Chapter 342: A Trap of a Special Examination

The eighteenth day of the first month in the eighteenth year of the Great Ming's Chongzhen reign — an auspicious day, a double eighteen!

For the talented scholars of the Great Ming gathered in Nanjing, today was the auspicious day on which they would sit the special imperial examination.

Pass, and one could go from a farmhouse lad in the morning to the Crown Prince's hall by evening — an official post at once! Just thinking about it made one happy!

And among the more than ten thousand juren gathered in Nanjing, there were some who were especially happy. Take the Songjiang talent Luo Dagong, for instance — he was most likely to place second in the first class of this examination, and if he did a little better, taking first place as zhuangyuan was possible too! If not zhuangyuan, then bangyan! Glory to his ancestors! The old Luo family had passed down poetry and propriety for how many generations, producing nothing but juren and not a single jinshi. This time they would not only produce a jinshi, but one ranked as zhuangyuan or bangyan — surely he would become Grand Secretary Luo in the future.

So during this period, Luo Dagong was truly insufferably pleased with himself! Though he had not yet triumphed in the examination hall, he had already reaped a harvest in the field of love. Li Yulin, the Suzhou female scholar and one of the Eight Lesser Beauties of the Qinhuai, whom he had long courted, had agreed to marry him — she was only waiting for the great talent Luo to become zhuangyuan or bangyan before entering his bedchamber!

This young lady Li was matchless in both talent and beauty, her charms crowning the Qinhuai!

A name on the golden list, candles in the bridal chamber — a double blessing at the door.

"Resisting the barbarians and preserving the faith requires a great army, yet soldiers and generals all depend on provisions to assemble, and commercial taxes are the foundation of fiscal revenue. How can commercial taxes be made ample and military supplies sufficient? What is the meaning of this?"

"This is a policy essay!"

"Why is the first session testing a policy essay? Isn't that supposed to be tested in the third session?"

"Has the wrong question been posted?"

"Who is the chief examiner this time? How could he set such a question? Is this testing our ability to extort and squeeze the people?"

Just as Luo Dagong was feeling incomparably pleased with himself, the examination cells of the Jiangnan Examination Hall were already buzzing with discussion. It turned out that the question for the first session had been posted from the Mingyuan Tower — the tallest building in the Jiangnan Examination Hall. By convention, before each session, the examiners would write that session's question on a wooden placard, raise it high atop the Mingyuan Tower — called "raising the placard to release the question" — for the candidates to copy down.

And the content of the Ming dynasty's civil service examinations had been fixed by Zhu Yuanzhang in the seventeenth year of the Hongwu reign, and had never been changed throughout the entire Ming dynasty.

According to Zhu Yuanzhang's regulations, the civil service examination consisted of three sessions.

First session: three essays on the Four Books, each over two hundred characters. Four essays on the Five Classics, each over three hundred characters.

Second session: one discourse of over three hundred characters. Five legal judgments. One piece from among edicts, proclamations, or memorials.

Third session: five policy essays on the classics, histories, and current affairs.

And the question of how to collect commercial taxes belonged to current-affairs policy, and should have been placed in the third session. Yet now, in only the first session, why had it been brought out?

Moreover, the question itself was wrong — how could one directly ask how to collect commercial taxes? How was one supposed to answer this? Neither the Wenxian Tongkao nor the Collected Statutes of the Great Ming contained an answer. Policy essays were originally meant to test a candidate's breadth of knowledge of past and present, requiring candidates to read widely in the histories and in the administrative codes of the current dynasty. But juren who heard nothing of the outside world and had no practical work experience often could not write policy essays well. So in later times, candidates only read the Wenxian Tongkao and the Collected Statutes of the Great Ming — one ancient and one contemporary work — to cope with the examination.

Furthermore, although the Great Ming's civil service examination had three sessions, the one that was truly decisive was actually the first — that is, the "Four Books essays" and "Five Classics essays."

