Top Scholar

Chapter 444 Regional Admissions (Seeking Monthly Tickets!!)

"Regional discrimination?" Although it was the first time the candidates had heard this term, they quickly grasped its essence and nodded in unison, saying, "That's absolutely right!"

"Why would he do this?" Su Lu asked curiously.

Jiangxi Jieyuan Xia Liangsheng replied, "It all started with his early grudges in the Hanlin Academy. He was originally from Biyang, Henan. He was a Jinshi in the eighth year of the Tianshun reign. His performance was not good enough for selection into the Hanlin Academy, but he was exceptionally selected as a Shujishi by his fellow townsman, Grand Secretary Li Wenda."

"It is said that Jiao Fang, in order to curry favor with Li Xian, would bow and scrape whenever he entered or left the palace, trying to please him and doing everything he could to flatter him. He even secretly sent his wife to serve Li Xian," Zhang Zhi said with a look of disdain.

"That guy surnamed Jiao is really going all out..." the other top scholars exclaimed in admiration.

"Nine years later, he should have been promoted to the rank of scholar according to custom, but Chief Minister Li had already retired, and the new Chief Minister was Wan Wenkang from your Sichuan. All his efforts were in vain," Xia Liangsheng continued.
"As a result, Grand Secretary Wan removed him from the list with a single sentence: 'How can someone as ignorant and incompetent as Jiao Fang become a scholar?'"

"Jiao Fang didn't hate Wan An; instead, he was convinced that another Grand Secretary, Peng Hua from Jiangxi, was behind it all. He even threatened that if he didn't become a Grand Secretary, he would stab him with a knife on the streets of Chang'an..."

Zhang directly said, "Peng Hua was so frightened that he hurriedly went to Wan An to plead for him. Wan An had no choice but to promote Jiao Fang to the rank of scholar. But he showed no gratitude whatsoever. Instead, he became even more convinced that Peng Hua had been behind it all."

"Later, due to his improper conduct, he was expelled from the Hanlin Academy and sent to a prefecture or county. He believed that Scholar Peng was retaliating against him, and now he completely hates him and us Jiangxi people." Xia Liangsheng said speechlessly:
“He once boasted that ‘Wang Anshi brought disaster to the Song Dynasty and Wu Cheng served the Yuan Dynasty. Their crimes should be publicized so that people from Jiangxi will not be abused in the future.’ After he climbed up to Liu Jin and took charge of the Ministry of Personnel, he did what he said and began to retaliate… He stipulated that people from Jiangxi could not serve as officials in the capital, and during this period, he also reduced our quota by fifty.”

"It's not just you Jiangxi people; he deeply resents all southerners," Zhang Xingfu sneered.
"It is said that when he was in the Ministry of Personnel, he was overjoyed every time a southerner was dismissed. Even when discussing ancient figures, he would always criticize the south and praise the north. He once presented Liu Jin with a painting entitled 'Southerners Cannot Be Prime Ministers,' which strongly argued that southerners were wicked and could not be prime ministers. He advised Liu Jin to expel all southerners from the Hanlin Academy, but he postponed it because he was compiling the 'Veritable Records of Emperor Xiaozong.'"

"Actually, Liu Jin was crude, uncultured, and knew nothing. He wasn't particularly harmful at first, but with Jiao Fang as his cunning strategist, things changed. Jiao Fang told him that the imperial examination was a grand ceremony for selecting talent and a source of power, and persuaded him to increase the quota for Shaanxi to one hundred, and then increase it for Henan to ninety-five. Moreover, the increased quota was deducted from the quotas for Jiangxi and Jiangnan..."

Zhang Zhi said angrily, "They not only want to adjust the quota, but also want to manipulate the list of candidates from the North and South to increase the number of candidates from the North who pass the exam!"

"There's really nothing they wouldn't dare to do!" Su Lu exclaimed sincerely.

