Under the imperial examination system, how do candidates cheat?

The ancient college entrance examination, that is, the imperial examination, sprouted in the Chaju of the Han Dynasty, and Emperor Wendi personally promoted Chao Cuo. In the first year of Daye (605), Yang Di began to set up the imperial examination department to test and draw lots for officials, which broke the hereditary tradition and the imperial examination system was born. First, only the liberal arts, four books and five classics, and writing articles. In the Tang Dynasty, Wu Zetian liked macho men, and the chief set up a martial arts school to test martial arts, strength and endurance. After the Song Dynasty, Wu drama was further studied.

China was a huge agricultural empire in ancient times, ruling the country by virtue, including philosophy, emphasizing agriculture and restraining commerce, lacking numerical management and hardly encouraging the development of industry and commerce, so the examination was mainly in liberal arts. It was not until the 24th year of Guangxu (1898) that the Qing government set up an "economic college" to select "people with knowledge of Chinese and foreign affairs". Strictly speaking, this kind of "current political economics" can only be regarded as both arts and sciences, and it was forced by foreign devils, so the imperial examination had to cooperate with westernization to make some reforms.

Emperor China, from 605 to 1905, had a whole history of 1300 years, and produced more than 700 champions, including Fu Shanxiang, the only female champion in Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Hundreds of millions of students crowded on the imperial examination road, and officials asked, did they cheat in the meantime? Too many, and the means are better than today!

Cheating means one: the big shot threatens the examiner.

This is mainly because the dignitaries put pressure on the examiner, of course, it does not rule out that the examiner takes the initiative to kiss up. In the second year of Tang Tianbao (743), Miao Jinqing, assistant minister of the official department, was appointed as the chief examiner by Li. Under the guidance of Miao and Song, all 64 children of noble cadres were selected as Jinshi. But things are developing too fast, because there is a well-known fool-Zhang Ying, the son of a favorite in the imperial suggestion, who was recorded as the first in the imperial family!

Happened to be An Lushan know, Ann's adult suddenly psychological imbalance. Think about my old Ann. Although she doesn't know a few words, today, she would rather be spoiled by her grandson than go to the college entrance examination. How dare you do that? He immediately reported to the emperor. After hearing this, Emperor Xuanzong personally presided over the second interview. Sure enough, the princelings' children were almost wiped out, and the survivors were "useless", while Zhang Ying was "holding paper all day and unable to write, which people called" dragging white ". I couldn't hold back a fart, but I made a blank sheet of paper and became the "Zhang Tiesheng" of the Tang Dynasty! Xuanzong was furious and demoted Zhang Ying's father and a group of examiners. (Biography of Miao Jinqing in the New Tang Dynasty)

Qin Gui in the Southern Song Dynasty also did such a thing. Once, his relative's son, Qin Xuan, had an exam. A few days before the exam, Mr. Cheng Zishan, the head of Zhongshu, was called into Qin Xiangfu and ate for a long time, but he couldn't see Qin Gui. Cheng Zishan sat alone on the table and looked at the prose written by scholar Qin Gui, The Sage takes the sun, the moon and the stars as Ji Fu. He knew it by heart, and he could almost recite it. A few days later, Cheng Zishan was appointed as the main test and proposition. After learning that Qin Xuan was going to have an exam, Mr. Cheng suddenly realized that he immediately understood the intention of Qin's leadership, so he wrote an examination paper on this topic, and several teachers who changed the examination paper simply kowtowed to the end. As a result, Qin Xuan won the first place. Qin Gui, the old fox, saw that winning the first prize was a bit excessive, so when he wanted to publish the list, he changed it to the second place. Because he knew the background of whose director Qin Xuan was, the perfect composition was written by others, and whose director Qin Xuan memorized it. Qin Gui cheated many times, and it was not until his death that the Qin family's case of favoritism and malpractice was liquidated.

Cheating method 2: directly bribe the examiner.

It has also been said that during the Tang Dynasty and Emperor Gaozong's reign, the bribery case of Dong Sigong, the examiner, shocked the ruling and opposition parties. In Chang 'an, even rich people pay bribes to examiners. For the success of the imperial examination, people had to become "good friends" of these rich people. At that time, the jingle was "You can't see the king and the sinus in vain", and Dou Xian was the richest man in Chang 'an who specially intervened in the imperial examination at that time.

