In February of the thirtieth year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty (1397), Nanjing held an examination, and no one thought that after the list was released, it set off a huge storm and completely opposed the southerners and northerners.
After the list was released, the students found that not only the top three people in the examination were all southerners, but all the 51 people admitted were southerners, which was called the South List.
The northern students were completely angry, and jointly wrote a letter directly to sue the chief examiner Liu Sanwu for favoring southerners.
After 70-year-old Zhu Yuanzhang learned of the situation, he immediately sent someone to verify it, and there was no problem with the results. The students in the north were naturally dissatisfied, and Zhu Yuanzhang had to deal with the relevant **, and also beheaded the two champions.
In May of the thirtieth year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty (1397), Zhu Yuanzhang announced that the examination would be re-conducted, and this time Zhu Yuanzhang personally read the papers, and gave all 61 places to the students in the north.
The three-month case of the North and South Bang came to an end, and this incident was an incident in which Zhu Yuanzhang was in order to appease the north and expand the ruling base.
Why is this happening?
The reason for the occurrence of the North-South list
The Ming Dynasty North and South List reflects an extreme case of cultural differences between the north and the south of the Ming Dynasty, and the dispute between the north and the south is actually the dispute between the north and the south regions, and finally triggered the dispute between the north and the south above the court.
It is not the first time that the region is black in history, Zhao Kuangyin of the Northern Song Dynasty has suppressed southern students for a long time, and even set up a monument in the council hall "Southerners are not allowed to sit in this hall".
** from the north has always occupied the position of prime minister, until Wang Qinruo, a native of Jiangxi, became the prime minister, and the whole rule was broken.
In fact, the imbalance in regional development is related to several southward migrations in China's history.
China originated in the north, where it was the center of the country before the Three Kingdoms, and the south was just a wilderness.
After the Jin Yongjia Rebellion, a large number of people moved south, bringing with them population, culture, and advanced technology, and the south began to develop.
During the Jingkang Rebellion in the Northern Song Dynasty, the population moved south again, and the economic development of the Southern Song Dynasty surpassed that of the north and became the economic center of gravity of the country.
With money, the big families in the north moved south, and the southern culture also developed, and when it came to the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang set the capital in Nanjing, and the center of the country also moved to the south.
Since the Jingkang Rebellion in the north, there have been repeated wars, and in the early years of the Ming Dynasty, Shandong, Henan and other places have become deserted and uninhabited no man's land. In this way, there are fewer readers, and the level is lowered.
On the other hand, with the development of the economy in the south, there are many scholars, and the level is getting higher and higher. In the imperial examinations, the advantages are becoming more and more obvious.
In the Hongwu Dynasty of the Ming Dynasty, the number of imperial examinations in the south was much larger, far greater than that in the north. It was not until the thirtieth year of Hongwu that the northern students were wiped out.
Why did Zhu Yuanzhang do this
Although the Ming Dynasty was driven out of the Central Plains, the remnants of the Ming Dynasty carried out ten large-scale invasions and attacks in the north.
It was not until the twenty-first year of Hongwu (1388) that Lan Yu led an army of 150,000 and defeated the last main force of the Northern Yuan Dynasty in the Battle of Yuerhai, and the "Yuan" did not exist.
The Ming Dynasty favored the south, and there were many wars on the northern border, and Zhu Yuanzhang cared very much about the hearts of the people in the north because of the weak control of the north.
The Ming and Yuan forces are in a complex situation of tug-of-war, and in order to capture the hearts of the people in the north, they must grasp the hearts of the readers. In the early days of the Ming Dynasty, there were still many scholars who were loyal to the Yuan Dynasty and were unwilling to surrender to the Ming Dynasty "in the south of the Yangtze River and in the north".
In the fifteenth year of Hongwu (1382), the Ming Dynasty restored the imperial examination system of every three years, and it was the emperor Zhu Yuanzhang who was most concerned about to capture the scholars and hearts of the people in the north.
Although the chief examiners Liu Sanwu, Zhang Xin and others were from the south, they also followed the principle of fairness in the examination and did not engage in favoritism, but their biggest mistake was that they did not understand the "grand plan" of the emperor Roubei.
Zhu Yuanzhang was annoyed that his ministers had ruined his plan, so he used a simple and brutal way to solve the problem of dissatisfaction among northern candidates caused by the North-South List incident.
The North-South List incident can be seen as a means used by Zhu Yuanzhang to seize the hearts of the northerners, suppress the southern clans, eradicate the opposition forces, and implement cultural **.
The ministers and students only saw the fairness of the examination, but the emperor thought more than that, to fight against the Northern Yuan, calm the people's hearts, and stabilize the north, all of which were for the country's great plan.
Zhu Yuanzhang directly killed the two champions and several chief examiners, calmed the anger of the northern candidates, and invalidated all the results of the candidates on the southern list.
The 85-year-old examiner, Liu Sanwu, a native of Hunan, was too old and was sent to the border.
The southern candidates were really wronged, especially the two champions, who were both victims.
According to the statistics of the Ming and Qing Dynasty Jinshi Inscription Inscription Inscription Index, during the Zhu Yuanzhang period, 71% of the total number of Jinshi from the south were born.
The implementation of the north-south division system marked the beginning of the power to give way to the local power represented by the landlords and bureaucrats.
Zhu Yuanzhang exchanged the blood of the two champions for the restoration of northern culture, the northern scholars were appeased, and the legacy of the north-south list case did not disappear.
The north-south roll of the Ming Dynasty
In the first year of Hongxi (1425), Yang Shiqi, a cabinet scholar, came up with the idea of the north-south list, "six points for the south and four points for the north", and Akihito-mune accepted this suggestion, but he died ten months after ascending the throne and failed to implement it.
Out of the word 'south' and 'north', if you take 100 people, then 60 in the south and 40 in the northRenzong said: "Yes. In previous years, there were no qualified people in the North Division, so laziness became a trend. Ming History Chronicle, Volume 28.
In the second year of Xuande (1427), Zhu Zhanji of Xuanzong of the Ming Dynasty finally implemented the system of dividing the north and south volumes.
In the fifth year of Zhu Qiyu Jingtai (1454), the Ming Dynasty finally divided the north-south volume system into southern, middle, and northern volume systems in detail. The admission percentage is % and 10%.
In order to maintain the fairness of the examination in the southern and central regions, if it is found that it is an examination immigrant, it will be removed from the list.
Under this system, the cultural and educational undertakings in the north have also been greatly promoted. The Ming Dynasty greatly enhanced the appeal of the people in the northern regions.
During the Shunzhi period, he still inherited the Ming Dynasty's north-south volume system, until the fifty-first year of Kangxi (1712), the north-south volume system was finally abolished, and the provincial admission system was implemented.
From the point of view of unification and stability, the North and South Bang was a good way to ensure that the scholars of the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty entered the ruling group relatively equally.
The Ming Dynasty North and South List made the emergence of regional factions, which provided a hotbed for future party struggles.
Postscript
Today's college entrance examination still has traces engraved with the north-south list, which is the result of historical and cultural development.
Later generations have used statistical methods to explain the fraud problem of the north-south list, and there is indeed a probability of fraud in the south.
In any case, the north and south lists are the tribulations that immortals fight, mortals suffer, and ordinary scholars go through.