In March of the second year of Song Jiayou (1057 AD), Emperor Renzong of Song made a bold decision that in the future, all those who participated in the scientific examination would be admitted as jinshi as long as they qualified for the palace examination, and the imperial court would no longer implement the elimination system at the end of the palace examination formulated by Emperor Taizu.
As soon as the news came out, the world's readers cheered.
This meant that as long as the disciples passed the provincial examination, they got the quota of jinshi and obtained the qualification to be officials, and the ranking of the palace examination was not as important as expected.
In the second year of Jiayou, he personally tried to lift people, and those who tried with the temple were spared from dethronement. --- History of the Song Dynasty
Zhao Zhen was deliberate in abolishing the system of deposing the temple and increasing the proportion of recruits, and it was a person named Zhang Yuan who made this decision.
Song Renzong Zhao Zhen
Why would a person who fell off the list have such great ability to influence the emperor's governing strategy? To figure this out, we need to first understand the imperial examination system of the Song Dynasty.
Since the late Tang Dynasty, the tradition of the Han and Tang Dynasties inheriting the control of the government by the Mongol clans has been broken, and by the time the Song Dynasty was established, those places such as Guanzhong, Shandong, and Jiangnan, which were rich in high-level monks, had been replaced by the emerging small and medium-sized landlord class (that is, the Shu people of the Wei and Jin dynasties, also known as the Hanmen (1)).
Without the support of the traditional Mongol clan, if the rulers of the Great Song Dynasty wanted to consolidate the foundation of their rule, they had to absorb intellectuals from the small and medium-sized landlord class to participate in their own political power, so the selection of outstanding talents for their own use through the imperial examination became a political means for the Rulers of the Zhao and Song Dynasties to win the hearts and minds of the people.
Of course, in order not to let the sons of the Xun gui of this dynasty become the new clan of door valves, in the early song dynasty, after formulating the "civil rule" line, the Zhao guanjia family not only relaxed the quota for admission to the imperial examination, but also carried out some reforms for the imperial examination, such as abolishing the public recommendation system, adopting a different test for the children of the xungui, implementing the system of pasting names and sealing the name, trancribing the straw scroll system, increasing the temple examination, and the system of locking up the officials of the zhigong to ensure the fairness and impartiality of the examination system as much as possible.
The benefits of such reforms and measures are enormous, as Emperor Taizong of Tang put it, "heroes of the world are in the midst of me" (2).
Temple Test: Heroes of the World Enter My Bow
Keju is actually a high-level fishing game.
Cheerful schools of fish compete for the bait thrown into the water, but they do not know that the bait thrown in each time is only enough for one fish to eat, and the other fish can only wait for the next bait thrown by the angler.
Since it was the bait thrown by the Great Song Official's family, whether or not to collect the fishing rod was definitely decided by the Zhao Guan's family.
Speaking from the heart, compared with the Tang Dynasty's imperial examination, the happiness of the Song Dynasty's readers is very high, not only the number of admissions increases, as long as they win the jinshi, they are the emperor's students, known as "Tianzi disciples", because the new palace examination link is the emperor himself as the chief examiner.
However, since it is an exam, there will definitely be a ranking of ranks.
This is the crux of the matter.
For the ranking of the temple test, the final interpretation given by the Zhao Guanjia family is: In order to ensure the scarcity of "bait", the temple test implements the tail elimination system, after all, there are too many fish, and it is impossible to catch it at one time, and it can be raised to fish again next time.
Crown and the first, riding a horse parade
What do you mean? That is to say, the results of the temple examination did not meet the expectations of the Zhao Guan's family, or the students at the bottom could only go home first and seize the time to review, and retake the exam again the next year.
This official interpretation has become the norm since the Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin opened the temple examination in the sixth year of Kaibao (973 AD).
In the old system, the temple test was deposed, temporarily taken, or three people took one, or two people took one, or three people took two, and many of them were repeatedly abandoned in the temple test. --- The Tale of Yan Ji. Volume V
The rulers of the Song Dynasty kept the temptation of "fish bait" by trying the temple to dethrone the system, which was understandable, but what if any "fish" could not bite the hook and eat the bait?
If this is really the case, then will this "fish" never be able to enter the "bow" of the angler?
Entering the Imperial Pavilion was the first goal of the Song Dynasty readers
Unfortunately, the protagonist in this Wang Langwen, Zhang Yuan of Huayin County, Huazhou, YongxingJun Road of the Great Song Dynasty, is such a "fish", and it is a "big fish" who thinks that he has the talents of Guan Zhong and Zhuge Zhicai.
Since he thought that he was pregnant with Guan Zhong and Zhuge Zhicai, he naturally couldn't stand the sense of loss that he couldn't bite the "hook" thrown out by Zhao Guan's family.
After experiencing several palace tests, Zhang Yuan, who had been determined to make a difference in the official arena since childhood, could not help but doubt the vision of the Zhao Guan's family.
To this end, with great ambition, he chose another "彀", the "彀" of li Yuanhao, the Great Song Xia Prefecture Festival.
