When the college entrance examination scores come out every year, there will be many top picks in various places. For example, county top scorer in liberal arts, county top scorer in science, provincial top scorer in liberal arts, provincial top scorer in science, etc. The reason why it is called the number one scholar is mainly due to the influence of the imperial examination system. Because in the ancient imperial examination system, the first place in the highest-level examination was the number one scholar, and this title has been passed down to this day. Many people think that the current number one scholar is the same as in ancient times. In fact, it is completely different. If the current number one scholar traveled to ancient times, he would not even be able to pass the exam. Because the ancient imperial examination was more difficult than we imagined.
The imperial examination system appeared during the Sui Dynasty. Before the change, Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty selected officials based on their family background and instead used talent and learning as the admission criteria. This created a new standard for official selection. Of course, although the Sui Dynasty pioneered the imperial examination system, due to the short existence of the Sui Dynasty, it perished before it had time to promote this system. After the establishment of the Tang Dynasty , many systems established by the Sui Dynasty were well inherited, including the imperial examination system.
The Tang Dynasty’s contribution to the imperial examination system was relatively large. In the Tang Dynasty, the imperial examination was divided into two parts: civil examination and military examination. The content of each part of the exam becomes increasingly detailed. Moreover, there are two types of examinations: regular and irregular, and the admission standards and processes have detailed regulations. In general, the Tang Dynasty’s contribution to the imperial examination system was no less than that of the Sui Dynasty. Dynasties after the Tang Dynasty continued to use this system until it was abolished at the end of the Qing Dynasty.
Today we will mainly look at the imperial examination system during the Qing Dynasty, because the imperial examination system developed into the Ming and Qing Dynasties and was very mature. Moreover, the imperial examination system also became the main way for the imperial court to select officials. Since the Qing Dynasty was very close to the present, the more detailed we know about it. In addition, the Qing Dynasty had a relatively large number of people admitted to the imperial examination, which made it less difficult. Even so, the difficulty is still very high. When you fully understand the imperial examination system of the Qing Dynasty, you will know how difficult it is, and you will also know what it means to win the first prize in the Qing Dynasty exam.
The imperial examination in the Qing Dynasty was divided into four parts. Tongsheng examination, rural examination, general examination and palace examination. If you pass the Tongsheng Examination, you can become a scholar. If you pass the provincial examination, you can become a civil servant. After passing the examination, you can become a tribute member . If you pass the palace examination, you can become a Jinshi. These four levels are similar to the current four-level education of primary school, junior high school, high school, and university. We can understand it this way, and it does mean this, but the difficulty is very different. You must know that we have now universalized nine-year compulsory education, which in ancient times was equivalent to everyone passing the provincial examination and becoming a candidate. If you think about it, you will know that it is absolutely impossible, otherwise ancient times would be in chaos.
The first thing we need to understand is that not everyone is eligible to take the imperial examination. Generally speaking, agents and their descendants, prostitutes and their descendants, businessmen and their descendants, matchmakers and their descendants, etc., are not eligible to take the exam. These industries were called lower classes and were discriminated against in feudal society. After reading this, do you realize that if you have a businessman, actor, etc. in your family, you have no chance of taking the imperial examination? In addition to people in these industries who cannot take the exam, there are also people with physical disabilities who cannot take the exam. For example, those who are deaf, disfigured, lame, hunchbacked, etc. are not eligible. The TV series "Prime Minister Liu Luoguo " is absolutely nonsense, because Luoguo is not qualified to take the disability examination. In this case, a very large number of people would be ineligible to take the imperial examination.
But don’t be happy if you are qualified to take the exam, because this is just the beginning and you haven’t passed the exam yet. Because the difficulty of the exam is much higher than the current exam.
Let’s first look at how troublesome the Tongsheng test is. The reason why it is called Tongsheng Examination is that all candidates taking the exam are collectively called Tongsheng, regardless of their age. If you look at this title, you can see that it has the same meaning as today's primary school students. There are no special restrictions on the Tongsheng Examination, and ordinary scholars can take the exam.The Tongsheng test is quite complicated, and it doesn’t just take one test. There are three levels of the Tongsheng Examination, each level has four or five exams, and each exam has four or five courses. Now think about it, it was almost 50 to 70 exams. , these 70 exams must all pass the child examination to be considered officially passed.
