The Ming Dynasty's Five Hundred Years

Chapter 35 The Imperial Examination
Li Qi looked at the three men with a playful expression. Not wanting to offend someone who was smiling, he said casually, "I have no particular relationship with the three of you, but it is my honor to be invited to this event today."

"The prince consort is famous throughout the capital. The three of us have long wanted to befriend him and exchange ideas through literature."

The group exchanged insincere pleasantries.

Fang Xiaoru said casually, "His Majesty trusts the Imperial Son-in-Law this time and has appointed him as the chief examiner of Zhili Province. The imperial examination is a matter of great importance to the rise and fall of the nation, so the Imperial Son-in-Law must be extremely careful."

"Master Zhengxue has been educating people for many years, and I would like to learn from him."

Fang Xiaoru probably didn't catch the slight sarcasm in Li Qi's words, and actually replied: "I dare not ask for your advice. These are just some old man's words. The imperial examination is to select people fairly. It selects people who are upright and peaceful, whose writing is beautiful and whose words are meaningful, not those who deliberately make difficult words, talk strangely and strangely to attract attention."

Li Qi sneered, his words sounding quite instructive.

However, in Li Qi's eyes, it was full of the arrogance of the Southerners. Fang Xiaoru was neither Li Qi's elder nor as good as Li Qi in Confucianism and Taoism. What face did he have to be so condescending?

Moreover, their words were also veiled and offensive. In the eyes of Fang Xiaoru and the other two, if the northerners did not deliberately try to attract attention, and if they did not deliberately show favoritism, the northerners were far inferior to the southerners.

Li Qi said with a forced smile, "What Mr. Zhengxue said is indeed reasonable, but I have some different opinions. Please listen quietly with the three of you, Your Highness."

The imperial examination system was designed to select officials to govern the country, hoping to produce talented individuals who could assist the emperor in bringing peace and prosperity to the land. Therefore, when selecting officials, the focus was on their understanding of the country's future.

Some people are exceptionally talented, yet they only care about their hometown; how can they possibly move to other provinces in the future? Some people regard the frontier as worthless, forgetting that it is paved with the blood and flesh of the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty. Some people are too arrogant; they despise their classmates' backgrounds and origins even before they have made a name for themselves, forgetting the sage's idea of ​​the world being one family.

If the skin and fur are gone, and the bones and blood are no longer attached, where will the heart reside?
If such a person were selected, it would truly be the examiner's fault.

As soon as Li Qi finished speaking, Fang Xiaoru and the other two changed color drastically.

"you!"

His veiled criticism was so obvious that even the three fools of Jianwen could understand it. After all, the literati of the three provinces south of the Yangtze River have always considered Heaven as the most important, Earth as the second most important, the Emperor as the third most important, and themselves as the fourth most important.

The capital of the Ming Dynasty was in Jiangnan, the wealthiest region of the Ming Dynasty was Jiangnan, and the place where the culture of the Ming Dynasty flourished was also in Jiangnan!
Political center! Economic center! Cultural center!

As the three major centers converge, they are naturally arrogant and look down on other parts of the Ming Dynasty.

But Li Qi was determined to break the backbone of these people. He stood up and coldly said to Fang Xiaoru and the other two, "I was entrusted by His Majesty to preside over the autumn examination in Zhili. I should act impartially. I really don't know why the three of you asked the Crown Prince to do this today."

If you think that I, the imperial son-in-law, would hold a grudge and show favoritism, then that would be a great insult to me. Today, I will settle the score with the three of you and decide who is superior and who is inferior!
Otherwise, given this suspicious act, especially on the eve of the autumn imperial examinations, I urge the three of you to exercise restraint to avoid giving others cause for criticism. My reputation is as pure as the bright moon, and must not be tarnished!

Before the three could reply, Li Qi bowed to Zhu Yunwen again, "Your Highness, please forgive my rudeness today. Tomorrow, I will host a banquet at my home and apologize to Your Highness together with the princess!"

After saying that, he turned and walked outside.

This series of smooth and effortless actions left the four people in the room stunned. They only reacted after Li Qi's figure had already stepped out of the palace gate.

"Li Qi is arrogant!"

Fang Xiaoru and the other two were almost jumping up and down in anger.

Zhu Yunwen snapped out of his daze, his heart filled with complicated emotions. He regretted acting as a go-between for Qi Tai and the other two today; what a mess he had made.

Qi Tai noticed that Zhu Yunwen's expression was off and whispered, "Your Highness, Master Zhengxue is a renowned scholar. He personally came forward this time because he sees Li Qi's talent and wants to give him some guidance. Wouldn't it be wonderful if he could be recruited into the Eastern Palace to serve Your Highness?"
But his temperament is so fiery and impulsive; he stormed off after just a few words. If he were to enter the Eastern Palace, he would likely cause endless trouble, which would be detrimental to His Highness.

