bookrandom Chapter 425 First Arrival in Bianjing
Chapter 425 First Arrival in Bianjing
After arranging his household affairs, Lu Cheng rushed to Bian Jing with only his follower Lai Fu.
The distance from Yuncheng County to Bianjing is three or four hundred miles, which is not too far. Two people and two horses walked along the official road for a few days and arrived at Bianjing City.
It has to be said that although the Song Dynasty was much inferior in military power, its economy and culture were indeed prosperous. The prosperity of the city of Bianjing was definitely better than the city of Yanjing of the Ming Dynasty in the world of "The Sword of the Assassin".
"Lotus leaf cake, freshly baked lotus leaf cake with dates."
"Shrimp buns, hot shrimp buns."
“Date cake, candied fruit, almond biscuits…”
“Freshly cooked braised lamb…”
Listening to the various hawking sounds on the street and feeling the bustling market around him, Lai Fu beside Lu Cheng couldn't help but look around, looking like a countryman coming to the city.
"Master, we have been traveling for several days in a row. How about we go eat something first?"
"Let's go, let's try the food of Bianjing."
Arriving at a crowded restaurant, Lu Cheng ordered a few signature dishes and tasted them. He found that they were indeed much better than the restaurants in Yuncheng County.
In this era, stir-frying had only just become popular, and the variety of dishes was not rich enough, but the chefs in some big restaurants were still quite skilled.
After dinner, Lu Cheng went straight to the Imperial College to report, submitted the documents for admission to the provincial school and the assessment of Lu Cheng's academic character. After completing a series of procedures, Lu Cheng successfully became a student of the Imperial College.
Of course, at this time Lu Cheng was just an outer-dormitory student at the Imperial Academy.
Since the abolition of the imperial examination in Chongning, the Song Dynasty adopted the method of selecting talents through the academy. Students were first promoted from the county school to the state school, and then from the state school to the Imperial College. After arriving at the Imperial College, the "three-house method" was used to select talents.
The so-called three-house system, or more accurately, the Imperial College three-house system, can be traced back to the "four-door learning" proposed by Fan Zhongyan during the reign of Emperor Renzong. Later, in the first year of Jiayou, Ouyang Xiu proposed the "three-house system for raising students". Later, when Wang Anshi was carrying out reforms, he also proposed reforming the imperial examination system and selecting talents from schools.
During the reign of Emperor Shenzong of Song, the Three-Shekou System began to be implemented in the Imperial College. In the third year of Chongning of Emperor Huizong of Song, the Three-Shekou System officially replaced the imperial examination.
The three-dormitory system divided the students of the Imperial College into three categories: outer-dormitory students, inner-dormitory students, and upper-dormitory students. The number of upper-dormitory students was set at 100, the number of inner-dormitory students was set at 200, and the number of outer-dormitory students was unlimited.
The academies in each state sent candidates to the Imperial College through recommendation or examination to become external students of the Imperial College.
The Imperial Academy organizes an examination every year, which is presided over by officials specially appointed by the court. All the outer-dormitory students are assessed. Those outer-dormitory students who pass the assessment and have excellent academic performance and good conduct can become inner-dormitory students.
Every other year, the Imperial Academy would hold an examination for inner-shelf students to be promoted to upper-shelf students, and select those students with qualified results and excellent overall performance to become upper-shelf students.
Taixue Academy holds a monthly examination every month to record students’ grades and behavioral performance.
After becoming an upper-class student, all upper-class students will be divided into three categories based on their accumulated scores and performance in various aspects. The list of upper-class students will be reported to the court, and the court will directly assign corresponding official positions. Middle-class students can directly participate in the palace examination and be interviewed by the emperor. Lower-class students can directly participate in the "Jinshi Examination" or choose to stay in school to teach.
Moreover, the entire college adopts the elimination method. If a student fails in three monthly examinations, he will be demoted to a lower dormitory. Students in the upper dormitory will be demoted to students in the inner dormitory, and students in the inner dormitory will be demoted to students in the outer dormitory. Students in the outer dormitory will be eliminated directly.
