Chapter 5 Chapter 5 "College Entrance Examination Divisions" in the Ming Dynasty

When it comes to Zhu Yuanzhang's rule, there is a noun that cannot be avoided-brutal.The cruel way is to repeat big crimes. In the field of history, there has long been a theory of the "Four Hongwu Cases".The so-called four major cases, namely the Kongyin case, Guo Heng case, Lan Yu case, and Hu Weiyong case, behind the simple nouns are tens of thousands of heads. Among the four major cases, the "empty seal case" and the "Guo Heng case" are both corruption cases. The former caused Zhu Yuanzhang to be furious because officials used blank documents with official seals, and tens of thousands of people were implicated.The latter, because Guo Heng, the servant of the household department, embezzled official food, set up a big prison again, implicating tens of thousands of officials. The "Lanyu case" and the "Hu Weiyong case" were both cases of rebellion. Most of the people implicated were heroes who followed Zhu Yuanzhang to conquer the world. They slaughtered tens of thousands of people for more than ten years.The piles of cases are all bloody.

But in terms of influence on future generations, no matter which one of the "four major cases" is involved, it is very limited. The two cases of "Hu Weiyong" and "Lanyu" have countless ties. Zhu Yuanzhang's original intention was to clear the way for his descendants to "success". Gave it to Zhu Di.As for the purpose of the "Kongyin case" and "Guo Heng case", it was to rectify the administration of officials and clean up corruption. However, even at that time, faced with the repeated murders of corrupt officials, Zhu Yuanzhang himself felt desperate and issued the " The lament of "killing in the morning and committing in the evening".Then the officials of the Ming Dynasty were corrupt, and corruption was rampant, perhaps even more than Zhu Yuanzhang could have imagined during his lifetime.

However, there is such a case, in terms of the number of people involved and the scale, it cannot be compared with the "Four Big Cases", but the impact of the case is far more far-reaching than the Four Big Cases, not only throughout the Ming Dynasty, but even today.This is the "North and South List Case" that happened in the 30th year of Hongwu (AD 1397). The Nanbeibang Case, also known as the Liu Sanwu Fraud Case, is different from the four major cases where the "public argument is justified" controversy, this case is an outright unjust case. In February of the 30th year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty (AD 1397), the Ming Dynasty, which was shrouded in the bloody storm of the "Sapphire Case", ushered in its triennial imperial examination. In the extraordinary period when countless officials have been sacked, the results of the imperial examination will undoubtedly have a subtle impact on the court.Because of its importance, Zhu Yuanzhang took great pains in the selection of the examiner. After repeated consideration, he finally selected Liu Sanwu, a 78-year-old Hanlin scholar, as the examiner.

Liu Sanwu was considered a great Confucianist at the time. He was an ex-official of the Yuan Dynasty. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, he served as a teacher of Guangxi Tixue (equivalent to the director of the Department of Education). After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, he made many achievements.He formulated the regulations on the imperial examination system in the Ming Dynasty, and he also wrote the preface to the criminal law "Dagao" in the early Ming Dynasty. In addition, he edited "Huanyu Tongzhi", which is an encyclopedia for Chinese people today to understand China's surrounding countries at that time.Together with Wang Rui and Zhu Shan, he is called the "Three Elders". "History of the Ming Dynasty" even said that he was "generous, with no city in his heart, and called himself Tantan Weng".Choosing him as the examiner is not only Zhu Yuanzhang's recognition of him, but also Zhu Yuanzhang's expectation for this imperial examination.

However, Liu Sanwu would not have imagined that his life of wisdom and even his wealth and life would be ruined because of this imperial examination. Everything stemmed from a "low probability event" that no one had ever thought of. In February of the 30th year of Hongwu, the general examination began. After the assessment in January, 51 tribute scholars were selected. After the first palace ceremony in March, Chen Andi was selected as the number one scholar, Yin Changlong was the second place, and Liu E was the Tanhua.However, only 6 days later, the gate of the Ministry of Rites of the Ming Dynasty was almost smashed by the court. A large number of candidates who failed the exam went to the Ministry of Rites of the Ming Dynasty to appeal for grievances. In just a few days, the entire city of Nanjing was full of turmoil. "Cheating in the examination hall" has become a topic of great interest in the streets and alleys of Nanjing people.

