Chapter 166 165 No One in the Past, No One in the Future
The rules of the examination room, including the examination questions, are the same as those of the provincial examination, including four calligraphy essays, five-character and eight-rhyme poems, five scriptures, and policy questions.
A few days before the exam, Wei Guangde went to large temples and Taoist temples near Beijing to seek peace of mind.
If you don’t ask, you won’t know. There are so many temples and Taoist temples in Beijing that you can’t even count them with just your hands and feet.
At the same time, the chief executive who was appointed by Emperor Jiajing, the examiners from the Eighteenth Household selected by the Ministry of Rites, as well as the examiners, promotion officers, sealing officers, examination paper collectors, examiners, sealing officers, transcribers, A total of fifty-six people, including reading officers, patrol officers, and supply officers, all entered the Gongyuan to wait for the examination.
In February, the temperature did not rise much higher than before. Wei Guangde finally made it out alive after six nights in the cold examination tent.
These years of boxing training have actually made his body and bones much stronger than other boxers. Unlike a few people in the guild hall, they all entered Gongyuan with a high fever in the last round and fought hard.
After everyone came out on the 17th, the atmosphere in the entire Jiujiang Guild Hall was not very good.
Not only did the princes suffer in the Gongyuan, five of them fell ill when they came out, and now they are still in bed.
The results of the general examination will be released earlier than the provincial examination. Even though the examination time is the same, the results will be available before the end of February, and the emperor will be asked to release the results.
In a tense and solemn atmosphere, when the time came to February 25th, the atmosphere in the hall became even more depressing.
Because on this day, the examiners and chief examiners from each room gathered together, starting from the 19th place - that is, the second place in each room - to fill in the test paper numbers into the draft list.
Only the test paper numbers were filled in on the draft list, which did not correspond to the names of the people.
After filling it out, let the foreign official send in the original ink scrolls corresponding to these numbers, then lock the door, number the ink scrolls and the ink scrolls one by one, and if they are found to be correct, tie up the ink scrolls and the ink scrolls. It will be sealed and stored in the hall until the official list is filled in tomorrow.
At this time, the fate of the candidates is actually determined, because who will make it to the list and who will fail will be determined after this day, and it will be of little significance to formally fill in the list the next day.
Time came quietly to February 27th, which was just an ordinary day.
While eating in the lobby at noon, Wei Guangde heard Jiujiang Juzi say: "Today the list of examination candidates has come out. The Ministry of Rites has reported to the emperor that the lowest number will be selected, 300 places, and the list should be released in the next two days. "
The words reached Wei Guangde's ears, and Wei Guangde didn't know what he was thinking at this moment.
Soon, in two days, everything will be settled.
The person who spoke was known to Wei Guangde. His name was Wang Jiashi. He was a member of the imperial examination in the 25th year of Jiajing. He had taken the examination for three consecutive times and was now participating in the examination for the fourth time.
He is already over 40 years old. According to current theory, if he fails to pass the exam again, he will probably not take part in the 38-year-old exam. I am afraid he will have to take the path of being promoted to an official by the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
In the past two years, I have traveled a lot with Jiangxi officials in Beijing, so I am afraid they are also preparing for this.
It is worth mentioning that Wei Guangde talked to him quite a lot because he was also from Pengze and was sitting at the opposite table chatting with other candidates about the information he learned about this examination.
“These days I don’t see those fellow villagers sending me anything.”
Lao Kan said while eating.
The Jiujiang Guild Hall was naturally started by businessmen from Jiujiang and the following counties who pooled their money to entertain family members who came to Beijing. Of course, it was also open for business on weekdays, but it was only dedicated to serve the people in their hometown during the annual trial period.
Since the first month of the year, Jiujiang businessmen in Beijing have been coming here every now and then, bringing a lot of things with them each time.
In fact, Wei Guangde and the others lived here, except for the servant's room, and their own room and food were free of charge, because every year during the meeting, businessmen donated more money.
Perhaps they knew that waiting for the test results would be the most torturous period, so they did not come to this stall.
"Twenty-nine, they will definitely come then. They usually release the results at this time."
Xia Kefan said, he has taken the exam twice, and this is the third time, so he naturally has more experience.
"The day after tomorrow, I will be tortured for two more days."
Lao Kan sighed.
"If you are willing to spend money, it is said that if you find the person who handles the errands in the Gongyuan, you will have a chance to know whether you are on the list tomorrow. But I just heard about it, so I have never seen it."
Xia Kefan also shook his head and sighed.
"Leave it to fate. Why are you thinking so much? We will go back and continue the war later."
Wei Guangde sighed in his heart, but said relaxedly.
