Ａｎｇｒｙ Ｅｍｐｅｒｏｒ Ｅｘｅｃｕｔｅｄ Ｅｘａｍｉｎｅｒｓ

There occurred many cases of injustices during the millennia of the feudal China and the most absurd case was perhaps the one in 1397. The Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang， the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644)， had officials of the imperial examination as well as top winning examinees executed.

The two chief examiners in charge of the imperial examination were Liu Sanwu and Bai Xintao. Liu Sanwu was a high-ranking court official and scholar with a profound knowledge of court rites of various dynasties whereas Bai Xintao was a government official in charge of preparing government documents and decrees. Other eight judges were also court officials with clean records of honesty and knowledge. They were highly experienced in organizing national examinations and scoring test essays. The examination board also included two supervisors and other minor officials in charge of affairs related to the important nationwide examination.

In the imperial examination system adopted by different dynasties， the highest imperial examination always took place every three years. The one in 1397 was the ninth since Zhu Yuanzhang came to the throne. The general nationwide examination was held in February， 1397. Fifty-two examinees were successful. Strangely， all of them were from southern part of the country. Some examinees who had failed voiced their complaint and discontent. After hearing of the report of the displeasure， Zhu Yuanzhang did not interfere and kept his opinion to himself.

In March of that year， the final examination was held in the capital. Zhu Yuanzhang presided at the final round. He reviewed the test results and interviewed 51 examinees in person. As the result， the fifty-one became metropolitan graduates.

Displeasure persisted. Some examinees how had failed spread rumors that the chief examiners who were from south favored those from south. There were even complaints that those who came from the home county or home province of Liu Sanwu the chief examiner were favored. Although Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang did not find these complaints believable， he lost his temper because he deeply suspected there might have been something fishy behind the test results.

He appointed another board of 12 officials to review all the previous test results. The new evaluation confirmed the previous decisions. However， the disgruntled people continued to issue groundless allegations that the new board in the charge of Zhang Xin had deliberately picked the poor test results of the northerners and that Zhang Xin had done so under the instruction of the chief examiner Liu Sanwu.

Now the outraged emperor believed the test results were not clean. He had Bai Xintao and other judges and officials and number one scorer of the final examination executed. Liu Sanwu was exiled to the remote frontier. Liu was not executed because he was 85 years old that year.

With officials and top scorers executed or exiled， the emperor then ordered to have new graduates selected. A short list of 61 was presented. After another round of final examination and interview， 61 northerners became metropolitan graduates. As no error had been found in the procedures of the first examination and scoring and the emperor had presided over the final examination and interviews， the first batch of metropolitan graduates was also officially recognized， even though one of the 51 was executed and one was exiled.

Historians are not sure how many officials were actually executed. The uncertainty arises from the second board of examiners. Was they also executed? If the answer is affirmative， then more than 20 officials were executed because of the anger of the emperor.

Historians now believe all the allegations were groundless. All the procedures adopted in the previous eight imperial examinations were faithfully followed in the 1379 examination and the results were fair. It was not incidental that winners were all scholars from the south， but it was not because any favoritism was practiced but because the southern part of the country， much less harassed by war and more advanced in economy and technology and education， produced better scholars. In the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) that preceded the Ming， the government， aware of the disparity of education levels， chose to have two lists of winners， one for northerners and one for southerners. The Ming did not adopt the practice. Given the gap in education in north and south during that time， historians of today have every reason to conclude that the emperor executed these officials unfairly and that it was a glaring case of injustice.#8194;□