At the end of the Jing Dynasty (1034-1038 AD), Zhang Yuan, together with his friend Wu Hao, defected to the command of Li Yuanhao, the envoy of the Song Dynasty, and actively advised Li Yuanhao on his rebellion against the Song and the Song.
In Huazhou, there are two sons Zhang (Yuan) and Wu (Hao), who are trapped in the field house, Bo You can't be ambitious, Wen Yuanhao intends to spy on China, so he rebels, to strategize, Yuan Hao is greatly pleased, Ri Zun is favored, Fan Xia people establish a country scale, into the Kou strategy, more than two people to teach. --- "The End of the Chronicle of the History of Song"
Western Xia warriors
In the second year of Song Baoyuan (1039 AD), after Li Yuanhao issued a letter of state to Zhao Zhen in the name of Emperor Xia, a three-year-long face-to-face war broke out between Song and Xia, whether it was a clan relationship or a state-to-state relationship.
During this period, the Battle of Haoshuichuan and the Battle of Dingchuanzhai were both planned by Zhang Yuan and launched by Li Yuanhao to attack the Song Dynasty.
It was these three years of the Song and Xia Wars that allowed Li Yuanhao to finally achieve the success of breaking away from the Song Dynasty and establishing himself, and in fact formed a situation of three kingdoms with the Song and Liao, until the time of the "Shame of Jingkang", Western Xia was a fierce enemy of the northwest frontier of the Song Dynasty.
Moreover, during this period, Daliao actually took advantage of the fire and robbery, and did not care about the agreed feelings of Song Liao's brotherhood, and forcibly tore a piece of flesh from The great Song's body.
All of this stems from the butterfly effect produced after Zhang Yuan, the first person of the Great Song Dynasty, defected to Li Yuanhao, and if Zhang Yuan did not treason and surrender to Xia, otherwise Li Yuanhao would not necessarily rebel and dare to rebel, and if Li Yuanhao did not rebel, Daliao would not have the opportunity to take advantage of the fire and robbery.
The Battle of Good Water River, the Battle of Zhang Yuan's Raising Eyebrows
Yuan Hao had already prepared a treacherous danger and took charge of Hao Jie, so instead of raising a number of people to surrender to him, Yuan Hao either gave him the title of general or the secretary of state, and relied on him as the mastermind. --- prince Zhongyun and Zhiji Xianyuan Fubi.com
Li Yuanhao's success in breaking away from the Song Dynasty and establishing himself was regarded as a great shame by the Song Dynasty monarchs.
Because of this, Zhao Zhen and his courtiers realized that those who had been killed all the way into the temple test in the midst of thousands of troops and horses were potential talents for governing the country, and none of them could be spared, and they must be packed into their own "Yi".
Therefore, after the celebration of the peace talks, Zhao Zhen painfully thought bitterly, believing that the system of deposing the temple was a completely stupid way to kill itself and must be reformed.
Therefore, Zhang Yuan lowered Yuan Hao with accumulated anger, which was a great trouble for China. The imperial court began to imprison his family members, and did not repeat them. So the courtiers suggested that the blame should be attributed to the temple test. In March of the second year of Jiayou, neither the imperial servant nor the temple examiner was deposed. ---- The Curse of Yan Ji. Volume V
The three kingdoms of Song, Liao, and Xia stood tall
Wang Lang said:
Zhang Yuan repeatedly failed to succeed, and then defected to Xia and rebelled against the Song Dynasty, which was a serious violation of Confucian social ethics and moral concepts, so it was despised by the Song Dynasty people, most of his deeds are unclear, and his poems are not officially recorded.
The reason why we can still see his poems today is that the Song people at that time privately recorded them in their diaries.
However, from the perspective of his poems, the reason why he could not pass the entrance examination was not that Zhao Zhen's vision was not good, but that there was really a problem with his literary style.
For example, his most famous poem, "Wing Xue":
Wuding fought with swords to break through the clouds, straight up to the Heavenly River and under the Emperor Qi. The Battle destroyed the Jade Dragon three million, and the scales and armor of defeat flew all over the sky.
Song Dynasty popular words, but a good Song poetry is not weaker than Tang poetry
I don't know whether it was deliberately done by the person who recorded his poems, or Zhang Yuan's true level, which does not rhyme at all. If this was his true level, Wang Lang thought that such a poem, in the Renzong Dynasty at the peak of Wenzhi, really could not attract the appreciation of others.
Of course, this is the words of Wang Lang's family.
Perhaps, Zhang Yuan is good at planning, speaking, and strategizing, rather than making a fuss, otherwise, why would he drag his friends to join Li Yuanhao, maybe it is the complementarity between the two, what do the princes think?
concentrate:
(1) The ancient "cold gate" is not the cold gate we know today, but the small and medium-class landlords who existed relative to the door valve clan in the Wei and Jin dynasties.
(2) "Tang Shuyan. Volume I
[I am Jiangdong Wang Lang, bringing you a different historical vision!] Stick to the original, like me please pay attention to me! 】
Qingping Lexia is not clear: Behind the qingli coin increase, the Great Song was forced to be helpless, and the Great Liao took advantage of the fire to loot
The Song Dynasty and the Western Xia's rivalry for the Hexi Corridor