Chapter 340: This Is the Ladder of Ascent for Those of Humble Birth!

In the officialdom of the Ming dynasty, the conferral of power and promotion took many forms, but broadly speaking, they can be simply divided into two types: "immediate" and "long-term."

The immediate kind is very easy to understand — it is nothing more than direct elevation, an instant promotion to office with great authority in hand.

The long-term kind, on the other hand, means serving as an examiner for the civil examinations at various levels, or in posts such as Vice Commissioner of Education or Censor of Education, thereby gaining the opportunity to cultivate a resource of disciples. Throughout the Ming dynasty, the court delegated to local governors-general and governors sweeping powers over military and civil affairs, yet the single matter of "education administration" was strictly independent and never fell under their jurisdiction — this is precisely the reason why.

If the Great Ming were ever truly to produce a military governor, he would at the very least need to unite military, civil, and educational authority in one person. Otherwise, the government students and juren scattered across the land would by their very nature be destabilizing factors for such a "provincial satrapy."

And among all these long-term prospects, there was naturally none more profitable than serving as chief examiner or associate examiner of the metropolitan examination.

Once the formal bond of "master of the hall" and disciple was fixed, one need only wait patiently a few years, and the splendid prospect of disciples filling the court would unfold.

Since such enormous gains in power exist, they will inevitably be accompanied by corresponding struggles for that power — this is a truth unchanged since antiquity.

In every round of the civil examinations, when the examiners for the metropolitan examination were selected, the entire court, both openly and covertly, would erupt in a number of struggles.

Some people, in order to hold onto their examiner posts, would even remain utterly silent for a long period as the examination approached, doing nothing each day on duty but wringing their hands and murmuring assent — all for fear that doing more would mean more mistakes, and that one careless move inviting a memorial of impeachment would cost them the examiner post bitterly.

Conversely, by observing the list of examiners, one could in fact also read the prevailing winds of Ming officialdom with great clarity.

For example, the examiner lists for the second year of Tianqi and the fifth year of Tianqi were deeply revealing.

(Attached image: the lists of chief and associate examiners for the two examinations of Tianqi 2 and Tianqi 5, along with their corresponding factional affiliations)

In the second year of Tianqi, the Donglin Faction held the absolute mainstream; the Qi, Chu, and Zhe factions had been essentially purged from the court, and the examiners were naturally all Donglin men, with only Shen Guan remaining as Imperial Tutor, while Wei Guangwei at that time had not yet gone over to the eunuch faction.

By the fifth year of Tianqi, the eunuch faction had gained power, and so its stalwarts Gu Bingqian and Wei Guangwei served as chief examiners.

But a careful look at the list of associate examiners shows that a number of Donglin men were still mixed in among them.

This is because the juncture at which the entire eunuch faction seized full control was precisely the period from spring to autumn of the fifth year of Tianqi.

That entire stretch was a transitional phase in which the two factions contended, the eunuch faction gained the initial victory, but had not yet carried out a full purge of the court.

Thus this list, produced in the second month of the fifth year of Tianqi, naturally contained men from both factions.

However, when it came to the examination of the first year of Yongchang, there was not the slightest room left for power struggles, either at court or in the provinces.

The Emperor, in a rare move after long refraining from issuing direct palace edicts, once again forcefully issued a direct palace edict.

No need to quarrel — I shall decide the candidates for this session!

And the list personally designated by the Emperor's decree was laden with political implications.

(Attached image, with their current offices and assignments added, so that the political intent can be seen more clearly)

The choice of chief examiners alone greatly surprised everyone.

That Chief Grand Secretary Huang Liji was not selected, on account of his position, was quite normal.

But that Second Grand Secretary Li Guopu was also not selected?!

What was going on? Had Li Guopu fallen from favor?

That Li Banghua served as principal examiner and Zheng Sanjun as deputy examiner, however, was relatively reasonable.

After all, the new policies must always prevail over the old policies — this was not strange.

The candidates for associate examiners, though, could not be described merely as surprising; they utterly shattered everyone's expectations.

By past convention, the associate examiners were generally drawn mainly from the pure and prestigious Hanlin Academy, supplemented by Supervising Secretaries and officials of the various ministries.

