The Ming Dynasty’s Prodigal Son - Chapter 1220

[1220. Chapter 1165 Determining the new system]

Wang Shouren and others looked at their mentor with eyes shining brightly.

Reform the imperial examination.

This is a thousand-year plan.

But now, the teacher has given them a stage, and these young people are all standing in the center of the stage. The teacher has given them each a pen and a piece of white paper, so that they can write whatever they want on this white paper. of splashing ink.

At their core, they are still scholars.

Although the knowledge of the sage Confucius was distorted, in later generations, it became a tool for the gentry.

But it has to be said that the saint’s ideal of harmonizing the family, governing the country, and bringing peace to the world is still rooted in the hearts of countless people.

Of course there are despicable people who use the idea that a gentleman does not stand behind a dangerous wall to cover up their cowardice, and there are people who hold on to the immutability of the ancestral laws to consolidate their own interests.

However, there still emerged a group of scholar-bureaucrats who worried about the world’s worries first and rejoiced after the world’s happiness.

That’s right… Fang Jifan is the latter.

His nobility inspired generations of disciples.

Wang Shouren looked deeply at his mentor. At this moment, there was a bit of confusion on his face.

Tang Yin concealed his inner excitement.

Jiang Chen and Liu Wenshan were silent, but their chests were rising and falling violently.

Only Ouyang Zhi had a calm expression, his eyes were as calm as an ancient well, and he was calm and calm.

Fang Jifan waved his hand: “Do it well!”

Do it well, these three easy words.

The eyes of the four disciples were all red.

What a trust.

The mentor not only taught by words and deeds, but was also his confidant. The trust he entrusted to them was the lifelong wealth of these disciples.

Ouyang Zhi began to take the lead, and then the disciples began to discuss.

Finally, the plan came out. The imperial examination is good, but the new system needs to fully capture the essence of the new system and remove the dross.

For example, conduct unified examinations and use strict systems to ensure the smoothness of the examinations.

At the same time…

one detail after another was drawn up.

More than half a month later, a draft was formed.

When Ouyang Zhi sent the draft to Fang Jifan, Fang Jifan felt a little hurt when he saw his haggard appearance. All of these disciples were born in the year of the Ox, and Fang Jifan liked hard-working people. Those who are lazy and lazy are not worthy of being my disciples.

“Teacher, please take a look.”

Fang Jifan didn’t look at it and put it away: “There’s no need to look at it. I’m going to find Liu Gong and see if he has any suggestions.”

Liu Gong is the chief minister of the cabinet, and his suggestions still need to be accepted. of.

Ouyang Zhi was silent for a moment, but before he could be silent, Fang Jifan took the charter and ran away quickly.

Looking at his mentor’s back, Ouyang Zhicai said: “Teacher…didn’t he say that after the draft was drawn up, he would discuss it with us?”

“…”

Ouyang Zhi looked at the empty hall and was confused.

…………

Fang Jifan arrived at the cabinet excitedly.

When the secretaries and clerks saw Duke Qi coming, their expressions were a little subtle. Fang Jifan said, “Mr. Liu, where is Gong Liu?”

A head poked out of Liu Jian’s room. This was Liu Jian’s embarrassed face. , he coughed: “Master Qi… don’t yell, come here.”

Fang Jifan stepped forward and said loudly: “Mr. Liu, I have something to teach you.”

With that, he entered the public room.

Liu Jian was a little anxious. He actually closed the door tightly himself. He deliberately stood at the door with his ear against the door. After confirming that the partition wall had no ears, he whispered softly: “What are you doing here? You are so grand. I don’t know. I thought I was with you.” What’s there?”

Fang Jifan was speechless. He felt like meeting Liu Jian now was like a spy meeting.

Fang Jifan said: “There’s something wrong…”

Liu Jian smiled bitterly and stroked his beard: “Those of your disciples, without the king’s law, are just beating people outside the Meridian Gate. That Wu Yan hasn’t gone to the ground yet. It’s so miserable. Now the whole court is in mourning, and the scholars are full of resentment. You… are so disrespectful.”

