The early Ming Dynasty recommended the system of modern enlightenment
If you like this article, please click "Follow" to facilitate your discussion and sharing, and at the same time, it can also bring you a different sense of participation, thank you for your support. Introduction In the 60s of the last century, in order to select outstanding talents, the college entrance examination system established by New China was abolished and replaced by a guaranteed university system.
This situation lasted until the late 70s. Although there are different opinions and no conclusive conclusions about the causes and consequences of this process, this is a historical event worthy of study and evaluation by future generations.
Similarly, there was a similar situation in the early Ming Dynasty in history, when the imperial examination system was opened and stopped, and there were various ways to select talents. At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang attached great importance to the recommendation system, and even hesitated about the imperial examination, and abolished the imperial examination several times before and after.
The History of the Ming Dynasty commented: "The recommendation system was very popular in the early Ming Dynasty, but was later abolished due to the focus on specific subjects". Understanding the recommendation system in the early Ming Dynasty still has positive reference significance for us today.
Recommendations, Imperial Examinations, and Schools. The methods of recommendation include courtesy, recruitment and recommendation, among which Liu Ji, Song Lian, Ye Chen, Zhu Sheng and others were recruited in this way.
For talents who are hired and recruited, Zhu Yuanzhang usually no longer assesses them to show respect. These people will take the initiative to show their "current policies", such as Liu Ji arrived in Jinling in the twentieth year of Yuan Zhizheng (1360), he will "Chen Shiwu eighteen policies", Zhu Yuanzhang was very happy after seeing it, and greatly appreciated and accepted Liu Ji's suggestion.
In film and television dramas, the image of the Ming Dynasty ** is different from recruitment and courtesy, they are mainly selected from the bottom up through recommendation and sent by the locality. The number of people recommended was large, and the imperial court had to conduct strict evaluations to prevent abuse.
Therefore, although the recommendation system in the early Ming Dynasty was different from the official imperial examination, it was still necessary to pass the examination and assessment. The recommendation system was not only the most important talent selection method before the founding of the Ming Dynasty, but also ran through the entire Hongwu Dynasty.
The recommendation system of the Hongwu Dynasty is divided into four stages, the first stage is mainly based on the needs of the establishment of officials and posts, which has a strong pertinence; Clause.
In the second and third stages, the recommended subjects were refined and the relevant systems were improved; The stricter regulations in the fourth stage marked the gradual improvement and rationalization of the recommendation system under Zhu Yuanzhang's rule.
Before Hongwu, although Zhu Yuanzhang did not explicitly instruct the use of subjects to select talents, his subordinates had applied this method in actual operation. For example, Yang Zhuo recommended talents with "literature", and Zhu Yuanzhang's recognition of the imperial examination invisibly promoted the standardization of recommendations.
Zhu Yuanzhang wrote the question through "Zhou Yi", showing that the recommendation activities before Hongwu had a certain pertinence at the examination level, and it was not from the beginning of Hongwu that this characteristic began to be shown by the establishment of official positions.
Zhu Yuanzhang did not accept all the recommended candidates, but decided the trade-offs through examinations, such as Qian Tang in the first year of the founding of the People's Republic of China. Therefore, at least in Ding Weinian, Zhu Yuanzhang has already adopted the method of imperial examination and examination to ensure the quality of selected talents.
Ye Boju played to the emperor in the fifteenth year of Hongwu and criticized the problems of the recommendation system. He pointed out that the recommendation system at that time often led to the selection of truly talented people, and the appointment of officials was often based only on appearances, regardless of whether they were actually suitable for the job.
Zhu Yuanzhang listened to his suggestion and put forward the selection principle of "testing whether he can do it, testing his merits and disadvantages, and then appointing him to his post." Subsequently, Zhu Yuanzhang also agreed on the examination system, dividing the recommended subjects into six subjects, and determining the rank of personnel according to the examination results: those with six subjects are superior, those with more than three subjects are middle, and those with less than three subjects are inferior, and those who do not have a score in one subject will be eliminated.
This kind of improvement and perfection of the system of recommendation and examination undoubtedly provided a more scientific and fair standard for the appointment of officials in the middle and later periods of Hongwu.
In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, the imperial examination system was not yet perfect, so the imperial court attached great importance to the recommendation system. Before Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty, he successively fought against Chen Youliang, Zhang Shicheng and other separatist forces, as well as the remnants of the Mengyuan army, resulting in unstable territory and undecided people's hearts, and many scholars were reluctant to go out.
