Chapter 563: The Great Reformer of Science and Technology

At the banquet, the sound of flattery was heard again. Li Shimin sat for a while, feeling tired, got up and left the table, and returned to the Ganlu Hall. The ministers also dispersed and went down to have fun with the people, eating, drinking, and having fun.

The Shangyuan Festival Lantern Festival in the Tang Dynasty was relatively short, with only three days, not five days like the Song Dynasty, ten days in the Ming Dynasty, and four or five days in the Qing Dynasty. The three-day Lantern Festival passed in a flash, and the colorful lanterns were collected, and the New Year was over.

The New Year will be held immediately. The scientific examinations in the Tang Dynasty were different from those in later dynasties. Afterwards, the practices have been formed. When the examinations are held and when they are completed, there will be fixed days.

The Tang Dynasty had irregular scientific examinations, but there was a principle that it would not delay private production. In order to take the exam, the scholars came to Chang'an in advance. That was the scholars' own business. The court did not recommend coming early, and the time for the release of the exam was fast. The miscellaneous examinations could be released in more than ten days. Although the Jinshi examinations were slow, it was almost done in about twenty days. So fast was because they were afraid of delaying the farm work. Some scholars were farming families, and they would go back early after the exams early, so that they would not delay the farm work at home.

In the farming society, of course, farming should be the basis. The scholars stayed to become officials after passing the exam. If they failed the exam, they would hurry up and go home to farm and come to the subject and take the exam again.

After the Shangyuan Festival, only one day later, the Shangshu Province ordered the opening of the subject. The examination room for this examination was located in the Censor's Office and was chaired by a special examination examiner Wailang. Strictly speaking, the examination examiner Wailang is the chief examiner who occupies the main position, but their status is too low and they are doing hard work. After the scholars pass the exam, they do not have to thank them.

Since it is not a famous exam, the master-tester Wailang is prone to cheating. Examiners like Chu Suiliang and Wang Ping'an have actually been considered a re-examination. The master-tester Wailangs have to pass the test papers first.

The examiner Wailang found that if the handwriting on a certain paper was sloppy and there was a place to apply, it would be directly dropped. Wang Ping'an and the others would not see the test paper. In this way, the examiner Wailang would sometimes deliberately dirty the paper and let the scholar fail the exam.

In order to prevent this cheating method, a system of name misunderstanding was created, which was to cover the scholar's name and prevent the examiner from seeing it. But later, this method did not work because it could tell who was the one from the handwriting. If you want to cheat, you just let the examiner know his handwriting in advance. So a copying system appeared again, which was to copy the candidate's test papers by a specialist, and then show them to the examiner. If the examiner could not see the original paper, he naturally could not tell the handwriting.

However, the scholars still have a way. They discussed with the examiner in advance how many words to use and which special words to use. First make the special words, and then answer the paper. In this way, even if the examiner cannot see the original paper, he can tell who needs to be taken care of.

The scientific examination system is becoming more and more perfect, and the cheating methods are updated very quickly. Anyway, you have a plan for Zhang Liang, and I have a ladder. No matter how perfect your system is, I can still find loopholes to take advantage of it.

In the early Tang Dynasty, it was the best time to cheat. The system was not sound. As long as you are a little brain-minded, you are not a nerd, and it is better to get mixed subjects. After all, there are not many people who can afford to study in this era and have the financial resources to come to Beijing to take the exam. The competition is not as fierce as in later generations, except for the Jinshi subject.

Before dawn that day, Wang Ping'an, as the deputy chief examiner, naturally arrived at the Censor's Office early. Seeing that Chu Suiliang and another deputy chief examiner had arrived, they were all waiting for him. After seeing the ceremony, the three of them sat in the main hall, waiting to open the door.

Three minutes before the hour of Mao, the gate of the Censor's Office opened. The officials stood at the door and sang the names of scholars one by one. Whoever they clicked, they would come in and arrange the seats in the examination room.

The main hall was far away from the gate, and Chu Suiliang had no intention of getting up, so Wang Ping'an had to sit there too. Looking from a distance, he saw that the scholars coming in looked nervous. Some people came here to wait in the middle of the night. In early spring, the weather was cold and there was no heating equipment outside. Many people turned blue with cold faces. After sitting at their test tables, they shivered.

Wang Ping'an said: "Mr. Chu, it's better to raise a few stoves in the examination room to warm the candidates so that they won't be frozen and unable to perform at their usual level when they pick up the paper."

