The imperial examination is very difficult: Li Hongzhang was 24 years old and took the entrance examination, Zhang Zhidong was 26 years old, and Zeng Guofan was 27 years old and took the entrance examination - Zuo Zongtang had never tasted the taste of a jinshi in his life.
In front of some "prodigies", the imperial examination seems to be an easy task.
For example, Shi Yizhi.
Shi Yizhi was a well-known minister in the middle of the Qing Dynasty, born in 1682, and was a native of Liyang County, Jiangsu Province. In 1700, Shi Yizhi entered Beijing to participate in the examination and the title of the gold list, and when he passed the entrance examination, he was only 18 years old. Countless readers may not reach a height that they can not reach in their lifetime, and Shi Yizhi reached it at the age of 18. Only the word "xueba" could be given to this young man.
The entrance examination is only the starting point of the officialdom. Shi Yizhi entered the Hanlin Academy and was appointed to the Hanlin Academy to review, for the Seven Pins. In that year, Zeng Guofan's first official position was also reviewed by the Hanlin Academy. Their starting point is the same. However, after Zeng Guofan entered the official field, he became a proud protégé of the military minister Mu Zhang'a, and moved seven times in ten years, jumped ten levels in a row, and in less than 10 years, he was moved to the cabinet bachelor from Erpin. Shi Yizhi's family was ordinary, he was from an ordinary background, and he belonged to the "three noes" officials who had no background, no connections, and no popularity in the imperial court, and everything had to rely on his own efforts. Fortunately, he "had a strong memory, a good demeanor, and a good speech", and finally broke out of his own world, and by the end of the Kangxi Dynasty, he had been promoted to a cabinet attendant from Wupin.
After the Yongzheng Emperor succeeded to the throne, he promoted and reused a number of Han ministers such as Zhang Tingyu, Tian Wenjing, and Li Wei for his own use. Shi Yizhi's figure also appeared in these Han ministers. The Yongzheng Emperor arranged for Shi Yizhi to walk in the South Study. Located southwest of the Qianqing Palace in the Forbidden City, the South Study Was originally the study of the Kangxi Emperor and later became the emperor's place to handle political affairs. The officials who walked in the South Study were required to advise and advise the Emperor. Many Qing Dynasty ministers regarded the South Study As a place of purity, and it was a great honor to be able to walk in the South Study.
That year, Shi Yizhi was 41 years old.
As the saying goes, "A companion is like a companion tiger." "Doing things around the emperor inevitably has all kinds of unpredictable risks, but the benefits in the official arena are also very considerable." With the trust of the Yongzheng Emperor, Shi Yizhi's official road was smoother. Soon, he was promoted to the rank of official waiter, followed by the work department waiter and the household department waiter, and trained in many positions. In the Qing Dynasty, most of the six Shangshu were concurrently held by the scholars of the Imperial Court, and the daily work was presided over by The Waiter, who had great power.
The Yongzheng Emperor had a characteristic in employing people, and for the talents he admired, he would be sent to the localities to serve as governors and inspectors. Tian Wenjing and Li Wei both had the experience of serving as governors and inspectors. Zhang Tingyu was too old to go out, so he served in the imperial court from beginning to end. In 1729, the Yongzheng Emperor ordered Shi Yizhi to act as governor of Fujian.
That year, Shi Yizhi was 47 years old.
Shi Yizhi did a lot of practical work in Fujian.
Fujian is located on the southeast coast. At that time, the Fujian marine division took advantage of the opportunity to patrol the sea area and carried out smuggling trade with goods, which caused a large loss of state revenue. After Shi Yizhi became the governor of Fujian, he discovered this phenomenon and immediately ordered that this behavior be banned.
The grain production in Fujian is not high, and there is not enough grain in the four provinces of Fuzhou, Xinghua, Quanzhou and Zhangzhou to store in the warehouse. After Shi Yizhi reported to the imperial court for approval, he exchanged the rice that should be exported from Taiwan Island into millet and transported it to the above four provinces, exchanged the old rice for sale, and stored the fresh rice.
In 1730, the Yongzheng Emperor transferred Shi Yizhi to the post of Governor of Liangjiang. The Viceroy of Liangjiang was in charge of military and civilian administration in the three provinces of Jiangsu (including present-day Shanghai), Anhui, and Jiangxi. The Liangjiang area was prosperous and rich, and was the "money bag" of the Qing court. If he was not a minister whom the emperor particularly trusted, he would never have been able to obtain the official position of viceroy of Liangjiang. Shi Yi went directly to the appointment and was a little uneasy.
Because Shi Yizhi is a native of Jiangsu.
The Qing Dynasty established a system of recusal of officials from their posts from the Shunzhi period, the most important of which was the recusal of foreign officials from their own provinces. That is to say, Shi Yizhi, as a native of Jiangsu, could not return to his province as an official. He could not be the governor of Liangjiang, nor could he be the governor of Jiangsu. Just as Lin Zexu of Fujian could not serve as the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, and Zuo Zongtang, a native of Hunan, could not serve as the governor of Huguang.
Shi Yizhi hurriedly replied to the imperial court, asking for the resignation of the governor of Liangjiang on the grounds that he was a Jiangsu person. Not knowing what the reason was, the Yongzheng Emperor did not agree. As a result, Shi Yizhi became the governor of Liangjiang and also served as the imperial history of ZuoDu. It was not until a year later that Shi Yizhi was transferred back to the imperial court.
Soon, the Yongzheng Emperor sent an army to fight the Dzungar rebellion. Shaanxi and Gansu belong to the provinces of the army. Shi Yizhi was ordered to serve as the Inspector of Shaanxi and the Shangshu of the Military Department. During this period, the imperial court planned to ban folk brewing. Shi Yizhi reported to the imperial court that "burning pots is also a matter of making a living for the people, and it should be regarded as a matter of good age, and the people should be judged to be weak and weak, and Dong should be persuaded." Shi Yizhi's practice of seeking truth from facts was affirmed by the Yongzheng Emperor.
Shi Yizhi was a very capable official who maintained a clean and honest style, and not only did the Yongzheng Emperor trust him, but after the Qianlong Emperor succeeded to the throne, he still stood firm in the political arena. In 1744, Shi Yizhi entered the peak of his life and was appointed as a scholar and official of Wenyuange University. The Qing Dynasty did not have a prime minister, and the imperial court scholar was the de facto prime minister. At that moment, Shi Yi was in a very popular position and had unlimited scenery.
In 1763, Shi Yizhi died of illness at the age of 82. The Qianlong Emperor posthumously awarded him the title of Taibao (太保), with the courtesy name "Wenjing" (文靖), and was enshrined in the Ancestral Hall of Xianliang.