In fact, the Three Provinces and Six Departments system that Cao Zhi proposed was an improved version of the Nine-Grade System. In order to not shock the world and cause too much backlash from the aristocratic families, Cao Zhi only made major changes to the Nine-Grade System based on the Three Provinces and Six Departments system.
Following the practice of the nine-grade system, the official positions were still distinguished by the grades of the officials. They were divided into nine grades, with the first grade being the largest and the ninth grade being the smallest. However, regarding the selection and appointment of bureaucrats, Cao Zhi was still closer to the three provinces and six ministries system. This was because Cao Zhi planned to completely abolish the inspection system. Therefore, he did not set up a "Zhongzheng" position that was responsible for recommending talents. Instead, he should replace it with the "imperial examination system."
First, the Three Dukes system was abolished and the Six Departments of Officials, Households, Rites, Soldiers, Punishments, and Works were established. The talents selected by the imperial examination system, as well as the matters of the imperial examination system, including the registration of bureaucrats, the recording and implementation of position changes, etc., were all handed over to the Ministry of Personnel. This way, the selection of bureaucrats was carried out through government agencies, and it was separated from the aristocratic families. It could be said that the power of the aristocratic families to select officials was completely eliminated.
After hearing Cao Zhi's proposal, Cao Cao's eyes lit up and he clapped his hands in approval. However, he quickly raised a question. Wouldn't it be a little too hasty to directly remove the power of the aristocratic families to recruit talents and cause them to retaliate? After all, once these aristocratic families were to unite, they were a force that could not be underestimated. They had to take this into consideration.
After Cao Zhi heard Cao Cao's concerns, he smiled confidently and said,""Father, please relax. This son has already considered this. I didn't say that I would remove them from their official positions. I just wanted to change the system of the bureaucrats. While we were distinguishing the ranks of the officials, we would still let the vast majority of these aristocratic families continue to be officials through their previous positions and find corresponding ranks. Then, we would slowly appease them through some small policies. This way, they would not have too much of an opinion of the father and continue to serve the father.”
" However, although they are still given the power to hold official positions, the rise and fall of officials 'ranks are still determined by their own achievements. Those whose achievements are poor all year round will be demoted, and then they will be demoted again and again. This way, the vacant positions can be filled by the children of the lesser families selected by the imperial examination system. Originally, because of the inspection system, many of the current officials were people with connections and did not have any real talent. These people had to be removed from the country, but I had already considered that if I were to remove them directly, it would very likely cause a large number of aristocratic families to feel uneasy and oppose it. Therefore, I changed it to the current promotion and demotion through political achievements. In this way, their relegation would become logical, and their rebound would be very small. If this continued, one day, the power of the aristocratic families would gradually be divided, and the Humble Class disciples would rise rapidly. By the time the aristocratic families reacted, it would be too late.”
"It's really my Saint Child!" After Cao Cao heard Cao Zhi's words, he sat there in a daze for a long time, unable to speak.
He only felt that something that had been troubling him for a long time had finally been solved. He suddenly felt relaxed and happy from the bottom of his heart.
Through Cao Zhi's thorough explanation and analysis, Cao Cao gradually realized the seriousness of the aristocratic families 'infiltration of the country's power. He also noticed the explosive point of the aristocratic families' hidden danger. All these difficult matters had formed a perfect solution in just a few words from Cao Zhi, a solution that he could not have imagined.
By creating the three provinces and six ministries and abolish the three dukes, he divided the power of the aristocratic families and strengthened the power of the central government. This was a great shock to Cao Cao's political views.
Cao Cao looked at Cao Zhi in disbelief.
He did not expect that Cao Zhi could actually give him such a huge shock in this short one year!
He had resolved the most difficult matter concerning the survival of the country with a smile. Cao Cao no longer treated his son as an ordinary person.
Now that he thought about it, he felt that it was ridiculous to come here with the intention of punishing Cao Zhi. The current Cao Zhi was so perfect and shrewd. At least, among the people Cao Cao had met, whether it was Zhou Yu or Kong Ming, they were far from being as far-sighted as his son.
On the other hand, Cao Zhi himself was calm. He was not shocked by Cao Cao's shock. After revealing another idea, Cao Zhi quickly bid farewell to Cao Cao and began to prepare for the exam.
......
Today was the first day of the imperial examination, and also the first imperial examination of the Great Wei Academy.
On this important day, Cao Zhi didn't have the leisure to mention that poem. It wasn't that he didn't want to, but he was too busy and didn't have the time.
Cao Cao placed great importance on this first round of examination and ordered him to personally mark the papers.
Examining the papers personally meant that he would personally approve the papers and personally select talents. This would make Cao Zhi very busy.
Thus, after the examinees finished answering the papers, Cao Zhi hurriedly kept the papers and immediately entered the Luoyang City Lord's Mansion to hand them over to Cao Cao.
In the City Lord's Mansion, Cao Zhi sat upright and answered Cao Cao's question.
"How many people are there in this exam?”
"Father, there are a total of 513 people, all of whom are talents trained by the Great Wei Academy.”
"Yes." Cao Cao nodded his head in satisfaction. He was obviously very pleased with this number. Then, he asked,"Then what is the question this time?"
"Reporting to Prime Minister, it was the Battle of Guandu." Cao Zhi replied respectfully.
"Oh? The Battle of Guandu?"
"Yes, in addition to some basic Pinyin and the teachings of Confucius and Mencius, your son's exam questions this time require them to write a policy paper. The topic of this policy paper is to analyze why Prime Minister Fu was able to defeat Yuan Shao and obtain victory in the Battle of Guandu.”
"Interesting…" Cao Cao laughed loudly, clearly interested in how these examinees would answer.
Hence, he hurriedly opened a policy paper and flipped through it.
The first one was probably about Cao Cao because he was benevolent and won the hearts of the people. However, Yuan Shao was tyrannical and unkind, which violated the laws of heaven and earth.
Although the sentences were smooth and the writing was good, Cao Cao was not too interested.
This flattery wasn't even half as good as Guo Jia's flattery. Guo Jia's words of " womanly kindness " and " helping the world " had solved the problem, but this guy had been talking for a long time.
The second was that Yuan Shao did not know how to judge people and was indecisive, while Cao Cao was talented and bold, so he won.
......
He flipped through a few of them. Although there was nothing outstanding about them, he could tell that they were scholars. Thinking that they were all illiterate farmers, Cao Cao could not help but look at Cao Zhi again.
The Great Wei Academy did a good job!
Then, he casually opened another book, but this book was different. After reading it for a while, Cao Cao's eyes never moved again.
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