Seeing this, we can find that since there are so many exams, it must be more than just writing an essay for each exam. In general, the content of each level test for children includes eight-legged essays, poems, strategies, etc. Do you understand now that the ancient exams are not only eight-legged essays , but also very rich in content. Of course, the Tongsheng Examination does not mean that if you pass it, you can take the next one. The lowest level of the childbirth examination is the county examination, which is held once a year in February of each year. Only if you pass the exam can you proceed to the next step, which is to take the provincial exam and exam, which is equivalent to taking the city exam now. This is also an annual event, held in April every year. After passing the provincial test, you can take the hospital test and the test. This is held in the province and is a higher level. Of course, due to the high level, the frequency of this event is not so high. It is held twice every three years, and sometimes once every three years.
We will be able to get out after watching the Tongsheng Examination. Under normal circumstances, it will take a year to pass the exam to become a scholar. If it doesn't go well, it will last for many years. There is no age limit for candidates in any dynasty, you can rely on whatever you want.
If you pass the scholar examination, congratulations, you can enter the next round of examination, which is the provincial examination. Not all scholars can take the rural examination casually. There are certain thresholds. Generally speaking, people who take the exam have to go to schools in the county, prefecture, or province. To put it bluntly, it is to prove that you are a student here. You can sign up here or not go to school there. It is similar to taking a temporary job. In addition to going to school, before the exam, students, supervisors, yin students, official students, and gong students can take the exam after passing the scientific examination, yearly examination, and legacy . Under normal circumstances, these are no problems and are similar to the current pre-exam physical examination.
The Provincial Examination is held every three years in each province, generally in August. Historical dynasties have attached great importance to the level of the rural examination. The examiners of the rural examination are appointed by the emperor, and they are usually Hanlin or bachelors. The provincial examination is divided into three sessions, each lasting three days. All three sessions require entering the examination room one day in advance. In other words, an exam lasts four days in total. During these four days, candidates can only stay in the examination room and are not allowed to go out. So be sure to prepare everything you need to eat, drink, and drink before the exam. If these are not prepared, most people will not be able to bear just staying there for four days. The invigilator is only responsible for invigilating the exam. As long as there is no cheating in the exam, the invigilator does not have to worry about anything that happens during the exam. If you get sick during the exam, you can only leave it to fate. This can be said to be very inhumane.
The content of the provincial examination may be said to be simple or difficult. To put it simply, it is a test of the Four Books, Five Classics and Eight-legged Essay. Just test the contents of several books and write an article. The difficult ones are , four books, essays, five-character and eight-rhyme poems, five scriptures and policy questions. And there are many requirements, and they must be written according to a certain pattern. Don't expect to pass the exam if you go off topic. The reason for this is to control people's thoughts. If it goes well, you can pass the exam in one year. If it doesn't go well, needless to say, many people will fail the exam in their lifetime. After passing the exam, you can become a Juren, and you will be eligible to take the next exam, which is the general examination.
The examination is held in the capital once every three years. In ancient times, transportation was inconvenient. If the journey was long, it would take a long time to go to the capital to take the exam. Some people had to leave about a year in advance. Of course, going to Beijing not only takes a long time, but also costs a lot. Even now, it costs a lot of money to walk to Beijing. Therefore, many film and television works say that some scholars have no money to go to the capital to take exams. This is not a fabrication, but a very common phenomenon.However, it is almost impossible to test for , because after passing the provincial examination and becoming a civil servant, you are still relatively rich. There is no shortage of travel expenses at all.
The conference is held in February or March, so it is also called Chunwei. The content of the examination is the same as that of the provincial examination, including four essays, five character and eight rhyme poems, five scriptures, and policy questions. The requirements are also similar. There are three sessions in total, each session lasts three days, and you need to enter the examination room one day in advance. Be sure to do all the preparations before going in. After the exam, the results will be available in the same month. This is similar to the current college entrance examination and high school entrance examination results, and the efficiency is still very high. After passing the exam, you can become a tribute scholar, and then you will be eligible to participate in the final step of the imperial examination - the imperial examination.
The reason why the palace examination is called the palace examination is because it is presided over by the emperor himself and held in the main hall. So those who take the exam will have the opportunity to meet the emperor. The examination time of the imperial examination is related to the general examination. It will be held the next month after the general examination, that is, in March or April. The reason why it is so close to the examination is that it is convenient for candidates to take the exam. As long as you pass the Gongshi exam, you can immediately enter the next exam, which is quite time-saving. Since it coincides with the examination, it is also held once every three years.
