Ming Dynasty: I, Yan Maoqing, am truly radiating auspicious energy!

Chapter 2 Reading
The Ming Dynasty's palace examination process was very quick. Usually, the grand ceremony of announcing the results would be held four or five days after the palace examination ended.

Because the Jiajing Emperor was a devout follower of Taoist rituals, occasional delays of a few days occurred due to scheduling conflicts, but these delays were generally not too long.

Therefore, the examiners had very little time and a heavy workload.

The next day, at the crack of dawn, Zhai Luan, Minister of Rites and Grand Secretary of the Wuying Hall, Yan Song, Minister of Rites, Wang Tingxiang, Left Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate, and other officials who were reading the examination papers had already arrived at the East Pavilion to wait.

After the examiner delivered the answer sheets with names and hometowns covered up, everyone waited for another half hour before the Grand Secretary Xia Yan finally arrived and began reading the papers.

They remained silent all day until nearly evening.

"Oh!"

Wang Tingxiang slammed his hand on the table and stood up abruptly. His pale beard swayed with his heavy, short breaths, and his face was full of anger, as if someone had stepped on his tail.

"?!"

All the examiners were taken aback and looked over in surprise.

Xia Yan took two breaths to react before asking in confusion:

"Brother Ziheng, why are you so indignant?"

"Grand Secretary Xia, I have lived for nearly seventy years and served as an examiner for five different subjects. Today, I have still learned a great deal!"

Wang Tingxiang tapped the answer sheet in front of him with his knuckles, making a loud thud, and angrily cursed.

"Such an answer sheet, which can almost bring a treacherous and sycophantic face to life before my eyes with just black and white words, is truly something I have never heard of or seen before."

"If I ever see this man again, I will definitely ask him if all the classics he studied have gone to waste!"

At this point, Wang Tingxiang squinted at Yan Song and snorted coldly:

“Minister Yan, the national system of selecting officials has always been exclusively managed by the Ministry of Rites.”

"If you were in charge of the Ministry of Rites, I would certainly have to thoroughly investigate the officials who presided over the provincial and metropolitan examinations in this lifetime. I fear that someone might have engaged in favoritism and cheating, allowing this lifetime to pass the imperial examinations unqualifiedly!"

At this time, Yan Song had not yet entered the cabinet.

However, because he followed the emperor's wishes in the controversy over entering the temple and becoming the ancestor, which foreshadowed the end of the "Great Rites Controversy," and took the initiative to lead the officials to submit a memorial of congratulations when the Jiajing Emperor visited the Xianling Mausoleum, and because he never publicly opposed the Jiajing Emperor's Xuanxue (Taoist practice), and was also good at writing Qingci (a type of Taoist prayer), he has now entered the power center of the Ming Dynasty and is increasingly relied upon by the Jiajing Emperor, gradually gaining the momentum to overshadow Xia Yan.

As a result, the power struggle between Xia Yan and Yan Song has gradually become public.

Wang Tingxiang, having already sided with Xia Yan for various reasons, would naturally not let go of any opportunity to attack Yan Song.

Upon hearing this, Yan Song simply stood up and smiled faintly:
"The Ministry of Rites has its own regulations and systems, unlike the Censorate, which reports matters without evidence or proof. How dare I trouble Chief Censor Wang for guidance?"

As he spoke, he moved closer and looked curiously at the answer sheet that Wang Tingxiang was tapping on.

The other examiners also gathered around, forming a semi-circle to examine the contents.

then.

They all stared wide-eyed at each other, bewildered.

At that moment, almost everyone had a similar thought:

"Flattery and sycophancy, pandering to superiors, with a treacherous and wicked heart, unorthodox and resolute conduct, false and eloquent speech, a vast knowledge of shameful things, and a tendency to follow wrongdoing and seek personal gain..."

"Have we fallen behind the times? Are today's test takers so shameless in their pursuit of advancement that they've stopped even bothering to act?"

Even Yan Song felt a sense of crisis creeping into his heart.

Although he is good at guessing the emperor's intentions and has been favored in recent years, there are some things he must be ambiguous about, lest he ruin his reputation before he has fully consolidated his power and be attacked by those with ulterior motives.

After all, emperors come and go, but powerful families remain constant.

Some infamy can be borne by the emperor, but some infamy must never be borne, otherwise it is tantamount to digging one's own ancestral grave.

However, he had to admit that if a minister who was so willing to disregard his reputation for advancement appeared in the court at this time, without looking at the long term, he might actually be able to overshadow him in the short term, or even break the current delicate court structure... even if he was just used by the emperor as a shield to be discarded after use.

"Have you all seen this clearly? Before this man, even Minister Yan would have to admit defeat, wouldn't he?"

Finally, Wang Tingxiang broke the silence, glanced at Yan Song, and said in a sarcastic tone.

"Reviewing answer sheets is inherently impartial; if it is to be appreciated, it should be circled; otherwise, it should be crossed out."

Yan Song's tone remained unhurried, but his gaze gradually sharpened.

"On the contrary, Chief Censor Wang is of noble character and integrity. When he reviewed this volume, he was indignant and his expression was stern and dignified. I am ashamed to admit that I am not as good as him."

