Introduction:
As the richest dynasty in ancient Chinese history, the Song Dynasty's cultural achievements are also revered by later generations.
Contemporary historians recognize the Song Dynasty as a major peak in the development of ancient Chinese culture, and Western historiography has directly praised it as the "Renaissance of the East".
As the saying goes, "Zhu Zigui of the Manchu Dynasty is full of scholars", a poem "Prodigy Poem" by the Song Dynasty poet Wang Zhu vividly reflects the prosperity of the Song Dynasty's cultural atmosphere.
So, what is the secret of the progress of the fashion of the Song Dynasty scholars?This also starts with the imperial examination system that has lasted for more than 1,300 years in China.
In ancient Chinese feudal society, the power of a country was highly concentrated in the first place, and the Son of Heaven must use a group of capable generals to serve himself in order to control the people's governance, make friends from afar, and maintain his own ruling foundation.
However, for the rulers of ancient times, how to select and employ people is a great science, once the people are not clear, there is no way to employ people, at least it will cause the bureaucracy to be bloated and corrupt, harm the people, or at worst may bring disaster to the country and the people, and even cause the bitter fruit of the subordinates to rebel.
According to the order of the appearance of the time, the ancient Chinese system of electing officials can be roughly divided into four types.
From the hereditary family inheritance in the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, to the meritocracy system of the Han Dynasty, from the nine products of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, such as the Nine Grades of Zhongzheng 369, etc., to the Eight Shares of Articles and Imperial Examinations at the beginning of the Sui Dynasty.
These systems have their own merits in the selection and appointment of officials, or they value the noble and lowly backgrounds, or the reputation of the township, or the moral character and talent of individuals.
On the whole, the means of selecting officials in ancient times showed a more and more progressive and scientific development trend.
Since the birth of the Sui Dynasty, it has endured through several dynasties of the Tang, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, and has been tested for more than 1,000 years, which has effectively verified that it is the most effective program to serve the rule of the feudal dynasty.
At the end of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the world's bitter nine products were being made for a long time.
This system of electing officials, which came from the hands of Emperor Wen of Wei's confidant and adviser Chen Qun, has been used for more than 400 years, and its inherent drawbacks have long been exposed.
The examiners are completely in accordance with the family background, and all the ** are set as three, six, nine, etc., it can be said that everyone's fate has been doomed since the day he was born, and even once there was a sigh of "no cold door in the upper grade, no warrior in the lower grade".
With the decline of the old scholar clan and the rise of the new landlord class, the Jiupin Zhongzheng system is increasingly unable to meet the needs of the state in selecting talents, and there are many criticisms among the government and the opposition.
It was at this time that a new system came into being, which did not look at one's background at all, but only on the level of talent.
According to the "Book of Sui", in the first month of the third year of the emperor's reign, Emperor Wen of Sui Yang Jian had just been proclaimed emperor, and he carried out drastic reforms of the official system, and repeatedly issued edicts requiring all prefectures and counties to recommend virtuous and virtuous people.
Since the eighteenth year of the emperor's reign, Emperor Wen of Sui has successively set up more than a dozen "subjects" such as "Zhixing Xiujing", "Qingping Ganji", "Filial Piety and Knowledge", and "Literary Talent and Beauty", and regularly held "trial strategies" to select the best from among the candidates.
Historians generally believe that this is the earliest germ of the imperial examination system in ancient China.
After Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty ascended the throne, he officially promoted the implementation of the imperial examination system throughout the country in the third year of the Great Cause, and the government was wide open, and all ordinary people could voluntarily sign up for the sub-examination, and finally rank according to the results, and select the best talents to be awarded official positions.
Although the Sui Dynasty quickly disappeared into the dust of history due to the ** of Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty, the imperial examination scholars have been used since then, and have endured through several dynasties of the Tang, Song, Ming and Qing dynasties.
It was not until the last Jinshi examination in the 27th year of Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty that it officially announced its withdrawal from the historical stage, which lasted for more than 1,300 years.
Wealth and power are no longer mountains that the poor can never climb, as long as they study hard and enter the official career, through the unremitting efforts of generation after generation, they will one day get ahead.
With this belief as a support, the harmony and stability of the family and society are also guaranteed.
As Song Zhenzong himself wrote in the "Persuasion of Learning": "The book has its own ** house;There is Yan Ruyu in the book. So, compared with other dynasties, what are the unique characteristics and advantages of the imperial examination system in the Song Dynasty?
Before the Song Dynasty, the imperial examinations of the Sui and Tang dynasties were not yet mature, and due to the imperfection of the relevant legal system, they could not completely get rid of the manipulation and control of the family.
In order to ensure that he succeeds in high school, the protégé rarely focuses on the study of knowledge, but tries every means to bribe the examiner, and turns what should be an ink-filled article garden into a smoky vanity fair, which is not only a perverse act against the historical development, but also causes dissatisfaction and complaints from the people at the bottom.
In 960 AD, Zhao Kuangyin, Taizu of the Song Dynasty, successfully ascended the throne through the Chen Qiao Mutiny.
He knew the hardships of the people of Li Min, so he quickly looked at the world and recruited talents who could govern the world. Zhao Kuangyin, who had a clear eye for his work, was well aware of the shortcomings of the imperial examination system in the previous dynasties, and in order to meet the urgent needs of the founding of the country, he quickly embarked on a number of major reforms to the imperial examination system.
(1) The content of the exam is more down-to-earth
Taking the imperial examinations of the Tang and Song dynasties as a comparison, the characteristics of the Tang Dynasty's emphasis on scholars and poetry are particularly prominent.