How to get rid of random thoughts at this time, then play with money.
At night, Wei Guangde and the others were still sleepy, so they sat around a table and played cards. Some mansions in the inner city were also very lively at this time.
"Dad, why did you call me here?"
A fat man with a broad body walked into the room and said to the old man who was reading a book inside.
"Have you heard about the thing I asked you to pay attention to?"
The old man didn't look at him and continued to look through the book in his hand. The pages of the book were yellowed, obviously they were old.
"I asked someone about it. He is on the list, but his ranking is over 270. He is really lucky."
The fat man replied.
"Who ordered him?"
In the old man's impression, this person was said to have an average level of eight-legged writing, and the probability of failing the list was actually very high, but he didn't expect to be on the list.
"Kang Siqian ordered it. I asked someone to look at his paper. The question in the Four Books is: Therefore, the words of a gentleman are so great that no one in the world can record them. He is said to have answered this question well, and the others are average. There is also the financial question in the policy essay, which asks how to increase the treasury revenue without consuming the people's labor. He suggested increasing the production of silk and porcelain and exchanging them for gold, silver and grain through the trade of Shibo and Kanhe."
The fat man talked for a long time, and saw that his father was still sitting there reading, and he seemed to be completely uninterested in talking.
"Dad, if there is nothing else, then I will go back first. Maoqing Longwen and the others are still waiting for me over there."
"Go, remember my words, don't interfere in this matter."
The old man continued to read without raising his head.
The fat man felt bored, and signaled to the two maids next to him to serve the old man here, and then turned and left the room.
In the 35th year of Jiajing, there were more than 5,300 candidates who applied for the imperial examination. At this time, when these 5,000 people were waiting for the results to be announced, for those powerful families, as long as they asked a little, they could easily find out the names on the first list of the imperial examination.
Of course, this was just to know the names of the candidates in advance, not a major case of cheating in the imperial examination such as the leakage of the examination questions. For those bigwigs, it was still a very simple thing.
On the evening of the 28th, the inside and outside of the Beijing Imperial Examination Hall were very lively, because as usual, the list would be announced tomorrow. The yamen runners and hangers-on in the Beijing government offices gathered here at this time, waiting for the people inside to pass on the news to them, so that they could beat gongs and drums to send good news and earn some money.
This may be the biggest difference between the imperial examination and the provincial examination. It is not the government that organizes people to send good news, but the people outside the Imperial Examination Hall and the messengers inside do this business together. As a result, the candidates who passed the examination may receive several good news of the imperial examination.
Of course, the internal competition in this business is not that fierce, because most of the messengers will only compete for the top-ranked candidates to send good news, and they will give more rewards to the candidates who are on the list. Naturally, fewer people are interested in the candidates who are ranked lower.
This is actually the unspoken rule of the imperial examination. Generally, the palace examination results are similar to the joint examination results, and the ranking changes are very small.
If the palace examination results are disrupted and the gap with the joint examination ranking is too large, especially the huge changes in the top and the joint examination, it often represents the change of political wind direction, which means that the emperor is dissatisfied with the general manager or the chief examiner of the joint examination.
It should be mentioned here that the person in charge of the joint examination is the chief examiner appointed by the court or the emperor. They have to manage the internal and external affairs of the Gongyuan, but they are not responsible for judging the papers, that is, they have no right to intervene, and they cannot even enter the inner court to participate in the evaluation of the candidates.
The chief examiners of this joint examination are the cabinet deputy assistant Lu Ben and the junior secretary Yin Tai of the Zhanshi Mansion.
The ranking of the candidates in the back row is mostly determined by the chief examiner and the deputy chief examiner. Only the top five candidates need to be ranked by the two chief examiners and the eighteen examiners. Therefore, it is very difficult to select the champion and the top five candidates.
There are signs in the Imperial Academy when the list is announced tomorrow. The lights and decorations inside and outside need to be cleaned up. In particular, a large number of newspapers gathered outside the Imperial Academy, which is the most powerful evidence that the list is about to be announced.
At this time, the servants of Jiujiang Guild Hall have reported what happened in the Imperial Academy. The soldiers near the Imperial Academy did not drive away those who gathered near the Imperial Academy. After all, most of these people are locals, and most of them know each other with the soldiers in the Beijing camp.
Especially at this time, all the verification procedures in the Imperial Academy should have been completed. The copy rolls and ink rolls have been taken out for verification, and the sealed rolls have been opened. If there is no error in the comparison, the ranking of the candidates has been settled, and only the general manager is waiting to fill in the list.
When the general manager fills in the list, it is the time for people in the Imperial Academy to pass the news out.