Yet this time, while the list followed some conventions, it did not follow them entirely.

First, the proportion of officials holding substantive posts greatly increased, exploding from the past figure of around four to a full eight.

Second, the proportion of Supervising Secretaries was weakened on an epic scale, with only one person selected this time.

Finally, the proportion of Hanlin academicians appeared to be only slightly reduced, merely from twelve to nine.

But a careful look at the names of these nine Hanlin men reveals that most of them held a concurrent assignment in the "Secretariat"!

The true, pure-blooded Hanlin men were only two: Expositor-in-Waiting Cheng Jiming and Junior Compiler Fu Guan!

If one surveys the overall picture, among this entire list, the number of officials truly unconnected to the new policies... was actually zero!

Even the most tenuously connected, Supervising Secretary of the Office of Scrutiny for Revenue Duan Guozhang, was currently working himself to the bone on the restructuring of the Ministry of Revenue.

Come to think of it, his way of working was practically that of a Vice Minister of Revenue, not a Supervising Secretary of the Office of Scrutiny for Revenue.

The Emperor's reliance on substantive officials, his partiality toward the Secretariat, and his disdain for Supervising Secretaries, Censors, and other remonstrance officials — though never openly declared — was, from this list alone, revealed beyond all doubt.

The dog of a planner Zhu Youjian has directly stepped in and released the latest stat adjustments for "Great Ming Officialdom Online"!

— Old version T0, the remonstrance officials, massively nerfed! Reduced to a gutter-tier class!

— The Secretariat, this new class, has vaulted upward to become the new version's T0!

— Substantive officials, after two hundred years, have received a retroactive buff! Back in the meta!

At once, the officialdom of the capital grew ever more bustling and clamorous. Many Supervising Secretaries and Censors, each following their own networks of connections, scurried about everywhere, trying to transfer earlier into substantive posts.

It was too late to scramble for the governor-general and governor slots across the Two Capitals and Thirteen Provinces, but what about the second-phase pilot programs of the Yongchang New Policies? What about the matter of opening a headquarters in Tianjin? Surely there were still some opportunities?

But all this clamor from the outside world was already irrelevant to the examiners who had entered the examination hall.

"At noon that day, Vice Director Gao of the Ministry of Rites, courtesy name Youwen, came to my home bearing gifts; I performed two bows, and then returned his call, also with two bows."

"For the sake of seeking scholars, the chief examiners are treated with special honor.... After the banquet on the sixth day, there was also a dismounting banquet on the seventh, and on the eleventh, fourteenth, and seventeenth, grand send-offs and small banquets; on the twenty-fourth, a mounting banquet — in all, two grand banquets, three grand send-offs, and three small banquets, all commuted to silver (note: meaning they simply gave money directly)."

"Moreover, within the quarters, wheat, rice, wine, fruit, and utensils were all provided in full detail, and the daily provisions sent were also not cheap; the other expenses were especially enormous, all handled by the Ministry of Rites."

"I ordinarily speak with the accent of Min, tinged slightly with a local patois; yet His Majesty alone listened with pleasure and delight. The imperial grace is vast as the ocean; I know not how to repay it."

"In this year's spring examination, I shall surely devote my whole heart to careful discernment, selecting with precision outstanding talents to aid the state..."

Associate Examiner Jiang Dejing sat before the low table in his room, his brush moving unceasingly, about to finish today's diary entry, when he was interrupted by a burst of urgent knocking at the door. "Brother Zhongbao! Brother Zhongbao! You're the only one missing!"

"Coming, coming!" Jiang Dejing set down his brush, answered, and pushed open the door. Standing outside was none other than Lu Xiangsheng.

Lu Xiangsheng seized him by the arm. "Hurry it up, will you? Don't you go making me drink three penalty cups on your behalf later."

Jiang Dejing laughed heartily. "Let's go, let's go!"

The two said no more and hurried off together, side by side.

Supervising the metropolitan examination was an extremely high political honor, but it also meant that once inside the examination compound, one was cut off from the outside world, utterly ignorant of external news. From the sixth day onward, the entire sequence of work — setting the questions, grading the papers, filling out the rolls — would basically not be finished until around the twenty-fifth of the second month, when they could leave the compound (the examination hall).

