Becoming a civil servant is the dream of many people, and the annual national examination will become a hot topic. As early as 1200 years ago, Bai Juyi, the great poet of the Tang Dynasty, also had a very difficult road to the national examination.
The main sources of candidates for the imperial examination in the Tang Dynasty are: first, students from various academic libraries, called “students”, who pass the examination in the academic library every year, can be directly sent to Shangshu Province for the examination; The second is that the examinees who are not in the school hall apply to the state and county where they are located, which is called “Xiang Gong”. After passing the exam, they go to Shangshu Province to take the exam, which is called “Provincial Examination”. Bai Juyi belongs to the latter category of examinees.
In the 15th year of Li Shizhen Yuan of Tang Dezong (799 AD), Bai Juyi, who was originally born in Weinan, Shaanxi Province, took part in the village tribute examination held by Cui Yan, the Xuanshe Observation Envoy. The test questions were “The poem of shooting at the right swan” and “The poem of listing the distant mountains in the window”. Bai Juyi won the recognition of Cui Yan and, together with another scholar, was recommended to take the Jinshi exam in Chang’an. So Bai Juyi stepped into the capital with hope and began his national examination.
In February of the 16th year of Zhenyuan (AD 800), Bai Juyi participated in the Scholarship Examination hosted by Gao Ying, a Chinese Buddhist monk, in Chang’an. The examination questions were “The Near and Far Fu of Sexual Habits” and “The Jade Water Records of Fangliu Poems”. As a result, he ranked fourth in senior high school with excellent grades, and at the same time, there were 17 people, including Zheng Yu, Cui Xuanliang, Du Wenying, and so on. Bai Juyi, 28, was the youngest. At that time, the Jinshi in the examination only got the qualification to be an official. In order to get an official position, they also needed to pass the official department examination, which is called “selective examination”. After Bai Juyi returned to his hometown, he continued to study hard in order to meet the higher examination.
Everything comes to him who waits. In the winter of the 18th year of Zhenyuan (802 A.D.), Bai Juyi came to Chang’an again, and participated in the outstanding imperial examination hosted by Zheng Yu, the minister of the Ministry of Public Affairs, with his friend Yuan Zhen. Bai Juyi ranked first and Yuan Zhen ranked fourth. In the spring of the next year, they were jointly appointed as the secretary of the provincial school. The secretary province is the royal library organization, and the school librarian’s duty is to manage the “Bangguo classics books”. This is a nine-grade official. Since then, the two have become life-and-death friends.
In the first year of Li Chunyuan’s reign of Emperor Xianzong of the Tang Dynasty (806 A.D.), in order to attract more talents, the imperial court held the system examination, which is a serious national examination. In the Tang Dynasty, the imperial examinations could lead to higher official positions. The most important item of the system examination is to try strategies. The so-called “strategy” is to answer the emperor’s “question”. Of course, all the questions asked by the emperor are current political issues, in order to find out the examinees’ ability to deal with problems.
At this time, Bai Juyi and Yuan Zhen were laid off due to the expiration of the term of office of the school librarian. They lived together in Huayang Temple, Shangdu, Chang’an, to prepare for the exam. Bai Juyi later wrote a poem about the situation at this time: “The climate in the middle of the summer season, and the heat of boredom has come to an end since then. The sound of cicadas chirps at dusk in the rainy days. The lane in Yongchong is quiet, and the courtyard in Huayang is quiet.”
Bai Juyi and Yuan Zhen “closed their doors for many months, speculated about contemporary events, and made up seventy-five pieces of policy items” in the Huayang Temple. Later, Bai Juyi compiled these articles into four volumes, which is the famous “Ce Lin”, which expounded their views on the political, economic, military, diplomatic, criminal law, official administration, customs and other aspects at that time, and can be regarded as the classic textbook of the national examination at that time. These meticulous and fruitful research results have laid a solid foundation for Bai Juyi’s national examination. This period of life has improved their thoughts and friendship.
In April of this year, Bai Juyi and Yuan Zhen participated in the planning test. In the examination, Tang Xianzong asked how the country could manage its politics to achieve results in response to the country’s internal and external problems at that time?
Bai Juyi had a clear idea about this. He replied that the people were hungry and poor because of the heavy taxes, the heavy taxes were due to the continuous wars, and the continuous wars were due to the continuous border disasters. The final reason for the continuous border disasters is the decadence of the imperial government. In order to change these, we must first punish those corrupt officials, make the political situation clean, and at the same time reduce and exempt the harsh taxes to make the people live and work in peace and contentment, so that the society can be stable and the country can turn from decline to prosperity. Bai Juyi’s countermeasures revealed the root cause of social unrest and depression at that time. Because Bai Juyi’s speech was too frank and touched the people in power, he only got the fourth grade, that is, the second grade. In the Tang Dynasty, there were no first and second grades in the imperial examination system. Bai Juyi was appointed as Zhou Zhi County Lieutenant, and finally realized his dream of national examination. At the same time, a total of 18 people entered the first place. Yuan Zhen won the first place in the examination and was awarded the official post of Zuo Shiyi.
After more than 20 years of hard study, Bai Juyi worked hard to succeed in the national examination. He recalled this period of study and life in The Ninth Book of the Yuan Dynasty. He had a deep feeling: “Twenty years have come, and there is no need to sleep and rest in the day class, night class and poem class. So that the tongue is sore, the elbow is callose, the skin is strong but not full, the teeth and hair are prematurely white before getting old, and the glimpses are like flying beads in the eyes, moving with tens of thousands, which is caused by hard learning, and it is also sad.”
Bai Juyi, a 28-year-old scholar, tried the “Book Judgement of Excellence” at the age of 30, and should be accepted at the age of 34. This is the “three grades” and “six lives and three grades” that he often used to masturbate later. It is also the national examination process for Bai Juyi to gain fame and enter the official career.