The reason for calling for injustice is very simple, but also very strange.The 51 Gongsheng students who passed the exam that year were all from the southern provinces, and none of them were from the north.Therefore, all kinds of rumors are flying in the streets and alleys. Some say that the examiners have received money, and some say that the examiners engage in "regional discrimination". When the news came, the Ming Dynasty was shaken up and down. More than 10 supervisory censors asked Zhu Yuanzhang to investigate thoroughly. Zhu Yuanzhang's attendant Zhang Xin and others also suspected that there was a ghost in the imperial examination.Zhu Yuanzhang himself was naturally angry. As a poor man, what he hated most in his life was "corruption, selfishness and fraud".Only a few days after the incident happened, on the tenth day of March, Zhu Yuanzhang formally issued an edict and set up a 12-member "investigation team". Among them were Zhang Xin, who had suspected the imperial examination fraud, and Yan Shuzai and Dong Guan, who were famous for their knowledge. There are also Zhou Heng, Huang Zhang and others who are famous for their "loyalty and outspokenness".The selection of members can be said to be fair and just.

However, after several days of review by the investigation team, the investigation conclusion made by the end of April of that year once again left Zhu Yuanzhang dumbfounded: Liu Sanwu and others' examination papers were fair and just. Judging by the level of the candidates, the 51 candidates were all admitted based on their talents and learning. question. The conclusion once again caused an uproar from all walks of life.The northern students who failed the exam naturally quit, and many northern officials in the DPRK and China criticized them one after another, demanding that competent officials be re-selected, the examination papers should be re-checked, and all officials involved in the case should be strictly investigated.However, Zhu Yuanzhang, who was furious, made a more extreme decision.

In May of that year, Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly issued an edict, accusing Liu Sanwu, the main examiner of the imperial examination, and Ji Shan and Bai Xin, the deputy examiners, as "the Lanyu remnants". Liu Sanwu was identified as a "rebel". As a result, all officials involved in the case were severely punished, and Liu Sanwu was sent to the Northwest.Zhang Xin, who once questioned Liu Sanwu, was even more miserable, because he was accused of having been instructed by Liu Sanwu, and he ended up being executed lingchi.The rest were also sent into exile, and only Dai Yi and Yin Changlong were exonerated.The reason these two were exempted was that after reviewing the test papers, they listed scholars from the north on the list.In June, Zhu Yuanzhang personally reviewed the test papers, and issued an even more jaw-dropping admission list: 51 tribute scholars on the list, all of them were from the north, and none of them were from the south.

After this incident, a major change took place in the imperial examination system of the Ming Dynasty.From then on, the imperial examination admission in the Ming Dynasty was no longer a "unified line across the country". Instead, it was divided into "North and South Lists", that is, students from the north and the south were ranked according to their regions. Mode.Not only did this system continue to be used throughout the Ming and Qing dynasties, but it also has the same meaning as the "districts and lines" in today's college entrance examination. Zhu Yuanzhang handled this major imperial examination case that shocked the Ming Dynasty with a "balanced" approach, but the mystery behind the case is still worth investigating.

Looking into the case of the North and South List, the first doubt is: why after two re-examinations, the list is still all from the south. Is it fraud or a "coincidence"? To answer this question, we have to face a phenomenon—the southward shift of China's economic and cultural center. This phenomenon began during the Anshi Rebellion in the Tang Dynasty, and further expanded in the Southern Song Dynasty.After the fall of the Northern Song Dynasty, a large number of northern cultural elites fled to the south, which led to the rapid development of southern culture.After the fall of the Southern Song Dynasty, the Yuan Dynasty once abolished the imperial examination system. Although the imperial examination system was reopened in the later period, the proportion of Han Chinese admitted was extremely small, and officials with imperial examination backgrounds had an extremely low status in the Yuan Dynasty government.The Central Plains area north of the Yangtze River, after hundreds of years of foreign rule in the Jin and Yuan dynasties, has long lagged behind the south in terms of economy and culture.In the imperial examinations of the Yuan Dynasty, most of the Han people in the rankings also came from Anhui and Jiangnan.In the era when Zhu Yuanzhang raised his troops to conquer the world, the most famous figures in the Chinese cultural circle at that time were the "Four Talents in Eastern Zhejiang" from Zhejiang—Wu Zheng, Liu Ji, Zhang Yi, and Song Lian.Zhu Yuanzhang, who started his business in the early stage, was able to grow rapidly precisely because he had won over a large number of celebrities in the cultural circles in the south of the Yangtze River.Zhu Yuanzhang's advisers Zhu Sheng, Li Shanchang and others were also talents from Anhui and Jiangnan.

