Rise From the Humble

The first ray of sunlight in the morning pours through the sky into the world, falls into the main hall through the Bagua window of Chengen Hall in Xiyuan, and casts a mysterious Bagua pattern halo. In the middle of the two poles of the Bagua pattern stand two people, one. One is wearing a dragon robe, and the other is wearing a gray gossip Taoist robe.

"What's the explanation for this dream?" A voice came from the hall to ask.

After listening to Emperor Jiajing's inquiry, Tao Zhongwen, who was wearing a gray and white Bagua Taoist robe, saluted to Emperor Jiajing, then closed his eyes, stretched out his right hand from the Taoist robe, and started counting with his five fingers.

"One counts Kan, two counts Kun, three shocks and four Sun counts in the middle, five transfers to the middle palace, six stems, seven to eight gens, and nine to the door."

While Tao Zhongwen was calculating, he muttered softly.

About two minutes later, Tao Zhongwen suddenly opened his eyes, with a joyful look on his face, he saluted Emperor Jiajing, and happily reported the good news to Emperor Jiajing: "My lord, congratulations to your majesty, congratulations to your majesty."

Jiajing heard that the nervousness disappeared, stretched the muscles on his face, and then asked: "Where does the joy come from?"

"Ying in the sun, full in the ridge, this is a sign of good fortune and eternal stability." Tao Zhongwen stroked his white beard in the sunshine. The sunlight hit him, making his aura of a magic stick rise several notches at once.

Jiajing was overjoyed when he heard this.

"It's just that why did Emperor Taizu Gao stand on a river bank full of green duckweeds and look at me without saying a word, and finally pointed at his feet and turned into a flying fairy and flew away?" Emperor Jiajing was overjoyed, but then he He asked Tao Zhongwen with some doubts.

"This is His Majesty's family matter, and the minister is an outsider, so it is inconvenient to comment."

Tao Zhongwen looked at Emperor Jiajing and shook his head slightly, with a miraculous expression on his face that I knew well but couldn't say.

This is His Majesty’s family matter!

If Zhu Ping'an was at the scene, he would definitely despise Tao Zhongwen's behavior. I have taken off my pants, so you just tell me this? ! This old magic stick is too good at refusal. Emperor Jiajing had hallucinations after taking drugs. Who knows what it means. This old magic stick is too amazing. This is His Majesty’s family matter! Your ancestors appeared in your dreams and communicated with you. This is your majesty's family matter. It is difficult for an upright official to deal with family matters, let alone your emperor's family. I know it, but it is not convenient for me to say.

Emperor Jiajing's perspective on the problem was obviously not comparable to that of ordinary people.

Jiajing listened to Tao Zhongwen's words and nodded. After thinking for a moment, he felt that what Tao Zhongwen said made sense. This was Emperor Taizu Gao who entrusted him with a dream. Naturally, his old man would not entrust a dream to himself for no reason. He must have given it to us. It is related to the country and the country of Lao Zhu's family. This is more appropriately said to be a family matter than a state matter.

How can the words of ancestors to their descendants be conveyed through other people's mouths? Well, what Tao Zhongwen said makes sense.

When Emperor Jiajing asked Tao Zhongwen about his dream, Yan Song and other eight ministers appointed by Jiajing were busy grading papers in the Zhilu outside Yangde Gate, the south gate of Xiyuan.

Yan Song is the chief minister of the cabinet and the first minister to read the examination papers. In addition to Yan Song, the other seven are also famous ministers of the dynasty, including the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, the Zuo Shilang of the Ministry of Rites, the Grand Scholar of the Hanlin Academy, and the Zuo Shilang of the Inspectorate. The censor of the capital, the minister of Dali Temple, the minister of Guanglu Temple, and the remaining one is the group assistant of the cabinet.

The results will be announced three days after the palace examination, leaving them with less than two days to mark the results. There is no admission test in the palace examination, but it is a lot of work to determine the ranking, especially because the way the eight examination ministers grade the papers determines how fast they can be.

The palace examination grading is different from the provincial examination. Yan Song and his eight ministers sit at a big table and need to review each palace examination paper in turn. To put it simply, the first person reviews the examination paper after reading it, and then passes it to the second person. , and it is not completed until the eighth minister who reads the paper. Each minister who reads the test paper must score the test paper. The scoring of the test paper is divided into five levels. According to convention, five symbols are used to represent the five levels: "○", "△", "＼", "1", and "×". "○" is the first and best, "△" is the second, and "×" is the lowest grade. Everyone must use this notation to grade the test paper.

