Judging from Zhu Yuanzhang's case of the North and South List, the game between examination fairness and regional fairness is the purpose of the imperial examination
Since the formation of the Sui and Tang dynasties, the imperial examination system has evolved for thousands of years, and a complete set of rules and regulations has been formed in the Ming and Qing dynasties, however, Zhu Yuanzhang, the Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, was not very satisfied with this system.
As we all know, Zhu Yuanzhang, as the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, is an emperor who "immediately won the world", at the beginning of his accession to the throne, there were many heroes in the Ming court, they were all military generals who assisted Zhu Yuanzhang to fight the world, and had a high right to speak in the court, so Ming Taizu once implemented the "recommendation" system, that is, the courtiers recommended candidates to the Son of Heaven.
Obviously, this system has huge limitations: the right to "recommend" is in the hands of meritorious officials, and it is not a matter of their word who can become an official?
Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang set his sights on the imperial examination system, hoping to select talents from all over the world for his own use.
In the third year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang selected some well-educated people through the imperial examination, but he soon found that these people "can do everything they have learned and are few" That is to say, Zhu Yuanzhang believes that the people in the imperial examination are all nerds, and he was angry, so he abolished the imperial examination system, and it was not until more than ten years later that he issued an order to restore it.
However, in the 30th year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang, who was about to die, encountered another trouble, which was the so-called "North and South List" incident.
So, what is the ins and outs of this incident, and what does Zhu Yuanzhang's handling of this incident reflect the design of the imperial examination system by politicians?
A fraud case that shocked the world
1. The "disturbing" imperial examination
In the 30th year of Hongwu, a "meeting test" was held as scheduled.
The so-called examination refers to the examination conducted in the capital under the ancient Chinese feudal system, and the candidates are interviewed by the emperor himself to determine the top three candidates (that is, champions, bangyan, and tanhua).
Zhu Yuanzhang was very happy to see that there were many talents in the world, and with a stroke of his pen, he gave the champion to Chen An, and Bangyan and Tanhua were won by Yin Changlong and Liu Shige.
Because the time of this exam is in the spring, it is called "Spring List" and also known as "South List".
As soon as the news came out, public opinion in the world was in an uproar: on the emperor list this time, there were only students from the south, and there were no northerners.
As a result, the angry northern students pointed the finger at the examiners Liu Sanwu, Bai Xinlu and others, questioning them for "privately releasing water to their fellow villagers".
After Zhu Yuanzhang heard the news, Long Yan was furious, and he immediately instructed the examiner to re-mark the papers and select some talents from the "Beishi" group to hire.
Not long after, Liu Sanwu and others played the emperor, claiming that the "northern scholars" were not as solid as the southerners, and there were quite a lot of slanderous words about current politics, and suggested that the emperor maintain the original examination results.
Naturally, the "Beishi" group refused to give up, and they also wrote a letter to the emperor, claiming that Liu Sanwu and others "presented them with bad papers" and deliberately presented the test papers with bad grades to the emperor.
Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't bear it, he executed the chief examiner Bai Xinju, the new champion Chen An and others, although Liu Sanwu escaped death because he was too old (85 years old), he was deprived of his official position and assigned to the frontier.
Soon after, Zhu Yuanzhang presided over the examination again, and this time, the people admitted by the imperial court were all northern scholars.
Because this re-examination was in the summer of that year, it was called the "Summer List" and also known as the "North List".
On the surface, Zhu Yuanzhang was deceived by Liu Sanwu and others, but fortunately he stopped the loss in time and corrected his mistakes, but under the scrutiny, it can't help but make people wonder: If it is a fraud to take Nanshi in the spring list, then is it a manifestation of fairness and justice to take all the Beishi in the summer list?
2. Foggy unjust cases
The classical masterpiece "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" has such a sentence widely known: "The general trend of the world, divided for a long time must be united, and a long time must be divided" Throughout Chinese history, every time in troubled times, when the warlords are divided, the situation of confrontation between the north and the south is often formed, the Three Kingdoms is like this, and then the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty are all relying on half of the southeast to support the crisis, even Zhu Yuanzhang himself, also after pacifying the south of the Yangtze River, only then swore to the Northern Expedition, to dominate the world, and he established the Ming Dynasty, but also to Nanjing (Yingtian) as the capital.
The land south of the Yangtze River, while sheltering a large number of northern refugees, has also formed its unique culture, since the Southern Song Dynasty, due to the strong Confucian atmosphere in the south, while northern China has been in the midst of war.
In other words, the difference between the north and the south was an objective fact that existed at that time, and the words of Liu Sanwu and others were not entirely unreasonable.
What's more, Zhu Yuanzhang himself knows this, otherwise, wouldn't he appoint Chen An as the champion, wouldn't it show the world that he has no knowledge of people?
In addition, the behavior of Liu Sanwu, the main culprit in the "fraud case", is incomprehensible in itself.
Who is this Liu Sanwu?
According to the "History of the Ming Dynasty", Liu Sanwu had no intention of becoming a hermit in his hometown, and it was not until the eighteenth year of Hongwu that the seventy-three-year-old Liu Sanwu was introduced to Zhu Yuanzhang.
Zhu Yuanzhang saw that he could talk to him very well about "playing symmetrical purposes", so he gave him an official position of "Zuo Zanshan", and later made him a bachelor of the Hanlin Academy and became his own literary courage.
