明建文二年殿试举行时间与参试人数考辨

在明代科举考试史上,由于政治上的原因,建文二年的殿试变得扑朔迷离,疑案在悬。三月初一日举行殿试,作为一项制度于洪武十七年推出后,在洪武朝后期得到了较好执行。建文二年三月初一日因有日食,殿试推至次日举行。参加该科殿试的贡士,除本年二月会试中式的109名新科贡士外,还包括洪武三十年的告殿贡士郭秩,总数应为110人。

A Deliberation on the Date and Number of Participants at the Palace Imperial Examination in the Second Year of Jianwen Emperor of Ming Dynasty

For political reasons, in the history of imperial examinations in Ming dynasty, the palace examination in the second year of Jianwen Emperor became a perplex puzzle. March the 1 st of the lunar year was the date for palace examination, which had been set by Emperor Hongwu in his 17 th year of reign, and carried out regularly in his subsequent years. But March the 1 st of the second year of Jianwen Emperor fell on a solar eclipse, so the examination was postponed to the next day. The participants, besides the 109 men who succeeded in the February examination, included a man named Guo Zhi, who succeeded in the examination in the 30 th year of Hongwu Emperor. So the total number of participants was 110.