At the end, the more "○" on the test paper, the better the test paper is. All other symbols are also counted, and the ranking is finally determined by comparison. According to convention, the eight test-reading ministers will grade the papers. If you want to get first or second place, you must get at least seven "○"s. If the test paper scores less than seven "○"s, you will basically miss the first or second place. What's more, Don't mention the No. 1 pick and the No. 2 pick.

They can decide the ranking of the 11th to 400th imperial examination papers independently. The emperor will not care about it. The emperor doesn't have the energy to care about it even if he wants to.

The main task of Yan Song and his eight test-reading ministers was to select the ten best papers with the most "○" on the test papers and submit them to Emperor Jiajing. Emperor Jiajing selected the top, second, and third place candidates from these ten papers. Come to Tanhua.

Yan Song is very responsible. Every sealed test paper comes into his hands, and he reviews it with all his heart and impartiality! Except for two test papers! No, Yan Song reviewed all the test papers with all his heart and impartiality.

Yan Song gave points entirely based on the quality of the test paper. He could figure out what Jiajing meant and could even tell the quality of the test paper.

Fonts, current affairs policy arguments, etc. are all reference factors, but as long as the test paper fails to improve the performance of Emperor Jiajing, the highest it can only get is a "△"!

Yan Song leads by example, and the other seven marking ministers naturally do their best as well. They are all masters in this field. It is no problem to review the examination papers, and they all do so impartially.

However, there are only two exceptions for the two-mark examination paper!

One is a test paper that contains the words "The government attaches great importance to the government. It respects the authority of the king, selects officials for appointment, teaches officials their duties, supervises their actions, and rewards and punishments are public."

The other is that the test paper contains "The world is for the common good, unified by the Holy King, inherits the destiny from above, and the sentiments of the people from below."

For these two test papers, Yan Song gave the highest score of "○", and five of the other seven scoring ministers also gave the highest score of "○".

But there are two exceptions, one is the left minister of the Ministry of Rites, and the other is the group assistant of the cabinet. The two of them gave "△" to the first test paper, but the highest score "○" was given to the second test paper.

When the Zuo Shilang of the Ministry of Rites saw the words in the first test paper, "The government attaches great importance to the management of officials by communicating with superiors and subordinates. Respect the authority of the monarch, select officials for appointment, teach officials their duties, supervise the officials' conduct, and provide rewards and punishments", he immediately thought about it. I didn’t want to give a “△”. After the left minister of the Ministry of Etiquette finished his review and passed it to the cabinet ministers for review, he gently pressed his hand twice without leaving any trace, and then the cabinet minister nodded clearly and gave the same "△".

The left minister of the Ministry of Rites remembered this passage in the first examination paper so clearly that he could never remember it wrong. This sentence was written by the first person sitting on the east side of the palace examination!

Everyone has their own preferences for radish and green vegetables. Reasonable errors are allowed in palace examination marking, but the score difference cannot be too large. What is within a reasonable error is that the eight marking ministers must not give more than three grades to the same examination paper. In other words, someone If someone is given first class and someone is given second class, then you give them fourth or fifth class. This is unreasonable. Even though everyone has their own preferences for carrots and greens, you can choose vegetables, but you can’t eat meat. The difference is too obvious. If the difference is too big, you will be held accountable, and the responsibility is heavy!

The left minister of the Ministry of Rites and the group assistant of the cabinet are very clever in giving grades. Others give first class, and we give second class. It is normal. I just don't like it very much. What's wrong with giving second class? This is a reasonable error.

As a result, the test paper that contains the words "The government attaches great importance to the government. It respects the monarch's power, selects officials, assigns them, supervises their actions, and rewards and punishes them publicly." The test paper only received six "○"s.

But another test paper with the words "The world is for the common good, unified by the Holy King, inherits the destiny from above, and the people's sentiments from below." got eight "○"s.

Only the top ten will be sent to Emperor Jiajing to compete for the top spot in the Enke competition, while the rest will have no chance.

The first test paper scored six "○" and two "△". If you get less than seven "○", you will basically miss the first or second place, and it will be much worse than the top ten in this palace examination. There were quite a few people who got 8 "○"s in this palace examination, let alone 7 "○"s.

Therefore, this test paper will not get the chance to be read by Emperor Jiajing! Don’t even think about being the No. 1 pick and the No. 2 pick! Don’t even dream about it!

The Minister of Rites, Zuo Shilang, looked at the scoring symbols on the test paper and showed a satisfied smile.

It’s 2016. I wish all my book friends good luck and good luck in 2016.