Before the Ming Dynasty, the cultural and educational gap between the north and the south of China was huge. The education system and examination system implemented after the establishment of the Ming Dynasty did not close the gap, but continued to widen it.Let me talk about the education system first. The education system of the Ming Dynasty was established as early as when Zhu Yuanzhang conquered the world. The prefectural schools, state schools, and county schools in various places were first established in Zhu Yuanzhang’s early occupation areas, such as Anhui, Jiangsu, and Jiangnan. Large-scale re-establishment of schools and popularization of education in the north was mostly after Zhu Yuanzhang’s Northern Expedition to the Yuan Dynasty in the first year of Hongwu (1368 A.D.). No matter in terms of the level of teachers or the degree of development, they are far behind those in the south.Of course, the north is not without talents. Shandong and Shanxi provinces have always been major provinces in education.However, Zhu Yuanzhang strictly enforced cultural dictatorship. In the early Ming Dynasty, most scholars in the north held a wait-and-see attitude towards the new regime.Most of the victims of Zhu Yuanzhang's literary prisons were northern literati, so many celebrities lived in seclusion in the mountains and forests, and adopted a "non-cooperative" attitude towards the Ming Dynasty.Under such circumstances, it seems understandable that education in the north was far behind that in the south in the early Ming Dynasty. In the imperial examinations of the Ming Dynasty, the "eight-legged essay" was used to select scholars. This examination method itself provided advantages for southern students.People today think that stereotyped essays were first created in the Ming Dynasty. In fact, the selection of scholars by stereotyped essays began with Wang Anshi's reform in the Northern Song Dynasty. It is the beginning of the eight-legged essay.With the passage of time, the requirements for stereotyped essays have become more and more detailed, and its style and characteristics have become increasingly clear.The actual framers of the imperial examinations in the Ming Dynasty were Liu Ji and Song Lian among the "Four Sons of Eastern Zhejiang". Their examination standards, examination scope, and examination requirements were more suitable for students from Jiangnan.Every time a subject is taught, students from the south are naturally "familiar with it". In fact, since the first imperial examination in the Ming Dynasty in the third year of Hongwu, the scores of southern candidates have always been higher than those of northern candidates.For example, in Hongwu's three-year imperial examination, the number of admissions in the south was 350, while that in the north was only 250. Before the "North and North List" case, in the six court examinations of the Ming Dynasty, all the champions were from the south.From the point of view of the admission ratio, there is also a trend that the number of candidates in the south is gradually increasing, while the number of candidates in the north is decreasing. The general pattern of "the south is strong and the north is weak", the Ming Dynasty has long been aware of it. However, if this is the case, why did such a low-probability event such as "all southerners" occur in the 30th year of Hongwu?And why did Zhu Yuanzhang, who had already "knowledge it well", reacted violently? In fact, the imperial examination has never been just an exam question, but also a political issue. The occurrence of "low-probability events" and Zhu Yuanzhang's violent reaction are all related to a political event-the Lanyu case. The Lanyu rebellion case that shocked the Ming Dynasty lasted for several years, and the number of people implicated reached 100,000, most of whom were officials at all levels.Lan Yu guarded the north all the year round. After the case broke out, most of the officials implicated because of him were from the north, and many of them were from the north.Under the bloody wind, many scholars even regarded being an official as fearful, and avoided the imperial examinations one after another.In fact, before this scientific examination, the report of the Ministry of Rites of the Ming Dynasty said: "Today, the number of candidates for the northern scholars is reduced by half." As a far-sighted politician, Zhu Yuanzhang naturally understands the way of "combining kindness and power". After a long period of cleaning, "power" has been used, and he chooses the right opportunity to "give kindness" and ease the conflict with northern intellectuals. , Stable rule has become his inevitable choice, and the imperial examination is the best way.However, whether it is Liu Sanwu who was the first examiner, or Zhang Xin who questioned Liu Sanwu and was later ordered to review the test papers, they are all pure intellectuals with no