Fang Jifan blinked innocently: “Mr. Liu, I didn’t fight, what does it have to do with me? “As the reporter said, isn’t there an old saying, a slap can’t make a difference?”

Liu Jian: “…”

Actually… he was just complaining. Your Majesty’s attitude is already obvious. Let the matter be settled and the palace will not care about it. , Liu Jian doesn’t want to take care of it. Even if he wants to take care of it, Liu Jie is still in Golden Continent.

He sat down, muttered a few words repeatedly, and glared at Fang Jifan: “Come on, what’s the matter?”

Fang Jifan said with a smile: “Here is a charter of the New Deal, which is about the method of selecting officials in Tongzhou and Baoding Prefecture…” Fang Jifan lowered his voice Voice: “Your Majesty has told me that Mr. Liu is old and prudent. I don’t know what he has to say.”

Liu Jian’s face changed: “Why did you come to the cabinet?”

“What?” Fang Jifan was confused.

“Are you going to kill me?” Liu Jian said angrily: “Why don’t you sneak into the house, come in through the back door, and talk to me about such a thing?”

Fang Jifan: “…”

After hearing about the method of selecting officials, he came to ask for his opinion, and Fang Jifan came to the cabinet with such great fanfare. In the future, the method of selecting officials will be really announced to the public, and people will think of him. This is really It’s harmful.

Liu Jian has little hope in this life. He is deeply loved by Emperor Hongzhi, and he is really devoted to Emperor Hongzhi. In addition, his son is in Huanghuangzhou, hanging out with the Xishan gang, and he has to fight for a future. Liu Jian’s Although my butt is not sitting on the Xishan side, at least I can be impartial.

He said angrily: “Come and see me.”

Fang Jifan sent the charter to Liu Jian.

Liu Jian took it and looked at it carefully.

Fang Jifan sat aside, bored, and said: “I haven’t even had a sip of tea. I’ll ask someone to pour tea.” After saying that, he stood up and wanted to go out.

Liu Jian said sternly: “Come back, don’t open the door. You think others don’t know how you select officials. Can you ask me for advice?”

Fang Jifan rolled his eyes and sat back down.

Liu Jian continued to look, but this time he was frightened.

Although the imperial examination model is still used, and people are selected to be civil servants, the professionalism has become stronger. For example, the civil servants in the torture chamber must not only take a literary exam, but also a martial arts exam, and they need to know basic riding and archery, but… I heard that the executioners in Baoding Prefecture have begun to popularize horseback archery, which is needed to hunt down fugitives. In addition, household housing requires arithmetic and basic literacy tests.

This literary examination is naturally based on the Four Books and Five Classics, and is biased towards new learning.

Others…

“Hey…” After Liu Jian finished reading them all, he let out a long sigh: “The world has changed, and I won’t be able to make the trip.”

Fang Jifan said with a smile: “What do you think?”

Liu Jian said: “Most of them, I don’t understand. What kind of talents are needed? What I know is that there are not many, but there is something missing here.”

“Ah?” Fang Jifan said: “What is missing, let me take a look.

Liu Jian glared at Fang Jifan: “You haven’t seen it yet?”

Fang Jifan said with shame: “Actually, I have. Don’t get me wrong.”

“The first sentence in this chapter is wrong.”

Fang

Jifan looked confused: “Please enlighten me.”

Liu Jian pointed to the rough seal: “This first article should be that all officials, once admitted and hired, shall not be dismissed unless it violates the laws of the country.”

“What?” Fang Jifan was confused: “This… is Why? “

If you can’t be dismissed, isn’t this just making a living?”

Fang Jifan is a man holding a golden rice bowl, but what he hates the most is when others hold an iron rice bowl and fluff out their own wool. After entering the public house, they want to live a life of idleness. Do you think you are my Fang Jifan?