This talent selection program has largely avoided the drawbacks of the imperial examination where one test determines the winner. It not only looks at the final test results, but also the regular monthly tests and behavioral performance, allowing the college to have a clearer and more comprehensive understanding of the students.
Moreover, this talent selection method also attaches great importance to students' comprehensive abilities and practical political abilities, and the selected talents are more useful.
Of course, any system has its pros and cons.
The three-house system was used to select talents, and the students' daily performance was in the hands of the teachers, which gave rise to corruption within the Imperial College. In order to get a better evaluation, students would do everything they could to please the teachers, and the teachers would naturally favor the students they liked, and all kinds of favoritism and fraud emerged one after another.
Before registering for school, Lu Cheng asked someone to inquire about the internal situation of the Imperial College and learned some of the unspoken rules there, such as how much silver to give to the person in charge when reporting in to arrange a good dormitory, how to build good relationships with the teachers, etc.
Although all Taixue students are provided with food and accommodation by the college, the dormitories they stay in are of different quality, and it all depends on how the person in charge arranges them.
Of course, before Lu Cheng came, he had someone buy a small courtyard in Bian Jing for him to live in.
Later, Shi Jin brought people from the escort company to send the people who usually served Lu Cheng to the capital.
Even though he came to school, Lu Cheng came to enjoy himself, not to be a miserable student.
After completing all the formalities, it was already evening. Lu Cheng took Lai Fu to stroll around the city of Bianjing. When they arrived at the gate of a large courtyard, they heard the sound of gongs and drums, singing, and occasional cheers coming from inside. Lu Cheng immediately became interested and walked in with Lai Fu.
This place is called Liangyuan, and it is a brothel.
Goulan and Washe were also special entertainment venues in Song Dynasty cities. Washe generally refers to a large-scale comprehensive entertainment venue, which has various entertainment performances, places to eat, and some shops.
A brothel is a place for performing arts, which can be opera, acrobatics, instrumental music, singing and dancing, storytelling, novels, dancing, wrestling, etc.
Some of the Song Dynasty people who had the means would come to the brothels and theaters in their spare time to listen to music and watch performances.
Lu Cheng bought a seat near the front and sat down. He ordered some tea and snacks. He was enjoying the opera performance on the stage when he heard someone next to him calling out, "Master Lin, how come you have time to come to Goulanyuan today?"
"I came out with my wife to burn incense, and I happened to pass by here, so I came in to sit and rest."
"Please take a seat."
Lu Cheng turned his head to look at the person who came, and saw a sturdy man who was eight feet tall, with a leopard head, round eyes, a swallow chin and a tiger beard, who came to the front of the stage and sat down.
Judging from the aura emanating from the other person and the way he walked, this person was obviously a martial artist, and his aura was somewhat similar to that of Wang Jin, the Imperial Guards instructor he had met before.
Lu Cheng smiled and greeted a man sitting next to him: "My dear brother, I just heard someone call that man "Instructor Lin". Could he be the famous "Leopard Head" Lin Chong, the spear and stick instructor of the 800,000 imperial troops?"
"Yes, that is Master Lin. This young man looks unfamiliar, is he from out of town?"
"That's right. I just arrived in Bianjing today and entered the Imperial College to study."
"So you are a student from the Imperial College. I am so sorry for your disrespect."
After chatting with the man for a few brief sentences, Lu Cheng turned around and looked at Lin Chong again. Lin Chong seemed to have noticed something and also turned to look at Lu Cheng. Seeing that Lu Cheng looked a little unfamiliar, he nodded in acknowledgement.
"Good! Great singing!" A burst of applause interrupted Lu Cheng's thoughts. Lu Cheng looked up at the stage and saw a martial artist somersaulting into the stage.
Just after watching the performance for a while, a cute little girl ran in, hurriedly found Lin Chong, and whispered a few words in his ear. Lin Chong quickly got up and walked outside.
Although Lu Cheng was several seats away from the other party, he relied on his extraordinary hearing to hear what the little maid said: "Someone is teasing the lady under the Wuyue Tower..."
Lu Cheng had never expected that he would encounter Gao Yanei flirting with Lady Lin as soon as he arrived in the capital. He immediately lost interest in watching the show and wanted to just go and watch the fun...