For this period of over half a month, their regular official duties would all come to a halt.

Under the old government's working rhythm, that would have been fine — setting aside the work at hand for fifteen days was nothing compared to the reward of serving as an examiner. But under the new policies, that logic no longer held.

The Secretariat and the various ministries were buried in mountains of work; a single day of idleness would cause problems.

Given His Majesty's temperament, it was even less conceivable that he would accept every major project suddenly grinding to a halt for half a month.

"I give you all a future, and you repay me by skipping work? That doesn't seem quite proper, does it?"

Thus, over the past half month, the examiners had been frantically working overtime, painstakingly arranging all their future tasks in rough order before they dared come to the banquet and enter the examination compound.

The result was that on the first night after entering the compound, everyone was utterly exhausted, had no heart for socializing, and each simply collapsed into bed and slept.

It was not until rising this morning that they first assigned the Classics rooms each would be responsible for, then drafted and submitted the topics for the corresponding Five Classics — and with that, the day's work was considered done.

Only then did they have the energy to gather for a drinking party.

In any case, the Ministry of Rites would absolutely not stint on the supply of wines, fruits, and meat dishes, so long as no one overindulged and bungled their duties.

Because tomorrow, the eighth, they still had to set the Four Books topics and supervise the printers engraving the blocks all through the night.

Once the examination papers were printed in the early hours of the ninth and handed over to the outer compound, that would be the official start of the metropolitan examination — and also their next stretch of leisure. Tonight's gathering was a reunion of the Tianqi second-year jinshi cohort.

Li Shiqi, Lu Xiangsheng, Fu Guan, Ni Yuanlu, Chen Renxi, Qi Xinxiao, and Jiang Dejing — all seven were in attendance.

The gathering was set in Ni Yuanlu's room.

Because his quarters were in the first room on the west side of the Assembly of Classics Hall, so even if they grew boisterous, they would not disturb people in the other rooms, much less the chief examiners in the Assembly of Excellence Hall.

Although, tonight, everyone was probably holding gatherings — it was hard to say who might be disturbing whom.

Indeed, within the examination compound there were not only reunions of the same cohort, nor was this evening's gathering the only one.

There would also be gatherings of examiners from the same Classics room — for instance, the six examiners jointly responsible for the "Poetry" classic.

There would also be gatherings of the same Hanlin Academy class — that is, the group of people who had been selected together as Hanlin Bachelors in the same year.

There would even be gatherings of people from the same native region.

For example, Ruan Dacheng, Lu Xiangsheng, Chen Renxi, and Qi Xinxiao were all from the Southern Metropolitan Region, so naturally they would have to gather.

And breaking it down further, Ruan Dacheng and Qi Xinxiao were both from Tongcheng County in Anqing Prefecture, while Jiang Dejing and Yang Jingchen were both from Jinjiang County in Fujian — naturally they too would want to chat about the sights and flavors of home.

These connections and networks all had to be carefully maintained through such opportunities.

The social intercourse among officials was a web of tangled, intricate threads, relying on shared masters, shared examination cohorts, or shared native places.

It was truly impossible to untangle.

Once the Yongchang Emperor had sorted out the entire operational ecology of officialdom, he completely abandoned any intention of suppressing factional strife.

If they wanted to form factions, let them form factions — do as you please, so long as you don't keep the word "faction" on your lips.

If they wanted to form factions, let them form factions — so long as the various factions and cliques maintained a balance of power and did not become excessively lopsided.

As for the notion of achieving dominance by one faction, thereby filling the court with righteous men, and on that basis saving the Great Ming?

The Yongchang Emperor did not believe a single word of such nonsense.

As everyone gradually arrived, the atmosphere in the room immediately grew lively.

Though it was called an official drinking party, in truth they sat sprawled every which way, utterly without decorum. Ni Yuanlu sat cross-legged on his own bed, a wine jug in his hand, his face flushed bright red from drinking.

Lu Xiangsheng was even more casual, half-leaning and half-sitting directly on a wooden chest, his two long legs stretched out brazenly.

