Ming Jiajing: Starting from Immortality

Chapter 157 Official masters and half of the Huizhou merchants!
Jinyiwei's inference.

A memorial submitted by the commander-in-chief of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

They are all placed on the cabinet's desk.

This time.

Zhang Juzheng’s cabinet could no longer laugh.

The Shanxi merchants showed off their wealth, which made Lu Bing have more associations and covet the wealth of the Anhui merchants.

Thinking of the benefits that the Shanxi merchants' billion wealth could bring to the Ming Dynasty, the ministers felt something in their hearts. Then they thought of the complicated relationship between the imperial court and the Huizhou merchants, and they broke out in a cold sweat.

If action is taken against the Huizhou merchants, the number of officials affected will probably be more than those involved in the emperor's previous major purges.

The Jinyiwei had just risen in power, and Wang Chonggu was born into a Shanxi merchant family, so his understanding of the court over the past hundred years was actually not deep.

In the eyes of Lu Bing and Wang Chonggu, Hui merchants were the money bags of court officials.

this is not right.

To some extent, Huizhou merchants were the account masters of court officials!

Why do we say this? This has to do with the status of court officials before they entered official career.

Those are the scholars who have achieved great success.

In this world, there are only a few people like Chen Yiqin who are born with a family of poetry and literature.

The vast majority of students, scholars, and even juren were not rich.

In this world, power is in the hands of a few people, and money is in the hands of even fewer people.

When a family has an educated person, not only does it lose a labor force, but education costs a lot of money.

When you are studying, you need to find a teacher to enlighten you. Good teachers are often not cheap, so generous tuition is essential.

Now that you have found a teacher and have started your enlightenment, you have entered the formal learning stage. You may not need anything else, but you must have pen, ink, paper and inkstone, right?

Without pen, ink, paper and inkstone, there is no way to write. At that time, people believed that "the handwriting reflects the character of the writer". Without beautiful calligraphy, not only would one be looked down upon, but one would also fail the first stage of the imperial examination, the examination for students of higher learning.

The people in the current cabinet, apart from other things, are all gifted in calligraphy, but Zhang Juzheng and others also know that most people in the world have average talents.

If you want to have good handwriting, you must practice hard. The worse your talent is, the more time you will spend on studying.

After so much effort, I finally mastered my handwriting, studied well, and even passed the examination for becoming a scholar. It seems like everything is going well, right?
But the truth is, that is just the first step in a long journey.

If you want to pass the imperial examination, you must not only have a solid reserve of knowledge about sages, but also have a unique understanding of their writings.

Zhang Juzheng, Gao Gong, Hu Zongxian, Li Chunfang, and Chen Yiqin all went through the imperial examination process, and they knew that this was the most ridiculous part about the imperial examination.

For thousands of years, the writings of sages have been annotated over and over again by countless scholars. Anything popular and easy to understand has already been annotated by predecessors.

How could a little Xiu understand the deeper truths in the writings of saints and the philosophy of the world?
It also requires one's own unique understanding. Even Zhang Juzheng, who was known as a "child prodigy" in his time, was scratching his head about it. In short, this hurdle is purely difficult.

Since the students’ own experience and knowledge are not enough to understand the articles of the sages, they can only take shortcuts. And how to take shortcuts is very simple, just use what others understand.

Some elderly officials and Hanlin scholars would often resign and return to their hometowns in their old age, and then establish academies or private schools in their hometowns.

No matter how these officials and Hanlin scholars performed during the imperial examinations, they had served as officials for decades and studied in the Hanlin Academy for decades, so even if they spoke nonsense or sophistry, they could always justify themselves.

Perhaps we cannot go into details, but there is no problem in coping with the provincial examination. However, that is the result of decades of life experience and knowledge of old officials and old Hanlin scholars. If a scholar wants to get it, he will have to pay a lot of price.

I finally passed the provincial examination and became a juren. For someone without lofty ambitions, this can be considered a success.

Every month, he would go to the local government office on time to collect the rice salary issued by the court, and then accept land donated by the people. He could also open a private school or an academy, marry a wife, and have children. After a few decades, his hair and beard would be completely white. As long as his reputation was moderate, he could become a local celebrity or something. Even the county magistrate and local officials would show some respect to him.

If one is really lucky, like a few months ago when the emperor suddenly launched a major prison campaign, the court was seriously short of officials, there were not enough alternate Jinshi candidates, and even Juren were used, and one can be granted an official position, then the end of one's life can be considered decent.

However, people are not so clear-headed. After passing the imperial examination, they will inevitably want to get their names on the list of successful candidates.

The more recently a student has passed the imperial examination, the more he wants to try again.

Unlike the Tongsheng examination and the provincial examination which were held in hometowns or provincial capitals, the Huizong examination was held in the capital. If one wanted to pass the Jinshi examination, one had to come to the capital to take part in the Huizong examination.

The money for the long journey became a hurdle that all the newly-appointed scholars could not overcome.

At this time, Huizhou merchants appeared like "rain in time of need". They were not only willing to provide travel expenses and money to the newly-appointed candidates, but also willing to help solve all the major and minor issues on the way to Beijing for the examination.

If the students failed to pass the imperial examination, the Huizhou merchants would not ask for any compensation from them. However, the students had to return to their hometown on their own.

If one passes the imperial examination, appears before the emperor, and is granted an official position by the court, Hui merchants are willing to continue to provide additional support.

Hui merchants are willing to bear all the money and other expenses incurred in seeking official positions.

When the students entered the official career and were appointed as county magistrates, the support of Huizhou merchants had not stopped. Officials must have dignity, but for a new official, dignity means external things.

The Huizhou merchants would thoughtfully prepare legal advisors, tall horses, luxurious official sedan chairs, etc. The new official was almost carried to sit on the position of marquis of a county.

At this point, the Huizhou merchants finally showed their fangs.

From an unknown new scholar, he walked step by step to the Golden Palace and then to the local official. The entire expense was paid by the Huizhou merchants, and the new official was just a reaper of the fruits of his labor.

The Huizhou merchants became the new officials' account holders, but when they wanted to collect debts, they would not ask the new officials for money, but the local people.

To put it bluntly, it is corruption and abuse of power, disregard for human life, and taking back all the previous investment from the people by accepting bribes, bending the law for personal gain, and multiples, tens, a hundred, or a thousand times.

Even if one day, the new official becomes the old official, and the old official is scolded as a corrupt and incompetent official by the local people, and the Ministry of Personnel and the court find out, and the emperor punishes and executes him, it will have nothing to do with the Huizhou merchants.

At best, after a person died, the Huizhou merchants would be merciful and help collect the body and find a place with good feng shui for burial.

It is difficult to say how many students the Huizhou merchants sponsored, how many Ming Dynasty officials were born, and how many Ming Dynasty people were harmed over the past two hundred years.

But Zhang Juzheng personally experienced that in the 26th year of Jiajing, the year he passed the imperial examination, more than half of the students were from poor families, and no less than 60% were sponsored by Huizhou merchants.

These officials have become the foundation of the Ming Dynasty's officialdom. How can we investigate them and who should we start with?
The wind outside the cabinet seemed to be a bit strong. Some cabinet members wanted to close the door of the government hall, but Zhang Juzheng stopped them, "Don't close it, let the strong wind blow!"

(End of this chapter)