Promotion and fortune in Song Dynasty

For twenty days, the scholars who gradually recovered from the unsatisfactory performance in the test, no longer lay motionless on the bed in a trance, but gathered together in twos and threes, facing Gao Xuan The bright moon in the night sky recites poems and paints, or tastes tea and meets friends to relieve worries.

Although Lu Ci couldn't step out of the tribute courtyard and couldn't buy the ice cream he wanted so much, but he also relied on the money that can communicate with ghosts and gods to let the cook help him start a small stove.

Materials are limited, and sorbet cannot be made, but simple sour plum soup and moon-shaped chewing cakes can still be made.

Lu Ci pondered, since he had just finished the exam, it would be better to be an otaku quietly and rest until the day when the results were announced.

Zhong Yuan was fine, after being hit by the high-intensity solution test, his whole body was a little bit weak, and he didn't want to go out.

However, Zhu Shuo, Teng Zongliang and Yi Shu couldn't let him be idle like this.

Whenever you go out to socialize with new friends, you will inevitably pull the leader in their eyes. Such kindness makes Lu Ci, who is used to being eloquent, laugh and cry.

The examinees gradually regained their energy, but the examiners in the Hengjian Hall couldn't relax at all.

It was the first time for Yang Lu to be appointed as the head director, knowing that he didn't have any experience, he was afraid of making a mistake and causing trouble to his upper body, so he was unavoidably trembling, and wanted to be perfect in everything.

He has to do everything by himself, and he took the lead in grading the papers in full swing, which directly caused the old fried dough sticks below not to dare to act rashly.

Anyway, it would be inconvenient if the papers were not finished in one day. Not only would the examinees have to be detained in the Gong Yuan for an extra day, they would not even be able to move a single step with them, and their family members would not be able to see them.

It's better to have a quick fight.

However, once the test is over, there are nearly a hundred test papers belonging to one examinee alone.

And the scholars who came back to Mizhou City to take the exam, there are more than 200 people in total, and the exam papers are stacked together, forming a mountain of headaches.

What's more, the review of the test papers is not as simple as just passing through the hands of the examiner.

The papers for each exam must first be edited by the editor to remove the information of the examinees at the beginning of the paper and sequenced with the font size; then sent to the sealing official for sealing and proofreading; then the primary examiner reviews the grades and seals the results ; Then send it to the reviewer for a second evaluation; the results of the two evaluations must be returned to the editor for comparison to determine the similarities and differences.

If they are not the same, the test papers have to be returned to the examiner and the reviewer, and read again until the two sides reach a consensus on the rating level and get mutual approval, and finally let the detailed examiner choose the closest one.

If you have reached this point, it will be the turn of the editor to call out the font size of the Xiangguan, check the font size, and report the name, ranking and test paper together, and finally compile the list and release the list.

This is an extremely complicated and cumbersome process, but it has already been left out of the public documents.

Yang Lu didn't care whether the subordinates would be so dissatisfied by him that he dared not speak up. After the incident where the dozen or so people failed to co-operate in fraud, he only wanted to get into the trouble of "ineffective supervision" at any time. Get away from errands, so as not to have long nights and dreams, and extra troubles will arise.

The [-]th passed by in a flash, and Yang Lu didn't even realize when the Mid-Autumn Festival passed quietly. He was only relieved to find that there were finally only the last ten copies left before him.

Thinking of the imminent completion, Yang Lu secretly heaved a sigh of relief.

He ordered someone to make a refreshing cup of strong tea, rubbed the space between his brows, and opened the next one.

As soon as he opened it, his eyes could not help but light up.

It should be noted that these days, he has reviewed countless papers, regardless of the good and bad contents, the handwriting alone is full of tricks.

There are appalling ghost-drawing symbols; there are also dirty ink blobs that have been smeared beyond recognition; Wild weeds that take the trouble to identify.

There are even more non-exam papers.

There are no less than [-] papers that he ruthlessly discarded the papers just because he was too nervous to write "respect" at the beginning and mark B at the end.

To a certain extent, it saves him the effort of marking papers.

Therefore, when Yang Lu, who was mentally prepared, opened the roll of "觬" font size, he was ruthlessly impressed by the beautiful font that was extremely neat and clear, as if printed on an engraving block, and did not require any effort to identify it. He was terribly surprised.

He couldn't take a closer look, so he flipped through the back a few times. He couldn't help but feel relieved that the other party didn't commit the common problem of lack of time in the later stage and became scribbled and flustered. Instead, they maintained a high degree of consistency from beginning to end.

When the viewers read it, in addition to being pleasing to the eye, the only word left in the evaluation is "comfortable".

It is indeed very comfortable to watch.

It was so comfortable that Yang Lu almost forgot the exhaustion of continuous grading papers, and he couldn't help feeling: If every candidate for the examination can write in such a way that he can be straight and clear at a glance, and show his strong and steady basic skills everywhere. If you don't write words, those who mark the papers should save a lot of worry.

With this consistently good handwriting alone, Yang Lu couldn't help but have a good impression of this candidate before reading it carefully.

...So, when I flipped through the mountains of public documents before, it seemed that there was such a difference.

Although this thought came to Yang Lu's mind, he didn't say anything, and he didn't plan to compare the public document from the sea of ​​books.

However, after reading the provincial poem, he could not help feeling more satisfied.

It is difficult to write brilliant poems, and it is even more difficult to write brilliant poems without making mistakes.

This provincial inscribed poem is as smooth and flowing as flowing water, with a good rhyme, not too many words, and the ending part is the cleanest one among the papers he has read.