Chu Suiliang glanced at him and said, "Only after suffering, you will be the best." After a pause, he said, "Then lift a few stoves!"

The officials immediately went out, carried several stoves in, and placed them around the examination room.

The examination halls of this era were completely different from those in the Ming and Qing dynasties. They were divided into several lobbies. Each lobby was a examination hall with countless tables and no cover in the middle. The scholars sat together for the exam.

Wang Ping'an pointed to the examination room and said, "Sir Chu, the arrangement of the test tables is not conducive to supervision. If there are long necks and good eyes, then you can see other people's test papers! It's okay to say that the Jinshi subject is, but the articles cannot be made into the same, but the Mingjing subject and other miscellaneous subjects test the same questions and the answers are the same. If the candidates copy each other, then there will be no way to distinguish the quality of the test!"

Chu Suiliang frowned and said, "How should I arrange my seat?"

Another deputy examiner was sent by the Ministry of Rites. He was a minister of the Ministry of Rites in his sixties. The old minister laughed and said, "The prince is joking, so he may copy each other. No one can let others see the answer. I am afraid that I can't hold it. The admission quota is limited, but the same answer may not be won. Whether the font is beautiful or the fame is significant, we must consider it!"

In the early Tang Dynasty, when the scientific examination system was still in its prototype, not only was the court exploring how the system should be improved, but the scholars were also exploring ways to cheat. Many tricks were not that the scholars did not want to use, but that they did not expect that the examiners naturally did not know the methods of the candidates in later generations, which was really unexpected.

Wang Ping'an yelled and said, "That's not necessarily the case. As you mean, if one more scholar answers correctly, it will be more threatening to them. That's what it means!"

The Minister of Rites nodded immediately and said with a smile: "Can there be any other meaning? Lord Chu, what do you think?"

Chu Suiliang also nodded and said, "I can't think of any other meaning."

Wang Ping'an said: "You can think about it the other way around. What if some people deliberately answered wrong? They have straw paper, and they won't just write the answers on the main volume!"

Chu Suiliang and the Minister of Rites were stunned at the same time, looking at each other, and their hearts were trembling. They understood what Wang Ping'an said!

If one person answers correctly, there will be more threats. If one person answers correctly, there will be less threats! If some scholars are unethical and deliberately write the wrong answer on the straw paper, and then deliberately let others see it, and they cover up the correct answers and hand in the correct answer when they hand in the paper, it is equivalent to flashing other scholars!

The Minister of Rites shook his head and said, "No, this is harmful to others... Oh, this is harmful to others and self-interest. But how can there be such a dirty and despicable person in the world?"

Wang Ping'an smiled and said, "Isn't there? Then pretend that it's not good!"

Chu Suiliang frowned, he took a deep breath and said, "I don't know if anything like this happened before. I always thought that cheating would only appear when marking papers. I don't think it's OK in this exam room, and it's so evil. Then, look at it, how should I arrange the exam table?"

Wang Ping'an said: "No need to arrange the examination table, just build the examination room. Each person has a small single room, and the problem of plagiarism can be solved." He told the style of the examination room from the Ming and Qing dynasties that he saw on TV.

After hearing this, Chu Suiliang and the Minister of Rites nodded together, thinking to himself: "Hey, this method is good, how can we not think of it before!"

After a long time, all the scholars entered the venue and divided the examination halls according to the subjects and all of them were settled.

Mao was called the beginning of the sun in ancient times, and the sun rose slowly from the east. When the golden bell hit and the bronze drum sounded three times, the exam officially began.

Several test masters and students came to each examination room with the test questions in hand and recited the test questions loudly, and recited each question three times. This is called no more than three things, so the candidates can record the test questions.

In this era, the test questions were not printed on paper, but only one copy could be opened when the exam began to prevent missing questions. The candidates recorded the questions themselves and then answered them.

Wang Ping'an listened to the question and had something to say. He said, "It seems inappropriate to recite the question like this."

Chu Suiliang said: "What's wrong with that?"

The Minister of Rites thought to himself: "It's not right again? The exam has not started yet. The candidates have not answered the paper yet. You have found two wrong things. Are you here invigilating the exam or picking the trick?"

Wang Ping'an said: "Two sirs, listen. When they read the title, they were all speaking elegant words and righteous words, right?"

The Minister of Rites said: "Of course you have to speak the correct pronunciation, can you still speak dialect?"