They passed cups back and forth, the floor scattered with melon rinds and fruit scraps, their talk entirely of amusing anecdotes from officialdom.

Ni Yuanlu smiled and began: "Back when Wang Shouren was first enfeoffed as the Count of Xinjian, he entered the court to give thanks, wearing his court robes. By custom, those robes had silk flaps to cover the ears. It was the height of a sweltering summer. A meddlesome fellow went up to him and asked, 'Master, are your ears cold?'"

"Guess how the Count of Xinjian replied?"

Everyone was curious and urged him on: "Out with it, out with it! Yuru, don't keep us in suspense!"

Ni Yuanlu burst out laughing, stood straight up on the bed, lifted his chin slightly, put on an air of cold aloofness, flicked his sleeve, and said:

"It is not that my ears are cold — it is that your eyes are feverish with envy!"

The company savored this for a moment, then one after another slapped their thighs in admiration.

"Hahaha! The Count of Xinjian was truly a man of wit!"

"A fine 'feverish with envy'! How many in the court today are just as feverish with envy!"

Everyone roared with laughter. As vanguard champions of the new policies, they had not failed to hear certain snide remarks in their daily lives.

Words like "currying favor with the Emperor" or "toadying and fawning" were vaguely in the air — only no one dared say them to their faces.

Ni Yuanlu's joke was a perfect veiled jab at the present situation, and hearing it naturally filled their hearts with satisfaction.

Lu Xiangsheng, seated on the scroll chest, drained his cup in one gulp.

"Speaking of cold and hot, I have a story as well."

At once everyone drew close and pricked up their ears.

"It concerns Hai Gangfeng in his early years as County Magistrate of Chun'an. He was by nature rigidly upright, incorruptible to the extreme. Day in and day out, coarse tea and plain fare, always dressed in cloth clothes and old gowns. One day a Regional Inspector passed through, saw him in this getup, and deliberately mocked him: 'Magistrate Hai, if you put on such a show, I fear people will say the August Ming mistreats its officials. If word truly gets out, will it not chill the hearts of all the scholars under Heaven?'"

Lu Xiangsheng paused, his gaze sweeping over the group. "Guess how Hai Gangfeng answered?"

Everyone looked at him with keen curiosity.

Lu Xiangsheng gave a hearty laugh, poured and drank another cup himself, then said in a deep voice:

"I care not whether others' hearts are chilled."

"I only know that if my own heart grows feverish, the hearts of the people under my rule will be chilled!"

The roomful of men, upon hearing this, fell silent for an instant, then burst into roaring acclaim.

"Drink up! Let us drain our cups to Lord Hai!"

All raised their cups in unison and threw their heads back to drink.

After chatting idly for a while, slightly tipsy from the wine, the conversation gradually shifted to serious matters.

In official socializing, the first priority is fostering personal bonds; the second is exchanging information. Not discussing politics was, in the end, impossible.

Jiang Dejing looked first to Fu Guan and asked, "Brother Chief Grand Secretary, how is that history of yours coming along? When exactly can it be brought out for printing?" Fu Guan, put on the spot by this question, immediately poured out his grievances: "You ask me, but who am I supposed to ask!"

"At first they only said to compile a complete account of Lord Jiangling's reform deeds…"

"Later, His Majesty also said he wanted to add the successes and failures of Wang Jinggong's reforms…"

"Before I entered the examination compound, I went for an audience with His Majesty — and His Majesty actually asked whether we could add the Tang dynasty's Two-Tax Law and Sang Hongyang's Discourses on Salt and Iron from the Han!" Fu Guan drained a full cup and heaved a long sigh. "If we keep revising like this, I fear I'll spend the rest of my life buried in the old paper stacks of the Hanlin Academy." "I envy you all — either you go to the Secretariat to advise on confidential matters, or, like Shousheng here, you become the chief officer of a bureau, rolling up your sleeves and getting things done."

At this point, he looked toward Ni Yuanlu and asked:

"Yuru, has that rotation charter for the Hanlin Academy been settled or not?"

"Nowadays every new policy matter is spearheaded by new offices, and the Hanlin has been reduced to nothing more than the Daily Lecture and history compilation. Surely there ought to be some word on this?"