The History of the Ming Dynasty also recorded: "Sanwu was generous, did not set up a city, and called himself "Tantanong". When it comes to the big festival, it is untakable. Prince Yiwen, the emperor's east pavilion gate, summoned the ministers, wept, Sanwu said: "The emperor and grandson inherit the system, and the ceremony is also." "The grandson is here. ”
In order to adhere to the traditional Confucian etiquette, after the death of Zhu Yuanzhang's crown prince Zhu Biao, he suggested that the emperor appoint his son Zhu Yunwen as the grandson (that is, the later Emperor Jianwen), and did not hesitate to offend Zhu Yuanzhang's living prince and insulate them from the throne, which shows that he was a quite principled elder.
It is hard to imagine that when Hongwu was thirty years old, this eighty-five-year-old man would suddenly change his temperament and use the power in his hands to seek benefits for his fellow villagers.
And the actions of the Ming court after Zhu Yuanzhang's death also confirmed, to a certain extent, that the so-called "fraud case in the scientific field" was an unjust case concocted by the ruler.
After Zhu Yuanzhang's death, Emperor Jianwen issued an edict to recall Liu Sanwu from the frontier and let him live in the capital for a long time.
Although there is no record in the history books whether the Ming court rehabilitated Liu Sanwu, Emperor Jianwen's actions themselves have certain political attributes.
Ancient Chinese rulers often boasted that they "govern the country with filial piety" and an important criterion for judging whether a monarch is "supreme filial piety" lies in whether he can implement the policies of the previous emperor, the so-called "the law of the first king is immutable" If Liu Sanwu really committed an unforgivable crime, how could Zhu Yunwen recall Zhu Yuanzhang when his bones were still cold?
Therefore, we can draw a basic conclusion that the incident of the North and South List in the last years of Hongwu was deliberately done by Zhu Yuanzhang.
The question also arises, what is Zhu Yuanzhang's purpose in doing this?
Xiang Zhuang dances the sword, which is intended for Pei Gong
1. The emperor's heart disease
There have always been many theories about the reason why Zhu Yuanzhang deliberately created unjust cases and suppressed southern scholars, and some people believe that this is a means for Zhu Yuanzhang to win over northern scholars, but from a practical point of view, Zhu Yuanzhang's intentions seem to be more than that.
In the twenty-fourth year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang asked the prince Zhu Biao to inspect the Luoyang generation, and seemed to intend to move the capital, but unfortunately Zhu Biao died of illness the following year, and the proposal to move the capital had to be terminated.
Nanjing City is the land of the tiger and the dragon, the geographical location is excellent, why does Zhu Yuanzhang want to move the capital?
This cannot fail to mention one of Zhu Yuanzhang's heart problems: there are too many officials in Nanjing.
As mentioned above, Zhu Yuanzhang had to rely on some civil and military generals in the process of creating the Great Ming Dynasty, and these people became the founding heroes of the Ming Dynasty after the establishment of the Ming Dynasty.
Zhu Yuanzhang was very jealous of this, when the crown prince Zhu Biao was there, the situation was barely controllable, but Zhu Biao was dead, and the future heir to the throne Zhu Yunwen had no prestige in front of his elders.
For this reason, Zhu Yuanzhang racked his brains, and one way he thought of was to get rid of the existing bureaucratic system as soon as possible.
According to the system of the Ming Dynasty, officials need to be rotated after serving in a certain place for a period of time, but Zhu Yuanzhang in the Hongwu period faced a problem: the imperial court could be replaced, but the new officials who were replaced were often the relatives and friends of the previous one, and they communicated with each other, so that the effect of the replacement had little effect.
Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Yunwen's ancestors and grandsons were naturally unwilling to accept such a situation, and they used their brains: since the southern officials protect each other, in order to break this situation, why not introduce northerners?
What's more, Zhu Yuanzhang's move also has a realistic consideration, the invasion of the remnants of the Yuan Dynasty.
In the first year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty, but the power of the Yuan Dynasty still existed, and the Mongolian nobles led by Emperor Yuan Shun retreated to the steppe and constantly harassed the northern frontier of the Ming Dynasty.
In order to solve the "border troubles" Zhu Yuanzhang thought of a lot of ways, he sent Lan Yu, Chang Yuchun and others many times to attack Meng Yuan, in addition, he made the princes kings, allowed them to have a certain number of troops, and let them act as the umbrella of the Ming Dynasty
Due to geographical factors, the source of soldiers for the Ming army's northern expedition was naturally recruited from the northern population, which required the rulers of the Ming Dynasty to adjust their policies in order to win the hearts and minds of the people in the north.
The purpose of the imperial examination in the Ming Dynasty may be this.
Judging from the actual results, Zhu Yuanzhang's policy was successful, and at the same time, it should be noted that this policy has laid a huge hidden danger for Zhu Yunwen, who inherited his position.
2. Unexpected ending
During the Yuan Dynasty's rule in the Central Plains, the implementation of the wrong ethnic policy led to the Han people complaining, Zhu Yuanzhang seized the opportunity to become the biggest beneficiary of the anti-Yuan war, and there is no doubt that this was his successful side.
However, after the death of Zhu Yuanzhang, Jianwen Emperor Zhu Yunwen had to face a situation: those vassal kings who used to defend the country had military power in their hands, and their existence became a "country within a country" within the Ming Dynasty.
Out of consideration of his own interests, Zhu Yunwen chose to cut the domain, which greatly stimulated the group of vassal kings of the Ming Dynasty, especially Zhu Di, the king of Yan, who took the "Fengtian Jingjing" as the reason, after four years of war, laid down Yingtianfu and became the famous Yongle Emperor in history.
In the four-year-long Battle of Jingjing, most of the scholars in the south watched from the wall, and only a few courtiers who were martyred for Zhu Yunwen were Fang Xiaoru and a few others, which was probably unexpected when Zhu Yuanzhang created the unjust case.