In addition, the construction of basic systems such as transportation, materials, unified subjects, examination houses, marking papers, and selection required for the imperial examination also takes time, especially after the 97-year state of "duck release" without the imperial examination in the Yuan Dynasty, it is necessary to rediscover the tradition of the imperial examination in the Tang and Song dynasties.
Therefore, the recommendation system became the main way for the imperial court to select talents at that time.
1. Zhu Yuanzhang still has doubts about the choice of Confucian classics, and the conditions for the imperial examination are yet to be mature, and it will take time to determine the final scope of the examination. 2. In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, the imperial court urgently needed a large number of useful talents.
Since the country has just been established, military generals with combat experience are needed not only at all levels, but also transactional talents with certain cultural literacy and grassroots experience.
According to statistics, from 7,567 positions in the Eastern Han Dynasty, to 18,805 positions in the late Tang Dynasty, and then to 16,000 positions in the late Northern Song Dynasty, the number of positions in the imperial court and local institutions has been increasing.
Although the territory of the Ming Dynasty was not large, it needed at least 15,000 positions to keep the three divisions of the two capitals running normally, and this number did not include those who were informal and non-staffed.
Therefore, the demand for talents at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty was very urgent and practical. Most of the Huaixi group, which was founded by Zhu Yuanzhang, was illiterate and could not meet the needs of the imperial court and local governance.
Although the imperial examination can select literati, the training cycle of talents is long, and it cannot produce transactional officials quickly and effectively. This is the reason why Zhu Yuanzhang attaches great importance to the recommendation system.
In the Hongwu Dynasty under the portrait of Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Yuanzhang carried out large-scale judicial rectification many times, which led to the occurrence of cases such as the Hu Weiyong case and the Li Shanchang case.
In addition, Zhu Yuanzhang has doubts about readers. In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, many people who passed the imperial examination were very good at reading, but they knew nothing about other affairs, and their social experience was relatively lacking, so they often did not get Zhu Yuanzhang's approval when dealing with Shangjiao affairs and government affairs.
For example, a Cantonese ** procrastinated and did not get to the point when he reported on the report, and Zhu Yuanzhang was very dissatisfied with this and immediately detained him.
In the early Ming Dynasty, the "North and South List" incident of the Hongwu Dynasty made Zhu Yuanzhang have doubts about the imperial examination system. Southern scholars (mainly from Jiangsu and Zhejiang) performed well in the imperial examinations, occupying the majority of the places, which triggered the ** of northerners.
Eventually, the incident was handled in a balanced North-South and allotted admissions manner. This event had an important impact on the process of talent selection in the Ming Dynasty, and the transition from the recommendation system to the imperial examination system had a historical inevitability and had a profound impact on later generations.
Although the recommendation system is a reasonable bureaucratic selection system in theory, it has obvious shortcomings in practice. Especially in a peaceful environment, due to the lack of an effective crisis restraint mechanism, people's selfishness and greed are easily exposed, resulting in the fragile rationality and fairness in the recommendation system being hollowed out.
In addition, due to the lack of an effective mechanism to ensure the moral character and discerning of the recommenders, it is difficult to grasp the two prerequisites for the good implementation of the recommendation system.
1.Considering the fairness, specificity and operability of the selection, we need to develop clearer and more targeted criteria. 2.The superiority of the imperial examination system lies in its fairness.
It is the strictest and fairest system for electing officials designed and manufactured by China, which can select a large number of elite talents and is conducive to governing the country. Compared with the recommendation system, the imperial examination system is more open, fair and just, it provides equal opportunities for competition, allows the vast number of ordinary people to have the opportunity to enter the upper class of society, accelerates the flow of social classes, and is conducive to social stability and governance.
The imperial examination system plays an important role in the stability and unity of the country. In the long run, the imperial examination system is more effective in recommending talents than the recommendation system, and has a profound impact on the lives of the people.
Although Zhu Yuanzhang in the early Ming Dynasty once abolished the imperial examination system, he flexibly adjusted the talent selection system according to the needs of the imperial court and adopted a multi-way approach. To sum up, we examine the recommendation system in the early Ming Dynasty from a modern perspective, and compare the advantages and disadvantages of the two.
In the middle and late Hongwu period of Zhu Yuanzhang's reign, he restarted the imperial examinations, and while not abolishing the recommendation, he also paid attention to the balance and combination between the two, which fully demonstrated his deep understanding and changes in the problem.
For modern people, while we attach importance to the education of the college entrance examination and select talents through the examination, we should also learn from history and fully understand and appreciate the rationality and enthusiasm of the recommendation system.
As for how the recommendation system will exist in our country and how it will play its unique function in the selection of talents, this is an issue worthy of our in-depth study.