distractions. Such an unimaginable event.After the uproar in the Manchu Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang naturally could not admit the fact that the level of candidates from the north and the south was different. This would be tantamount to offending the scholars in the north. The introduction of the north and south rankings became the best compromise. scapegoat. In the "North and South List" incident, although the court was well aware of this phenomenon, it still caused an uproar, causing courtiers from all walks of life to discuss, criticize each other in the case, fuel the flames, and finally lead to the unjust case of the examiners.In addition to the political purpose mentioned above, there is another long-standing problem: the "North-South contradiction" of China's imperial examination system. Speaking of this contradiction, it has to be traced back to the Song Dynasty.There has always been a saying in Chinese official circles that "the south is the prime minister and the north is the general", but in the Song Dynasty, this was not the case at all.The imperial examinations in the Northern Song Dynasty have always been "emphasizing the north and despising the south". Before Zhenzong of the Northern Song Dynasty, all the prime ministers were from the North.After Emperor Zhenzong of the Song Dynasty, more and more candidates from the south got the middle marks, and most of the cultural celebrities in the Song Dynasty, such as "Sansu" and others, also came from the south. admission quota.During the Yuan Dynasty, although the imperial examinations were resumed, the Semu people and Mongols were given preferential treatment, while the Han people were squeezed out, and most of the suppressed candidates were from the south. After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, during the 30 years of Zhu Yuanzhang's reign, the students from the south can be said to be proud and have an absolute advantage in all previous imperial examinations.In addition to competing for very few places in the imperial examinations, northern students can only enter the officialdom through non-imperial examinations such as supervising students and recommendation, and they are often suppressed in officialdom. The occurrence of the "North and South List" incident happened to give many northern officials the opportunity to "counterattack and reckon".Throughout the incident, most of the censors who impeached the examiners came from the north, and it was Yang Dao, the censor from Henan, who accused Zhang Xin and Liu Sanwu of collusion and fraud.In such a situation, even Tan Qian, who later revised the "Guoyan", expressed emotion: "The raging public opinion is not for public anger, but for personal grievances." With the end of the confused case of "North and South List" in the 30th year of Hongwu, the Ming Dynasty's "North and South List" examination system was established. In the following days, it was constantly revised. It has become the division method of "Southern List", "Northern List" and "Middle List" (Anhui and Southwest provinces).The admission ratio is also fixed at 55% for the South List, 35% for the North List, and 10% for the Middle List.The Wanli period went a step further, adding "business registration" to the imperial examination, and lifting various restrictions on the examinations of businessmen's children during the Zhu Yuanzhang period.After the establishment of the Qing Dynasty, this ranking system was also followed. Objectively speaking, the Ming Dynasty’s “ranking list” system did have many positive effects, such as popularizing cultural education (improving the learning enthusiasm of candidates in backward areas), balancing political relations, and even maintaining national unity (promoting the imperial examination system in ethnic minority areas) etc.And the negative effects cannot be avoided, one of the important ones is to fuel the flames of "villager politics" in the official circles of the Ming Dynasty. Since the division of the "North and South Rankings", the relationship between officials in the official circles of the Ming Dynasty, in addition to the relationship between teachers and students (teacher and disciple), the relationship between fellow villagers has also become more and more intense. Especially obvious.Even forming cliques among candidates who are ranked in the same ranking has gradually become the norm.Qiu Shun, a minister during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, once concluded: "Nowadays, crony parties have three ways. One is the one who is on the same list, the second is the student of the head master, and the third is the one who is born in the same year." over the relationship.From the end of Wanli to the early days of Apocalypse, the "party struggle" that was criticized by later generations was divided into "Qi Party", "Chu Party" and "Zhejiang Party" to attack each other.