If one thoroughly mastered the Four Books and Five Classics (one need not master all Five Classics; one could select one as one's primary classic for focused study) and wrote good eight-legged essays, the chances of passing high were very great. As for the later discourse, judgments, and edicts, proclamations, and memorials — those were merely writing a bit of formulaic official prose, nothing much. And as for policy essays, the poorer ones were mere perfunctory efforts, while the better ones were just boasting.

Under ordinary circumstances, policy essays were not taken seriously in the provincial examinations; passing was enough. Only at the palace examination did the quality of the policy essay become the key to determining a jinshi's rank — the Chongzhen Emperor was the one who most loved such boastful essays, and would read every single one with great care. If he found one that boasted well, he would treat the writer as some great worthy and promote him to important office.

But no matter how much importance was attached to them, policy essays could not be placed before the Four Books and Five Classics — to say nothing of a policy essay on how to rake in money!

How to collect commercial taxes?

Should this question be answered seriously or not?

Inside the examination cell, the Songjiang talent Luo Dagong's right hand, holding the writing brush, began to tremble!

This was from excitement, and also from fear!

The reason for his excitement was that he believed Huang Zongxi most likely would not answer this question seriously — Huang Zongxi, after all, was the orphaned son of a loyal minister who had resolutely struggled against the eunuch faction! Would he endorse harsh collection of commercial taxes, contending with the people for profit? Impossible. Since Huang Zongxi would not take the examination seriously, then the zhuangyuan of this examination would be his!

As for the fear — the zhuangyuan's essay would certainly circulate widely! If he wrote an essay on how to harshly collect commercial taxes, would he not become the public enemy of the southeastern literati?

On one side, the zhuangyuan; on the other, the southeastern literati — what was he to do?

Luo Dagong was so anxious that sweat poured down his face, and in his urgency, inspiration struck.

The thing most feared in tax collection is unfairness: the powerful and influential do not pay, while the powerless are bled dry. If this continues, powerless merchants will be wiped out, leaving only those with power, influence, and backing who do not pay taxes!

Therefore, if the court wanted to strictly collect commercial taxes, it must begin with the powerful, the emperor's close ministers, and officials — all must pay taxes equally. This, of course, was impossible to achieve! Since it was impossible, then tax evasion and avoidance by the southeastern gentry was only natural and right.

How clever! Luo Dagong let out a breath, already admiring himself — writing along this line of thought, he could swindle his way to zhuangyuan while still giving the Jiangnan literati an explanation!

"Collecting commercial taxes, heh."

At the same moment, Huang Zongxi, the preordained zhuangyuan of this special examination, was sneering softly in his own examination cell.

The question was difficult, but not difficult enough to stump Huang Zongxi! For Huang to give up the zhuangyuan was impossible. On New Year's Day, when offering sacrifices to the ancestors, he had already reported the good news before the spirit tablet of his father, Huang Zunsu. A filial son as great as he — how could he go back on his word before his deceased father's spirit tablet? His departed father would be grieved in the netherworld. Confucianism placed the greatest emphasis on filial piety; if he caused his father in the netherworld to grieve, could he still be considered a man?

And how sharp his brain was!

He had already thought of a way to satisfy both sides! It was to advocate "industry and commerce as the foundation" and "combining taxation with examination quotas." The former meant valuing industry and commerce, developing industry and commerce, and through development obtaining a larger tax base.

The latter meant linking local tax payments with civil service examination quotas — places that paid more taxes should have more juren and jinshi quotas. And places that paid less taxes should have their juren and jinshi quotas reduced.

In addition, Huang Zongxi also advocated rectifying official administration through three methods: "lenient entry," "strict oversight," and "integrity salaries." In this way, the Great Ming's officials would be capable, government affairs efficient, and whether collecting taxes or promoting industry and commerce, the results would be achieved with half the effort.

(End of Chapter)