It doesn't commit the problem of greediness and inexplicable lengthiness that many people often have, and it is so rigorous that it doesn't make even a single point, and it doesn't have a single test.

After Yang Lu reviewed it several times, he felt that no matter how critical he was, he couldn't find any faults, so he gave the first-class 'last time' without hesitation.

After putting the approved poetry test paper aside, he didn't stop for a moment, but with this good mood, he opened the "觬" candidate's law and prose paper...

After a cup of tea.

Inside the main house of Hengjian Hall, which was lit with bright candles all night, it was originally quiet, but suddenly a person could not help but say 'Good! Come on, the first-time examiners who were concentrating on grading papers in the adjacent rooms were startled, and they glanced at the wall complaining.

As the person who caused public outrage, Yang Lu didn't even realize that he just yelled out.

As soon as he saw the end, he returned to the beginning without hesitation, and looked back and forth several times.

Every time I read it, I can't help but nod.

Although the rhetoric used in his rhetoric is not complicated or gorgeous, the rhetoric is pure and rigorous, which is even more commendable.

Showing excellent knowledge, thorough writing and thoughtful thinking, among the crowd, it can also be called a rare high-level.

Yang Lu stroked his beard in satisfaction, and boldly wrote "Last time" again at the beginning of the paper.

It is still a rigorous and neat handwriting. The strokes are three-pointed, and there is not even a drop of ink. He just checked it carefully with curiosity, and found that even the concentration of the grinding is unbelievably consistent.

Whether it is the content or the font, the words "stable" and "shun" are fully implemented, without any frivolous flaunting of young people.

——It must be an old scholar who studied hard behind closed doors for many years and was once accepted for the exam.

Yang Lu sighed.

After correcting these two papers, he rarely hesitated for a moment, but with a little expectation that he didn't realize, he opened the examinee's policy paper in one go.

What he never expected was that the "elderly" examinee, who was already very brilliant in poetry and prose, not only lived up to his vague expectations, but was even so wonderful that he could only leave him alone. The idea of ​​​​making a big hit.

When composing poems and fus with many rules, the style of writing that is particular about formulas can’t be compared at all—if Yang Lu hadn’t read the poems and fus written by the examinee first, he would have confirmed the font size of the title with his own eyes. , otherwise I am afraid that it is completely impossible to imagine that these two completely different writing styles can be written by the same person.

This unknown young candidate is obviously better at writing strategies and essays.

It sweeps away the cautiousness and honesty before, showing the boldness of the writing, eloquent and eloquent, with a total of more than a dozen arguments, and the majestic spirit is convincing.

He read it all at once, and forgot the purpose of grading the paper. Apart from being overwhelmed with joy, he almost felt itchy and went to find out who wrote the paper himself.

Also, this one put forward in the last of the five strategies, "It has been explained in detail in the poem on the wall, so it is not appropriate to repeat it in this volume." What about the "detailed explanation"?

This question was not written by Yang Lu, but ordered by one of the deputy directors.He simply recorded the matter on the white paper for notes on the side, and he was going to look it up by himself after reviewing all the test papers.

After reluctantly correcting all the papers of this "駬" examinee, Yang Lu casually opened the next person's, and was smeared by the oncoming ghost who had become very familiar these days , stabbed his eyes fiercely: "..."

After chewing and swallowing a rare delicacy, who can calmly eat pig food immediately?

He silently pushed the paper away, and decided to have a cup of tea before talking slowly.

Two days later.

Zhao Xin, who is in his fifties, has held the position of choreographer no less than five times.

He is very capable in handling affairs and honest, so this time Yang Lu naturally values ​​him a lot.

So this time, he also had several deputy editors under his command to listen to his orders.

Because all the grading results of the primary and re-examiners have been released, the heavy work has returned to their hands, and the two grades received by each paper must be carefully compared one by one.

He hoped from the bottom of his heart that the evaluation results of the chief director and those deputy directors would be exactly the same.

It's not like he hasn't encountered a situation in previous years where the examiner and the examiner have completely different opinions.Not only did the two sides blush in the end, but their work also increased sharply, which made people complain endlessly.

Although Zhao xin did not pray to God or Buddha, the wish in his heart was really fulfilled.

Of course, it would not be exaggerated to the extent that all the grades are the same, but most of them are very close.

As long as it is not for deciding whether to fail the list, or for important rankings in the top [-], the dozens of people selected in the middle will basically let the detailed decision officer choose a ranking that is closest to the opinions of both parties and register them.

However, Zhao xin can guess based on past experience that the higher the ranking, the more disputes will arise.

In the final analysis, each examiner has different preferences. In the case of insufficient qualifications of the chief supervisor, it depends on who can screw over whom in the end.

Because of this, when Zhao Xun found out the test papers that were rated as the top three by the first-time examiner, opened the seal, and revealed the rating of Yang Lu's boss, he was stunned on the spot.

How can it be exactly the same? !

He stared straight at the curly heads of the top three for a long time, couldn't help rubbing his dry eyes, and realized that it wasn't the result of vertigo at all, so he accepted the result that had been rare for decades in a daze.

The author has something to say: Notes:

1. As mentioned in the article, the process of changing papers requires many procedures. "General History of China's Imperial Examination System - Song Dynasty Volume II" p489

2. In the Northern Song Dynasty, the serial number of Feng Mi was generally taken from the characters in "Jade Pian".For example, the font name is "Jade Pian", the seventh volume of Jade Part.

秬 comes from "Jade Pian" volume No. 20, corner part 420.

In the Southern Song Dynasty, probably in order to prevent leakage, it became more complicated to form three characters into one font size. "Song Huiyao Compiled Drafts·Election" Seventh Part One