Fu Guan dared to say this openly in front of everyone for a reason.

In fact, of the seven people present, five held concurrent Hanlin posts; only Lu Xiangsheng and Li Shiqi did not.

So this small complaint from a Hanlin perspective was not out of line.

As soon as he spoke, everyone turned to look at Ni Yuanlu.

Ni Yuanlu laughed heartily and waved a hand. "Brother Chief Grand Secretary, why worry? In the end, you certainly won't be made to compile histories for a lifetime."

The wine had gone to his head, and he was about to say more when he suddenly jolted alert and cut himself off sharply: "However, this matter is a Grade-A secret — no more can be said, no more can be said."

Fu Guan sighed helplessly. "I too know that His Majesty must have his plans, and I am hardly trying to pry into secrets. It is just that, seeing the new policies thriving day by day while I can only hunt for phrases and pluck sentences among old paper stacks — in the end, it leaves some regret."

He looked at the other secretaries. "I still envy you who went to the Secretariat, where policy essays and practical affairs combine and confirm each other. Is that not far better than my armchair strategizing?"

Qi Xinxiao picked up his wine cup, drained it in one gulp, and shook his head with a smile:

"Chief Grand Secretary, you are mistaken there. How can the Secretariat be counted as truly real work?"

"If you don't sink down to the bottom and personally handle grain, funds, punishments, and names, in the end it's not the same." At these words, Fu Guan immediately caught on. "What, has your departure date from the capital been set?"

Qi Xinxiao nodded. "Although His Majesty says that secretaries will rotate every half-year going forward, in the end each person's portfolio and time in the Secretariat differs, so the follow-up assignments for us first-batch secretaries are not all the same either."

"In my case, because of the agricultural affairs in Northern Zhili, my provincial posting is a bit later — set for after the summer tax is collected in the seventh month, and then after completing the half-year review." Those beside him chimed in one after another.

Lu Xiangsheng said, "I entered the Secretariat relatively late, and the establishment of the Tianjin office is a matter of great consequence. So my provincial posting is also set for the seventh month — I'll go first to Tianjin Guard, do some preliminary rectification, and pave the way for next year's office establishment and county consolidation there."

Chen Renxi and Jiang Dejing said they were a bit later, likely not relinquishing their posts until around the tenth month.

Ni Yuanlu, on the contrary, was the earliest among them: "I will relinquish my post this sixth month. But my next assignment is not yet certain."

At this, he sighed lightly. "In the end, Jiandou here has it best — his Tianjin destination was set early and clearly. Not like us, who still don't have our next postings fully settled."

Qi Xinxiao shook his head:

"The destinations are only ever those few."

"Either a pilot county for the second-phase new policies, or a duty officer posting in the Ji-Liao or Mongol directions."

"In the end, we'll still be circling within the new policy sphere — that, I am not worried about."

Li Shiqi had been listening quietly at the side, silent all the while. Now he suddenly spoke:

"I wonder, among this cohort of examination candidates, how many will ultimately be able to cross the threshold of the new policies."

At these words, the slightly melancholy mood the group had fallen into over their impending provincial postings immediately lightened.

Ni Yuanlu laughed:

"Before they enter the new policies, let's first see how they answer the exam questions!"

"This examination gives equal weight to all three sessions. If anyone hasn't caught on yet and is still gnawing only on the classics, I fear they'll take a hard fall."

"When I grade the papers, I'll be sure to take a good look — just how much of the spirit of statecraft writing have they actually absorbed!"

"If anyone still follows the old style — pages full of empty words, florid but hollow — they absolutely will not pass my review!"

Everyone nodded in agreement at this.

Qi Xinxiao, however, remained seated where he was, cup frozen in hand, brows slightly furrowed, shaking his head in silence.

"What, does Junqiu disagree?" Ni Yuanlu saw this and, not minding at all, asked him directly and bluntly.

Qi Xinxiao hesitated a moment, set down his wine cup, and spoke:

"That our dynasty's examinations, over the past century, have gradually come to emphasize the classics and de-emphasize policy essays is not without reason."

