The number of jinshi was fixed.
But there was no fixed limit on the number of juren.
Anyone who passed could become one.
The Da Qian Empire had 360,000 juren.
Moreover, there was no age limit for juren taking the jinshi examination.
In other words, theoretically, 360,000 juren sat for the jinshi examination every ten years.
As for xiucai, there were 3.6 million.
The theoretical acceptance rate for juren taking the jinshi examination was one in ten thousand.
Of course, many juren did not want to take the jinshi examination.
Because they would have to guard the overseas territories.
But jinshi could undergo Investiture of the Gods after death and receive the offerings of incense.
Though juren were honored, once they died, they had nothing.
Thus, many juren waited until after enjoying life to the age of fifty before taking the jinshi examination.
That counted as having enjoyed themselves first.
Some people who feared death might delay until they were seventy or eighty.
But by then, they basically had no chance of passing.
For one thing, an eighty-year-old mind was surely not as sharp as one in their twenties or thirties.
For another, chief examiners disliked seeing that sort of thing. It was too self-serving.
There was not a trace of devotion to the country.
There were some who still passed.
But they had usually passed the xiucai examination at eighty, the juren examination at eighty-six, and then gone on to take the jinshi examination.
In other words, they had not deliberately delayed.
So most juren took the jinshi examination in their forties.
Any later, and their energy could not keep up, while the examiners would dislike them as well.
Even those with great ability would not be selected.
Once Wenren Sheng understood the background of this world, he knew