Second, the stereotyped writing system was established. Regarding stereotyped writing of candidates, modern people seem to be a form of answering questions that imprisons candidates' thoughts, but in Zhu Yuanzhang's view, it is only a means of merit-based admission. He thinks that only a well-written eight-part essay is qualified to be an official. If candidates can't even do this, how can they prove that they are better than others? This is like today's college entrance examination, although the subject knowledge of the examination will not be used at all in the future, but it depends on whether a student has talent; Whether it is worth further study.
Third, the assessment of selecting senior officials in the imperial court is more stringent. Before the Ming dynasty, Jinshi could be an official directly, and local posts and central ministries and commissions were possible. In the Ming Dynasty, candidates who wanted to be assigned to important positions in the imperial court after entering imperial academy needed further examinations. Before the Palace Examination, the top three students are the champion, the second one and the flower detector, and they can directly enter the Hanlin Academy for pre-job training; The second and third place need to be tested again. Those who pass the exam can enter, and those who fail the exam can be directly assigned to local governments or become small officials. Jishi Shu studied for another three years, and took the exam three years later. Those who pass are assigned to imperial academy, and those who fail are assigned to local or six departments. Therefore, stereotyped writing does not completely affect the country's selection of high-quality officials, because officials at the core of imperial power have received special pre-job training. Just like the current college entrance examination candidates need to study a major in the university before they can work.
These three points were Zhu Yuanzhang's important reforms to the imperial examination system, but they did not completely improve the imperial examination system, and they were related to an imperial examination case that prompted the later emperor to improve this system. The cause of the incident is that after the palace examination held in February of the 30th year of Hongwu, there were 5 1 people admitted to the Jinshi, but all of them were southerners, so they were called "South List". So there is a suggestion that the examiner cheats and only accepts southerners instead of northerners. When Zhu Yuanzhang learned about it, he immediately investigated and arrested the relevant officials, and then held the palace entrance examination again in June of that year. Later, he expanded his enrollment by 6 1 person, all of whom were northerners, so he was called the "North List".
In fact, in this case, the examiner did not cheat, but the ability of the northern candidates is indeed not as good as that of the southern candidates. This is because China's cultural center of gravity has gradually shifted to the south, causing the south to attach importance to merchant education, while the north attaches more importance to military affairs. Therefore, in February of Hongwu's 30th year, all the winners were southerners. Later, in order to compensate the northern students, Zhu Yuanzhang once again recruited some northern students by expanding the enrollment quota. Zhu Zhanji adopted the method of dividing papers between the north and the south, and completely improved the ancient imperial examination system.