In the late Tang Dynasty, the situation was more turbulent, the country was destitute, and corruption in the imperial examinations became increasingly rampant. Before the examiner paid bribes, the government issued a "red-headed document" to buy and sell diplomas. In July of the second year of Su Zongde (757), the imperial court expressly stipulated that as long as you pay 100,000 words, you can give your son the background of Amin dynasty (this "Ming Dynasty background" is equivalent to today's self-taught diploma, but the main backrest is all kinds of classics, far less literary talent than Jinshi). There are some differences: for example, those who have studied and have some background can be reduced by 20 thousand; Those who fail the provincial examination can be reduced by 50 thousand with the admission ticket; Those who are proficient in writing pay hundreds of words at the original price; If you are illiterate, "if you have never learned to be illiterate, add 3000." The advertisement for this license has been issued by the state. Do you think it will be far from national subjugation?

Of course, bribing the examiner also failed, and the worst outline of the National People's Congress belongs to Mr. Zhou Fuqing. Look at this strange name. He is the grandfather of the famous stubborn Lu Xun.

Zhou Fuqing was a scholar in Tongzhi ten years (187 1 year). In March of the 19th year of Guangxu, Lu Xun's great-grandmother died, and Zhou Fuqing Ding You returned to his hometown. In August this year, after having obtained the provincial entrance examination in Zhejiang, the examiner Yin was his classmate, and Mr. Zhou wanted to take the back door for his son's college entrance examination. At the end of July, Yin took a boat to Suzhou. Zhou Fuqing secretly sent Tao Ashun, a domestic slave, to the ship to deliver a secret letter. The secret letter stated the names of Lu Xun's father Zhou Yongji and six other candidates who needed attention. He also secretly ordered the words "joint name" of "Chen Zhonghe" (the "joint name code" in the text) and also stated the labor fee of "10,000 yuan". But this Tao Ashun is probably the prototype of his father, so stupid that even a red envelope can't be stuffed in, so that the secret letter was exposed in public on the examiner's boat. Yin turned on the spot and arrested "Runtu Dad" for interrogation. Lu Xun's father and other children mentioned in the letter were disqualified from the examination. Zhou Fuqing quickly fled to Shanghai to hide. Later, the court severely wanted him, so he had to go back to his hometown and surrender himself. He ended up in prison for eight years, and the Zhou family declined from then on.

Cheating means three: hire a gunman.

During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, gunmen provided a one-stop substitute exam service to bully ancient people without ID cards and photos. They started from the county exam, and both the government exam and the academy exam were arranged by one person. The Jianghu scientific name is "Yixiang", because the ancient imperial examination took a long time, usually more than one day. This kind of incense is specially used to describe the gunman's quick exam.

In fact, the gunman was an open secret as early as the Tang Dynasty, so that there were "three or four out of ten; For the official, there are two or three out of ten. "At the end of the Tang Dynasty, the most famous gunslinger in history was born. Literary talents are descendants of Wen Yanbo, the prime minister of the early Tang Dynasty. His literary thoughts are superb and he became famous young. But he loves gambling and whoring, and his behavior is debauchery. He often writes the feelings of whoring as "rhetoric", so he is kicked out of every exam because of his low character (moral evaluation in the imperial examination in Tang Dynasty). So he began to be a crazy "gunman" to get back at everyone's prejudice. Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty took the exam in the 12th year (858). In order to prevent Xiaowen from being shot, the examiner specially arranged for him to sit at the entrance of the examiner's office. How warm, the writing brush wrote 1000 words and left the scene early, which made the invigilator breathe a sigh of relief. But to the examiner's surprise afterwards, Xiao Wen actually helped eight people finish the paper under the eyes of the invigilator! From then on, Xiao Wen became famous in World War I and became a "gun god". Just simply remember the old and new Tang Shu. What means does it use to "hide eight people"? It only attracts the envious eyes of today's cross-century gunmen, and they hate to meet each other.

Cheating means 4: cheat sheet entrainment.

Having said that, I have seen many readers smile knowingly. Indeed, this trick of "doing it in the sleeve" has so far ranked first in the "cheating means list". I remember when I was a child, printers were not popular, and cheat sheets were all made by hand. The students in the class called this micro-carving technique "SAO Zi", and the allusion came from the Chinese textbook "Lu Tizhi Chong Chong Zhen Kansai". Lu Da asked Zheng Tu, "If you still want 10 Jin of cartilage, you should carefully chop it into pieces and don't see any meat on it ..."

