My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 812: The First Year of Zhangwu
The wheel of history finally rolled over to the first year of Zhangwu.

That is 214 AD, which was supposed to be the th year of Jian'an.

Liu Bei ascended the throne seven years earlier than originally recorded in history. In history, he lived until he was sixty years old, but now he is only fifty-three years old.

After two months of adapting to the new situation in Luoyang, Liu Bei also cleared up some of the problems in the court. With the arrival of the New Year, Liu Bei felt full of energy and seemed to have endless energy, wanting to do something big again.

There was nothing to worry about armaments and wars. The top priorities for the new year were two: one was to restore production in the Heluo region and bring complete stability to the area around Luoyang; the other was to hold the first imperial examination under the pretext of restoring the "old Yangjia system."

Liu Bei's camp had been preparing for this reform of the official selection system for several years. The Zhuge brothers had discussed it as early as when Liu Bei first entered Sichuan to pacify Liu Zhang.

The final conclusion at that time was to advance fiscal and taxation reforms first, and put personnel matters on the back burner, first changing the assessment process and then the recruitment process.

Now, the time is finally right.

During the implementation process, Liu Bei also considered whether Zhuge Jin or Zhuge Liang should be responsible for it.

Liu Bei originally thought that Zhuge Liang might be more suitable, because when the discussion was held that year, Zhuge Jin seemed relatively idealistic, while Zhuge Liang was more cautious and down-to-earth, and his control of timing seemed more precise and safe.

Letting Zhuge Liang take charge may make this reform smoother.

On the other hand, when Emperor Shun of Han carried out the "Yangjia Reform", it was led by the then Shangshu Ling Zuo Xiong, and the current Shangshu Ling is Zhuge Liang.

But in the end, Zhuge Liang personally recommended to the emperor privately, pleading that his brother, Prime Minister Zhuge Jin, be in charge of this official reform.

After hearing this, Liu Bei's first reaction was that Zhuge Liang wanted to give credit to his brother. Since it was a private conversation behind closed doors, Liu Bei didn't want to be polite and asked directly:
"Sir, do you not want to outshine your brother? I also know that if this method can be implemented, it will have an impact on future generations for thousands of years.

The practice of selecting officials through examinations is much fairer than the system of recommendation. People who study and become officials in the future will be grateful to the person who designed this system. Do you want to give this eternal reputation to your brother?"

Zhuge Liang said very sincerely: "I only suggest that the Minister of Education preside over the first examination from the perspective of benefiting the country. Although I have made great efforts in the discussion of this reform, I know that my talent lies mainly in seizing the right opportunity and avoiding rash actions that would cause unrest in the world.

However, Si Tu always has far-sighted ideas in designing specific system details, which I am far behind. Now the time for the new law reform is ripe, and there is no need to consider delaying it, and my ability has been fully utilized.

Therefore, the subsequent work requires a senior official who is good at designing details and has a bird's-eye view to take charge. "

What Zhuge Liang said actually meant that "he is better at deciding when to push forward with this reform, but now that the timing has been decided, there is no need to change it. In terms of specific operations, the eldest brother is still stronger."

Zhuge Liang's opinion was of course true and not at all exaggerating.

Since Zhuge Jin was a time traveler, he had seen so many ready-made game-themed cases of improvements in the details of the imperial examination system in later generations. He knew how many famous attempts by imperial examination cheaters to break through the system had occurred over the past thousand years, and he also knew how many times the imperial examination hosts had plugged loopholes to prevent cheating.

Zhuge Jin could directly copy the ready-made answers to these experiences of fighting against the devil who is one foot higher than the wise, so Zhuge Liang was certainly not as good as him.

Therefore, the specific management of the first imperial examination should really be done by Zhuge Jin, and this is the unquestionable responsibility.

Liu Bei knew these two right-hand men very well, so when Zhuge Liang spoke, he knew that what he said was true, so he approved it directly.

"In that case, the specific arrangements for this first scientific expedition will all depend on Tzuyu."

……

With Liu Bei's direct authorization, Zhuge Jin quickly became busy after the New Year of the first year of Zhangwu.

After three months of post-war reconstruction, the smoke-filled war destruction in Luoyang City was cleared away and the damaged houses were urgently repaired.

The imperial edict to the governors of all the counties was issued not long after Liu Bei ascended the throne last year. Before the end of last year, all the counties confirmed that they had received it.

The "Houxuan Xiaolian" and "Houxuan Maocai" selected by each county also set off after the Chinese New Year. Some counties in particularly remote areas even set off before the Chinese New Year, just to reach Luoyang in February and then take part in the first examination scheduled on the first day of March.

Zhuge Jin also made a lot of plans for this imperial examination.

