Seeing that the emperor was so straightforward, Lu Haowen and others looked at each other in confusion and didn't say much... In fact, the rules of the palace examination are "beauty" and "criticism", which emphasizes magnanimity. Even those who have committed obvious mistakes such as taboos will only be demoted to the fifth class, let alone such a person?
And since it cannot be downgraded, it can only be placed at the last place in the first class.
This has already shown the government's protective attitude towards the ministers.
So, since the emperor and the prime ministers had agreed that this person was the fifth place in the palace examination, the officials from the Ministry of Rites present no longer hesitated, and directly opened the blank name and copied the name list... It turned out to be a man from Jizhou named Hu Quan.
Yes, I have to say a little more here.
At present, the ranking system of the palace examination in the Song Dynasty is a five-class system, not the later three-class system, and now there are five places in the first class, from the first to the fifth place are all in the first class.
This was a typical consequence of the large-scale expansion of the imperial examination system during the Song Dynasty.
In fact, there are always two runners-up these days, because the second and third place are right around the number one on the posted list, so they are named runners-up... If there is only one, it is called a one-eyed dragon.
As for Tanhua, it refers to the two youngest and most handsome among the Jinshi, and is related to the celebrations after the palace examination.
The so-called top three scholars, namely the first three scholars, are not reliable and can only be roughly guessed. It should be a custom formed after the establishment of the Sandingjia system in the Ming Dynasty.
In other words, Emperor Zhao was petty-minded and after seeing that "ancestor", he felt unhappy and moved Hu Quan from the first to the third, and finally to the fifth.
However, it must be said that Hu Quan's palace examination essay was so outstanding that his other essays seemed dull after this one.
In fact, by the afternoon, with all 602 essays delivered, the prospective Jinshi either nervously or confidently left Xihua Gate and returned to the Imperial College. They knew they would have to wait for a few more days for the announcement of the results, but they didn't know that in Huangyi Hall, the Emperor of the Song Dynasty and his ministers had already quickly and simply come to a rough conclusion.
After all, there are five classes in the five categories. The first and second classes are Jinshi Jidi, the third and fourth classes are Jinshi Chuan, and the fifth class is Tong Jinshi Chuan.
Just classify first and then rank, because except for the top five, the ranking itself is not very important.
Among them, Yue Fei was selected in the third class, which was about one hundred out of six hundred people, and he was considered to have obtained a Jinshi degree; while Qu Duan was in the second half of the second class, and obtained a Jinshi degree...
Zhao Jiu knew what was going on after just a rough glance. It had nothing to do with the content, but it had to do with the quotations from classics in the article and whether it was closely aligned with Confucian classics.
In this regard, although Yue Fei was gifted and had made great progress in literature, he was a latecomer after all. Compared with people like Qu Duan who had a literary reputation at an early age and knew how to write official articles, he was at a disadvantage.
But it doesn't matter. Zhao Jiu doesn't really want to give Yue Fei the top spot. In fact, this ranking just allows Qu Da to serve as a shield for Yue Pengju.
So after just one look, Emperor Zhao ignored it.
Next, as usual, Emperor Zhao had to arrange the order of the first class and give the first place to the second class before leaving, but at this time he had lost interest and just arranged it casually.
Among the first five people, the fifth one Hu Quan is not mentioned. The other four are named Li Yi, Wang Dabao, Zhao Boyao, and the last one is Yu Yunwen.
Among them, Yu Yunwen was the youngest, and according to the list he was only twenty years old. At this age, if he was not bad looking, he should have been one of the most handsome third place winners in this year's exam... but Zhao Jiu directly placed him fourth.
As for the other three, there was one number one and two number twos. Emperor Zhao originally thought that Wang Dabao's name was familiar and was ready to choose the number one. However, Zhu Shengfei reminded him that Zhao Boyao was actually a member of the royal family, from the branch of Zhao Dezhao, the second son of Emperor Taizu.
However, I don't know whether this reminder was intended to give Zhao Jiu special care to demonstrate the concept of uniting the royal family, or was intended to hint to the official not to select one of his own Zhao family members as the number one scholar?
But no matter what, Emperor Zhao Jiu followed the first idea. He ranked this clan member first in public, and Wang Dabao second, so-called Li Yi third.
The first class was decided, and the next step was to name the top two... This was also a matter of luck, and at this time, the already uninterested Zhao Guanjia had a little idea:
"I once granted Hu Anguo's second son Hu Hong the title of Imperial College student. He should also be eligible for the palace examination. Has he come to take the exam?"
Everyone rushed to look for it, and indeed they found it, but it was actually in the fifth class... It was also shocking!
You have to know that this is a great honorary examination. Among the six hundred people, there are quite a few capable officials, young people with military merits, people who redeemed refugees from Hebei... the so-called people with mixed backgrounds. The level of these people is there, and there is no shortage of people in the fifth tier.
However, Hu Hong was the son of a great scholar, the younger brother of the chancellor, and already 27 or 28 years old. His literary reputation had already spread far and wide. How could he be ranked fifth? It was impossible for him to write the three words "Zhao Kuangyin" directly in his article, right?
However, unexpectedly, Emperor Zhao and several ministers remained calm and did not seem to think there was any problem.
Because these people knew very well that this person could not have fallen to this position because of his writing skills. In all likelihood, it was because his doctrines were too obviously in line with his father's, and something in it caused dissatisfaction among the ministers who reviewed the papers, so he was specifically demoted to this position.
In fact, Emperor Zhao read Hu Hong's article and hesitated a little, but finally did not make any changes. He just selected Chao Gongwu, who was originally ranked sixth, as the first in the second class and a Jinshi... and did not ask any more questions.
And just like that, only one day later, on August 12, the results of the hastily held Imperial Examination for the Third Year of Jianyan were officially announced.
Although the East and West Huamen are no longer prosperous, they are still crowded with people.
In the evening, Yang Yizhong reported as usual, and mentioned the ministers' arrests. Among them, no one paid attention to Hu Quan, let alone mentioning that the top scholar Zhao Boyao was arrested by the prime minister Wang Boyan, the left second place Wang Dabao was arrested by the Minister of Rites Zhu Shengfei for his niece, and the right second place Li Yi was surrounded by the servants of Lady Yuwen who stayed in Beijing...
However, one thing that caused a sensation and caused a lot of discussion was that the recognized candidate for the third place in the imperial examination, Yu Yunwen, was actually kidnapped to the Daxiangguo Temple by the Jiedushi Zhang Rong himself... It was said that Leader Zhang did have a daughter in his family.
Instead, the trusted family members sent by Lu Haowen and Lu Xianggong came back empty-handed.
Zhao Jiu was stunned for a moment, but regardless of the lateness of the day, he went to Daxiangguo Temple in person... There was no other way, he was afraid that if he went too late, this young and naive new scholar would say something inappropriate to refuse the marriage, which would directly hurt the heart of his trusted leader.
How can that be?
PS: I was wrong, I bow to apologize to everyone, but it’s so beautiful... I really can’t control myself.
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