Bribing examiners and hiring gunmen will cost a lot of money, involving many people and high risk factor; However, because of its strong operability, high privacy and economy, it is widely used by candidates. In September of the tenth year of Tang Tianbao, Xuanzong visited Qin Zhenglou to try to "hold the department with talents", and some candidates actually "privately hold the literary policy" under the emperor's eyes-how bold! But at that time, students mainly introduced through the back door, "driving the temple gate and entering and leaving the princes", and the entrainment problem was not the main problem.

The Song Dynasty reformed the examination method and abolished the recommendation of powerful people. Exams are only conducted during the day, and the results are determined by "one-day art", so there are many cheats. Similar to today, not all poor students, many high flyers also like cheat sheets. In the fifth year of Song Dazhong's Xiangfu (10 12), 18 people were found, and re-examination was required. Results 12 people were still qualified. The court announced the reform: the college entrance examination will not be searched in the future.

The examination room in the Southern Song Dynasty was a mess, because Qin Shihuang and Hui Di were sandwiched in the north, and Zhao Gou, located in a corner of the south of the Yangtze River, often engaged in "enrollment expansion" in order to attract intellectuals. Exams are chaotic, with tens of thousands of candidates. The examination room provides inkstone water, snacks, soaked rice, tea wine, vegetables and meat, etc. The examination room is like a supermarket. And if you encounter difficulties, you are allowed to raise your hand and ask questions to the invigilator. Therefore, at this time, the entrainment no longer flowed in, and the answers were passed on, the test papers were changed, and the exams were tampered with, and other more "vigorous" means began to be put on the table.

In the Ming dynasty, the management of scientific research began to be strict. According to "The Ancient Oriental Country", Zhaokao County was the champion of Wanli in that year. Because a classmate was found hiding cheat sheets in his shoes, all the candidates were punished barefoot. It was a snowy day, and the suffering of all beings can be imagined. In the Ming Dynasty, anyone who was caught with it, stripped naked on the spot and disqualified from the exam could go home for the people. In the Qing dynasty, it was even stricter. If you find entrainment, you will be given a "cangue belt". Where it is found, you will stand there and show it to the public. If the circumstances are serious, they will be sent to exile troops at the border or even beheaded.

Nevertheless, there are still many desperate entrainment experts. The most common entrainment is to copy the required four books and five classics on thin paper, and then roll them up and hide them in the pen tube, inkstone bottom and shoe layer; Some are copied on cloth strips and mixed into belts; Others are copied in clothes pegs, in special candles and in steamed bread, and some even bribe the goalkeeper to hide it in advance and take it after admission.

What is quite novel is that some experts have adopted ancient scientific and technological means-using "cuttlefish brand developing ink" to engage in entrainment. Chinese scholars discovered that ink made of cuttlefish juice can be used for steganography as early as the Tang Dynasty. Candidates first write the entrained content in the clothes folder with cuttlefish juice, coat it with mud, stir it on the spot and remove the mud, and the words will appear. It is said that cuttlefish juice has a characteristic that words written with it will fade if they are not washed for a period of time, so "Miscellanies of Youyang" records that scammers use it to write IOUs.

Cheating method 5: mark the joint.

This point was mentioned by Lu Xun and his grandfather when they paid bribes. The so-called combination refers to the secret code that examiners and candidates cheat through specific words on the test paper. Because the Tang dynasty began to implement "printing", that is, the paste name system, to hide the information of candidates. In Song Zhenzong, when copying began, the teacher copied a copy in red ink for the examiner, which was called "Zhu Juan", and the original test paper of the examinee was called "Mo Juan". In ancient times, there were too many people who applied for the imperial examination, but few people were admitted. Therefore, if you want to let the examiner who greets you know your paper, you must agree on the "joints" in advance.

The funniest "joint incident" in history comes from Weng Tonghe, Guangxu's teacher.

