In the thirtieth year of Ming Hongwu (1397), this year ushered in the triennial imperial examination of the Ming Dynasty, and the scholars from the north and south gathered. The chief examiner of this examination was named Liu Sanwu, a great Confucian of the Ming Dynasty, and it was he who formulated the regulations of the Ming Dynasty's imperial examination system. In addition, Liu Sanwu also wrote a preface to the Ming Dynasty's criminal laws "Da Zhen" and "Hong Fan Notes", and his editor-in-chief Huanyu Tongzhi was also influential at that time.
Thirty years after Ming Hongwu, Liu Sanwu was already 85 years old at this time, which can be described as high moral and respectable, and because of this, Zhu Yuanzhang had great respect for him, and even questions about Li Chu had asked Liu Sanwu's opinion, and Liu Sanwu's answer did not disappoint Zhu Yuanzhang, he thought that liking Zhu Yunjiao as the crown prince was a legitimate move, and it was a logical thing, and such a statement was agreed by Zhu Yuanzhang.
The battle between the North and the South
After careful consideration, Zhu Yuanzhang finally determined Liu Sanwu, a highly respected Ming Dynasty Confucian, and Ji Shanbai Xin of the Royal Palace as the examiner of the Ding Ugly Examination, and such an appointment reflected Zhu Yuanzhang's importance to this examination, and it is not difficult to see Zhu Yuanzhang's trust in Liu Sanwu.
85-year-old Liu Sanwu, receiving the emperor's holy will, deeply felt the emperor's grace, naturally did his best to preside over this test, hoping to repay Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang's love, unfortunately, things are not as good as people wish, although the process of this test is very smooth, but in the end, liu Sanwu and Bai Xinyu and others presided over the Ding Ugly meeting test or went wrong. The problem did not lie in the process of the examination, but in the results of the examination, which took fifty-two candidates such as Song Chun, and in the subsequent court examination, Chen An (also known in historical records as Chen Anquan) won the first place, Yin Changlong was the second place, and Liu Shichen was the third tanhua.
Originally, there was nothing wrong with such an ending, but the strange coincidence was staged at this moment, the fifty-two people who would try to record were all from the south, and none of the northern scholars were on the list, such a result was unacceptable to the northern scholars, they thought that such a result must be someone who thought it was manipulated, and the biggest suspect was the chief examiner Liu Sanwu.
The result of this unprecedented examination provoked the anger of all the northern enumerators, who believed that the southern examiner was favoring the southern examiners, hoping to get an explanation in order to strengthen their future influence in the DPRK. After zhu Yuanzhang learned of such a joint report, he was extremely angry at this "selfish" behavior, and in order to convince the public, he ordered a thorough investigation of the matter and arranged for the action of re-reviewing the candidates' examination papers.
"The Bias of the Emperor's Wrath"
The reason why it is necessary to re-examine is precisely to verify whether there is any fraud in this examination, and the "bias" mentioned here is not that the number of northern scholars in the guide is biased, because many of the imperial examinations in Zhu Yuanzhang's period are that the number of southern scholars selected is large, and the number of northern scholars is small, and Zhu Yuanzhang has not been angry about this, so the "bias" that Zhu Yuanzhang was angry at this time refers to his behavior of liu Sanwu and other southern examiners who are partial to the southern scholars. Liu Sanwu and other southern examiners are partial to southern scholars" the statement is indeed suspicious in their hearts.
For the handling of this matter, Zhu Yuanzhang chose to send someone to re-review the examination paper to confirm whether there was "fraud". Zhu Yuanzhang ordered his attendant Zhang Xin and twelve others to be candidates for the review, including Chen An, Yin Changlong, and Liu Shichen.
"Twelve people, including Zhang Xin, were ordered to read it, and An Yan was also with Yan."
Soon, the results of their review came out, and the vast majority of people insisted on the original judgment, believing that Liu Sanwu and others had not cheated, and it was true that the writing of the northern people was not as good as that of the southern people, and there were still some taboo words and sentences in the articles of the northern people. At this juncture, someone sent a message to Zhu Yuanzhang, saying that Zhang Xin and other people who reviewed the trial were involved in the northern scholars, and deliberately smeared the northern scholars, in order to protect Liu Sanwu and Bai Xinyu and others. After Zhu Yuanzhang got this news, Long Yan was furious, he hated fraud the most in his life, corrupt officials and corrupt officials, and naturally hated the behavior of Liu Sanwu, Bai Xinyu, Zhang Xin, and others, so he disposed of them with thunderous means.
Xi Jie Xin And Xin, An Que, etc., Shu Sanwu was on the side.
Liu Sanwu escaped the death penalty because of his advanced age, leaving a life, Bai Xinyu, Zhang Xin and Chen An were not so lucky, they were executed by Ling Chi.
Subsequently, Zhu Yuanzhang personally read the papers and reopened a court examination in June, this time a total of 61 people were admitted, all of whom were Beishi. Zhu Yuanzhang's move has made many people speculate in their hearts.
Zhu Yuanzhang's imperial power technique
Zhu Yuanzhang's handling of the North-South List case made an imperial power vocabulary appear in everyone's mind, and it was "balance".
In the eyes of many people, it is not unusual for Ding Ugly to try to recruit all the people who are Southern Scholars, because after the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, the center of gravity of China's economic and cultural development gradually began to shift to the south, and Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty in Yingtian, which accelerated the development of the southern culture and economy, while there were often wars in the north, and agricultural development was restricted. Therefore, it is also reasonable that Ding Ugly will try to appear that all the people who are recorded are Nanshi.