Often, these people are chores in the Imperial Academy, with very little salary on weekdays. They can only make a living by taking this examination, so the officials turn a blind eye to the things done by these clerks and pretend not to know.
All the candidates from Jiujiang Prefecture have come out. The few who fell ill before have recovered, but they are a little weak. At this time, they have already sat in the lobby. The two tables next to them are merchants from Jiujiang Prefecture in Beijing. They also have a keen sense of smell, and everyone comes according to the convention.
Once a candidate gets good news, these merchants will give gifts to congratulate him on his success.
The candidates who have reached this stage can no longer be called candidates, but Jinshi, because the palace examination does not eliminate people, but only compares rankings.
But no matter how high or low the ranking is, they are all officials and can be officials.
In this world, merchants need to rely on officials, even if they are dependent, they have to have a good relationship.
It makes sense that the King of Hell is easy to mess with, but the little ghosts are hard to deal with.
At this moment, all the candidates in Jiujiang Prefecture were drinking tea leisurely. Although they had experienced the test of the provincial examination, at this moment, Wei Guangde still noticed that many people's hands occasionally trembled slightly when holding the teacup.
At the banquet at Jiangxi Guild Hall on the 29th day of the twelfth lunar month, someone invited Jiangxi candidates to gather at Jiangxi Guild Hall to wait for the good news, but many local candidates refused.
Not only because there were too many candidates, but also because the distribution of Jiangxi candidates on the list was very uneven. The candidates in Jiujiang Prefecture have always ranked in the middle and lower among the prefectures in Jiangxi, so they naturally did not want to go there.
That is, the candidates in prefectures and counties with more Jinshi such as Ji'an and Nanchang had a competitive spirit and agreed to go to Jiangxi Guild Hall to wait for the good news.
Not long after, the sound of gongs, drums and suonas came from outside the door, which sounded very festive. This was a team of messengers who had received news of the imperial examination and were delivering good news to the candidates.
However, the team was getting closer, and then slowly walked away.
In fact, for the candidates sitting here, the ranking was no longer important. What mattered was only being on the list. As long as they were on the list, their hard work would not be in vain.
There were many guild halls around Jiujiang Guild Hall, so naturally, the sound of gongs, drums and suonas was heard again soon. This time, it sounded like the team did not turn at the street corner in front, but came all the way here playing.
Not only Wei Guangde, but all the candidates in the room clenched their hands, and all ten toes of their feet had firmly grasped the ground, and they could only feel their hearts pounding.
Of course, the current state of others was just Wei Guangde's guess, because he was like this at the moment.
When the team of announcing the good news walked outside the gate of Jiujiang Guild Hall, everyone, including the merchants at the two tables next to them and the people in the store, all looked towards the gate.
Unfortunately, the team announcing the good news did not stop in front of the door and continued to move forward.
"Does the good news of the imperial examination also start from the end and go forward?"
Wei Guangde asked at this moment. Sitting at their table were not only Lao Kan and Shen Liangdong, but also Zhu Shilong and Zhang Ke, who were candidates of the previous provincial examination. Xia Kefan and Chen Zhonglie, two candidates of the provincial examination in the 28th year, were also sitting here.
"It was like this in previous years."
The speaker was Chen Zhonglie, a man in his forties who had just arrived in the capital in the first month of the year. I think he had suffered a lot along the way.
Wei Guangde and his team left early, so they were not frozen all the way here. It was only after the team passed Shandong that they felt the severe cold in the north.
Chen Zhonglie left late, so he had to brave the wind and snow all the way.
Well, Wei Guangde sighed in his heart.
If there was no good news for himself in front of the team announcing the good news, then it seemed that he could only really wait for the imperial examination in the 38th year of Jiajing.
Another three years have passed. It is no wonder that Chen Ziang wrote the poem "Song of Climbing the Tower of Youzhou" after failing the imperial examination.
"I see no ancients in front of me, and no future generations behind me. Thinking of the vastness of the world, I am alone and shed tears!"
This is the poet's sigh for the brevity of life. The words are grand and heroic, but full of tragic grandeur.
At this time, Wei Guangde would definitely not recite this poem to spoil the scenery. It is too damn unlucky.
Now that the list has not been seen, it is not necessarily that his name is not on it. Even if he wants to sigh that the future is bleak, three years later is another three years, and the youth years are wasted, he will have to wait until tomorrow.
However, thinking of "Song of Climbing the Tower of Youzhou", Wei Guangde couldn't help but recite the sentence in "Chu Ci-Yuanyou Pian" softly, which is similar to the beginning of this poem:
"Only the infinite world, I lament the long diligence of life. I can't catch up with the past, and I can't hear the future."