"The classics are nothing more than the Four Books and Five Classics. Any candidate, no matter how poor his family, can still afford a single copy of the Collected Commentaries on the Four Books."

"But for current-affairs policy essays — if one has not traveled a thousand li and read ten thousand scrolls, one's breadth of knowledge will ultimately be insufficient. This is absolutely not something that can be conjured up by building a cart behind closed doors." Qi Xinxiao raised his head, his gaze sweeping over everyone, his tone unusually solemn:

"The classics may indeed be empty talk, yet a humble student can still ascend to heaven on the strength of one tattered book. But if we rely entirely on current-affairs policy essays — for those not of great clans, without the means to travel, how are they to broaden their horizons? This is nothing less than cutting off the humble scholar's ladder to advancement!"

At these words, the room instantly fell silent — no one had expected the topic to suddenly veer into such vast territory.

Ni Yuanlu shook his head, entirely unconvinced:

"Junqiu, you are wrong on this."

"If current-affairs policy essays require family wealth, do the classics and the eight-legged essay not?"

"In the end, don't both still require hiring renowned teachers, or relying on deep family learning, with the father's generation having delved into the craft — only thus can one advance with fierce vigor and stand out from the crowd?" "Since there is no difference between the two, and both favor the wealthy and well-born—"

"Then as I see it, emphasizing policy essays is a good thing! It can sift out the bookworms who only know dead study, and select those who can truly get things done!" Qi Xinxiao's frown deepened; he clearly disagreed strongly with Ni Yuanlu's argument.

"In the matter of the classics, if one is a talent — even if born in poverty — so long as one is naturally intelligent, there will be renowned teachers willing to bestow their favor, and even the local education commissioner will take notice and offer support. In the end, the path of advancement is not without hope."

"But for current-affairs policy essays — no money means no money! To acquire broad knowledge, to understand the customs and conditions of every region, the circulation of grain and funds — this is not something that can be obtained merely by winning favor. It requires real silver and coin to travel, to make connections!"

"If a humble student must raise funds to seek this knowledge, he cannot avoid manipulating things at the local level, accepting land dedications… One misstep here, misstep after misstep — in the end, it is no good thing!"

"What is more, this may be acceptable for the metropolitan examination… but if this ethos spreads to the provincial examinations and the apprentice examinations as well, the humble scholar's path may be cut off in advance at the level of government student and juren!"

The two men's views were completely at odds. Ni Yuanlu was not one to get angry over this, but his appetite for debate had been thoroughly roused, and he rose to his feet, ready to retort. Seeing this, Fu Guan hastily stood up, pressed a hand firmly on Ni Yuanlu's shoulder, and loudly interrupted:

"Hey! Why are you two thinking so much!"

Fu Guan raised his wine cup and looked around the room, his voice ringing out: "His Majesty is wise and divinely martial, thinking ten steps ahead for every step he takes — he must have long since made arrangements for this!" "If you truly feel it is improper, once we leave this examination hall, write a memorandum and submit it, and explain your views to His Majesty — why argue about it today! Better to save your energy and think properly tomorrow about how to set the questions on the Four Books!"

Fu Guan lifted his wine cup high and laughed loudly:

"Come! Drain this cup! Let us entrust the affairs of the realm to His Majesty's sage judgment — we need only, one and all, raise a toast to the Great Ming! To the new policies! To His Majesty!" Everyone naturally grasped Fu Guan's intent and hurriedly clamored to change the subject, throwing arms over each other's shoulders and raising their cups together.

"Quite right, quite right! Today, only drinking is permitted — no debating!"

"To His Majesty!"

"Drink up! Drink up!"

Lu Xiangsheng lifted Qi Xinxiao up with one hand, and in the end Qi Xinxiao said nothing more, draining his cup along with him.

But in his heart, he had already made up his mind.

These days of invigilating left plenty of idle time in between — just enough to draft a memorandum discussing this matter, and as soon as the academy reopened, present it at once for His Majesty to see. If his sovereign father said there was nothing to it, then for him, Qi Xinxiao, there would naturally be nothing to it either.

But if his sovereign father said it was wrong, then wrong it absolutely was!