Since it was a reasonable matter, Zhu Yuanzhang did not accept the facts, but forcibly changed the direction of the case, chose the members of the review team who punished and maintained the original results, and finally adopted a compromise similar to co-opting the northern scholars.
In the eyes of these people, the 61 northern officials that Zhu Yuanzhang later recorded did not actually have real talent and practical learning, but Zhu Yuanzhang's means to supplement the lack of northern officials in the imperial court and avoid the dominance of the southern officials.
Regarding the North and South List cases, more people think that it is a performance of Zhu Yuanzhang's imperial power rather than a fair judgment case, in which the 85-year-old upright man has become a sacrificed pawn.
Liu Sanwu had such an ending, was it really because of Zhu Yuanzhang's means and sacrificed him? In fact, Liu Sanwu's final ending was not unjust.
Liu Sanwu was not wronged
Zhu Yuanzhang's original intention
Liu Sanwu, the Great Confucian of the Ming Dynasty, was 85 years old and still gained the trust of Zhu Yuanzhang and won the opportunity to sit in the Ding Ugly Examination. From these, we can see that Zhu Yuanzhang has great trust and respect for Liu Sanwu. Therefore, there is no need for Zhu Yuanzhang to deliberately create opportunities to get rid of him, he is not a stumbling block to Zhu Yunjiao's ascension to the throne, but a supporter of Zhu Yunjiao's ascension to the throne.
Zhu Yuanzhang chose Liu Sanwu as the chief examiner of the Ding Ugly Examination, and his original intention was to trust Liu Sanwu. Because Zhu Yuanzhang attached great importance to the imperial examination system, he hoped that there would be someone worthy of trust and able to properly handle the matter of the imperial examination. The "proper" mentioned here refers to doing a good job in handling the examination on the basis of taking into account the overall situation, rather than finding a just and upright inspector. If Zhu Yuanzhang only needed to find a minister to supervise the fairness of this examination, he would not have to entrust Liu Sanwu, who was already 85 years old at the time. At that time, the imperial examination system was already very advanced, and all links were relatively perfect, and Zhu Yuanzhang chose to appoint Liu Sanwu, naturally not only hoping that he would be responsible for justice, but also counting on him to be responsible for using his own talents to screen talents, and more importantly, he needed to use so many years of experience in the ups and downs of the official sea to steer this examination.
Liu Sanwu repeatedly disappointed Zhu Yuanzhang
Liu Sanwu, who was deeply impressed by The Great Grace, although he was very touched by Zhu Yuanzhang's trust, he was also diligent and earnest, and did his work with all his heart, and at the same time gave full play to his upright side, judging every scholar's article with a fair heart and profound knowledge, and completed the final list of entries.
It is said that it is natural to do a good job in the errands assigned by the superiors, and perhaps such a truth can be put on others, but it is obviously not enough to put it on the chief examiner of the imperial examination who does things for the emperor and serves the country, and only to do a good job at a glance.
When the list of entrants came out, when the origins of these scholars were surprisingly consistent as Nanshi, Liu Sanwu, as the person in charge of the Ding Ugly Society, should have found out the problem; and it should be even more important to think about what kind of uproar such an accidental result would cause among the Ming Dynasty scholars, once it was released. What was the result, he actually did not say anything to Zhu Yuanzhang on this, nor did he take into account that he was a southern examiner and avoid suspicion, and because of this, the 85-year-old Liu Sanwu broke into a catastrophe, and zhu Yuanzhang was very disappointed after letting Zhu Yuanzhang know, but Zhu Yuanzhang did not immediately reduce Liu Sanwu, but organized a review.
In arranging for this review operation, Zhu Yuanzhang was to find out whether there was really a report from the northern scholars that "the southern examiner was partial to the southern scholar", and even more to give Liu Sanwu and other chief examiners a chance. His aim was to calm the anger of the northern soldiers and stabilize the situation at the least cost. The result? The members of the review team, led by Zhu Yuanzhang's attendant Zhang Xin, maintained the same judgment as Liu Sanwu and others, and the result of the review was still that all the recorders were southern scholars, on the grounds that the articles of the northern scholars were indeed not good, and there were many forbidden words.
Hearing such a result, Zhu Yuanzhang's face turned green, and he organized this review, but only in exchange for these southern scholars, they still did not forgive, and things became more and more unmanageable. At this critical moment, some people reported that Zhang Xin and other members of the review were instructed by Liu Sanwu and other examiners to deliberately file articles with ugly articles on northern scholars. When Zhu Yuanzhang learned of this news, he naturally would not ruin the state's grand plan because of a few pedantic southern officials, so he severely punished these people who were "ignorant of the general body" such as Liu Sanwu.
Zhu Yuanzhang did not want to see such a result, but Liu Sanwu first derelicted his duties and did not speak for the overall situation of the country; then he was "obsessed with not understanding", which made Zhu Yuanzhang repeatedly disappointed. However, Zhu Yuanzhang still left Liu Sanwu a life, on the grounds that he was 85 years old, and clear-eyed people could see it, such a reason was too far-fetched, and they all understood that Zhu Yuanzhang still knew Liu Sanwu
"People are generous, there is no city government"
Yes, it's just a stupid thing.
Today, the North-South List case is almost identified as an unjust case, and the 85-year-old Liu Sanwu has become a "victim" of the population. In fact, Liu Sanwu's ending was really unjust, he first derelicted his duties, and then refused to take the overall situation as the most important remedy, secretly interfered in the results of the review, did not give Zhu Yuanzhang a step, and finally relied on his excellent character and influence to save a life, which is already the best ending he can get, not to mention being wronged.
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Reference: "Myo history"