Chapter 745: Take the Examinations, Nobles of the Empire!

"Mr. Ambassador, Mr. Deputy Ambassador, your origins must be very noble, surely? What titles do you hold?"

In one of the banquet halls of the Hofburg Palace — a place with more than a thousand rooms, its internal structure as intricate as a labyrinth — the Holy Roman Emperor was holding a banquet to entertain foreign envoys. Just as host and guests were enjoying themselves, the Holy Roman Emperor, having drunk a few extra cups, suddenly inquired about the titles of the two Ming envoys, Ji Kun and Li Shaoyou.

The Emperor spoke in German. A captain of the East India Company who had come with Van Diemen — a Swede of thirty-four or thirty-five named Coit — happened to know both German and Chinese, and so served as interpreter. The Ottoman Empire's foreign minister, Gürcü, was a very learned man who could also speak German, and needed no interpreter.

Hearing Coit's translation, Ji Kun, who came from a military household, did not feel that the question caused him to lose face, and so answered with a smile: "Your Majesty, neither this envoy nor Deputy Envoy Li is of noble birth. We are both of commoner origin, and became officials of the Great Ming Empire after passing examinations."

Li Shaoyou had not come up through the civil examinations; he came from the Embroidered Uniform Guard, but he had studied at the Capital Academy, and studied well enough to become a teacher — so he too could be counted as an official who had risen through examinations.

"Commoners become officials by passing examinations?" The Holy Roman Emperor was astonished. "Then what are the nobles of your country doing?"

Doing what? Eating, drinking, and waiting to die, of course.

Naturally one could not put it that way. Ji Kun thought for a moment, then said with a smile: "Nobles may also become officials by passing examinations, or may enter the Military Academy to study and become officers after graduation."

"What? Nobles and commoners both take examinations?" Ferdinand III seemed very interested in China's civil examination system.

"All must take examinations. Ah, one may also earn merit in the army, but to become an officer without military merit, one still needs to enter the Military Academy and study."

"Do nobles receive no advantages at all?" the Holy Roman Emperor continued to inquire.

Like a discount, or some extra points, or something?

Ji Kun said: "Nobles receive no advantages in the official selection examinations, but they do have the right of priority in schooling and in studying both civil and military arts. The Great Ming Emperor has established one Military Academy, one Capital Academy, and one Imperial Academy, and has also opened official prefectural academies in every prefecture (in fact, the new-style prefectural schools have not yet begun; the official schools are still the old system)."

What Ji Kun was now telling the Holy Roman Emperor was the newest set of rules for becoming an official through examinations.

Although Zhu Cilang was the chief of the "Northern Merit-Noble Bloc" and a defender of merit-noble interests, his way of defending those interests was not to make them into incompetent officials, but to open schools to educate their sons, to select through examinations the outstanding young men among the merit-noble sons, and to send them into the Military Academy and the Capital Academy for higher education — and only after they graduated from the Military Academy or Capital Academy would they take office.

And the Capital Academy, which trained civil officials and technical officials for the Great Ming, was also a university, but it was a different type of university from the Imperial Academy. The former emphasized professional training; the latter pursued a broad, generalist education. Both could lead into the Great Ming bureaucracy.

Moreover, the Military Academy, the Capital Academy, and the Imperial Academy were all open in their admissions. Noble sons did receive extra points, but not many. However, the examination content of the Military Academy and Capital Academy leaned toward the elite — in later generations' terms, it was "quality education," and not the quality of singing and dancing, but military quality. Thus most of those who could pass the entrance examinations were still sons of the military nobility.

The reason for this arrangement was, on the one hand, to safeguard the interests of the Northern ruling bloc, and on the other, to cultivate a group of officials versed in both civil and military affairs to bear the heavy responsibilities. The Military Academy and Capital Academy mainly trained civil and military officials; in this present age of chaos, officials versed in both civil and military affairs were the nation's core competitive strength — they absolutely had to be firmly controlled!

Ji Kun explained in great detail, and moreover "discarded the dross and kept the essence," pouring out to the Holy Roman Emperor all of the Great Ming's most advanced methods of examination and official appointment.