Zhu Yunwen's thoughts were interrupted. Upon hearing Qi Tai's words, he found them quite reasonable. "That's right. Thanks to your reminder, my uncle is indeed very talented, but his personality is too strong and intolerant."

"Let him work as an administrative officer from now on; we'll leave him as the Crown Prince's retainer."

After Li Qi quickly left the East Palace, he breathed a slight sigh of relief. It was a close call; he had almost been taken into the East Palace.

If one enters the Eastern Palace, it will not be easy to pledge allegiance to Zhu Di in the future.

As long as I can avoid entering the Eastern Palace, even if it means falling out with the Eastern Palace's advisors, it's all worth it.

As for the future, he was not a prince whom Jianwen was targeting, and he was also Zhu Yunwen's elder, so he would never die. At most, he would just be left idle during Jianwen's reign. Anyway, he didn't have much of a political future. If he was left idle, he could write books and become the only sage of the Ming Dynasty.

Li Qi had calculated everything.

Not long after, Li Qi had a dispute with Fang Xiaoru and others at the Eastern Palace, and the news of Li Qi leaving the Eastern Palace in a huff spread like wildfire throughout the capital. Many northerners believed that Li Qi did this because he stood up for them, and they were very moved. His reputation rose by 1 point, reaching 88 points. Li Qi's popularity is likely to last for another 5, 8, or even 10 years.

If you encounter someone with a conscience, they might even be able to protect a generation.

Amidst all this commotion, the provincial examinations in each province have entered their final preparation stage.

……

According to the provincial examination procedure, on the sixth day of the eighth lunar month, the examiners first entered the examination hall. The inner curtain official in charge of grading the papers and the outer curtain official in charge of supervising the examination held a banquet to welcome the horses. Li Qi led a group of inner curtain officials to pay homage to the statue of Confucius, and then led the inner curtain officials into the examination hall.

On the fifteenth of August, the most important third session of the provincial examination began, and the five current affairs policy questions set by examiners such as Li Qi were distributed to the students.

Looking at the group of students writing furiously, Li Qi suddenly thought of many historical novels about the imperial examinations, in which the protagonists had to go through one imperial examination after another.

The memorization and recitation questions were naturally no challenge for the protagonist. As for math and law-related questions, they were simply easy points for him.

The protagonist always manages to amaze everyone and gain the appreciation of the examiners.

Most importantly, in the final imperial examination, the protagonist always uses ingenious ideas from later generations that are completely different from this world to win the titles of Jieyuan, Huiyuan, and Zhuangyuan.

Li Qi's first experience with the imperial examination was as the chief examiner and question setter, which was undoubtedly a magical experience.

Xie Jin, one of the examiners, came over with tea and asked the question he had been holding back for days, "Jinghe, what was the current affairs policy question you set?"

Upon hearing this, the other examiners in the room also looked over. In fact, they had wanted to ask during the first round, but they were worried about leaking the information, so they waited until the candidates started taking the third round before asking.

"The current affairs question I posed?"

A smile played on Li Qi's lips. In this world, there were no students who had traveled from another time; there was only an examiner who had traveled from another time.

How interesting.

Xie Jin and the others were so curious they were practically itching to get their hands on each other.

As the leader of the northern scholars, Li Qi was appointed as the chief examiner of Zhili Province. He couldn't just do nothing, and everyone would be curious about what kind of exam questions he would ask.

Even Zhu Yuanzhang was curious and summoned Li Qi to the palace to inquire. After learning about Li Qi's test questions, he was silent for a moment, then laughed loudly and released Li Qi from the palace.

Li Qi sipped his tea but did not answer. "It's a very simple question. You'll find out when we start grading."

Seeing that Li Qi was still keeping everyone in suspense, everyone became even more curious. But since Li Qi didn't want to answer, they naturally couldn't force him. They could only wait with bated breath for the students to answer the question.

In the examination room.

Regardless of time or place, all test takers are essentially the same: after receiving the exam paper, they will first skim through it all, and then they will see the policy question.

They all knew that the question must have been set by the chief examiner, Li Qi.

Most people had very interesting expressions on their faces. It wasn't that they were stumped by the difficult questions, but rather that they had a constipated look on their faces.

Li Qi leisurely sipped tea and ate pastries in the examination hall, occasionally discussing Li Xianmu's education with Xie Jin. He was thoroughly enjoying himself.

The sun sets and rises again, and after three days, the provincial examination, which to some extent determines a person's fate, comes to an end, and the students' examination papers are sent into the inner chamber.

"Prince Consort, shall we begin reviewing the papers?"

A group of people's eyes darted back and forth between the exam paper and Li Qi; they couldn't wait to see the exam questions!
Li Qi casually placed the teacup on the table, smiling at everyone, "Then let's begin grading the papers!"

Everyone readily agreed and said in unison, "Yes!"

Then they went straight to the question that Li Qi had personally set. Xie Jin was taken aback when he saw it; it was indeed not difficult, but…

(End of this chapter)