In ancient times, there were often some over-aged candidates in the imperial examination, on the one hand, because they were not proficient in their studies or had bad opportunities, on the other hand, such a situation also had a lot to do with the imperial examination system itself. Beginning in the third year of the Reign of Emperor Yingzong of the Northern Song Dynasty (1066), a major reform was carried out on the imperial examination, from holding it annually or irregularly to opening it once every three years, and it was continued until the end of the Qing Dynasty.
For candidates, this reform means that the first time they fall off the list will have to wait three years (except for Enko), as long as they fall into the first few times, they may go from youth to middle age. In the history of the imperial examination, there are not a few elderly candidates, and the records of the elderly and the first in the past have become the talk of people after tea and dinner.
Among the twenty-six new scholars admitted by Emperor Guanghua of Tang Zhaozong in the fourth year (901), Chen Guangwen was 69 years old, Cao Song was 54 years old, Wang Yuxi was 73 years old, Liu Xiang was 70 years old, Ke Chong was 64 years old, and Zheng Xiyan was 59 years old. The emperor greatly admired their long-term participation in the imperial examination, and decided to exempt them from participating in the selection of officials and directly grant them official positions, which were then called "five old lists".
The Ming and Qing dynasties were the peak of the development of the imperial examination, and with the increase in the number of candidates, the difficulty of the scholar and the first increased, and the average age was gradually increasing. The famous Qing Dynasty scholar Shen Dezhi Kangxi was admitted to Xiucai in 1694 at the age of 21. Since then, Shen Deqian has participated in seventeen consecutive township examinations, all of which are named Luosun Mountain. Until the third year of Qianlong (1738), when the township examination was successful, the following year he was admitted to the second class and eighteen jinshi, when he was 67 years old.
There was also a famous scholar, Li Ciming, who was admitted to Xiucai in the thirtieth year of Daoguang (1850), when he was also 21 years old, and then he failed the eleventh township examination until the ninth year of Tongzhi (1870), when he was 41 years old. After that, he took five more examinations, and in the sixth year of Guangxu (1880), he was admitted to the jinshi, at the age of 51.
Li Ciming's examination career is quite interesting, from the Daoguang Dynasty to the Guangxu Dynasty, which is extremely rare in the history of the Qing Dynasty. To this end, he carved a collection of books to commemorate, the text said: "Daoguang Geng shu Xiucai, Xianfeng Geng ShenMingjing, Tongzhi Gengwu Renren, Guangxu Gengchen Jinshi." "From Xiucai to Jinshi through the four dynasties of emperors, Li Ciming set a record in the history of the imperial examination, which can be called the first person in the history of the imperial examination."
In the fifty-fourth year of Qianlong (1789), there were more than 500 candidates from various provinces who were over 80 or 70 years old, and it was not a legend that the candidates who took the township examination at the age of 100 were not legendary. In the thirty-fifth year of Qianlong (1770), when Gengyin Kejiangxi Township took the exam, Li Wei, a student of Guangxin Province, who took the exam, was 99 years old and was able to successfully complete three exams. Although he eventually landed on the ground, Qianlong still felt that his spirit was commendable, and specially gave him a person and allowed him to participate in the examination.
Another candidate, Huang Zhang, from Shunde, Guangdong Province, was also 99 years old when he took the township examination, and he was 61 years old, and he became a Gongsheng at the age of 83. In the thirty-eighth year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1699), when he was tested in Shuntianxiang, the 99-year-old Huang Zhang asked his great-grandson to hold a lantern to guide him, and the lantern was written with four big characters of "Hundred Years of Viewing Lanterns". In the face of the different eyes of other candidates, Huang Zhang said confidently: "I am 99 years old this year, and I am not proud." At the age of one hundred and two, he was given the ear. ”
Beginning in the first year of Qianlong (1736), in order to give spiritual comfort to the elderly test takers, the imperial court began to reward the elderly test takers with official titles. In the seventeenth year of Qianlong, it was stipulated that those over the age of eighty should be rewarded with the title of Hanlin Academy in the examination, and those who were over the age of seventy were rewarded with the title of Guozi Supervisor. In the fourteenth year of Jiaqing (1809), Wanshou Enke, the elderly people in various provinces actively took the exam, and more than 370 elderly people who completed the three examinations were rewarded with titles. When Daoguang took the sixth-year examination, Lu Gocong of Sanshui County, Guangdong Province, was 103 years old, and the imperial court gave him the title of Guozi Supervisor.
The imperial court rewarded not only official titles, but also elderly students with personal origins, and this system began in the thirty-fifth year of Qianlong (1770). In this year' ShunTianxiang examination, there are 85-year-old and 80-year-old candidates, and they are all given a lift. In the following year, students over the age of 70 and gongsheng in Shuntian, Shanxi, Henan, Shandong, Shaanxi, Hubei and other provinces were allowed to be rewarded with their origins and made eligible to participate in the examination.
As the number of elderly students gradually increased, so did the number of people who falsely reported their age, and the imperial court had to raise the age conditions for rewarding people. In the fifty-fourth year of Qianlong, it was stipulated that those over the age of 80 should be rewarded with the participation in the examination; those over the age of 70 should be rewarded with the deputy list and not allowed to participate in the examination. In the fifth year of Guangxu (1879), it was changed to a reward for 80 years old to a sub-list, and a reward for people over 90 years old.
Due to the limited number of admission places, after all, those who can pass the imperial examination to obtain talents, lift people and enter the army are a minority, and most of the readers are exhausted in their lives and do not get any meritorious names, and they are children all their lives. For them, the name of the imperial examination will always be just a castle in the air and a tower in the sea.