Compared with the "Yangjia Reform" during the reign of Emperor Shun of Han, the most significant breakthrough made by Zhuge Jin was to emphasize that this examination must be a "differential examination", and the difference ratio would be five times.

During the reign of Emperor Shun of Han, the examination was conducted on an equal basis, with no mandatory elimination quota requirement. As long as the examination results were satisfactory, everyone could pass. However, during the first examination, the candidates who were selected were so poorly educated that only about 30 of the 200 candidates passed.

Zhuge Jin directly used the "historical data" of the "admission rate" of the first exam after the Yangjia reform and set a one-size-fits-all standard: this exam would also be admitted at a rate of five to one, regardless of whether the paper scores were good or not, or whether there were many obvious mistakes, as long as the scores were relatively low, the remaining eighty percent of candidates would be eliminated.

When this "admission rate" was determined, there was quite an uproar in the court, but Zhuge Jin brought up the signboard of Yangjia's reform and retorted:

In the first year of Emperor Shun of Han, the admission rate was less than 20% when the 200th year was over 30. I have decided that it will be 20%, which is also in line with the good governance of the ancients.

Your Majesty has just acknowledged Emperor Shun as your grandfather and wants to restore the good governance of the Han Dynasty before it was ruined by successive young rulers and foreign relatives.
Are you obstructing Your Majesty in order to make him appear unfilial and hinder His Majesty's good wishes?
Besides, Zhuge Jin did not set such a high elimination rate for nothing. He had previously allowed each county to nominate several times more candidates for the court to choose from this year. In the end, the total number of candidate officials actually selected did not decrease significantly.

Once this big hat was put on, everyone was silent again, and no one dared to question the red line of "five times admission elimination rate" anymore.

At that moment, Zhuge Jin suddenly felt that the historical evidence that those great scholars had found for him was really useful.

Your Majesty has a grandfather. If you want to tinker and redo what your grandfather did, the resistance will be much smaller than if you innovate completely out of thin air.

Is this the feeling of having a great scholar debate the scriptures for me?
……

After determining the admission scale and elimination rate, the next key step is to decide the subjects and format of the exam, as well as the test papers.

Because it was the first exam, no one questioned whether the questions would be off-topic or strange. There was no precedent anyway, so as long as the questions were from the fields of classics, policy essays, practical politics, etc., it would be fair.

No one has any "real questions" to practice, and no test-taking experience to draw on.

Zhuge Jin finally decided that the exam should include Confucian classics, but the score for Confucian classics should not be too high. Confucian classics must be tested, firstly, there was no scholar in the Han Dynasty who did not study Confucian classics, and secondly, Confucian classics were also the main subject of the exam when Yangjia reformed the system.

If we take too big a step in this regard, we will easily encounter overwhelming resistance, so let's just stick with it.

Eat the food one bite at a time.

All Zhuge Jin could do was to control the total score share of classics.

So after much negotiation and weighing, Zhuge Jin finally decided: the first imperial examination would have a total of four subjects, and special treatment would be given to Confucian classics, with the score of one subject counted as two subjects.

That is to say, classics account for 40% of the total score, and the remaining three subjects account for 20% each.

In this way, those who are not good at classics can get more than half of the score if they are good at the other three miscellaneous subjects. The weight of classics has been reduced to less than half, which is a major progress. We will adjust it step by step in the future.

The remaining three subjects include one subject that tests policy essays, which is also easy for people in the Han Dynasty to understand and belongs to the category of practical politics.

In the previous system of recommendation, there was "策问", which was equivalent to an interview or oral test on policy essays. Now it is just a fixed written test in the form of memorials.

The last two subjects are: one is about specific administration and application of criminal law;

Candidates are given a bunch of case questions, including those about solving cases and those dealing with other specific administrative affairs.

The other subject was to test money and taxes, which involved a lot of accounting - in fact, it was just the math that Zhuge Jin had been hoping to cram in, mixed with some sand.

As a time traveler, Zhuge Jin certainly knows the importance of science and engineering teaching and examinations, which can make officials more rational and pragmatic.

But he was also very clear about how difficult it would be to force students to take math tests in the ancient environment, how much backlash there would be, and how little the public would lack the foundation for learning in this area.

As for other science and engineering content, even if it is simple scientific knowledge, Zhuge Jin did not dare to think about it for the time being. Mathematics is at least one of the six arts of a gentleman. "Mathematics" is included in "ritual, music, archery, charioteering, calligraphy and mathematics", and it can be said that it is respected by saints.

Therefore, for the time being, we can use the cover of government affairs such as money, grain and fiscal revenue, and mix in a little mathematics, which can be regarded as a breakthrough.

After the contents of these last two subjects were announced, they indeed caused quite a stir, but fortunately, the groups of people who opposed these two subjects happened to be staggered and did not overlap.