Since the emperor invigilated the examination, the content of the imperial examination was very small and the examination time was very short. The imperial examination only lasts for one day, from early morning to dusk. The content of the exam is only policy questions. After the pre-exam check, you can receive the test paper. The so-called policy essays refer to the content or political affairs in the scriptures. Of course, the title sometimes only has two or three hundred words, and sometimes it is as long as thousands of words. Generally speaking, the answers written by candidates are about 2,000 words, which is the best result.
The results of the palace examination came out relatively quickly. After passing the exam, there are three levels; first-level, also called Jinshi and . There are only three people in total, who are called the number one scholar, the role model, and the third flower. Erjia, also called Jinshi, accounted for one-third of the admitted students. The top three students, also called and from Jinshi background, account for two-thirds of the admitted students. Those who are in the first grade of high school will be awarded an official position by the emperor on the spot. Those who are in the second grade and third grade will have to take the exam again.
Seeing here we can find that the number one pick has finally appeared. After spending so long, I finally got the top prize. It can be said that it took three years for a top pick to emerge. In fact, it’s not just as simple as a long time period. The admissions ratio is also very low. We can tell by looking at the admissions ratios at each stage of the exam.
The Tongsheng Examination is the lowest level. If you pass the exam, you will be a scholar. The Qing Dynasty existed for a total of 276 years and produced a total of 460,000 scholars. On average, 1,666 talents appear each year. There are now more than 1,300 counties in our country. Each county has one top scholar in liberal arts and one top scholar in science. There are more than 2,600 top students in total. If you look at it this way, it is almost twice as difficult to become a scholar than to be the county champion. Now you know why Fan Jin has always been a scholar, and what is the concept of a scholar in "Wulin Gaiden".
Let’s look at the examination again. This is the most difficult test in the imperial examination. The admission rate of Juren is very low. Generally, only 2% of the candidates are admitted, that is, only one out of 50 candidates is admitted. Under normal circumstances, each province only admits a few dozen people a year, and at most it only admits a few hundred people. To be honest, the number of people admitted to Peking University in all provinces during the Qing Dynasty was higher than this. Looking at it this way, it really takes a lot of talent to pass the examination.
Thirdly, looking at the college entrance examination, the admission rate is still very high. The enrollment ratio of Gongshi is relatively high. Almost one in 1.5 million people is a Gongshi. According to the current ratio, there should be more than 1,000 Gongshi in the country. It may seem like a small amount, but there are very few people to be elected, so after passing the exam, it is still very simple to take the test for tribute. The difficulty is a little easier than taking the Juren exam.
Finally, let’s take a look at the palace examination.The admission rate for the palace examination is even lower. In the Tang Dynasty, only a few dozen people were admitted to a palace examination at most, and usually twenty or thirty people were admitted. On average, about ten people were admitted a year, which was more difficult than the provincial number one scholar. Of course, the proportion was higher after the Tang Dynasty. During the Qing Dynasty, several hundred people were admitted at a time, usually three to four hundred, or even dozens. After passing the Gongshi examination, many people can pass the Jinshi examination. In fact, on average, there are at most one hundred people a year, but this ratio is also very low.
Now let’s look at the possibility of going back to ancient times and being called the number one scholar. To put it simply, a situation arises every three years, and you have to stand out among all the candidates. Just by reading this sentence, you can tell how difficult it is. Many people think that if the difficulty is so high, the ancients may not be keen on taking exams. In fact, as long as there are conditions, I still like to take the imperial examination. Because once you pass the exam, there are many benefits, much more than the current top pick.
Just as a scholar in the Tongsheng Examination, you don’t have to kneel down when you see the county magistrate, and you can’t be punished for committing a crime. This is pretty good. It's even more powerful when it comes to lifting people. Passing the exam means you are qualified to be an official. Once there is a vacancy in the county, you can directly become a county official. Even if you are not an official, the county magistrate must discuss matters within the county with the governor. Moreover, the state also gives Juren a salary every year. In addition, Juren do not have to pay taxes, perform labor service, etc. Juren's life is pretty good. Not to mention Gongshi and Jinshi, they can definitely become officials, and during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, many high-ranking officials were promoted through the imperial examination. In other words, after passing the Jinshi examination, the possibility of becoming a high official is still very high. Many of the great bachelors, governors, governors, ministers, etc. of the Qing Dynasty came from the imperial examinations.
It is precisely because of so many benefits that ancient people have been taking part in the imperial examination. On the other hand, it is precisely because there are so many people participating that the competition is so great. Thinking about it now, it is indeed good to be the number one scholar in ancient times, but the probability is almost non-existent. After all, the competition is far more intense than we imagine.
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