Although the imperial examinations in the Ming Dynasty were a unified examination, admissions were based on regional divisions. The reason, of course, was that people from the south were unethical…

In the 30th year of the Hongwu reign, when the results of the imperial examination were announced, all 51 candidates were from the south, and not a single person from the north was selected, which was rare in history.

The candidates from the north were naturally very dissatisfied and jointly wrote a letter accusing the chief examiner of favoring the southerners.

In his later years, Boss Zhu ordered his men to review the failed examination papers and to recruit more people from the north into official positions.

Whether the ministers had become arrogant or thought Zhu Yuanzhang was no longer capable of wielding his sword, after a review, they still only admitted candidates from the south. Zhu Yuanzhang personally reviewed the examination papers of candidates from both the north and south, and found that their writing was poor and contained taboo language.

At this time, someone reported that the officials in the south were colluding and deliberately submitting inferior documents.

And then, click, click, click...

Then Boss Zhu personally re-examined the exam and admitted 61 students, all of whom were from the North. This case is the famous North-South Examination Case.

From then on, there were no more examiners who only accepted candidates from the south. Throughout the Yongle era, candidates from the north accounted for as much as 10% of the successful candidates!
Okay, so 90% of the successful candidates in the imperial examinations were still from the south...

Until Emperor Renzong ascended the throne, Grand Secretary Yang Shiqi submitted a memorial stating that northern scholars were "talented and capable," while southern scholars, though talented, were often frivolous. He suggested that from then on, the examination papers of candidates should be marked with "north" and "south," so that "if one hundred people are selected for each examination, sixty from the south and forty from the north, then talents from both the north and south will be employed."

Thus, the Northern and Southern editions were officially implemented, and later, in order to take care of less developed areas, a Central edition was added.

Therefore, the current provincial examination is divided into southern, northern, and central versions. With a ratio of 100 people, 55 people are selected from the south, 35 from the north, and 10 from the central version.

The Southern Volume includes the Jiangnan region of Southern Zhili, as well as provinces such as Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Fujian, Huguang, and Guangdong;
The northern exam covers provinces including Hebei, Shandong, Shanxi, Henan, and Shaanxi.
The middle section includes provinces such as Sichuan, Guangxi, Yunnan, and Guizhou, as well as the Jiangbei area in southern Sichuan.

Nowadays, there are about 300 places per subject, so the southern provinces with strong examination systems get 165; the four provinces of Hebei, Shaanxi, and Beijing get 105.

The remaining old, minority, border, and poor areas number thirty.

Undeniably, under this division, candidates from the south were naturally suppressed. Later, due to strong public dissatisfaction, the Southern Zhili region was divided into two, with one part being incorporated into the middle section, in order to alleviate the competitive pressure on candidates from the south.

Those who take the Beijing exam will naturally benefit the most, as there are more spots available and less competition.

As for the middle section, it was a completely different story. Candidates from Guangxi, Yunnan, and Guizhou were basically just there to make up the numbers; combined, only a handful of students from each of the three provinces passed each subject.

The remaining twenty-odd spots were basically split among candidates from Sichuan and Jiangbei. Isn't that great?

Therefore, the Sichuan scholars trembled at the mere mention of the proposed changes to the admission process for this imperial examination...

~~
After the luncheon, the candidates from other provinces took their leave, and the group of Sichuan candidates dragged Yang Shen into a small, dark room and interrogated him:
"Are you aware of the proposed adjustments?"

"..." Yang Shen then said righteously, "I will not tell you that the preliminary plan is to admit 150 students each for the North and South exams, and 50 for the Central exam!"

"This plan is fairly good..." The group of Sichuan scholars breathed a sigh of relief and quickly served Yang Shen tea and water, and dusted themselves off.

"It must be all thanks to your father!" said the idiot.

"..." Yang Shen glanced at that idiot.

"Alright, everyone go study." Su Lu appeared at the door after seeing off the guests.

"Alas!" The scholars scattered like birds and beasts.

"Aren't you going home?" Su Lu asked, seeing that Yang Shen didn't move. "I'll stay here," Yang Shen replied.

