After the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, "Tang system, taking scholars, mostly because of sui old, is three things." "Museums say that they are students, and counties say that they are rural tributes, and they are all promoted to teachers and retreats. The purpose of his subjects is to have a scholar, a scholar, a scholar, a scholar, a scholar, a scholar, a scholar, a scholar, a wise method, a wise speech, a wise calculation, a history, three histories, a ceremony to open the new century, a good example and a boy. There are five classics, three classics, two classics, one pedant, three rites, three biographies and one history department.
This year is a universal choice. His son of heaven said that he was very talented because of his imperial edict. "(Selected Records of the New Tang Dynasty), that is to say, the Tang Dynasty began to gradually improve the imperial examination system.
Scholar is the most important fame in the Tang Dynasty, and "scholar" refers to a talented person who has obtained social recognition through the imperial examination. The name of "Daoism" is a discipline specially set up for "metaphysics", which studies the internal relationship between heaven and earth. Because the implementation of the imperial examination subjects in the Tang Dynasty will inevitably lead to the increase of schools and students from the central government to the local government. In this way, education in all parts of China was greatly developed at that time. At that time, the central government established the official imperial academy Pavilion, Hong Wen Pavilion, Chongwen Pavilion and Chongxuan Pavilion, which mainly enrolled the children of national heroes and bureaucrats. At the same time, various official and semi-official academies and schools were set up in local counties to recruit scholars from all walks of life, which led to the great development of various private schools, thus the imperial examination promoted the education in China. What needs to be explained here is that school education and imperial examination are two channels, not the same thing; Although Wang Anshi once intended to link the imperial examination with official studies in the Song Dynasty, in order to save the state's investment in education and simplify the complicated examination subjects, this reform measure of Wang Anshi violated the inherent law that politics and education are not the same thing, so his reform measure was later cancelled.
There is an interactive relationship between China's political structure and imperial examinations after Sui and Tang Dynasties. Political change will lead to educational change, and educational change may also lead to political change. For example, in order to cope with the imperial examination at that time, the Tang Dynasty organized a large number of manpower to compile all kinds of classics popular in the society at that time, just like the reference materials for the college entrance examination now. "Zhenguan four years, emperor taizong took the scriptures to the sanctuary, the word is not straight. Before the imperial edict, Yan Shigu, a former Zhongshulang, took an examination of the Five Classics in the secretary province. ..... Tang Taizong also used many documents, and the chapters and sentences were complicated. He called on ancient teachers and sons of the country to propose a toast to Confucius and other Confucians, and wrote five classics to explain them. Every 180 volume is called "Five Classics Justice", and it pays for the implementation of Chinese studies. " (Zhenguan politicians worship Confucianism). These unified classic texts have influenced the political structure of the country in the past.
School education in the early Tang Dynasty often had strong social and political needs, which can be seen from the courses offered by schools at that time. "Where the Book of Rites and Zuo's Biography in the Spring and Autumn Period are classics, Poetry, Zhou Li and Yili are classics, and Yi, Shangshu, Biography of the Spring and Autumn Period Ram and Biography of Gu Liang are classics. Those who pass the two classics are the Great Classic, the Small Classic and the Middle Classic. Those who pass the three classics, one is the great classics, the middle classics and the small classics. Those who know the Five Classics are all classics, and each has its own classics, including the Classic of Filial Piety and the Analects of Confucius. The Book of Filial Piety and The Analects of Confucius are each limited to one year old, while Shangshu, Biography of Ram and Biography of Gu Liang are one and a half years old, Yi, History, Zhou Li and Yi Li are two years old, and The Book of Rites and Zuo Zhuan are three years old. Learn books, read a piece of paper every day, occasionally learn current affairs, and read Mandarin, Shuowen, Zilin, Sancang and Erya. In terms of calligraphy, The Book of Songs is limited to three years old, Shuowen is two years old and Zilin is one year old. In mathematics, Sunzi and Cao Wu are limited to one year old, Nine Chapters and Island are three years old, Zhang Qiujian and Xiahou Yang are one year old each, Zhou Xie and Wu are one year old, and Shu Shu is four years old.