The Holy Roman Emperor still did not quite understand. "Mr. Ambassador, what benefit is there to the state in allowing commoners to take part in the official selection examinations? Are China's nobles not excellent enough, unable to bear the responsibility of governing the country?"

"Of course not," Ji Kun said, weighing his words. "Our Emperor hopes, through examinations, to draw into officialdom those among the common people who have talent and who might also pose a threat to the nation's stability. If all the capable people below have become officials, then fewer people will be able to organize rebellion."

Let all the people below come and take examinations to become officials, and then they won't rebel?

Right! That's a method!

Ferdinand III was absolutely surging with excitement!

This method of examinations for office, with extra points for nobles, was nothing less than a tonic to lift the spirits of the Holy Roman Empire, which was on the verge of falling apart!

Although the Empire had shattered into more than a thousand pieces, and the Habsburg family's direct territories lay only around Austria and Bohemia, the Emperor still had the power to appoint and dismiss officials in the imperial government (the central government) and within the Habsburg family territories.

This power to appoint and dismiss officials was a bargaining chip the Emperor could use!

The Empire could absolutely introduce China's advanced experience, opening a "Bureaucratic Academy" in Vienna, and allowing the sons of the Empire's great and small noble lords to enter the academy through examinations. Of course it could not be completely fair, but extra points could be given according to the father's rank of nobility and which son the candidate was — even illegitimate sons could be recommended by their lords to take the examinations.

In this way, the ties between the Emperor and the noble lords at every level of the Empire would be greatly strengthened, and at the very least the Catholic nobility could be united around the Emperor.

Moreover, the eldest son had a certain probability of dying before his father. If the other sons of Catholic lords were all students of the Bureaucratic Academy, then in the future a great number of "bureaucratic students" would become lords of the Empire!

This would undoubtedly greatly strengthen the authority of the Holy Roman Emperor — the Holy Roman Empire had more than 300 petty states and more than 1,700 knightly fiefs, and among them there were only a few powers qualified to challenge the Habsburgs. If the Emperor could bring all the younger sons of the petty lords to Vienna to study, then if a petty lord's eldest son died young, the lordship would be inherited by a younger son loyal to the Emperor!

Furthermore, the Bureaucratic Academy could also admit the sons of Protestant nobles, and Czechs!

The Emperor was Emperor of the whole Empire, not Emperor of the Catholics!

As long as the sons of Protestant noble lords were willing to swear loyalty to the Emperor and possessed sufficient talent, they too could serve as officials of the Empire.

The Czechs, of course, were the same.

At this thought, Ferdinand III wept — if his own dear father had known of this fine method, how could there ever have been a Thirty Years' War!

The Empire was saved at last!

When Ji Kun saw this foreign emperor weep, he too was taken aback. Had he said something wrong? Surely this emperor had disliked studying since childhood and got a headache at the sight of examinations? Judging by his dull-witted appearance, he must hate examinations. Better change the subject quickly.

"Your Imperial Majesty, our Emperor has written a personal letter to be delivered to King Louis of France, but now we have encountered the stone-throwing rebel uprising in France. Would Your Imperial Majesty perhaps have a way to help this envoy enter the Kingdom of France?"

Ji Kun was thinking that the little King Louis did not look long for this world, and wanted to deliver Zhu Cilang's letter before he died, so as to complete his mission.

"Ah, that," said the Holy Roman Emperor, wiping his tears. "That is easily arranged. I shall write to General Friedrich Schomberg, who is fighting on behalf of Louis XIV. He is a remarkable military man, and a German — a pity there is no Vienna Bureaucratic Academy to transform him into a loyal soldier of the Empire. Still, I can request that he send a company of German mercenaries to escort you to the Château de Saint-Germain outside Paris. This will do Louis XIV no harm.

In addition, I shall write to the Viscount de Turenne, who is on the side of the Frondeurs, explaining your identities and your purpose. I trust he will not make trouble for Chinese envoys such as yourselves, come from the Far East."

(End of Chapter)