Liu Jian looked at Fang Jifan with a smile: “Without this first clause, your detailed chapter, no matter how well drafted it is, is useless.”

Fang Jifan looked confused.

Liu Jian said patiently: “First of all, if there is no absolute guarantee, who is willing to take the exam and enter the public service for the rest of his life? Although it is a great initiative for you to enter the public service and be promoted and selected in the future, but in your case, After all, there are only a few people in the world who can be selected as officials, so only sufficient protection can make people feel at ease.”

Fang Jifan nodded in confusion. Fang Jifan really didn’t understand this aspect.

“And this second is the most important. I’m here to ask you, after these officials finally passed the exam, they will be on duty in the public servants. Their future is in the hands of the Shangguan, so they will naturally cater to the Shangguan, but What if even the power of dismissal is in the hands of the Shangguan? If so… wouldn’t all the officials here become the Shangguan’s private slaves?”

Fang Jifan seemed to understand, and he thought for a moment: “The merit examination is decided by the superior officers. This is a personnel right. Removal is also a personnel right. These two personnel rights are divided into two. The superior officers have the right to recommend their subordinates for promotion, but they cannot remove people they dislike?”

Liu Jianle said: “Yes, for officials, there are only two things that control them. One is financial power, who pays this salary. The second is official affairs, that is, who gives them their jobs. If these are all in In the hands of parents and officials, then, it is terrible. They can depose whoever they want to depose, and recommend whoever they want to recommend. They can make you ascend to heaven and become a successful person, but they can also make you lose your job and the whole family will follow you. Hungry, then think about it, wouldn’t the parent officials really become the parents of these officials, and the officials would all become the private slaves of the parent officials, once these are in their hands, these parent officials, and What’s the difference between local emperors? What if the local official wants to deceive the imperial court?

“What if the officials are not dismissed ?”

The root of the problem is who the parent officer wants to recommend, but the people he can recommend are only a few. There may be ten or a hundred people who receive his favor, but no other officials will get it. His favor and their jobs are guaranteed by the imperial court. Their family, young and old, are also supported by the imperial salary. They are in the public house and know everything about the affairs in the public house. If their parents and officials want to deceive the imperial court, they will even If they want to fight against the imperial court, are they willing to follow their parents’ officials to do evil things? Even if you make a complaint, you can still treat it as your own fault and not be influenced by your parents.”

Liu Jian looked at Fang Jifan with a smile: “The first one is to add this, so that this method of selecting officials can be implemented. , only the countless officials who have passed the examination will identify with your method of selecting officials, and only these thousands of officials will defend your method of selecting officials. Otherwise, the method of selecting officials will not be the same. It’s just a decoration. If even the officials you selected are indifferent to your laws, then… this new system will be useless.”

Liu Jian paused and sighed: “It’s just like the imperial examination .

Scholars all over the world have benefited from this imperial examination system, and they will spontaneously safeguard it. If anyone cheats in the imperial examination, or tampers with the imperial examination, even the emperor or I will definitely not dare to do this. Thoughts, do you know why this is happening?”

Fang Jifan listened carefully and felt fear in his heart.

This is the truth. After the emergence of the imperial examination, it became more and more standardized. In the Song Dynasty and now, this imperial examination has become a golden rule that no one can touch. Emperor Chenghua liked someone and would never dare to let him go by his temper. He went to the imperial examination and then appointed him as a Jinshi. He even wanted to deny it to his own son. But he has never thought about taking the imperial examination.

The reason is that there are thousands of scholars who are safeguarding the imperial examination system. Any offense to the imperial examination will lead to chaos in the world.

If a new system does not benefit anyone and no one consciously protects it, or if it cannot protect their fundamental interests, or even if there are not enough checks and balances in the system, then no one will soon be willing to maintain it. Finally disappeared. Otherwise, it will lead to one party having too much power, leading to imbalance, and ultimately, the situation of a vassal town.

Fang Jifan nodded repeatedly: “I will change it, I will change it. This is the first article.”

(End of Chapter)