Chapter 758 A Dream of Youth 290
The young man immediately deflated, "I didn't make it. But my sister is already very good. She was only three places away from making the list."
He had no talent for studying, but fortunately his grandfather was a doctor, so he could learn a skill to make a living. Unexpectedly, he had a talent for medicine and eventually passed the imperial medical examination.
My elder sister was intelligent from a young age, but the family couldn't send her to study, since there were no academies that accepted women. Although the family thought that my sister would become more sensible by reading more books, they never thought that the women in the family could become officials.
Even married women can participate in the selection. His sister is over twenty years old and married long ago, but she has three daughters and no sons, so she has never had a good life in her husband's family.
After hearing about the selection of female officials, she went home and asked her father for help to get a divorce from her husband.
The family argued about this for a long time, and in the end, it was the grandfather who made the decision to bring the older sister back. The three nieces were clearly not doing well; they were timid and submissive, and had various illnesses and were very thin.
The sister who came back seemed different from before; there was a light in her eyes.
"What about the others?"
Hearing his roommates' questions, the young man snapped back to reality. "That list is really long. I can't remember too much of it. Besides, I've been paying attention to my sister's side. I only know that there were 34 women who took the exam this time, and only 5 of them made it onto the list. One of them is Physician Xie."
"Oh? Thank you, Physician Xie, you've gone to take the exam again?"
"Yes! Not only did Physician Xie make the list, she was also the provincial champion!"
When the results were announced, the crowd in front of the list gasped in disbelief. They couldn't believe that Xie Ning, a woman, had won the provincial top prize! If it were just a matter of being on the list, they wouldn't be so surprised.
In an effort to win over scholars from across the land after the founding of the dynasty, the imperial examinations were held every three years, producing three to four hundred Jinshi (successful candidates in the highest level of the imperial examinations), and sometimes even five to six hundred.
But there are only so many official positions. Even if you pass the imperial examination, if you don't have any connections, you can only sit on the sidelines and wait to die. If you're unlucky, you might never get an official position.
Even so, those who passed the imperial examinations without official titles were still considered officials, and therefore the court was required to pay them salaries as usual. This was one of the reasons for the excessive number of officials in the Great Zhou Dynasty.
In order to improve this situation, the number of candidates selected for the imperial examination each year has been reduced under the current emperor's rule, making the imperial examination more prestigious.
Xie Ning was quite learned; she had already risen to the rank of a fourth-grade official. If she didn't have real talent and ability, she wouldn't have made it this far. So, no one was surprised that Xie Ning was on the list. This was just a provincial examination, and there would be even more people admitted than in the palace examination.
But the meaning of "provincial top scholar" is different.
"Bao'er passed! Bao'er, you passed! And you're the top scorer in the province!" Xie Qi was overjoyed. After Xie Ning finished the exam and returned home that day, Xie Ning was quite calm. He and his father reviewed the exam bit by bit, estimated Xie Ning's score, and after figuring out the approximate score and ranking, they didn't dare to tell Xie Ning.
They estimated that Xie Ning would make the list, but they never expected that Xie Ning would become the provincial champion!
Along with Xie Qi's voice, a little girl's voice rang out. She shouted and tugged at the sleeve of the woman beside her, "Grandmother! You've won!"
Candidates who came to see the results, as well as their family members and servants, would instinctively look in this direction.
One was Xie Ning, who was too young, and the other was a woman in her forties with white streaks in her black hair, her eyes filled with tears.
"Is this... Lord Xie Ning?" Some candidates looked at Xie Ning hesitantly. They were from out of town and had heard of Xie Ning's name, but had never actually seen her in person.
Looking at it now, he seems far too young.
Xie Ning was slightly taken aback, then nodded with a smile. She hadn't expected to win the provincial top prize; she had only done her best.
However, when she took the exam on current affairs, she encountered a rather familiar question. During the court session, some officials were arguing about it, getting red in the face and almost taking off their boots to fight.
Her position was just right at the time, but she still quietly moved a little to avoid being sprayed with spittle. Seven out of ten times during the court sessions, arguments would break out, and she was used to it.
Therefore, she might have had more experience than other candidates, making it much easier for her to write current affairs essays.
Looking at Xie Ning's calm expression, the candidates were heartbroken. Why did they, who had already become officials, still have to take the imperial examination? Did they know how difficult the exam was?
At this moment, the candidates completely forgot about the denigration they had felt towards women taking the imperial examinations beforehand. They had always assumed that women were inferior to them, since they had studied the Four Books and Five Classics from a young age and had teachers to instruct them, while women were confined to their homes. Even those who were more talented were only good at poetry and prose.
Even Xie Ning, they didn't think much of her literary talent; she was just a female doctor who studied medicine, and her ingenious designs were merely "craftsmanship."
But Xie Ning's name at the very top of the list was a slap in the face to them. At this moment, they could only secretly resent Xie Ning for taking up an extra spot.
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