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The imperial examination system developed to the Qing Dynasty, which was very perfect and mature. A scholar must pass three stages of examinations to gain fame, namely, students (scholars), juren and Jinshi. If they want to be admitted by students, they must go through three levels of selection: county examination, government examination and university examination. Jury in the exam is to pass the exam after passing the provincial exam. Finally, if they want to get the title of Jinshi or higher, they will have an exam, a second interview and a second interview. In the process of layer-by-layer screening, naturally, high-level talents with strategic minds and unique opinions are left behind. Therefore, although the imperial examination system has many disadvantages, it is still the best way to select talents in ancient times.
To take part in the imperial examination, as a candidate, the most important thing is not how many questions you answered, but that you must abide by the discipline of the examination room. If you are caught cheating in the examination room, it is not as simple as canceling your grades. There is a clear stipulation in the laws of the Qing Dynasty: "If a candidate is found cheating, the first step is to cancel the results, and then don't even think about taking the exam again, then stick a hundred, wear it for three months, and finally send it to the frontier."
Even if candidates don't cheat, it is not easy to complete the imperial examination completely, because it is a double test of spirit and physical strength. Regardless of the variety of exam questions, not everyone can insist on the length of the exam. There are three big exams in the autumn and Wei dynasties (after having obtained the provincial examination), one of which takes three days and three nights. This long start is a challenge to the limits of the human body, so
However, "the people have three urgent needs." How to solve the problem of going to the toilet during the exam? According to ancient records, before the Yuan Dynasty, candidates needed to prepare their own urinals and put them in their own cubicles, which means that once they took the exam, they were not allowed to leave the cubicles. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, with the extension of the examination time, a kind of "wooden sign" appeared gradually, which read: "iron and stone are interlinked" and the four small words "out of respect" Candidates who want to go to the toilet must obtain a certificate.
Going to the toilet means going to the toilet in classical Chinese, so the meaning of going to the toilet is easy to understand, that is, you must keep quiet on the way to and from the toilet, and you are not allowed to make loud noises. So what exactly does "iron and stone are interlinked" mean? There are three opinions among experts in ancient culture research. The first view is that this is a word given by the emperor. While acting as a "toilet token", it is also persuading the invigilator. Although the invigilator needs a heart of stone and can't be soft-hearted, he should also pay attention to humanization and leniency in the matter of "going to the toilet".
The second view is more realistic. They think that these four words are not given by the emperor at all, but a "toilet permit" made by the invigilator. Of course, not everyone can send one, because the iron discipline says: "candidates are not allowed to go to the toilet during the exam." However, in order to avoid embarrassment, the invigilator specially made this' heavy' sign and gave some accommodation to the relevant candidates under special circumstances. However, the results of candidates after going to the toilet may be hard to say. After all, this is also a violation of discipline requirements.
The third point, this is a random engraving of four words. Maybe the words in different regions are different, which has no special significance at all. After all, the four small words "going out to pay homage" have already explained the role of this' re', so these four words only play a decorative role. There is no other practical significance.
What do these four words mean and where do they come from? It is still an unsolved mystery. Although there are only four words on the wooden sign, we can see the cruelty of ancient imperial examinations. It is not easy for a scholar to gain fame, not only after several days and nights of exams, but also through physical pain. In order to have a more comprehensive understanding of the scene of the ancient imperial examination, we still hope that experts in the study of ancient culture can find out the origin of these four words as soon as possible and give us the most authentic answer.