasty should have changed. Shenji previously listed the Jinshi subject separately, so the various subjects may be the general term for subjects other than the Jinshi subject. The word "special" is used in the special name, perhaps it means a special license?"

Others generally agreed with this inference, as the logic was very coherent.

Li Shimin and those who knew the situation in the Tang Dynasty all felt a little regretful. After all, the civil service rule of the Song Dynasty was based on Zhao Guangyi's admission of a large number of scholars. However, it was not easy for them to increase the number of imperial examination candidates. In other words, it was not easy to get a large number of non-aristocratic imperial examination candidates.

Without enough spare manpower, everything is in vain.

[During Zhao Guangyi's reign, the number of admitted scholars was greatly expanded.

In terms of the Jinshi exam alone, the highest number of admitted candidates was in the third year of Chunhua, with 353 people, while the lowest number was in the third year of Taipingxingguo, with 74 people. This number is several times higher than that of the Sui and Tang dynasties, not to mention the number of admitted candidates in the Song Dynasty.

In addition to greatly expanding the number of admissions, Zhao Guangyi also generously granted official positions to scholars and even gave them promotion benefits.

You know, although the Tang Dynasty implemented the imperial examination system, successful candidates often could not get official positions immediately and had to wait for opportunities.

But Zhao Guangyi was different. Once he became a Jinshi, he was immediately appointed as an official in Beijing. At the same time, he took good care of officials who were Jinshi graduates. For example, among the scholars who took the first imperial examination in the second year of Taiping Xingguo, Lu Mengzheng became the ruler seven years later, and became the prime minister twelve years later.

By greatly expanding the number of admissions and vigorously supporting officials who came from the imperial examination system, Zhao Guangyi successfully made the imperial examination system take root in the court and the people, allowing officials who came from the imperial examination system to occupy positions of all sizes from central government agencies to county and prefecture positions. This marked the true establishment of civil service rule in the Song Dynasty.

By the way, I would like to mention the imperial examination in the fifth year of Taiping Xingguo. The candidates of this imperial examination were called "Dragon and Tiger List", and several first-class talents emerged from it, including Zhang Yong mentioned earlier, Kou Zhun, Li Hang, Wang Dan, Xiang Minzhong and others who later became prime ministers, all of whom emerged from this list of candidates. 】

Song Dynasty, the fourth year of Chunhua.

Listening to all the praises of himself and the enumeration of his achievements, Zhao Guangyi's heart seemed to fly to the clouds.

Until the end, the list of Jinshi in the fifth year of Taiping Xingguo?

He became excited. When he knew that Zhang Yong and Kou Zhun were both Jinshi in the fifth year of Taiping Xingguo, he planned to look through the list of Jinshi after the miracle was over to see if there were some talents who could be promoted.

Unexpectedly, a miracle was pointed out to him.

It is worthy of being on the “Dragon and Tiger List”!
However, the curtain said "etc.", which means that in addition to these people, there may be other good seedlings. Thinking of this, Zhao Guangyi felt that he could not wait until the curtain ended to look through the list, he wanted to take a look now.

So he ordered a servant to bring him the list of Jinshi in the fifth year of Taiping Xingguo.

Tang Dynasty, the third year of Zhenguan.

Everyone who understood that the current situation in the Tang Dynasty still needed to wait and see was somewhat envious of Zhao Guangyi's unbridled support for the imperial examinations.

So many people! From the central institutions to the county clerks, it can be said that it covers the whole country, with tentacles spread all over the level. With these, are you still worried about not being able to promote the imperial examination? Are you still worried about not being able to weaken or even eliminate those aristocratic forces?
As for the civil servant groups later like those in the Ming Dynasty, that is another matter. After all, they are no longer aristocratic families.

Moreover, Li Shimin was also jealous of the "Dragon and Tiger List" of the fifth year of Taipingxingguo! So many talents...

With the number of students Zhao Guangyi admitted, he was able to discover some talents who could take on important responsibilities, which was much larger than the population base of the aristocratic families.

It's a pity that the Tang Dynasty cannot be so presumptuous. It has to slowly implement the current imperial examination system while gradually weakening the power of the aristocratic families.

Song Dynasty, the third year of Dazhong Xiangfu.

Emperor Zhenzong of Song, Zhao Heng, was also quite emotional: "The Dragon and Tiger List of the fifth year of Taiping Xingguo has indeed discovered many pillars of the Song Dynasty. Not only did it benefit my father, but it also helped me a lot."

Ming Dynasty, Hongwu Years.

Some civil officials in the hall were also lost in thoughts about the Song Dynasty, immersed in their nostalgia for the era when civil officials governed the country.

That was a paradise for scholars, what a wonderful life! It is not like today... Take a look at Zhu Yuanzhang... Under the rule of the emperor today, it is difficult to find the wonderful life like in the Song Dynasty.

[Incidentally, the fact that the Song Dynasty was able to implement the imperial examination system so extensively was inseparable from the fact that most of the former aristocratic families had already disappeared. This disappearance does not refer to a decline in power, but a complete disappearance.

The decline of power began gradually from the Zhenguan period to the Kaiyuan period.

The achievement of the complete annihilation of the aristocratic families was achieved thanks to one person - Huang Chao.

The peasant uprising he led not only further promoted the demise of the Tang Dynasty, but also physically eliminated a large number of aristocratic families, which can be said to have paved the way for those who came later.

The prosperity of the past has all been buried, and there is nothing left to see. The inner treasury has been burned to ashes, and the streets are full of the bones of the nobles! 】 (Wei Zhuang)

(End of this chapter)