The quality of the article does not look at the substance, and only blindly pursues carved sentences and gorgeous rhetoric, which leads to the imitation of scholars all over the world, forming an extremely light and exaggerated literary style.
The famous literati Sima Guang and Wang Anshi can be said to be the most ferocious pair of enemies in the entire Northern Song Dynasty.
But in the area of the imperial examination, the opinions of the two ** are surprisingly consistent.
They have repeatedly admonished the Son of Heaven, believing that scholars "do not listen to things outside the window and only read the books of sages and sages", and once such nerds enter the officialdom, they will only mislead the country and the people.
Song Shenzong deeply thought so, carried out many reforms of the imperial examination system, vigorously advocated the article atmosphere of "light poetry and heavy scripture and righteousness", and paid special attention to the connection with current politics when preparing examination questions.
For example, the "Manuscript of the Song Society" records the topic of the palace examination in the ninth year of Xining, mentioning the phenomena such as floods, droughts, displaced people, and military famine that have just occurred, and asking candidates to discuss this topic.
It can be seen that the questions of the imperial examination in the Song Dynasty often reflected practical problems such as political malaise, national economy and people's livelihood, and reflected the desire of the rulers of the Song Dynasty to find talents who could truly govern the country and secure the country.
(2) The examination rules are more perfect
Not to mention the examination system for selecting talents, any system from ancient times to the present day will have loopholes over time, so how to eliminate and prevent the emergence of ills has naturally become the top priority.
The imperial examination in the Tang Dynasty implemented a system of public recommendation, general ranking and examination, although it was able to select some talents, but it inevitably rejected most of the children of poor families, which damaged the fairness of the imperial examination.
This situation continued until the first year of Song Chunhua, and there were still students who ran to the door of the government to openly beat the drum and sing injustice after the name fell to Sun Shan.
The news was transmitted back to **, which attracted the attention of the rulers, and then put forward strict regulations on all aspects of the examination, striving to be fair, just and open, and giving every student who studied hard the opportunity to compete on the same stage.
According to the History of the Song Dynasty, the Song Dynasty first introduced two major reforms, "Mifeng" and "Transcription".
"Mi seal" is the common sealing of examination papers today to avoid revealing the name and place of origin of the candidate, so that the examiner has no way to know who the paper is from, and it is impossible to deceive.
But there is always a small group of people who are trying to find ways to take advantage of loopholes.
For example, some candidates make an appointment with the examiner in advance to mark a certain position on the test paper to cheat for personal gain, in order to completely eliminate this cheating phenomenon, the method of transcription came into being.
"Transcription" is to arrange for people to re-transcribe each candidate's examination papers, so that neither marks will be left nor can they identify their identities through handwriting, which greatly improves the fairness of marking papers, and for a time the wind of partiality has nothing to hide, and the imperial examination has become more and more deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.
The progress of the imperial examination system is obvious.
First of all, it broke the abnormal situation of "birth determines everything" before the Sui Dynasty, and provided a relatively fair, just and open competition platform for ambitious scholars, encouraging talented people to change their fate through hard study and compete with the children of the nobility.
Soon, many people who were economically at the bottom of the society, but who were full of enthusiasm for serving the country, began to inject into the feudal regime, which greatly improved the malpractice of the wealthy families monopolizing the government and maintained the centralized rule of the feudal **.
Second, for the first time, the imperial examination system has also raised the correlation between studying and being an official to an unprecedented height, and has vigorously advocated a good atmosphere of respecting teachers and valuing education and being diligent and studious in the whole society.
To this day, Chinese children learn well, Chinese parents attach importance to education, and they are still well-known all over the world, whether rich or poor, Chinese parents have a consensus on the attitude towards education: no matter how hard they are, they can't be poor in education.
In fact, this concept originated from the imperial examination system more than 1,000 years ago.
Since Zhao Kuangyin, Taizu of the Song Dynasty, the ruling class of the Song Dynasty has continuously improved the reputation of the imperial examination in the eyes of the common people.
With the expansion of the scope of admission, more and more students were attracted to participate in the competition, and most of the best of them later grew into pillars of the country, making great contributions to the stability, prosperity and prosperity of the Song Dynasty society.
For example, the world-famous Kou Zhun, Du Yan, Bao Zheng, Fan Zhongyan, Sima Guang, Ouyang Xiu, Wang Anshi ......
The names of these important ministers are all known to women and children, and they are all proud sons of heaven who have stood out from the road of the imperial examination. In them, the fine tradition of Chinese intellectuals of "taking the rise and fall of the world as their own responsibility" has been inherited and carried forward, leaving behind a valuable spiritual wealth for future generations.
The development of the imperial examination system in the Song Dynasty had a subversive impact on the values of the whole society, which was most intuitively demonstrated from the perspective of the concept of marriage.
As early as the period of the Two Jin Dynasty and the Northern and Southern Dynasties, due to the deep roots of the concept of the scholars, marriage often regarded the right person as the primary criterion.
The solidification of interest groups has gradually caused the whole society to lose its vitality, which is not conducive to the progress and development of the country.
But by the Song Dynasty, this phenomenon was gone. Born in the family is no longer a capital worth showing off, as long as you are in high school, you can carp and jump into the dragon gate.
Therefore, every time the list is released, the family with a woman in the boudoir will wait under the list early, and there is a beautiful talk of "catching a son-in-law under the list".
Conclusion:
Looking back on the development of previous dynasties, if there is any dynasty that can be called the "holy land" in the hearts of scholars all over the world, the Song Dynasty will always have a place.
Whether it is the children of the powerful or the poor, there is a deep-rooted consensus in their hearts, that is, as long as they study diligently, they can be named on the gold list, thus changing their fate.
This idea is still profoundly influential even today.