"Your home is in the capital, why are you staying here?" Su Lu asked curiously.

“I ran away from home,” Yang Shen said.

"How old are you? Why are you running away from home?" Su Lu shook his head.

“I ran away from home, but it was all for you,” Yang Shen said.

"Come on, don't give me that." Su Lu felt a chill.

“I’m telling the truth!” Yang Shen said solemnly, “After I returned to Xindu, I heard that you had been arrested, so I set off for the capital ahead of schedule, hoping to ask my father for help.”

"..." Su Lu rolled his eyes inwardly upon hearing this. He should be thanking God that Grand Secretary Yang didn't trick him.

"As a result, my father ignored me completely and ordered me to ignore everything else and focus solely on studying the classics." Yang Shen said dejectedly, "I had a big fight with my father and then ran away from home."

"Judging from your miserable look, you were probably kicked out of your home, weren't you?" Su Lu asked with a smile.

“Brother Jieyuan, don’t expose someone’s shortcomings,” Yang Shen said helplessly. “Besides, my family called me back later, but I didn’t agree, so it naturally became that I ran away from home.”

“Alright…” Su Lu nodded, closed the door and asked Yang Shen, “How much of those rumors are true and how much are false?”

"I've already run away from home, how would I know?" Yang Shen laughed.

"You already know about such a confidential plan as the adjustment of the North and South examination papers?" Su Lu said calmly.

"Hehe, Cixiu told me," Yang Shen said in a low voice, "The rumors are pretty much true."

"Is it really that dark?" Su Lu asked helplessly.

“That’s for sure,” Yang Shen said. “Brother Jieyuan, the people in the capital are not as kind as those in Sichuan. There are dangers everywhere here, and anyone could try to trick you.”

He paused, then lowered his voice further, saying, "Those top scholars who came today have been sold out and are still helping them count the money. They want to drag you into this mess too."

"What do you mean?" Su Lu asked.

"Don't you find it strange?" Yang Shen said, "Among the three or four thousand candidates, there are at least thirty past top scholars. Why were these eight new top scholars chosen to stand out?"

“Indeed, the older generation should take the lead in this kind of thing.” Su Lu nodded.

“Exactly. Those old bastards are clearly using them as pawns,” Yang Shen said.

"When things blow up, the Embroidered Uniform Guard will arrest them, but those old bastards will be the ones who profit. Don't miscalculate."

"Thank you for reminding me." Su Lu thanked him sincerely, then asked, "What about Zhang Cong? Is he the gunman or the gunman?"

"Who is Zhang Cong?" Yang Shen was taken aback. It seemed that in his eyes, apart from Jie Yuan, everyone else was just a supporting character.

“It’s that senior who came with them,” Su Lu said.

"Oh, him?" Yang Shen exclaimed suddenly, "I've always disliked him; he's definitely not a good person!"

"Okay..." Su Lu thought to himself, this is nothing, you might want to beat him to death in the future.

~~
As the two were talking, Su Lu heard his second brother call out from the front, "Hongzhi!"

"Brother, I'm here!" Su Lu pushed open the door.

"Go home quickly, that Zhu Shou is here again." Su Tai said in a muffled voice, "He's so rude, he chased me away as soon as he came in."

"Who is Zhu Shou?" Yang Shen asked curiously.

“Someone you also find disagreeable.” Su Lu said, “I’m heading back now, let’s talk another day.”

After saying that, she ignored him and hurriedly left the Sichuan Guild Hall with her second brother.

As soon as they came out, they saw Zhang Yong waiting outside in a casual robe.

"Uncle, what brings you here too?" Su Lu hurriedly greeted him with a smile. "Did I need the two of them to call me?"

"You little brat, stop pretending!" Zhang Yong glared at him, annoyed. "Isn't it all your fault? You've got my man completely bewitched; he wakes up and comes running, leaving his rice bowl behind!"

P.S. This is a post I'll edit later. Please vote with my monthly tickets!!!

(End of this chapter)