During the Kaiyuan period of the Tang Dynasty, Li Longji personally examined and approved the Book of Filial Piety, which is said to be Confucius, and its value doubled. Li Longji said, "I have heard of ancient times, but its wind is rough. Although the filial piety in my heart has sprouted, the ceremony of respect is still simple. And almost both benevolence and righteousness, personal reputation benefits. Sages know that filial piety can teach people, so they teach respect with strictness and love with relatives. Therefore, with the way of loyalty and righteousness, it is obvious that the meaning of making a name for yourself is obvious. Confucius said: I aim at the Spring and Autumn Annals and walk in the Book of Filial Piety. It is a person who knows filial piety and the foundation of virtue! " (preface to the complete works of siku quanshu filial piety). It can be seen that the official worship of "Confucius" in the Tang Dynasty actually inherited the "Confucian" ideological and cultural line initiated by Wang Mang and Liu Xin in the new dynasty. Therefore, China's imperial examination system shook the aristocratic system, but it also brought a new hierarchical structure to China society. This kind of social inequality is the inequality of "monarch, father, husband", "minister, son and wife", and the inequality of social status of "scholar, agriculture" and "industry and commerce". In the past, scholars, farmers, workers and businessmen were equal social classes, and society never discriminated against employees in the industrial and commercial departments. However, after the formation of the imperial examination system, the status of scholars and farmers rose, especially the status of scholars, while the status of industrial and commercial practitioners declined, and industrial and commercial practitioners did not get due social respect, which made the commerce and commercial circulation industry on which science and technology depended suffer considerable constraints, which meant that China's science and technology and people's living standards were stagnant for a long time.
During more than 300 years, from the beginning of the imperial examination in 583 AD to the official cancellation of the imperial examination in 0905 AD, a new social stratum differentiation appeared in China society. While selecting a large number of talents to enrich the official political organizations, many other intellectuals who are not good at imperial examinations have been suppressed, and even many intellectuals have turned to revenge their past hatred after repeated setbacks in the imperial examinations. Hong Xiuquan turned to revolt because of his repeated unsuccessful fame and fortune. He is not the first person in China! Before him, there have been many social phenomena of this variation.
During the Tang and Song Dynasties, especially in the Song Dynasty, because there were no scholars in the imperial examinations, many intellectuals of the Han nationality devoted themselves to the minority regime to make a living. Once they held high positions in Liao, Jin and Xixia regimes, they attacked their motherland mercilessly. During the Jiayou period just after the founding of the People's Republic of China in the Song Dynasty, a scholar named Bird was very angry with the authorities of the Song Dynasty because he failed in the palace entrance examination many times, so he went to Xixia as a staff officer and made many contributions to invade the land of the Song Dynasty. During the Liao, Jin and Xixia Dynasties, various ethnic regimes and tribes were vying for the use of intellectuals in the Han Dynasty because they respected the Han system. The disadvantages of the imperial examination system in Song Dynasty benefited the minority regime greatly. At that time, it was not uncommon for the children of the last generation in the Han Dynasty to go to the national regime to seek prosperity. It seems that the educational schools in the Han Dynasty trained talents for the national regime. Undeniably, a large number of Han intellectuals joined the minority regime, which objectively played a positive role in the integration of all ethnic groups in China and the spread of Chinese culture. But what they did is also one of the root causes of the long-term civil war among all ethnic groups in China, which is not worth advocating. Since Hong Xiuquan's Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, have there been such a group of "intellectuals" in China who turned to hate the motherland because of vanity fair? I think everyone has an account in mind.
When we condemn and despise the phenomenon that mutated "intellectuals" hate and retaliate against the motherland because they have not been reused by the state, we should really review some drawbacks in the imperial examination system! At the same time, we should also review the abnormal social psychological phenomenon that China intellectuals cared too much about their social reputation and hated the motherland. To sum up, it can be seen that how China intellectuals straighten out their position and role as social intellectuals, and how China can give full play to the role of all intellectuals through a reasonable social mechanism may be the key factors in China's social transformation in the new period. The symbol of modernization of a social civilization is often first reflected by the degree of modernization of intellectuals in this social civilization; Whether an intellectual is a symbol of modernization is mainly reflected in whether the intellectual puts his personal vanity fair first in his words and deeds, or puts the exploration of truth first in his words and deeds.
Why did the Imperial Examination attract China scholars to this road in such a way? Now, let's look at the procedures in the imperial examination and the preferential treatment given to Juzi by the society, and we will know.
