Emperor Shenzong made comprehensive reforms of state affairs including reforms of civil examination system. During the early years of Shenzong?s reign he ordered his courtiers to give their opinions on the advantages and disadvantages of the civil examination system at that time and propose measures to improve it. The opinions of courtiers can be divided into two types. Most of them represented by Wang Anshi and Sima Guang declared that more academies should be built and _"shi fu_" (regular poems and rhapsodies) should be excluded from the content of the imperial examination. They also advised the court to restore the prefectural examination system to a certain extent. Others represented by Su Shi and Liu Ban insisted on implementing imperial examination and opposed the elimination of _"shi fu_" and prefectural examination. The reform of imperial examination complied with the opinion of the majority. The palace examination policy in the third year of Xining had changed the atmosphere of reading and writing among scholars in Song Dynasty to a great extent. Emperor Shenzong and his courtiers aimed to build academies cultivate talent and abolish the _"jinshi_" examination which finally led to the three-college law. Shenzong_'s reforms also included selecting candidates by _" jingyi_" (interpretation of the Confucian Classics) in the provincial examination abolishing previous subjects of imperial examination and allowing imperial clan to take part in the examinations.