Those who opposed the examinations in administration and criminal law were mainly children from poor families.

They all said, "When the recommendation system was in place, these practical government affairs did not need to be tested right away. Instead, after passing the recommendation and serving as a palace official for a few years, they would slowly learn through practice, and only those who actually did things and performed well would be promoted.

Now that we have to take the exam right away, isn't that giving those poor children no chance? How can poor children learn how others govern and serve as officials before passing the exam? Shouldn't such specific matters be required after passing the exam?"

Needless to say, this view has attracted many responses. Some people even brought up the main excuse given by the then Minister of the Court Hu Guang when he opposed the then Minister of the Chancellery Zuo Xiong's reform of the Yangjia system 70 years ago during the reign of Emperor Shun of the Han Dynasty.

Hu Guang was also a great scholar 70 years ago, and later a great scholar in the academic world, Cai Yong. When he was young, he studied classics under Hu Guang. The main reason Hu Guang opposed it at that time was that he believed that "the Han Dynasty's recommendation system, the people who were recommended were not directly granted real positions, but first served as palace officials. The essence of the palace official is a kind of 'internship period', which should give people the opportunity to slowly cultivate and learn to be officials, rather than taking exams right away."

However, although the voices of opposition from the children of poor families were quite loud this time, they soon discovered that the aristocratic families and the powerful and wealthy were also opposed to the setting of the subjects of this imperial examination, but the aristocratic families opposed another subject, namely money, taxation and arithmetic.

The reasons for the opposition from the aristocratic families were varied, and they were all carefully concealed, but Zhuge Jin could see at a glance the truest and most fundamental motives and intentions behind them.

That is, "mathematics is too objective, and can be learned by studying hard behind closed doors and without any social experience. It also relies too much on talent, and it is too easy for poor children with no background to break through through talent and hard work."

The aristocratic families would like you to take exams in law and administration, because they have had the resources to learn those things since childhood. If you take mathematics, how can they monopolize the sources of knowledge and practical experience?

However, the opponents from the aristocratic families would certainly not state the reason openly, as that would be too embarrassing and they would not have the confidence to do so. So they would refute with all kinds of clever words but would not reveal their real motives.

But it doesn’t matter, Zhuge Jin has seen through it all, so he made good use of the propaganda tools in his hands to spread the news secretly.

"The reason why the subject of money and grain mathematics was opposed by so many aristocratic families when Situ set up the imperial examination this time was because Situ wanted to give those poor children who had no chance to watch being an official a chance. As long as you have a talent for arithmetic and study hard, you can learn mathematics well even if you don't interact with others and study hard behind closed doors.

Students from poor families should study mathematics well to get ahead. This subject is the most fair to the poor among the four subjects! If you are tested on policy essays and specific administration, the children of aristocratic families have been exposed to it since childhood. How can you compare with them? "

"But in order to force the noble families to take the mathematics exam, Situ had to compromise a little and included a course on government affairs and criminal law. Although this course has advantages for those from noble families and is easy to get high scores, it is also a practical course after all, and it is indeed beneficial for future officials."

"If everyone insists on opposing these two subjects, and finally ruins them, then when other subjects pop up in the future, we won't know who will benefit and whether it is fair. As it is now, at least one subject gives more opportunities to the children of aristocratic families, and the other subject is fair and depends entirely on talent, so that children from poor families can also succeed."

After such secret guidance of public opinion, the poor candidates who were originally indignant finally calmed down.

It turns out that all of this is the art of compromise, and one subject has to favor fairness and the other subject has to favor resources.

Considering that the original monopoly of the noble families on the quotas for recommendation was even more ruthless, now that Situ has been able to make a breakthrough and secure at least one absolutely fair subject for everyone, we should be content for the time being.

Therefore, with Zhuge Jin's secret manipulation and mediation, the subject setting that was barely acceptable to both the aristocratic families and the children from poor families was smoothly promoted with the compromise of all parties.

Everyone stopped worrying and started preparing for the exam without distraction.

Fortunately, the Zhuge brothers had invented woodblock printing long ago. In order to cooperate with the imperial examination, since the first month of the first year of Zhangwu, the supply of mathematics teaching materials in Luoyang was further increased.

The government printing house was open to printing and selling books, so anyone who wanted to buy a math book could buy one. Woodblock-printed books were also several times cheaper than hand-copied books, making them affordable for more relatively poor scholars.

For a time, paper was in great demand in Luoyang, and a large amount of paper and ink were used to print mathematics books for sale.

All those who came to Beijing to take the exam received a set of books and began to study hard, waiting for the examination day on March 1st.

All the uncomfortable complaints and discussions gradually subsided. All the candidates had more important things to do, so they had no time to complain.

(End of this chapter)