At this point, Yan Song turned and bowed to Grand Secretary Xia Yan before continuing:
"Grand Secretary Xia, I think it would be better to submit this scroll separately to His Majesty for judgment, and request that His Majesty commend Chief Censor Wang, so that the world may know the court's sincere intention to appreciate integrity?" "Yan Song, you... this old man..."

Wang Tingxiang's imposing manner immediately diminished, and his old face flushed slightly.

How could he dare to let Yan Song take this matter to the Emperor and even ask for credit for him?
It hasn't been long since Yang Zui, the Minister of the Imperial Stud, was beaten to death for speaking out against the absurdity of seeking immortality. Is this a way to claim credit for him? Or is it a way to ask for his death?

In an instant, the atmosphere inside the East Pavilion plummeted to freezing point.

The other examiners remained silent, none of them readily stepping forward to offer any words of mediation.

Only then did Xia Yan finally return the greeting with a smile and speak:
"Minister Yan is absolutely right. Reviewing the answer sheets is a matter of utmost impartiality."

"Upon examining this scroll, I found that the writing conformed to the eight-legged essay style, the parallelism was quite neat, and the citations of classical texts were well-supported by the argument. It is evident that the student does possess some knowledge and literary talent, thus ruling out any suspicion of favoritism or corruption by the officials in charge of the provincial and metropolitan examinations of the Ministry of Rites."

"However...please take a look."

"This scroll has three corrections and two typos, which makes it inferior in quality just by its appearance."

"Besides, if I remember correctly, the topic for this year's imperial examination should be 'How to improve the administration of border officials?'"

"Although this paper contains the words 'the state is secure and the world is at peace,' it does not closely relate to the border defense and governance in the policy question. It completely deviates from the theme. Not only does it not answer the question, but it also creates new theories. It cannot speak on behalf of the sages, and the content of the policy is naturally inferior."

"Therefore, I personally believe that this scroll should be rated as a third-rate, low-grade work. There is really no need for Your Majesty to trouble yourself with such a trivial matter."

"Minister Yan, my colleagues, what do you think?"

The third-class lowest rank means having the lowest score in the palace examination.

Although these answer sheets were also sent to the emperor, there was almost no chance that the emperor would review them.

Xia Yan's words were also watertight. He did not express any subjective opinion about the Emperor's Xuanxiu, and he demonstrated impartiality from the professional perspective of the examiner. He also took the opportunity to retract Wang Tingxiang's previous attack and adopted the posture of a peacemaker to resolve the conflict between the two.

"Grand Secretary Xia truly lives up to his title of Pillar of State. His judgments are reasonable and well-founded, and he is able to share the burdens of His Majesty. I admire him greatly."

Yan Song had his own considerations and did not want this answer sheet to appear before Jiajing, so he bowed again and returned to his seat to continue reviewing the answer sheets, seemingly having already let the matter rest.

Upon seeing this, the examiners naturally all agreed and returned to their seats, though they couldn't help but inwardly grumble:
"Xia Yan and Yan Song are now practically irreconcilable enemies, but who would have thought that they would be working together like this today, all because of such a bizarre answer sheet?"

"However, speaking of which, this self-important and arrogant scholar wrote this answer sheet. This time, he has probably overplayed his hand and alienated himself from the court and the public."

"It's impossible not to be curious."

"It's a pity that the seal can only be broken the day before the announcement ceremony to find out who I really am in this life..."

……

Two days later, at the Wenhua Hall.

At this time, Emperor Jiajing, Zhu Houcong, had not yet been strangled by palace maids. Although he often missed court sessions and temple sacrifices due to health reasons and religious rituals, he had not yet moved to the Wanshou Palace in the Western Garden to live in seclusion, and he would selectively participate in some important court activities.

For example, Zhu Houcong paid relatively more attention to the imperial examination.

The reading ceremony had ended, and the officials who had read the papers were now enjoying a banquet arranged by the Grand Master of Ceremonies.

Zhu Houcong did not go with them, because he suddenly felt a stomachache and was "purifying himself" in the sandalwood room in the back hall.

"Cleansing away impurities" is a refined term used in metaphysical practices; it can also be called reincarnation. In short, it's basically about defecating and spitting out.

After the examination papers were read aloud, Zhu Houcong had already selected the top three scholars (Zhuangyuan, Bangyan, and Tanhua) from the more than ten first-class examination papers recommended by the examiners. He only needed to wait for the results to be announced at the grand ceremony tomorrow.

"Um--"

I'm a bit constipated today, so I guess I'll have to purge for a while longer.

Feeling utterly bored, Zhu Houcong suddenly had an idea and said to Huang Jin, who was waiting to serve him:
"Huang Ban, I have seen many first-class examination papers, and some of them are nothing more than empty talk. If the first-class papers are like this, how bad do you think the third-class papers can be?"

"Your Majesty, I have never served as a examiner, so I really cannot say."

While burning incense to mask the smell for Zhu Houcong, Huang Jin carefully answered.

Zhu Houcong paused for a moment, then said:

"Weren't the second and third-class answer sheets also sent to the Wenhua Hall for inspection and sealing?"

"Since you have nothing to do, go and fetch a few third-class examination papers for me to read aloud, the later the better, so that I can hear where my bottom line is in accumulating talent among these scholars."

(End of this chapter)