Everything is inferior, only reading is high
After Song Taizu seized power, he was determined to break the situation of the military people arbitrarily exercising power, and selected a large number of civil servants to serve as ** and local officials. This is also the fundamental basis for reversing the trend of emphasizing military force over literature.
In this way, the government needs to constantly replenish a large number of Confucian ministers, and where does the large number of Confucian ministers come from?The main way is through the imperial examination. For this reason, Song Taizu also reformed the imperial examination system accordingly. First, it stipulates that regardless of whether the family is rich or poor, or the county is high, as long as they have a certain level of education, they can be promoted. This has expanded the scope of the application, so that a large number of talented people will not be buried and sunk. Second, establish a system of re-examination and palace examination to put an end to the door of luck for private entrustment of powerful families.
In March of the first year of Song Kaibao (968 AD), there were ten people who passed the imperial examination, among which Tao Bing, the son of Tao Gu, the head of the household department, ranked sixth. Song Taizu had long heard that Tao Gu Xunzi had no way, so he suspected that someone among them was cheating. Therefore, Song Taizu ordered: All those who are selected in the scientific examination, as long as they are born in the family of eunuchs, must be re-examined by the Chinese book.
Since the eighth year of Song Kaibao (975 AD), Song Taizu personally presided over the palace examination. He said: "In the past, most of the people who were enrolled in the first rank were occupied by bureaucratic families, which made it difficult for scholars from lonely backgrounds to get the opportunity to become officials, which is too unusual. Now I have personally come to the test to determine whether I meet the standards or not. After this reform, the imperial examination in the Song Dynasty did not regain its origins, so it got a large number of talents with real talents and real learning, and a large number of talented scholars entered the first institution. As a result, the imperial examination field replaced the battlefield and became the main place for fame and fortune competition. Once a lonely and cold person enters the rank and ranks, such as ascending the Dragon Gate, glorifying the ancestors, and returning to his hometown in fine clothes, everyone is envious. At that time, people regarded the scholars who were the top champions more glorious than the commanders who recovered the territory and returned triumphantly.
The reign of Taizu of the Song Dynasty was a turning point in changing the emphasis on military and light literature into the emphasis on literature over military force. "The Son of Heaven is heroic, and the article teaches Ercao. Everything is inferior, only reading is highThe "Book of Prodigies", which was recited by the children of the Song Dynasty as a golden rule, is a high summary of the historical activity of Song Taizu.