Chapter 1: The Great Ming Palace Female Civil Servant Entrance Examination

The thirteenth year of Hongwu reign of the Great Ming Dynasty, spring.

The capital city of Nanjing, in the northern district of Yingling Ward, on Chengxian Street, at the Hu Family Bookshop.

“Shanwei! Hu Shanwei! You wretched girl, get up quickly! Take the chamber pot out and empty it!”

Before dawn had even broken, Hu Shanwei was startled awake by her stepmother Chen Shi’s shrill voice.

Chen Shi was six months pregnant, her belly bulging as if she had stuffed a large pumpkin inside. She was about to give birth and slept poorly. Just when she finally managed to fall asleep, an uncontrollable urge to urinate would force her to get up and squat over the chamber pot—at least five times each night.

Originally, emptying chamber pots was work for the household’s little maid, but Chen Shi deliberately tormented her stepdaughter Hu Shanwei. Relying on the male heir in her womb who would carry on the Hu family bloodline, she used filial piety as an excuse to order Hu Shanwei around like a servant.

Hu Shanwei got out of bed and lit a lantern.

The lantern illuminated the young woman’s features—a pair of long eyebrows that swept gracefully toward her temples, full of spirit and elegance.

Carrying the lantern, Hu Shanwei walked from the west wing to the main house. Though it was spring, the cold lingered like a stubborn tenant refusing to leave. A thin layer of frost covered the ground, crunching under her feet.

Pushing open the bedroom door, she was immediately hit by the stench of urine and couldn’t help but furrow her long eyebrows.

Chen Shi was becoming increasingly slovenly, too lazy even to cover the chamber pot, leaving it for her to clean up.

Chen Shi lay in bed clutching her belly and groaning, “What took you so long? Just lying there like a corpse.”

Hu Shanwei pushed open the window to let in fresh air.

Chen Shi scolded, “What is this wretched girl trying to do? It’s still the cold snap of late spring—are you trying to freeze me to death?”

Hu Shanwei closed the window.

Chen Shi scolded again, “The room reeks—when will this smell ever go away? You’re truly as stupid as a pig! No wonder you’re nineteen and still can’t get married!”

Hu Shanwei turned around and gave Chen Shi a cold stare.

Feeling somewhat guilty, Chen Shi said, “Just open the window a crack.”

Hu Shanwei put the wooden cover back on, picked up the chamber pot and left. As she passed by Chen Shi’s dressing table, she used her sleeve as cover to steal a ring of keys.

Hu Shanwei emptied the filthy contents of the chamber pot and drew water from the courtyard well to scrub it clean. The icy well water splashed onto her fingers, which were covered with chilblains that looked like strawberries.

After washing the chamber pot clean, it was still dark. Seeing no one around, Hu Shanwei crept in the darkness to the bookshop’s accounting room.

She used the stolen keys to open the money box. Inside were gleaming silver fragments and dark copper coins, but she didn’t take any. Instead, she moved aside the secret compartment beneath the money box and took out the family’s household registration document.

The household registration document was like a household registry—the Great Ming Dynasty’s only identity document and tax certificate. It was issued with the adult male of the family as head of household. Each family had only one registration document, which was replaced every ten years to update the family’s population and property.

Hu Shanwei hid the two-foot-long registration document inside her undergarments, then went to the well platform. She returned the clean chamber pot to the main house and took the opportunity to return the stolen keys.

Fortunately, the exhausted Chen Shi was taking a second sleep and didn’t notice.

After washing and grooming herself, Hu Shanwei placed a set of writing materials from her room into a bamboo basket, then covered them with a layer of incense, candles, and paper money. As dawn began to break, she carried the bamboo basket, blew out the lantern, and went to her father’s study, gently knocking on the door:

“Father, it’s me, Shanwei.”

After a moment, her father Hu Rong opened the door, still putting on his clothes. Ever since his young wife Chen Shi’s belly had grown large and she got up five times a night, constantly complaining that this hurt or that was uncomfortable, he couldn’t bear the disturbance and simply slept separately from his wife in his study.

Without her husband to restrain her, Chen Shi vented all her frustration on Hu Shanwei. Calling Hu Shanwei up in the middle of the night to serve tea, fetch water, or empty chamber pots was a common occurrence.