In the 18th year of Guangxu reign in Qing Dynasty (1892), Weng Tonghe, the top scholar, took the senior high school entrance examination. Zhang Jian, a famous modern educator, industrialist and fellow villager in Jiangsu, was especially admired by him. Zhang Jian has been unlucky in the exam. Although he met Yuan after having obtained the provincial examination, he tried twice and failed. Before the third exam, Zhang Jian and his friend Liu Qu visited Teacher Weng. After greeting each other, Mr. Weng repeatedly said to Zhang Jian, "Today's situation should be coordinated as a whole." Unswerving Zhang Jian thought that Teacher Weng loved to preside over today's international affairs, but he was shaking his "joints", while Liu, who was quietly on the side, kept it in mind. In the first exam, when Xiao Liu broke the question at the beginning of stereotyped writing, he first embedded the word "overall planning". Teacher Weng looked at the paper and thought it must be Zhang Jian's. Without saying anything, he directly approved: "Celebrate the country." And set this as the first in this field. When it was opened, people found that it belonged to Liu. Weng Tonghe is very depressed. Later, I learned that Liu Ye was a celebrity in the south of the Yangtze River and comforted myself: "It was really unsatisfactory." In the second exam, Mr. Weng found that there was a sentence of "knowing three Koreas like the back of his hand" in a paper, and decided that this paper must be Zhang Jian's, because Zhang Jian had been to Korea with the Qing army and was admitted soon. When it was opened, it still belonged to Liu. In this way, Xiao Liu won the Jinshi and Zhang Jian fell out of the list again. It's really "don't blame Xiao Zhang for not working hard, blame Xiao Liu for being too smart"! However, Zhang Jian is still good. Two years later he returned to the furnace and won the first prize!

The reader may notice a detail. In ancient times, there were few people who craned their necks to peep. The reason is very simple, because in ancient times, in addition to the examination of Jinshi and the examination of Ming Classics, there were many rote memorization questions, and the examination of Jinshi was mainly based on literary theory. As we all know, composition can't be peeked, so this is the reason why "ancient college students" have a good Chinese foundation.

In fact, the ancient cheating methods include revealing the topic in advance, imitating the style of celebrities to make "simulated test papers" and so on. In short, except for mobile phones, headphones and other electronic devices, most modern cheating methods appeared hundreds or even thousands of years ago. As for the court's preventive measures, in addition to the above-mentioned re-examination, labeling, copying and serious discipline, there have also been avoidance systems and multi-person audit systems, but usually there are policies at the top and countermeasures at the bottom.

Faced with this temptation, the ancients tried their best to gain fame, brought half a palm-sized fly book into the examination room, bribed officials and bribed soldiers in charge of body search, and various methods emerged one after another.

In the face of cheating by candidates, how can the court prevent cheating?

In order to prevent candidates from sneaking information into the examination room, the official specially arranged a soldier in charge of searching in each examination room. However, this arrangement still inevitably leads to collusion and mutual use between soldiers and candidates. At this time, the admission ticket came into being.

In ancient times, admission tickets were called floating tickets. In the Qing dynasty, candidates who took the exam were given an "admission ticket" and a "seat manual" before the exam. They are not allowed to enter without these two things. In order to prevent the substitute test, the physical characteristics of the candidates, such as height, skin color, beard and mole, are recorded in detail on the admission ticket. When candidates enter the examination room, invigilators must read the admission ticket one by one before entering the examination room.

In addition to the admission ticket, candidates have a line of defense to prevent candidates from cheating. In ancient times, no matter how poor or humble you were, you could take the imperial examination. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it seemed unreasonable to stipulate that the children of prostitutes, top students, foreign servants and soapstock had to wait for three generations before they were eligible to take the exam. The official requires candidates to register with five guarantees, that is, five people can guarantee each other to register. If anyone cheats in the exam in the future, all five people will be implicated.

Despite these two lines of defense, there are still many jokes. For example, although the admission ticket indicating the physical characteristics of candidates has curbed cheating to a certain extent, its practicality is still somewhat doubtful. I'm afraid it's difficult to tell the true from the false when one or two people with similar looks stand together.

Comparatively speaking, the most effective measure to prevent cheating in ancient times should be frisking. It is said that during the Jin Dynasty, the soldiers in charge of searching were generally illiterate, in order to prevent the soldiers from colluding with the candidates. This sentence in "The History of Jin" shows that at that time, Jin searched candidates to the point where they had to untie their hair, expose their clothes and carefully search their noses and ears. It can be seen that Jin Guo severely punished cheating in the imperial examination. Later, many officials opposed this kind of exam, so they took a bath in the designated place before the exam, and then changed into clothes prepared by officials. In this way, it is obviously gentle and civilized, and derailment is greatly reduced.

"Candidates are all Confucian, but those who are pregnant with the word silver, the more they change their words with others, they all ask for it, and the three exams are full; If it is an official, it will be made by the people. " This historical material of the Ming Dynasty records the laws and regulations of the Ming Dynasty to severely punish cheaters. Those who are light are fined, and those who are heavy are imprisoned and sent to the frontier as soldiers. If they are officials, they will be demoted to ordinary people.

It can be seen that cheating and anti-cheating in the ancient college entrance examination are really varied and interesting. I am afraid that only severe punishment can completely ban cheating.