In the era of the imperial examination, scholars studied hard but were afraid, and they were afraid of the candidates who rushed thousands of miles away
In the era of the imperial examination, it was not difficult for scholars to overcome the hardships of ten years, but the hardships of the imperial examinations often made them tremble, because it was a very difficult process. If books are a training for them, then the Beijing examination is a test of their physical fitness. It can be said that"Rush to take the exam"That's it"Rush to take the exam", it carries too much pain for the reader.
From the Tang Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, in order to reflect the openness and fairness of the imperial examination, the two-step and three-step examinations must be conducted at a unified time, unified content, and centralized examination. This provision first of all makes it difficult for candidates who are thousands of kilometers away from home to take the test. Not to mention that during the Tang and Song dynasties, the exams were concentrated in the capital during the Ming and Qing dynasties, that is to say, in the Ming and Qing dynasties, the exams were held in the cities, and the students gathered in the provincial capitals, which was enough for them to run around.
In the old days, when transportation was not yet developed, it was not easy to travel thousands of kilometers, so to speak"Stretch their muscles and bones, starve their bodies and skin"Not to mention that both economic and natural conditions will discourage a considerable number of people. There are many students who are not afraid of the exam but cannot endure the long journey to pass the exam due to the physical demands.
For candidates, the imperial examination is far from it"Gangneung is a long way"It's so easy, and its difficulty is closer to Shu Dao. During the Tang Dynasty, Liu Lu, who was born in Jingzhou, went to Beijing to take the exam, and it took half a year to return and collect money for two months, but it is unknown whether this is so. The imperial examinations in the Tang Dynasty were held once a year, which meant that candidates would spend most of the year on the road if they did not live in Chang'an.
In addition to the long distance, the inconvenience of cars and boats is also a major problem. It is said that once Su Dongpo and two or three friends went to take the exam by boat, encountered wind and waves on the way, and the time to enter the examination room was not right, the examiner did not let him enter the examination room
There are two or three people in a small boat, and they go on the water on four, five or six days, and it is too late for seven rivers and nine rivers.
Su Dongpo immediately read the next section in reverse order:
Ten years of hard work, reading nine volumes and eight volumes of poems, taking more exams in seven or six or five subjects, and entering two doors in four or three.
This anecdote of the imperial examination has been passed down as a good story to this day, but it is not difficult to see that the inconvenience of the car and ship is another difficult problem in the imperial examination.
The rugged mountain roads were unbearable for the candidates, and storms and plagues threatened their lives from time to time. In the tenth year of Tang Yuanhe (815), Liao Youfang fell off the list and fell ill in the west of Baoji"I have worked hard for many years, but I haven't met my soulmate! "Before dying, Liao Youfang asked him to be buried so that his bones would not be lost. Liao Youfang organized the funeral for him and wrote a poem:
Reflecting on Jun's death, the empty bag Hanmo a few times. I mourn in silence for you, and I don't know where my home is.
In the third year of the Kangxi reign of the Qing Dynasty (1664), Chen Yan, the first of the first year, wanted to return to Zhejiang Province, and in the eleventh year of Shunzhi (1654), he was born in poverty and wanted to go to the provincial capital Hangzhou to participate in the district examination"The poor can't buy a boat, they only use a rice bucket to hold it, and the smell in the boat can't be approached, and there is wind behind the boat to eat"。At that time, people's distress in rushing for the exam can be imagined.
In the early years of the Qing Dynasty, there was only one township examination room in Huguang (Hubei, Hunan), and all candidates had to go to Wuchang. From Hunan to Wuchang, it is a few thousand kilometers and a maximum of three thousand kilometers. No matter what year it is, as long as it is a township test, the more than 800 kilometers to Dongting is a dangerous road, the weather is hot, at dusk, strong wind and rain, candidates are always running in the flood, so that it appears'Seventeen degrees fifty-eight'This makes the number of candidates in Hunan and the number of candidates in Hubei in stark contrast, with less than 3,000 candidates in Hubei and tens of thousands in Hunan. In view of this situation, in the first year of Yongzheng (1723), Emperor Yongzheng issued an order to set up another examination room in Changsha to hold the Hunan examination.
In addition, candidates have difficulty overcoming difficulties caused by sudden natural disasters and wars. For example, in the 23rd year of Daoguang (1843), during the county examination in Henan Province, due to the sudden burst of the Yellow River, flooding in various counties, students were trapped on the road, unable to walk an inch, and could not reach the examination hall as scheduled. During the Xianfeng period, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom revolted, and students from many provinces did not dare to go to the examination room due to the obstruction of the road, and most of them were captured by the rebels on the way. Not to mention the situation in the Qing Dynasty, the hardships of students rushing to take the exam hundreds of years ago can be imagined.
After the establishment of the imperial examination system, successive rulers continued to improve it, and the improvement and perfection of some of these systems were directly related to the suffering of the imperial examination. The Tang Dynasty held an annual imperial examination, and the early years of the Song Dynasty were also interrupted for a year, which was later changed to the Yingzong period, and finally changed to a three-year round, and privatized the imperial examination. The reason for this reform has to do with the difficulty of passing the exam.