The Hongwu Thirtieth Year: The Southern and Northern Examination Scandal

Synopsis In the thirtieth year of Hongwu, the Ming Empire stood at the height of its power. Yet a scandalous imperial examination fraud case was about to tear at the foundations of the vast empire. When the results of the spring examination were announced, all fifty-one successful candidates were from the south. Enraged northern examinees took a tablet of Confucius into the streets and accused chief examiner Liu Sanwu of favoritism and corruption. Zhu Yuanzhang flew into a rage and ordered an investigation. But the review reached a different conclusion: the essays were indeed excellent, and the examiners had committed no fraud. A single imperial proclamation shaped countless lives. Seventy-eight-year-old Liu Sanwu had spent his life upholding the fairness of literary examinations, only to be swept into a political maelstrom in his twilight years. Twenty-four-year-old Shen Moyan, a poor scholar from Shandong, had come to the capital to sit the exams with his dreams in hand, only to discover that the imperial examinations were little more than tools of power. Lu Zhihe, a female Jinyiwei officer disguised as a man, pursued the truth in the darkness, only to face the collapse of her faith. And Zhu Yuanzhang, seated on the dragon throne, was using this examination to play a much bigger game... The north-south divide, the struggle between imperial power and civil officials, and the clash between ideals and reality all erupt in this single examination. When the dust of history settles, who will be the true winner? In 85 chapters, this novel takes you back to an era of upheaval in the Ming Dynasty, where you will witness a shocking case that changed China’s imperial examination system for six hundred years.