Chapter 121: Mathematics Included in the Imperial Examinations

"Will the imperial examinations truly be reinstated in the third year of Hongwu?"

In truth, even Old Zhu himself did not know when he would be able to hold the examinations. The imperial examination was a matter of selecting talent, but the world was not yet settled; he could not force it to happen prematurely. The talented scholars of the world were likely still waiting to see the outcome of the decisive battle between the Great Ming and the Northern Yuan. Who would emerge as the true victor was still unknown.

From Zhang Yi's words, Zhu Yuanzhang could vaguely discern the future military situation of the Great Ming. He buried this thought deep in his heart, for that was not why he had come to ask Zhang Yi—it was about the imperial examinations!

Whether it was Xu Cunren or Kong Ne, it was not easy to shake Old Zhu's will. Only this fellow, Zhang Yi, had planted a seed of doubt, leaving Old Zhu's heart fluttering in the air, unable to settle. After all, this rascal possessed a connection to the immortals; setting aside the ethereal heavenly courts and the nature of gods, even the mere fragments he had glimpsed from that "Heavenly Book" were enough to rattle Old Zhu's resolve.

The Emperor had spent several days pondering the examinations without reaching a conclusion, so he had decided to come and probe Zhang Yi's thoughts. The result was that Zhang Yi had merely replied that he didn't know either.

How could he not know? Since Zhu Yuanzhang had gone to the trouble of making the trip, he certainly intended to squeeze some answers out of him before leaving.

"Uncle, you don't know the inside story, but I do know a thing or two!"

Zhang Yi did not reveal his own role in the matter, but instead laid out the primary conflict between Xu Cunren and Zhu Yuanzhang.

"Actually, it is only natural for the Emperor to want to reform the examination system of the previous dynasty. If it were someone else, it probably wouldn't be an issue, but my teacher's personality happens to be at odds with His Majesty's reforms... Back and forth it went, until it became this mess. Fortunately, that fellow Kong Ne had some guts and ultimately gave His Majesty a way to save face!

However, based on what the Kong family descendant told me, the fact that His Majesty ordered my teacher to reform the examinations proves that his heart has wavered. It is not easy to change that man's will, but who knows if Mr. Xu's reform proposal will satisfy him? In other words, whether His Majesty will eventually revert to the Eight-Legged Essay format, no one knows! It might happen, it might not; the heavenly secrets are obscured, and even I cannot see them!"

It wasn't just that Zhang Yi couldn't see; even Zhu Yuanzhang didn't know if he would reform the system. If he had made up his mind, he wouldn't have come seeking Zhang Yi.

"Whether he changes it is one thing, but analyze this for me: what is the difference between reforming and not reforming?"

Zhang Yi curled his lip. "As for the difference, it is really just a matter of trade-offs! From the moment Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism emerged, the transformation of Confucianism into a religion became basically irreversible. Once it became religious, it inevitably absorbed some irrational elements. To pursue this so-called divinity, the role of human agency naturally diminishes! Therefore, from the Song to the Yuan, and from the Yuan to the Great Ming, the Emperor further restricting the scope of the imperial examinations is merely following the trend. If it were anyone else, they probably wouldn't object, but my teacher is a bit unconventional..."

"Are you saying he has nothing better to do?" Zhu Yuanzhang responded coldly, unsure if Zhang Yi was brushing him off or speaking his true mind.

"Not necessarily. Perhaps because there are still people like my teacher, I haven't completely despaired of the state of Confucianism... Of course, this has nothing to do with His Majesty's choices. As they say, those involved are often the most confused. Under the framework of Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism, while His Majesty's decisions might be excessive, they are not necessarily wrong! If His Majesty is at fault, the fault lies in the impact it will have on the future.

The core problem of His Majesty's examination reform is that it forbids students from deviating from the commentaries and thinking for themselves. What the students think must be what the sages thought—that is all! This is a characteristic that any [religion] should possess, and His Majesty has merely reinforced it. It’s just that, ultimately, his selfish motive is to limit the bureaucratic group, while incidentally cutting himself in the process!"