In fact, since the Sui and Tang Dynasties in China, the way for the state to select officials at all levels is not a one-way street in the imperial examination, but three channels for selecting new officials from the "Jinshi" produced by the imperial examination, officials at all levels in the state and those recommended by local authorities. However, due to the direct intervention of national politics in the imperial examination, the imperial examination is objectively not only an education and examination system, but also an expression of social and political glory and social identity. This situation is the same as when the China government paid attention to university education a few years ago. People called college students "the darling of society". At the same time, now the government attaches importance to international students, so the value of returning from abroad often doubles. That is to say, many social side effects brought by China's imperial examination are not mainly caused by the imperial examination system itself, but by the excessive political intervention of the state, resulting in the "single-plank bridge" in the past. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, it was only once every three years, and only about 300 Jinshi were produced in one exam. Think about it, how many people in the country tried to get into the exam, which led to a series of corruption and monopoly opportunism in the imperial examination! The malpractice of imperial examination in China's history is actually a social manifestation of the imbalance of social values caused by excessive political intervention. As mentioned above, any man-made political measures with practical effects often have the following negative social consequences. Therefore, too much political interference in economy and culture will often hinder the natural development of society and even bring many bad social sequelae.
After the Tang Dynasty perfected the civil and military imperial examination procedures, in order to encourage people to practice martial arts and participate in the imperial examination, the state stipulated that those who passed the imperial examination were exempt from paying taxes, money, grain and various levies in their families, which actually benefited the families greatly. At the same time, the imperial court also stipulated that local government officials must treat people who have gained fame through the imperial examination with courtesy and give certain financial subsidies. This measure was originally a political measure by the state to encourage society to respect knowledge and talents, which greatly appreciated the social identity of those who won fame in the imperial examination. Although not all the people who won the imperial examinations can be officials, the imperial court has been paying close attention to and intervening in the imperial examinations for more than 300 years from the Tang Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty. Therefore, many famous people, even if they have never been an official for a lifetime, are honored at the local level. Naturally, many people give them courtesy and financial assistance. They have become the symbol of people's knowledge and honor for almost all their lives and played the role of a "living Buddha" in disguise. Such a political and cultural atmosphere will certainly stimulate many people to go to the crowded wooden bridge with thousands of troops. This imperial examination atmosphere directly caused the social sequela that China intellectuals paid attention to the hollow reputation but not to the practical ability of scholars. I'm afraid this sequela has not really been eliminated from our real social life today, which has seriously weakened the quality of China intellectuals' pursuit of truth! It is also an important reason why China's national strength is not strong.
Due to the various names of imperial examinations in the Tang Dynasty, many educational resources were wasted. Therefore, during Wang Anshi's political reform in the Song Dynasty, a series of reforms were carried out in the imperial examination. Wang Anshi's political reform has the following measures: 1, taking various imperial examinations and taking Jinshi subjects alone; 2. Cultivate scholars in schools, that is, recruit some students into state-owned schools through examinations and recommendations, which are funded by the schools, and then select the outstanding personnel among these students to be officials through imperial examinations; 3. Unifying the writing format in the imperial examination created the predecessor of the eight-part essay, that is, adopting the "four-part essay" format of "breaking the topic, picking up the topic, making a short speech and making a knot" for the classics essay. At the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, Song Zongwei also cancelled the imperial examination and adopted the method of selecting officials directly from the school. However, this is an emergency measure in wartime. Therefore, the imperial examination was resumed after the Southern Song Dynasty, and even many reform measures of Wang Anshi were cancelled. But the four-character essay continued and evolved into the later eight-part essay.
Strictly speaking, stereotyped writing is a paper format, and there is nothing wrong with it, just like we have to follow a certain format when writing social science papers or natural science papers today. Eight-part essay gained a bad reputation later, mainly because the imperial examinations in Yuan and Ming Dynasties strictly required students to write according to Zhu Zhu's "Four Books and Five Classics", which was the key factor to suppress people in China's imperial examinations in Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties. The main formats of the eight-part essay are: breaking the topic (similar to the argument of the current argumentative essay), undertaking the topic (detailed explanation of the argument), opening the lecture (short argument thinking), starting the pen (entering the argument), starting the pen, middle writing, ending the pen, and binding the shares. The last four parts are the key to the eight-part essay, that is, the demonstration and conclusion stage we are talking about now, which is the part that specifically shows the talents and unique opinions of candidates in the exam.
