How many people did the ancient candidates need to ensure the exam?

Like almost all exams now, ancient Jinshi had to go through a registration procedure before taking the imperial examination. Since the Tang Dynasty, the imperial examination has allowed scholars to enter the examination freely, without the recommendation of dignitaries or the need to investigate the family background of scholars. Candidates only need to take the materials that can prove their identity and go to the state or county government where they were born to register for the exam, which is called "self-promotion". The so-called "family" here is the identification materials, mainly including the place of origin, the names of parents, my age, appearance and so on. Of course, the imperial examination system allows scholars to enter the exam freely, not without any restrictions, unconditionally allowing scholars to enter the exam, but it also makes some restrictive provisions for candidates to enter the exam:

First of all, there are clear requirements for candidates' life experiences. The Tang Dynasty stipulated that industrialists and businessmen and county government officials were not allowed to take the imperial examinations. In the Song Dynasty, talented industrialists and businessmen, "sage" and others were qualified to apply. Because people who want to take the imperial examination are considered talented, there is basically no such restriction in the actual operation process. According to the regulations of Ming and Qing Dynasties, the children of prostitutes (prostitutes), actors (actors), officials (bureaucrats) and soap (military servants) all belong to those with impure origins, and their children have to wait for three generations to enter the examination. These requirements for identity are also based on the reality of selecting civil servants in the imperial examination. On the one hand, because the scholar can shine the lintel once and for all, the door of the scholar's house can be three inches higher than the average person. In most dynasties, his ancestors were three generations and immediately made public. If his net worth is not clean enough, it will not only embarrass the scholar himself, but also affect the lofty position of the imperial examination system in the eyes of the people. On the other hand, most of the talents selected through the imperial examination should become officials of the ruling party. They are not only responsible for handling government affairs, but also for hearing various cases, that is, as judges. If their origins are tainted, it will be difficult for them to establish prestige in front of the people when dealing with official duties in the future. According to the provisions of the imperial examination, it is a serious illegal act for people from impure backgrounds to take part in the imperial examination and should be severely punished.

Secondly, candidates are required to return to their original places to apply. Since the Song Dynasty, in order to coordinate the proportion of candidates who should be promoted in various places and facilitate the investigation of their origins and moral quality, candidates are generally required to apply in their native places. However, due to some differences in cultural level in different places, the degree of competition among government, government, sub-school and township examinations is not the same. Some candidates will pretend to be their native place in order to take the exam in areas with relatively low competition and high admission rate. This is the so-called "impostor". This situation still exists in our current college entrance examination. Candidates from provinces with large population and relatively few colleges and universities often use various channels to move to areas with relatively backward culture or relatively concentrated colleges and universities, in order to avoid fierce competition in this area and get into more ideal colleges and universities. We now call it "college entrance examination immigrants". Cheating has always been the object of severe punishment in imperial examination discipline. Once candidates are found cheating, they are not allowed to take the exam again for life, and local government teachers and scholars are guaranteed to be punished together.

Finally, a statement is needed. At present, most exams need to take digital photos to avoid the occurrence of substitute exams. And now the information is very developed, you can query the candidates' files through the established text files or databases. In the ancient society with underdeveloped science and technology, the appearance of candidates can only be described by some basic characters, mainly including height, skin color and beard. Other identity materials are basically filled in by candidates and reviewed by local officials, so be sure to be clear. Generally speaking, there are two forms of knot: one is that candidates guarantee each other, and five candidates who take the exam at the same time guarantee each other, also known as "five-child knot"; Another form is that a formal college student serves as a referee and signs a letter of guarantee, that is, a certificate, which is called "recognizing insurance" or "distributing insurance". In this way, candidates will be implicated in any fraud in registration and examination, and those who apply for insurance or send insurance will be punished by demotion or even imprisonment.

In addition, all previous imperial examinations stipulated that Jinshi with bad conduct, criminal record, wearing mourning clothes and women were not eligible to apply. It should be said that although there are some contradictions between these regulations and allowing candidates to take the exam freely, these restrictive regulations will not fundamentally deny the freedom of taking the imperial examination, because the number of candidates involved in these restrictive regulations is very limited, and most Jinshi can still take the exam freely.