Hu Rong asked, “What’s the matter?”

Hu Shanwei said, “I dreamed of Mother last night. She said she missed me. I want to go burn incense at her grave today and offer some paper money.”

This “Mother” naturally referred to Hu Shanwei’s birth mother, Hu Rong’s first wife.

Hu Rong said, “Alright, go early and return early. Wait a moment—”

Hu Rong returned to his study and took out five taels of silver and a string of coins for his daughter. “Keep this safe and spend it on yourself. Make yourself a new set of clothes, buy some jewelry, eat whatever you want—just don’t let Chen Shi know.”

Hu Shanwei was stunned and didn’t take it.

Hu Rong simply placed the silver and coins in her bamboo basket. “I know you’ve been wronged recently, but Chen Shi is pregnant, and I’m afraid you might upset her and harm the baby. The doctor says it’s eighty percent likely to be a boy. Once you have a little brother, you’ll have someone to rely on in the future. After Chen Shi safely delivers your brother, if she dares bully you again, I definitely won’t spare her!”

Hu Shanwei smiled slightly without speaking, nodded, and took her leave.

Hu Rong closed the study door and burrowed back into his warm bedding to continue sleeping. It was still early and very cold outside.

Hu Rong didn’t know that the moment the door closed, his daughter Hu Shanwei’s smile vanished, her gaze cold as frost.

Hu Shanwei carried the bamboo basket out of the Hu Family Bookshop, threw the incense, candles, and paper money into a garbage pile, and took only the writing materials in the basket to the mule and horse station at the street corner.

She hired a horse cart and gave the driver half a string of coins. “To the West Flower Gate of the Imperial City. Stop at an apothecary along the way—I need to buy medicine.”

The driver cracked his whip and drove the cart. Halfway there, he stopped at an apothecary. Hu Shanwei went in and spent two taels of silver on a bottle of the most expensive chilblain ointment.

Back in the cart, Hu Shanwei applied the ointment to her fingers and the backs of her hands, which were covered with strawberry-like chilblains. The expensive medicine was indeed effective—cooling to the bone, it relieved the burning pain of her frostbitten hands.

Seeing this young lady spend money so generously, the driver made conversation: “Miss, going to West Flower Gate—are you entering the palace?”

Hu Shanwei nodded. “Yes, going to the Ministry of Rites in the Inner Palace.”

The driver was puzzled. “What kind of place is the Ministry of Rites?”

Hu Shanwei said, “It’s commonly called the Wet Nurse Bureau.”

The driver slapped his forehead. “Oh! I know the Wet Nurse Bureau! I heard they’re selecting female officials there today! Miss, are you going to take the examination?”

Hu Shanwei smiled, her long eyebrows immediately sweeping gracefully toward her temples. “Yes, I’m going to become a female official.”

North of West Flower Gate of the Great Ming Imperial City, right against the palace walls, stood a row of buildings with green glazed tile roofs—these housed the Inner Palace bureaus that managed court affairs.

Among them was a large courtyard with a plaque reading “Ministry of Rites.” This institution was under the authority of the Embroidered Uniform Guard and was usually used to receive high-ranking ladies and female family members awaiting summons for palace audiences, teaching them proper etiquette in advance to avoid impropriety before the throne.

Because this place selected wet nurses for the court every season, it had gained the down-to-earth nickname “Wet Nurse Bureau.” Most people called it the Wet Nurse Bureau, with only official documents using “Ministry of Rites.”

But today, the Wet Nurse Bureau was conducting external selection for court female officials, not wet nurses.

Because the previous Yuan Dynasty court had repeatedly suffered from eunuchs like Pu Buhua controlling government affairs and bringing disaster to the country, Emperor Hongwu Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Great Ming, deeply despised eunuchs.

However, the complex court affairs required literate and capable personnel, so Emperor Hongwu and the Ministry of Rites established a female official system, modeling it after the government structure and dividing court affairs into six bureaus and one department.

These were: the Palace Administration Bureau, Court Ceremonies Bureau, Palace Wardrobe Bureau, Imperial Kitchen Bureau, Palace Quarters Bureau, and Palace Works Bureau. Among these, the Palace Administration Bureau supervised all six bureaus. The Palace Justice Department was independent of the six bureaus, specifically managing court discipline and rewards and punishments—a supervisory institution.

