Text/Kingdom Building
In 1842, under the guidance of his teacher Mu Zhang'a, the Hanlin Academy reviewed Zeng Guofan and purchased "examination questions" from eunuchs in the palace with a tattoo of silver 200 and successfully passed the daoguang Emperor's test. Since then, Zeng Guofan has had a smooth career path, and in less than five years, he has been promoted from a small official of the Six Pins to a waiter of the Zhenger Pin Ceremonial Department. Below, Xiaobian will talk to you about this mysterious cheating incident.
Zeng Guofan (曾国藩), also spelled Bohan ( Chinese : Bóhan ) , was born on November 26, 1811 in Xiangxiang , Changsha , Hunan Province , into a feudal landlord family.
Zeng Guofan's father, named Zeng Linshu, took the boy test 17 times in his life, and finally became a talent at the age of 43. At this time, Zeng Guofan, who was his eldest son, had passed the Xiucai examination a year earlier than a year ago (1832). In 1834, the father and son both took the Hunan Township Examination at the same time, and Zeng Guofan was ranked 36th in the high school, while Zeng Linshu was named Luosun Shan, and from then on, he dispelled the idea of passing the imperial examination to become an official, and concentrated on assisting his son.
In 1838, zeng guofan, who was already 27 years old, participated in the third examination for the third time, and finally went to high school, ranking 42nd in the third class of the temple examination (this result was a bit behind in the temple examination). According to Zeng Guofan's achievements, it was impossible to enter the Hanlin Academy, and generally only local petty officials such as county orders and county clerks could be released. However, Zeng Guofan climbed a big tree and took Mu Zhang'a, then the minister of military aircraft and a university scholar, as his teacher. Under the strong control of Mu Zhang'a, Zeng Guofan not only stayed in the Hanlin Academy, but also ranked third in the first class in the imperial examination that year (this result was not good), and was personally selected as the second place by the Daoguang Emperor.
In the Qing Dynasty, officials entered the Hanlin Academy, although there were many opportunities to get ahead, but if they could not get the emperor's appreciation, those who had poor results in the previous examinations would be released from the place. Zeng Guofan's achievements in the Hanlin Academy at that time were not outstanding, and he was dull and cautious, and the results of several imperial examinations were not ideal, and it was very likely that he would be released as a county order. At this time, Zeng Guofan's teacher Mu Zhang'a helped him a lot, and won him a chance to be examined by the Daoguang Emperor alone.
One day in 1842, the eunuchs in the palace informed the Hanlin Yuan to review Zeng Guofan and that the Daoguang Emperor would summon him two days later. Zeng Guofan was both surprised and uneasy when he heard the will, happy to be summoned by the emperor himself, which was a great honor to be a courtier, and uneasy that he did not have a similar experience of being summoned by the emperor alone, did not know what to prepare, how to deal with the emperor's examination. Zeng Guofan went to see his teacher Mu Zhang'a to ask for some experience. Mu Zhang'a, an old adulterer, told Zeng Guofan, "You bring two hundred taels of silver to the home of Gonggong Li's nephew outside Dongzhimen and ask Gonggong Li for an idea!" Zeng Guofan was a little embarrassed to hear this, because he could not come up with 200 taels of silver (at that time, Zeng Guofan had less than 100 taels of silver a year).
Mu Zhang'a seemed to see through Zeng Guofan's thoughts and said, "You must have 200 taels of silver to get things done, if you can't make it up for a while, I'll borrow you 100 taels first, and it's important to do the right thing!" After Zeng Guofan returned, he found a colleague to collect 200 taels of silver, sent it according to the address given by Mu Zhang'a, and bought a bag. After returning home, Zeng Guofan opened the bag and found that there were two poems written on the small note inside, both of which were ancient poems that literati scholars often studied and exchanged. Although Zeng Guofan was a little confused, he still found books about these two poems and concentrated on reading them.
Two days later, Zeng Guofan was summoned to the Yangxin Hall to meet the Daoguang Emperor, and after the two junchens saw the ceremony, the Daoguang Emperor suddenly pointed to a picture on the wall next to him and asked Zeng Guofan: "What does The secretary think of this poem?" Zeng Guofan looked up, obediently, and the poem hanging on the wall was one of the ones he had paid for. Because he had already learned to read skillfully, Zeng Guofan talked about it, that is, solemn and humorous, and very pleasing to the Daoguang Emperor. In this way, Zeng Guofan successfully passed the emperor's personal examination, and soon after he was appointed as the attendant and school manager of the Hanlin Academy, and hitched a ride on the promotion of the direct train.
In 1847, Zeng Guofan was promoted from WenyuanGe Zhige to cabinet scholar and ceremonial attendant, and became a member of the Zhengerpin Daimyō. At this time, it was only five years before he passed the daoguang Emperor's examination.
According to the records of the parties concerned, the reason why the eunuch and Mu Zhang'a were able to collude in cheating was mainly because they stayed with the Daoguang Emperor for a long time, and they were very familiar with the Daoguang Emperor's habit of testing his courtiers with poetry, so they used this way to accumulate wealth for the courtiers who were examined to cheat. Although Zeng Guofan spent a huge amount of money to buy exam questions, he successfully passed the emperor's examination and found a shortcut for his career promotion, which was still very cost-effective.
The cheating behavior of Mu Zhang'a and Zeng Guofan and others was only to hide from the Daoguang Emperor. There was a prince who knew all about this matter, and he was the later Xianfeng Emperor Ai Xinjue Luo Yixuan. Because at that time, it was not only Zeng Guofan who relied on cheating to fool the Daoguang Emperor, as long as it was a protégé introduced by Mu Zhang'a, he could smoothly buy "examination questions" from the steward eunuchs in the palace, which was already an open secret. Mu Zhang'a, as a military minister, was also favored by the Daoguang Emperor, and even if Yi Xuan knew these things, he couldn't do anything with them.
In 1850, the Daoguang Emperor died and was succeeded by the emperor's fourth son, YiXuan, as the Xianfeng Emperor. The Xianfeng Emperor had long since hated Mu Zhang'a, and soon after he ascended the throne, he dismissed him from his post on the charge of "protecting the throne and being greedy and greedy, and obstructing the virtuous and sick country", and never used him. Most of Mu Zhang'a's protégés were classified as "Mu Dang" and were relegated to remote places and not reused. Zeng Guofan had good luck, had a good reputation in the imperial court, and did not do anything illegal, so the Xianfeng Emperor did not move him.
In 1852, Zeng Guofan returned to his hometown as the right attendant of the Punishment Department to guard filial piety for his mother Ding. During this period, because the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement had invaded the territory of Hunan. The Xianfeng Emperor ordered Zeng Guofan to assist Zhang Jiliang, the governor of Hunan, in his capacity as a deputy to the regimental training minister, to guard the countryside, which led to the Xiang army, which later became famous!