1306, in order to reflect the determination of the Chinese nation's reunification, and also to prove to the Han people that the imperial power of the Yuan Dynasty respected Confucius and other saints (Note: the Central Plains culture has had a great influence on the northern minority areas for a long time, and many intellectuals of the Han nationality hold positions in the minority regime, so the Confucian and Taoist culture has also had a great influence on the ethnic minorities, which should be noted today), Yuan Chengzong ordered the construction of a temple dedicated to Confucius in Kyoto Prefecture. 13 13 years, the yuan dynasty adopted the imperial examination method in the song dynasty, and for the first time, Zhu Zhu's four books and five classics were used as the imperial examination version. In other words, people who took part in the imperial examination were required to use Zhu's annotations to understand the sage's remarks, which suppressed many students' own understanding of the classics, and Zhu's thought and culture began to occupy an important position in the imperial examination. This is how Zhu Cheng's Neo-Confucianism ascended the altar of China's thought and culture with the help of the imperial examination. After the continuous development of the Yuan Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty, the trilogy reached the ninth year of Hongzhi in the Ming Dynasty, that is, 1496. In that year, it was formally improved in the composition requirements of the exam topic "Tell Your Honor".
The subjects and forms of imperial examinations in China have had different forms in history according to the specific conditions of different dynasties. Taking the Ming and Qing Dynasties as an example, the imperial examinations and school education are as follows:
Because Wang Anshi's reform in the Song Dynasty cancelled the complicated subjects in the Tang Dynasty, only the Jinshi subjects were left. In this way, the Ming and Qing imperial examinations only selected talents according to the imperial examination procedures of scholars. Like the previous "arithmetic, law, Chinese characters" and other subjects related to people's livelihood, they are no longer imperial examinations. At that time, the schools set up by the state were like this: schools in the Qing Dynasty were divided into official schools and local schools, and official schools were also called imperial academy. Imperial academy and imperial academy, which are fully supported by the state, mainly recruit children of national heroes and senior officials to study. After studying, most of them took part in the national imperial examination procedure to gain fame, and a few went directly to be officials. There is a semi-official college in the local area, and the official has many material and reputation preferential treatments for those who can enter the college. In addition to these official and semi-official schools, there are many private schools among the people. The imperial examination procedure in the Qing Dynasty was: regardless of status and age, children's examinations (including county-level children's examinations, state-level government examinations, and provincial-level academy examinations)-after winning a township examination-the examination procedure in the palace examination.
Anyone who passes the county examination in the county where the candidate is located, even a boy, is not a fame, but a social honor, and often gets corresponding respect and funding from the society. Boys and girls are eligible for government examinations; After passing the official examination, male students are eligible to take the provincial college entrance examination, and after passing the provincial college entrance examination, they have achieved the name of scholar. The state should exempt the scholar's family from taxes and give him financial assistance. Provincial exams are held every three years, mostly in autumn, so they are also called "autumn exams". Only scholars are qualified to take such examinations, and those who pass the provincial examinations are called "juren". Only by holding an examination every three years can juren be qualified to participate in scientific research. Those who pass the final exam are called Gong's. Gong's quota is very small, only about 300 a year. Those who have achieved Gong's fame have actually achieved Jinshi's fame. However, they have to take court exams to finally get this honor. The so-called palace test means that the emperor takes another test of command in the Hall of Supreme Harmony. Palace examination belonged to one of the scientific research procedures before the Song Dynasty, but it was still eliminated. However, because Bird failed in the Song Dynasty because he took refuge in Xixia and attacked his motherland, the Emperor of the Song Dynasty cancelled the imperial examination screening system. In other words, all the students in the exam are Jinshi and will not be defeated again. However, the court exam will have to be re-ranked. The first place is the champion, the second place is the second place, and the third place is called "Ding". The state can directly release a person who has achieved the fame of a scholar, that is, it can directly elect him to be an official. However, the state will send officials according to the vacancy of state officials. So some scholars have never been court officials all their lives. At the same time, there are many officials who are not qualified for the imperial examination, so as to gain fame and gain a broad career.
