The imperial examination system had a profound impact on Chinese history. From the establishment of the imperial examination system in the Sui and Tang Dynasties until its abolition in the late Qing Dynasty, the imperial examination system was implemented for more than a thousand years. A system with a vitality of thousands of years must have deep reasons for its existence. And its eventual elimination by history must have its inherent reasons for being eliminated. This article attempts to explore the mystery of the imperial examination system through an analysis of its historical role and limitations.

1

Many articles discussing the historical role of the imperial examination system focus on the selection of outstanding talents by the imperial examination system. Since the beginning of the imperial examination system, many people have emphasized the "winners" of the imperial examination system. "New Book of Tang·Selection Records" takes Jinshi subjects as the representative, and says: "Of all the subjects, Jinshi is particularly valuable, and it is also the most prosperous." Later historians did not distinguish the reason, and often followed this line. Develop your argument through ideas, and you can even list a large number of outstanding talents from the imperial examination to support your argument.

However, if you think about it further, you will find that citing a group of outstanding talents selected through the imperial examination does not mean that the imperial examination system is superior to other systems for selecting officials. Because there are still many outstanding people who become officials through other channels. Here, the case is not persuasive. From a logical inference, to prove that the imperial examination system has advantages over other systems in selecting talents, it does not depend on how many examples you can cite, but on whether you have statistical significance in the proportion of outstanding talents between those who came from the imperial examination and those who did not come from the imperial examination. data on. However, due to the limitations of historical data, it is already very difficult to collect statistics on officials who came from the imperial examination, and it is even more difficult to collect statistics on officials who did not come from the imperial examination. Therefore, it is almost impossible to explore the historical role of the imperial examination system from the perspective of selecting outstanding talents under the current data conditions.

To take a step back, even if statistical analysis can be performed, it will not help solve the problem at all. Before the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the imperial examination system was not implemented. But we cannot prove at all that after the implementation of the imperial examination system, the proportion of outstanding officials in the ranks was greater than before the implementation of the imperial examination system. No one can be sure that there were more outstanding officials in the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties than there were in the Warring States, Qin and Han Dynasties. Therefore, using the imperial examination system as conducive to the selection of outstanding talents to explain its historical role lacks reliability in academic research.

The author tries to explore this issue from another angle. That is to say: the historical role of the imperial examination system lies not in its selection of outstanding talents, but in its satisfaction of the needs of China's feudal political governance. Researching from this perspective, I dare not say that the above problems can be completely solved, but at least it can inspire researchers' ideas from another way. Whether a system of selecting officials can survive for a long time depends first on whether it can meet the political needs of the ruler; and whether it can meet the needs of the ruler is also a prerequisite for gaining the attention of the ruler. It is at this point that the imperial examination system showed its superiority over other official selection systems.

II

From the perspective of meeting the needs of China's feudal political rule, the historical role of the imperial examination system is firstly reflected in its great affinity and high adaptability to the centralized political system. It met the need to continuously strengthen centralization of power after China's feudal society matured.

As we all know, there is a very obvious difference between the imperial examination system and the military merit, inspection and elimination systems implemented before the Sui and Tang Dynasties, which is the top-down approach of the imperial examination system. The implementation of the military merit system relies on bottom-up military merit assessment and reporting; the implementation of the inspection and promotion system relies on bottom-up recommendations; the implementation of the elimination system directly hands over human rights to the lower levels. The imperial examination system is quite different. Its standards are completely determined by the central government, and its personnel are completely selected by the central government. It is a top-down method of selecting officials. Local autonomy in hiring was completely deprived of by the centrally administered imperial examinations.

Of course, in the specific implementation of the imperial examination system, it was also implemented from bottom to top. In the imperial examination in the Tang Dynasty, the "rural tribute" was first followed by the "provincial examination"; until the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the "rural examination" was first and then the "provincial examination". However, this first-down-first-up approach is just a matter of order, not a bottom-up issue of the initiative in selecting officials.

The "rural tribute" in the Tang Dynasty was completely different from the recommendation under the inspection system, and even more different from the self-appointment and removal under the elimination system. Local officials were just acting under orders and were pre-selected according to the specific official selection standards stipulated by the central government. The "rural examination" in the Ming and Qing Dynasties has actually become a national unified regional examination administered by the central government. This unified standard and method for selecting officials eliminates the power of local officials to interpret policies. In contrast, the examination and elimination system implemented in the Han Dynasty clearly deviated from centralization. Under the inspection and elimination system, even if the central government has regulations on employment standards, the power of interpretation is in the hands of local officials. From a legal perspective, whoever has the power to interpret the law has the power to legislate in a practical sense. Therefore, after the Han Dynasty established a centralized autocratic governance system, the power of employment fell into the hands of local officials through inspection and elimination. The local separatist regimes that emerged at the end of the Han Dynasty cannot but be said to be closely related to the local power groups of the "disciples and former officials all over the world" created by the Chaoju system and the elimination system. Later historians believed that the promotion and removal of officials resulted in the relationship of suzerainty and personal dependence between local governors and subordinate officials. "Everyone flatters his master, but does not know that there is an emperor" (Wang Fuzhi: "Reading Tongjian Lun"). The imperial examination system did not require explanation from local officials at all, so local officials did not have the right to employ people. The spirit of centralization was fully reflected after the establishment of the imperial examination system. Under the imperial examination system, no one would think that their "tribute" or "examination" was due to the grace of a certain local official. What's more important is that even if a scholar obtains the title of "Xiang Gong" or a junior academic title, he must pass the national unified examination before deciding whether to choose. In this way, the power of selecting local officials was completely deprived by the imperial examination system. The method of selecting officials was very consistent with the requirements of centralization. It was impossible to create local forces that hindered centralization through official selection. Local officials could form private parties through other channels, which were issues outside the imperial examination system. For example, the "entry into power" of vassal towns in the Tang Dynasty and Wu Sangui's "Western Election" in the early Qing Dynasty proved this point from the opposite side.

Precisely because the imperial examination system was highly adapted to the need to strengthen centralization of power, it received great attention from rulers since the Sui and Tang Dynasties. At the beginning of the establishment of the imperial examination system, Li Shimin once said a famous saying. He watched the Xinke Jinshi file in from the door, and said proudly: "All the heroes in the world have come to me!" Obviously, in Li Shimin's eyes, he not only saw the talents of the Xinke Jinshi, but also saw the original "all heroes". "For its master"

Therefore, the imperial examination system and the current college entrance examination are related and corresponding. The country is gradually improving various shortcomings. The implementation of a system must have advantages and disadvantages. How to achieve perfection is precisely A question that China has been thinking about. To transport and cultivate talents from all walks of life for the country, we still have to apply the current college entrance examination system. We must adhere to the principle of fairness, vigorously develop education, and improve the overall quality of the people. This is the inevitable way to revitalize China