Top Scholar

Chapter 484 Grading
The scholars were completely liberated and went out of the palace to seek pleasure.

The examiners, however, still had to stay in the palace to review the papers... Although the emperor was the chief examiner, they were the ones who had to review the palace examination papers.

Fortunately, the emperor did not neglect his hungry soldiers, and dinner was provided. According to regulations, each table was served five dishes of tea snacks, five dishes of fruit, five kinds of appetizers, one dish of dessert, two kinds of soup, four kinds of vegetables, one portion of rice, and five kinds of wine.

It sounds like a feast, but with the Court of Imperial Sacrifices involved, the adults definitely won't get a taste; just filling their stomachs will suffice...

Inside the Wenyuan Pavilion dining hall, the thirteen ministers who were reviewing the examination papers sat at three tables. One table was for the Grand Secretary, another for the eunuch faction, and the rest…

The eunuch faction included Liu Yu, Minister of War; Cao Yuan, Minister of Revenue; Han Fu, Minister of Works; and Wang Chang, Commissioner of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices. These four men had all risen to power by currying favor with Liu Jin, and were naturally despised by their colleagues, who refused to sit with them.

The four men knew they were not well-liked, so they didn't bother with other people and just chatted and drank by themselves.

Just as everyone else had finished eating and left, the four of them were about to leave when Jiao Fang suddenly sat down next to them.

"Is there something you need, Grand Secretary?" Liu Yu and the others naturally followed his lead.

"Hmm." Jiao Fang nodded and said in a low voice, "There's something that sends chills down your spine. I don't know if you've heard of it."

"What is it?" the four asked.

"Eunuch Liu wants to change the garrison eunuch to the governor eunuch..." Jiao Fang said.

"Of course I've heard of it, it's quite frightening." Liu Yu nodded and said, "From now on, the Ming Dynasty will be under your control."

“Eunuch Liu has been planning this for a long time, and he should be determined to succeed,” Wang Chang said.

"Who cares? It doesn't matter who gets the position," Cao Yuan and Han Fu said nonchalantly. "Anyway, it's not like they'll let a eunuch become one of the Nine Ministers..."

"The matter of the governor's eunuch has fallen through," Jiao Fang said quietly.

"Huh?!" The four people present exclaimed in unison, unable to believe it. "There's something that Eunuch Liu can't do?"

"How about that, scared now?" Jiao Fang sneered.

"Who stopped him? Zhang Yong?" Liu Yu hurriedly asked.

“It shouldn’t be him.” Jiao Fang slowly shook her head. “Given Zhang Yong’s status, he would never openly oppose anything that would benefit eunuchs.”

"Then...who else could it be?" The four men exchanged bewildered glances, their suspicions growing. Their allegiance to the eunuch faction was solely due to Liu Jin's absolute power.

If Eunuch Liu can't protect them anymore, then their position as a eunuch faction will have been for nothing.
"Who else could it be?" Jiao Fang gritted her teeth in hatred. "It's that little beast surnamed Su!"

"This... how is this possible?" The four people stared in disbelief, their gazes towards Jiao Fang still somewhat strange.

Han Fu asked in a low voice, "Your Excellency, you...you didn't really get beaten up by that kid?"

"Shut up!" Jiao Fang growled, his face dark, like a dog whose tail had been stepped on. "Do you think I'm the kind of person who settles personal scores? That kid's momentum has reached a point where we have to teach him a lesson!"

He lowered his voice and said, "Later, Eunuch Liu investigated and found that before the Emperor rejected the governor's proposal, he had a private conversation with that little beast for most of the day. In my opinion, it's highly likely that the kid gossiped about him to the Emperor!"

"How could the Emperor listen to him?" Wang Chang and the others were still completely bewildered, unable to connect a newly appointed top scholar with a 'favored official' who could influence the Emperor's will.

Isn't that the prerogative of eunuchs?
"Why not?" Jiao Fang sneered. "In the past month and a half, the Emperor spent a full thirty days with that boy. Have you spent that much time with your wives?"

"How could that be?!" Liu Yu and the others quickly waved their hands. "If we were together every day, we would have gone crazy long ago!"

"Therefore, it is an undeniable fact that the Emperor and he are very close, and his influence on the Emperor is growing day by day." Jiao Fang then said in a deep voice, "Have you considered what would happen if that boy continued to bewitch the Emperor?"

"What will happen?" the four asked in unison.

“We’re not far from our demise!” Jiao Fang’s words were like knives.

"Is it... really that exaggerated?" The four eunuch faction members still found it hard to believe.

"What do you mean, no?" Jiao Fang glared and slammed her hand on the table. "Just look at his background—in the South, his prestige is growing daily! In terms of connections, his teachers are Wang Ao and Wang Shouren! Going back further, his grandmasters are Li Dongyang and Wang Hua! He and Yang Tinghe are from the same hometown, and even Yang Yiqing looks up to him!"

"Holy crap..." The four of them then realized the seriousness of the situation and exclaimed in astonishment, "So even the big boss of the Qingliu faction is connected to him..."

Jiao Fang looked at the four pale faces and said, her words piercingly, "Do you understand now? He's clearly one of those upright people, deliberately pushed out to compete with us!"

"It really is..." The four of them gasped.

“That’s right!” Jiao Fang nodded in satisfaction, her expression grim. “If we continue to let him run wild, those upright officials will have a real backing in front of the Emperor. At that time, do you think we, with just a few of us following Eunuch Liu, can defeat them?” “Then…of course we can’t!” The four of them shook their heads in unison, smiling bitterly. “How many of us are there? And they’re all ugly and incompetent.”

They left half a sentence unsaid: 'Who among decent people would want to associate with us?'