Zhang Yi cleared his throat and said, "The only constant in this world is change itself. Whether it is Buddhism, Taoism, or Confucianism, or anything else, Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism was originally a product of Confucianism seeking change, yet in the end, its 'reform' has become a pursuit of 'no change'... 'No change' is the desire of the reformer to control things within a range he can manage to satisfy his own desire for control. But doing so often leads things toward another kind of unpredictable change. His Majesty's choice is to further strengthen ideological control and weaken the entire Ming officialdom, but once he tries it, he will discover what kind of people he has selected...

Then he will regret stopping the examinations, but in the end, when it comes to trade-offs, he will still have to make a choice! That is why I say, whatever he chooses, he will lose something else!"

"Then what choice do you prefer? Xu Cunren's status quo, or His Majesty's ideological imprisonment?" Zhu Yuanzhang continued to press him.

"I'm just a bystander, what choice is there for me to make?" Zhang Yi wore an expression of complete indifference, which left Old Zhu deeply frustrated. This fellow was, after all, a Taoist who sought no fame; he didn't care at all about matters that determined the fates of countless people.

"However, if I look at what I see in the future, His Majesty's choice is ultimately wrong... In the third year of Hongwu, the court held the imperial examinations. He selected talent for three years, and in the end, dissatisfied, he shut the examinations down! In fact, looking at this event, he probably realized the problem, but by reverting to the recommendation system, he once again turned back the clock of history... From the recommendation system to the return of the imperial examinations, the Great Ming lost a lot in those years... The recommendation system did indeed bring many talented people to the Emperor, but it also buried the seeds of disaster for the Great Ming! The biggest problem among them is that while the Emperor wanted to weaken the power of the Chancellor, he ended up strengthening it to an unprecedented degree!"

"What?" Old Zhu was stunned. He had come to Zhang Yi to ask about the examinations; how did he end up talking about the recommendation system? After the establishment of the Great Ming, the court was severely lacking in personnel, and with the north being unstable, the current method of selecting talent was indeed primarily based on recommendations.

"The imperial examination is the court selecting talent through fair testing... Even if these people are incompetent or stupid, they are the Emperor's disciples! But recommendations—recommending the virtuous—can indeed bring up excellent people, but... hehe~ Uncle, you are also a merchant who has traveled far and wide. If you were an official in the court and you were to recommend talent, wouldn't there be bias? For instance, if both I and Brother Huang were people you should recommend, and I were more capable than Brother Huang, but Brother Huang were closer to you, who would you recommend?"

Old Zhu was just about to answer that he would recommend the more capable one, but he closed his mouth just as the words reached his lips. Human nature... If most people were allowed to choose, the answer was self-evident. The bureaucracy itself was all about forming cliques. If he let his subordinates recommend talent, the underhanded schemes involved went without saying.

The Emperor was not unaware of the danger, which was why holding the examinations was imperative. But if, as Zhang Yi said, he held the examinations, became dissatisfied, and chose to continue using the recommendation system, then in those years of back-and-forth, who knew how many of their own people the scholar-official group would have planted? In other words, his original move to restrict the power of the Chancellor would end up serving the very people he wanted to limit...

Zhu Yuanzhang took a deep breath and fell silent.

"Actually, you shouldn't put His Majesty on such a pedestal. After all, he is just a man, and people make mistakes. The effects of many policies only become apparent decades or centuries later. But this topic is too vast, and I don't care to elaborate... Let's just talk about the examination reform itself. Its contradiction lies in the fact that restricting thought is equivalent to restricting the quality of the selected talent. It is true that these people are easier for His Majesty to control, but most of them are incapable. His Majesty selects talent to get work done, but for the sake of control, he selects a group of people who cannot get work done... There is no way to resolve this contradiction! If he had prepared himself psychologically from the beginning and gritted his teeth to accept his reforms, that would be one thing, but he refuses to accept it, is unwilling, and in the end, he is just indecisive...?"