Wu Zetian of Zhou Dynasty opened up the imperial examination system of martial arts in accordance with the imperial examination procedure. Therefore, since the Tang Dynasty, there has been a martial arts imperial examination. The procedure is basically the same as that of the liberal arts imperial examination, but the content is martial arts category and art of war. These military officials directly enriched the military management.
Because of too much political interference, China's cultural structure does have a very contradictory side. The purpose of the imperial examination was originally a political reform measure for the country to break its position and select talents on an equal footing since the Sui and Tang Dynasties. However, due to the patriarchal education, that is, the education of the relationship between heaven and earth, the relationship between teachers and students has gained the upper hand. Therefore, even in the imperial examination, all prestigious exams, that is, exams for scholars and above, have the habit of learning from teachers. In other words, successful people should worship the examiner as a teacher, and the students of that year should also worship each other. This has created a serious nepotism in China. These teacher-student relationships between officialdom and academia have created a situation of cronyism, which is of course not conducive to the country's construction of a fair, just and open social good system. That is to say, there are serious social paradoxes in the imperial examinations in the history of China, and the fair purpose of the imperial examinations is often contradictory because of its content, which has brought many side effects to the society. Now, what we still feel in reality is the habit of being a teacher, the phenomenon that academic circles form gangs according to graduation schools and professional titles, and ignore the actual academic ability of talents when talking about their origins, all of which are directly related to the paradoxical social phenomenon in the imperial examination in history. Therefore, people nowadays, especially those in academic circles, still have a long way to go to get rid of some decadent phenomena in China tradition!
At the same time, in the past, there was a custom of "writing papers" for imperial examiners in advance, that is, some candidates dedicated their usual articles to some contemporary celebrities and examiners to win their favor. However, due to the strict secrecy and marking system of China Imperial Examination, such "writing papers" often has no practical effect, but some talents have been found. For example, Su Shi's three sons all took part in the scientific research in the same dynasty. Su Xun gave his article to Ouyang Xiu, a dynasty official, to read in advance. Later, Su Xun failed in the list, but because Ouyang Xiu attached great importance to Su Xun, he recommended him to be a small civil servant, giving full play to Su Xun's talents. If it weren't for Ouyang Xiu's recommendation, Su Xun wouldn't have become one of the eight masters in Tang and Song Dynasties like his two Jinshi sons.
The reason why I spend so much time introducing the imperial examinations in China's history is that so far, many people in China, especially those in China's education, academia and politics, are still stuck in the stale customs of the imperial examinations. Even among the top ten ideological and cultural figures in modern China that I want to comment on, I can't say that I have stepped out of the shadow of the old imperial examination in China! Almost all of them have various origins with China's imperial examination culture. Hong Xiuquan's failure to enter the second stage of children's trial for four consecutive times has done great harm to his self-esteem and even led to his madness, which is one of the important reasons for his rebellion and disgust against China's traditional culture. Zhang Zhidong tried to carry out educational reform in Sichuan, which eventually contributed to the demise of China's imperial examination system, which lasted for more than 300 years. As we all know, Kang Liang used the imperial examination to carry out political reform. Although General Yan Fu achieved the position of director of education in Beiyang Naval Academy, sadly, he repeatedly took the imperial examinations just because he was not born in the imperial examination, trying to become a "scholar". Although Sun Yat-sen never took the imperial examination, his brother forced him to take the imperial examination in China many times. Chen Duxiu himself is a scholar. Do his words and deeds in life taste like old taxi drivers? Hu Shi, Lu Xun and Mao Zedong did not take part in the imperial examination. But among these ten characters, except Hu Shi, who has been growing up under the new education mode, the other nine people have all kinds of fetters with the old imperial examination in China. These are the background materials that can't be ignored when we study and comment on China's modern ideological and cultural figures. If many things in China can be solved by fierce resistance, just like the radicals since the May 4th Movement, the world would be too simple! To get rid of the decadent factors brought by the old days in China, we can only study and analyze the problems seriously. This process of research and analysis, like diagnosis and treatment, must carefully sort out the internal relations of various problems. I never believe that people who can only shout radical slogans are social revolutionaries. They are just some modern Hong Xiuquan. They are not enough, and there are many sequelae of the old imperial examination. Construction is often very difficult. Construction is a thousand times more difficult than blasting. Construction is to study and analyze carefully first, and then criticize inheritance.