"So we have to do something, we can't just sit here and wait to die!" A ruthless glint flashed in Jiao Fang's eyes.

"Then...then what should we do?" everyone asked hurriedly. "Prevent the Emperor from seeing that boy's exam paper?"

"Wishful thinking!" Jiao Fang shook her head decisively. "His Majesty has already made it clear that he wants to see his exam paper in person. Who would dare to disobey the imperial decree?"

He glanced around and saw that everyone was shrinking back and not daring to utter a sound, before saying in a deep voice, "Tonight, you just need to cooperate with me! I've already roughly looked at that kid's exam paper, and there are plenty of things to criticize. Even if I can't bring him down, I can make him an enemy of all civil officials overnight! At that time, he'll be all alone and won't be able to pose any threat."

"Very well!" The four nodded in agreement. "We will follow your orders, Elder!"

~~
That evening, after the emperor's banquet, the thirteen ministers who had read the examination papers arrived at the brightly lit East Pavilion of the Wenhua Hall.

The grand ceremony for announcing the list of successful candidates will be held early on the 18th, and the emperor will personally review the exam papers on the 17th to determine the rankings. There is only one and a half days left, so the grading must begin tonight.

To facilitate the officials' reading of the examination papers, a hundred palace lanterns were lit inside the hall.

The examiners, including Hanlin compilers Li Tingxiang and Dong Qi, had been waiting in the East Pavilion with 349 examination papers in hand.

"Greetings, Lord Yuan, esteemed Grand Secretaries, and ministers." The officials in charge of records bowed together, and Li Tingxiang presented the handover documents.

"You've all worked hard," Li Dongyang said kindly as he took the bowl and signed it. "Go eat, the mutton meatball soup is quite delicious today."

"Yes." The officials in charge of compiling the records respectfully replied and took their leave to drink mutton soup.

What? No meatballs? You still want meatballs at this hour? You'd be lucky to get a sip of soup!

Li Dongyang then bowed to the examiners and said, "Time is tight and the task is heavy, but we must still do our best to evaluate these more than three hundred papers and rank them in order of merit. Only in this way can we live up to His Majesty's high expectations for selecting virtuous and capable officials."

"Yes, sir!" the examiners replied in unison.

Despite their quick agreement, it's impossible for them to accomplish this in such a short time. The 349 successful candidates were all among the best scholars of the Ming Dynasty, and their literary talent and insights were roughly equal. Furthermore, the imperial examination essays were mostly about playing it safe, making it even more difficult to distinguish between them.

Moreover, for the cabinet ministers who were reviewing the papers, there was another very important issue of face: the rankings in the provincial examination and the palace examination should not differ too much.

Because the provincial examination covered all subjects and the grading process took half a month, with examiners and chief examiners, all of whom were from the Hanlin Academy, conducting thorough checks at each level, it was far more comprehensive than the palace examination.

While the examination panel for the palace examination consisted of top-tier civil officials, the senior officials were mostly elderly and had not written anything for many years. Therefore, the ranking based on a single policy essay was certainly not as convincing as that of the former.

So if the two are too different, the older folks will inevitably be laughed at behind their backs for being old, blind, and senile...

Having spent most of his life navigating the ups and downs of officialdom, the elder statesman values ​​stability above all else. Therefore, the usual practice is to make minor adjustments to the rankings in the provincial examinations, ensuring that the top-ranking candidates do not deviate too much from their positions.

Someone asked, "Aren't the exam papers sealed? How can I see the names?" Well, even the lottery results are drawn by a machine...

Actually, it's extremely simple to do. The examiner doesn't anonymize the papers when collecting them. As long as he arranges the papers according to the rankings in the imperial examination, the subsequent sealing officials and examiners just need to keep the order correct.

It doesn't matter if it's shuffled; it just means the rankings are more random. It won't affect the higher-ups much, but it will greatly impact the careers of the officials involved. If they can't even handle this, what can they possibly do?
That's why the examiners keep a close eye on the papers throughout the entire process, just in case someone disrupts the order if they're not watching...

~~
After the four Grand Secretaries were seated around the table, the official in charge presented the papers of the top ten candidates in the provincial examination, asking them to judge and rank them. Unless there were major errors in the papers, the top three scholars would most likely be determined by this, and the remaining seven papers would not fall out of the top two ranks.

Other examiners could recommend several papers from the remaining 339 scattered papers, and the Grand Secretaries would then select twelve to present to the Emperor.

If one is excluded from these twelve categories by the Grand Secretaries, even if one writes an essay that is earth-shattering and tear-jerking, one will still have no chance of being ranked first.

Of course, in theory, the emperor might also have a sudden urge to search the examination papers, but that would be against the rules and would be seen as an act of distrust towards the examiners.

In reality, these were just rules and regulations drawn up by the cabinet ministers for the emperor. In short, minimizing the emperor's unilateral decisions had always been the goal of the civil officials...

The Grand Secretaries then began to review the top ten papers one by one. Li Dongyang held the paper for the top scholar in the imperial examination. In fact, he could recognize the distinctive Su style calligraphy even without the help of the examiners.

When visiting senior students before exams, junior students would bring their practice papers and ask for their guidance. This also allowed the senior students to familiarize themselves with their writing style and handwriting. That way, if they encountered the senior students during the grading process, the senior students could easily help them out.

Li Dongyang originally planned to awkwardly praise Su Lu no matter how well he wrote it. After all, he could even bring himself to criticize Liu Jin, so what was wrong with praising his own grand-disciple?
But he was so amazed by Su Lu's powerful writing that his scalp tingled. After reading it, he slammed his fist on the table and exclaimed in admiration:

"The top scholar is here!"

(End of this chapter)