Old Zhu's face turned dark. Zhang Yi's words directly questioned his administrative ability, and he sat there fuming for a long time, unable to speak. Zhang Yi had long been accustomed to Old Zhu's temper and ignored him. Regardless, he wasn't wrong, and whether or not they believed him was someone else's business.

People always like to fill in the blanks with their own imagination, especially when it comes to having unrealistic expectations of great figures. Either they stand from a god's-eye view and try their best to belittle others, or they infinitely elevate a single ability. In this era where imperial power was sacred, it was understandable that Huang and others held some aura of reverence for the monarch. The legendary life of Zhu Yuanzhang, from beggar to emperor, left too much room for people to imagine.

But they overlooked that Old Zhu was, after all, a man. His background determined his conflicted personality, leading him to do some very contradictory things. From the recommendation system to the imperial examinations, to the later Hu Weiyong case and the North-South Ranking case, many things were actually the result of deep-seated habits caused by earlier policies. After the North-South Ranking case, the Emperor may have finally realized the problems of the Great Ming, but Heaven no longer gave him the time to change them.

You might ask, as an emperor, was Zhu Yuanzhang impressive? Undoubtedly, he was extremely strong. But his character flaws led to many incorrect decisions as well!

"Actually, the biggest problem with our current Emperor stems from his personality. He is like many overbearing fathers—he has a bad habit! He thinks if he can do it, others can too. Yet he doesn't believe others can do it as well as he can, so he wants to arrange everything clearly and explicitly. Although he is not a god, he wants to do the work of a god—this is the source of chaos..."

Zhu Biao could not agree more, nodding frequently behind Old Zhu. Zhu Yuanzhang could no longer save face and took the initiative to change the subject: "We came to ask about the imperial examinations; why are you rambling on so far? You say the Emperor's reforms are bad in this way and that way... Then if you were to reform it yourself, how would you do it?"

Zhang Yi shrugged. "Then it would be a miracle if His Majesty didn't cut my head off! Actually, as I see it, since he can't get rid of those Confucian people anyway, he should just honestly promote the imperial examinations... Why mess around with Eight-Legged Essays and ruin people? This isn't just ruining one dynasty or one generation! But if I were to reform it, I would definitely add some of my own 'private goods,' such as adding subjects like mathematics to the imperial examinations. But at that time, let alone the Emperor, I fear the great lords in the court would all want to behead me?"

"Mathematics?" Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao looked at each other; why did Zhang Yi bring up such an irrelevant issue?

"That's right, the mathematics from the Six Arts of the Gentleman—the mathematics that was kicked out of the imperial examinations starting in the late Tang Dynasty!"

"Compared to the Four Books and Five Classics, mathematics is but a minor path. Why add such a thing? Isn't this just nonsense?" Zhu Biao could not help but refute Zhang Yi. Unlike Old Zhu, he had received a relatively orthodox Confucian education, and to him, Zhang Yi's statement was a betrayal of the scriptures and a departure from the path.

"Look, Uncle, Brother Huang can't take it anymore himself!" Zhang Yi laughed, clutching his stomach.

As for the so-called examination reform, Zhang Yi was just spouting nonsense; besides, talking big behind closed doors carried no responsibility. But Old Zhu, hearing Zhang Yi's words, became thoughtful.

He asked, "Since we are just chatting, why don't you simply explain the reasoning behind it!"

"It's very simple. Because no matter how the Emperor changes it, his actions are actually just patchwork within the Confucian framework, which is inherently a double-edged sword! Through reform, he has weakened the autonomy of the scholars, but he has also strengthened their loyalty to Confucianism itself! Just think, those scholars are like us monks and Taoists, chanting scriptures all day, pondering how the sages thought—isn't that just cultivating a group of low-ability but fanatical believers? Whether this is good or bad for imperial power, who can say? But mathematics is different. Although it is one of the Six Arts of the Gentleman, it doesn't have much to do with Confucianism! Adding it in could genuinely raise the standards for selecting talent!"

"How so!" Old Zhu stopped Zhu Biao's urge to debate the scriptures with Zhang Yi and asked calmly.