Elegant language or righteous pronunciation refers to Mandarin, which was Chang'an dialect in this era. Wang Ping'an spoke with a Xuzhou accent and cannot be regarded as the standard Mandarin in the early Tang Dynasty.

Wang Ping'an said: "Not every candidate will say the correct sound. If they are here for the first time in Chang'an, even if they can say a few positive sounds on the scene, if they are nervous and cannot fully understand the question at this time, wouldn't it be bad for them to answer the question? This has nothing to do with the good or bad knowledge. Some good knowledge will fail because they don't understand the correct sounds. This will cause talents to be lost!"

Chu Suiliang and the Minister of Rites took a deep breath and looked into the field together. Sure enough, they saw that some candidates were indeed frowning and hesitating when writing and recording the test questions. This was obviously because they did not understand the question, they were guessing the question!

It’s easy to say about other subjects, but if it’s like a medical subject or a clear calculation subject, then if you remember the question wrongly, what else can you answer? A word difference is a thousand miles apart!

Chu Suiliang stood up and the Minister of Rites slowly stood up. Wang Ping'an had to stand up as well.

Chu Suiliang took a few breaths, sat down again, looked at the Minister of Rites next to him, and saw that the Minister of Rites was pale and his lips were trembling. Neither of them had thought about it... It should be said that the civil and military officials in the court had thought about this problem. The accent could affect the scientific examination, which was really not something they could think about!

The scientific expedition was founded in the Sui Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty was confirmed, but the former Sui Dynasty was so chaotic, and the Tang Dynasty was not long since its establishment. There were only a few scientific expeditions in total. Who would have thought of the accent issue? Even with Li Zhi's intelligence and wisdom, under the premise that Wang Ping'an did not tell him, he would not be able to think of this problem!

Chu Suiliang suddenly became anxious. He pointed to the examination room and said, "This, this... what should I do? I didn't make any preparations for this in advance!"

The Minister of Rites was sweating coldly and said stutteringly: "Then, then... I can't let the candidates learn the correct pronunciation, or let the official and the others read the questions in various dialects. It's too late!"

The two looked at Wang Ping'an together, and Chu Suiliang said, "Not sick, you should come up with an idea!" As soon as he was anxious, he said all Li Zhi's catchphrase!

The Minister of Rites said, "Prince, you must have an idea, please speak quickly!"

Wang Ping'an said in surprise: "Is this problem so difficult to solve?"

He picked up a piece of paper on the table, shook it, and said, "Write the question into big characters and hang it on the beam of the examination room so that the candidates can see it. It would be amazing to write it accordingly. Candidates shouldn't even know big characters. If they don't know words, how can they take the exam?"

Chu Suiliang choked, then he slapped his forehead and said, "I... I was confused for a moment, why didn't I even expect this!"

The Minister of Rites was stunned. Why didn’t I expect such a simple method?

Chu Suiliang recruited the exam master Wailang and asked them to write the questions in big words and hang them at the front of the exam room, so that all the scholars could see them. The exam master Wailang were also surprised and turned to be overjoyed. Yes, why bother chanting each question three times and writing them out and hanging them in the exam room? Isn’t that enough!

When they copied the questions and got out, they heard a slight exhalation sound in the examination room, and many people seemed to be relieved.

When Chu Suiliang saw that the scholars were all lowered his head to answer the questions, he said, "No sickness, you are really a material for being the examiner. When the exam was first held, he discovered two extremely important loopholes. If the historical books record the scientific examination, you will definitely get your mark. Countless scholars in later generations will thank you!"

Wang Ping'an hurriedly said: "Everything award, more than the award, is a small problem, even if the officials don't mention it, the two adults will deal with it!"

The two questions he mentioned were all the most basic problems in the scientific examinations of later generations. Because he had more than a thousand years of knowledge, he immediately became an idol and was thanked by the scholars of later generations.

After sitting for a while, he stood up and said, "Two adults, sit up and go and take a walk."

Chu Suiliang said: "But it's okay to go."

Wang Ping'an left the main hall, took a look at the exam room one by one.

When the Minister of Rites saw him leaving, he whispered to Chu Suiliang: "Mr. Chu, I am not invisible. When the emperor ordered the prince to be the deputy chief examiner, the lower official was quite dissatisfied. He always thought that he was not old and had no other ability except to write a few poems. He always thought that he was a person who was worthy of fame, but he did not dare to say it!"

Chu Suiliang smiled and twisted his beard, asking, "What do you think now?"
Chapter completed!