Simply put, five bureaus of female officials managed court affairs, female officials from the Palace Administration Bureau managed the five bureau officials, and female officials from the Palace Justice Department supervised all officials from the six bureaus.

Layer upon layer of supervision, with clear hierarchical distinctions.

This year, Emperor Hongwu issued his third decree for selecting female officials:

“Imperial edict to civilian women aged thirteen to nineteen years, and women aged thirty to forty years who are without husbands. Regardless of whether their appearance is beautiful or plain, as long as they have no serious illness and are willing to enter the palace for service, young women will be given sixty taels of silver and women fifty taels as travel expenses. After initial selection and examination by local officials, they will be sent to the capital for final selection.”

In other words, for selecting female officials, appearance didn’t matter. As long as they were healthy, disease-free, and willing to serve the court, and had passed initial selection by local officials, the court would provide travel expenses and settlement money. Unmarried girls aged thirteen to nineteen received sixty taels of silver, and married widows aged thirty to forty received fifty taels. They could come to the capital to take the female official selection examination—having children was fine as long as their husbands were dead.

Fifty taels of silver was enough for a family to live a worry-free life of simple meals for their entire lifetime, even occasionally adding a bowl of meat.

In the Hongwu reign, a county magistrate’s annual salary didn’t even reach fifty taels of silver, showing how generously Emperor Hongwu treated prospective female officials and how seriously he took this matter.

Consequently, on examination day, about two hundred women carrying bamboo baskets with writing materials stood in the courtyard of the Wet Nurse Bureau waiting to enter the examination hall.

Tall, short, fat, thin, beautiful and plain—there were eighteen-year-old beauties, elegant thirty-something ladies, and some yellow-faced women worn down by years and hardship.

Their only common features were the scholarly air about them and the examination baskets in their hands. They were about to use their brushes as weapons to fight for their own future.

“Number fifty-seven, Hu Shanwei!”

A tall young woman with long eyebrows sweeping toward her temples stepped forward, took the household registration document proving her identity from her examination basket, and handed it to the female official holding a roster to verify her identity.

This was what she had stolen from home.

The female official unfolded the roughly two-foot registration document. It had plum blossom borders and read:

One household of Hu Rong, resident of Chengxian Street, Yingling Ward, Yingtian Prefecture, merchant household, total of three family members

Male: 1 person

Adult male: 1 person

Head of household, age thirty-seven years

Female: 2 persons

Wife Chen Shi, age eighteen years

Daughter Hu Shanwei, age nineteen years

Property:

Civilian farmland: 10 mu, 8 fen, 4 li; one boat; one mule; seven rooms and four outbuildings.

This household registration is given to Hu Rong for safekeeping. Authorized hereby.

Twenty-seventh day of the first month, thirteenth year of Hongwu

Ying Prefecture registration number 436

Besides the Ying Prefecture household number 436, the bottom of the registration document also bore the signatures and seals of three officials from Yingtian Prefecture: the supervising official, clerk, and registrar. The Great Ming’s household registration management was strict, making forgery very difficult.

The female official carefully checked every item and copied the registration document’s contents onto the roster.

Simply put, this household registry showed that the head of household was thirty-seven-year-old Hu Rong, with an eighteen-year-old young wife Chen Shi and a nineteen-year-old daughter Hu Shanwei. Obviously, Chen Shi was a stepmother.

Otherwise, how could the mother be a year younger than the daughter?

This was a merchant family that owned both houses and land—they lived comfortably. They had over ten mu of farmland, one boat, one mule, and seven rooms.

After finishing the copying, the female official handed both the registration document and a number plate to Hu Shanwei. “Go find table number fifty-seven and sit down. Take your assigned seat and wait for the examination papers to be distributed.”

“Yes.” Hu Shanwei put both the registration document and number plate in her examination basket and entered the examination hall.

This was an examination that would change the fate of her life—there could be no mistakes.

Thinking of this, Hu Shanwei began to feel nervous. By the time she found her seat and set down her examination basket, the basket handle was soaked bright with perspiration from her palms.