Late Ming Dynasty: Oops, I am surrounded by the Donglin Party

As a qualified hands-off boss, you also need to be skillful when letting go.

You can't want the horse to run without letting it eat grass. You have to encourage it where it needs to be encouraged.

"Since you have given the order, we will not refuse. However, you still need to give us your instructions on the general direction and framework," Song Yingxing said with a bow.

Bi Maokang, Wang Zheng, Mao Yuanyi and others also expressed their ideas one after another.

After all, this was the first imperial examination for science, engineering and agriculture. Once many things were decided, they became regulations, and over time, they became ancestral rules.

Therefore, what to test in science, engineering and agriculture, how to test, and how to judge the results all require careful consideration.

Song Yingxing had his reasons for saying this. Although Zhang Shikang rarely participated in scientific research, everyone admired his control over the general direction.

After everyone was seated, Zhang Shikang pondered for a while and said:

"I have thought about this for a long time these days. First of all, whether it is science, engineering or agriculture, at least one must be able to read and write, and understand mathematics, right?

These have to be included, but articles in science, engineering, and agriculture do not need to be written in the form of eight-part essays. They can either be about elaborating on topics in their field or conducting research on a certain technology.

As long as the art can be clearly expressed, it doesn’t matter if it is written in vernacular.”

Even for the Jinshi examination, the candidates were not only tested on the Four Books and Five Classics, but also on poetry, essays, and policy essays in addition to the Confucian classics.

But as the Jinshi examination had developed to its point, eight-legged essays had taken up too much weight, and Zhang Shikang did not want science, engineering, and agriculture to be constrained by them as well.

Articles need to be written, but they should not be bound by format. Just make what you want to say clear.

After all, craftsmen with great literary talent are rare, and when it comes to writing articles, they cannot be compared with liberal arts students such as Jinshi.

After listening to this, Song Yingxing nodded, and Mao Yuanyi had already started taking notes with a pen.

Since Mao Yuanyi was promoted to Krupp, he no longer wanted to join the army to fight.

He finally believed that Zhang Shikang was not deceiving him any more. If he worked hard on weapons, he could still make contributions to the court and be awarded a title.

From then on, he devoted himself to improving weapons.

As the director of the Weapons Bureau, Mao Yuanyi is working on many projects under his charge. For example, he is working with Wang Zheng to try to smelt metals with more suitable toughness and hardness so as to create cold weapons that are stronger than the enemy's.

In addition, there are traditional military preparations such as improvements to chariots and armor.

“Of course, those are just basic subjects. For our science, engineering and agricultural subjects, skills are of course the most important assessment criteria.

But it takes some effort to figure out how to take the test.

My idea is to divide the specific skills assessment into two parts, one part is the theory test, which is the paper test, and the other part is the practical test.

The questions in the examination are naturally based on the theoretical knowledge of various subjects. Take smelting as an example. How to smelt iron ore into pig iron, and how to smelt pig iron into wrought iron? How to add carbon to increase the strength of wrought iron? How to fuse other metals in what proportions to get a better alloy?

The question can be in the form of a multiple-choice question, giving several answers for the candidates to choose.

It can also be in the form of filling in the blanks, or of course, it can allow candidates to express their own opinions.

The same is true for other categories.

As for practice, it is naturally the actual operation of each category, which is very troublesome, so the selection of test questions must be careful.

The core of the questions is to judge the true level of the candidates in the skills they have learned through operations that are as simple as possible.

I will not teach you about this aspect, I will leave it to you to formulate the questions.

The scores of these three subjects are: foundation accounts for 20%, theory and practice each accounts for 40%.

You can look for relevant experienced craftsmen in the General Administration of Manufacturing for all categories, but one thing is that those who participate in setting the questions are not allowed to leave the General Administration of Manufacturing from now on.

I will order the Imperial Guards and the Factory Guards to keep a close watch on the matter, and anyone who leaks the test questions will be sent to prison."

Zhang Shikang said very seriously.

This type of examination method is naturally what Zhang Shikang borrowed from the examination model of later generations. Of course, the conditions are limited nowadays, and the proportion of practice is larger. After all, practice makes perfect.

Song Yingxing nodded at first, then frowned and said:

“The basic and theoretical examinations are not a big problem, but the practical examinations may be very difficult.

It’s easy to set questions, but there are no standards for how to judge the scores, how to avoid risks, and how to prevent cheating.”

“I have also thought about this question. All materials required for the examination are borne by the Ministry of Revenue, and candidates are not allowed to bring their own tools.

Anyone found cheating will have their test scores cancelled and will not be allowed to take part in the next imperial examination! "

The formulation of standards cannot be achieved overnight, it can only be done slowly. When the standards are not clear, the only way to reduce cheating is through heavy penalties.

After all, for candidates, the biggest punishment is to cancel their scores. If the score is more serious, they will also be disqualified from the next imperial examination.

This wait will take at least six years, and the candidates themselves have to wonder whether it is worth it.

……