Speaking from the facts, it is obvious that the imperial examination system is opening up the political power, and this is the intrinsic meaning and spiritual life of the imperial examination system.
The election of the Han Dynasty was a way to open up the political power among the feudal aristocracy. The open election in the Tang Dynasty was a way to open up power from among the special classes of the Mendi.
The scope of openness in the Tang Dynasty was wider and more liberal than that of the Han Dynasty.
So from this point of view, we can say that the politics of the Tang Dynasty were progressive again.
At that time, people who were generally not in the middle of the family, poor children, in order to take the exam, often borrowed Buddhist temples and Taoist monasteries to study. For example, Wang Bo is borrowed from the monk temple and later became one of the prime ministers, and the story of the bell after the meal has been passed down as a good story so far.
Excerpted from the second lecture of Qian Mu's "Political Gains and Losses in China's Past Dynasties" "Tang Dynasty and Tang Dynasty Examination System".
Mr. Champumu referred to the concept of an open regime.
This concept has opened my mind very much, helped me think about the political system, and expanded a broader space and path.
I've been talking about the concept of public and private rights. As far as I understand it, public power is divided into two, and private power is also divided into two.
The division of private rights into two is difficult to understand without today's conceptual explanation, but if it is explained by today's concepts, it is governing power and civil rights.
Civil rights are relatively easy to understand and are all there is to private rights.
Different classes of people have different civil rights. The civil rights of ordinary people may be the most basic rights such as the right to life and the right to property. People of higher classes, whose civil rights, are also part of these. But after all, they have a higher social status and have more social resources, so the civil rights they need to mention will be much greater.
Whether it's more or less, it's a private right.
The other part is more special, the so-called governing power, which means that the public power is exercised by private power.
Any public power must be executed by an individual, and the executor must have the desire and demand for private rights, which can easily lead to the fact that public power is used to seek personal interests and turn public power into private rights.
If there is no restraint, almost everyone will use public power for personal gain, but never be selfless.
Any selflessness is accomplished under the constraints of the system.
As for public power, there are also two parts. One is the objective public power, and the other is the subjective public power.
Objective public power, that is, the executive agency enforces part of the private rights transferred by all citizens. Regardless of the manner in which such private rights are granted, such as in the time of monarchs, the king assumes that he has transferred it himself, or has received it in a lawful name, or has been granted divine authority. It also includes Western democracies, where it is recognized as a grant by all citizens.
In fact, there is a problem of unclear concepts in both types of awarding. I will not discuss this issue.
I want to emphasize only one point: the public power system of any society belongs to the sum of citizens' private rights transfer.
This is the objective existence of public power.
And, of course, subjective. This subjectivity includes the identification of the mode of power granting, as well as the proportion and method of private rights that the exerciser of public power derives from the use of power.
Mr. Qian Mu said, "Based on the facts, it is obvious that the imperial examination system is opening up the regime, which is the intrinsic meaning and spiritual life of the imperial examination system. ”
First of all, it needs to be made clear that the political power referred to here is precisely the executive power of public power.
Under the two different systems, public power is established at different points. The public power under the monarchy system is established at the highest point, that is, the monarchy, which can also be identified as the spire of power. In Western democracies, public power is established at the lowest level, that is, the lowest level of power, that is, the democratic position.
In this way, those whose power is built on high positions have room for downward release. On the contrary, those who build in the low position have lost the space to release downward.
In the private power system, power is released to relatives, that is, to one's relatives, including uncles, uncles, siblings and relatives, that is, nobles under the feudal system.
Under the monarchy, the power is released or, as Mr. Qian calls the open regime, further downward.
The Han Dynasty implemented the inspection system, and the right to inspect was actually in the hands of the scholars, and therefore, the power was released to the scholars. But it is an aristocratic scholarly family, that is, a big family, or as Mr. Qian said, the family class.
In the Tang Dynasty, the imperial examination system was implemented, and the best were selected through the examination. The delegation of authority is further released downward. However, the bottom line of this release is still the Shi clan.
The so-called scholars, simply understood, are scholars.
In a sense, only those who read can enter the ** class through the imperial examination. The ordinary people can't read a single word, so they can't enter this class.
Therefore, the so-called poor children or poor children will never be able to step on this road.
If it is determined in this way, even if the imperial examination system is really fair, it is only the fairness of some people, not the fairness of the whole people.
The imperial examination system actually excludes more than half of the people from the upper echelons of society in the form of a social system. So that the people will always be for the people, and it is difficult to have a first day.
Mr. Qian mentioned that some people think that the imperial examination is a foolish people, but I don't know if it is for this reason.
Indeed, the imperial examination system has divided people into hierarchies, and in society, a hierarchical embankment has been erected, that is, the laborers and laborers, which has exacerbated social inequality.
However, social equality and fairness are actually two different concepts.
In terms of an individual's innate intelligence and acquired knowledge reserves, there is no equality between people and people at all. The reason why human society has become a society is because society is a structure, and this structure must be governed by people. The ruler must be the one of the highest intelligence.
In this way, wisdom will always be at the top of society.
On the other hand, people increase their wisdom through learning knowledge, and they need to use the media, which is the carrier of knowledge, books, teachers, etc.
In the pre-Qin period, teachers were at the top of society, and ordinary people could not get their education, let alone books. Therefore, knowledge is only in the hands of a very small number of people.
In this sense, the imperial examination, in fact, opened a way for the decentralization of knowledge. This is what Mr. Qian said, "The open election in the Tang Dynasty was a way to open up the political power from the special class of the Mendi."
Without this opening-up, the poor will always be the poor, and there will be no opportunity to participate in social governance at all, and it will be impossible to bring the meaning, ideas, and psychology of the grassroots level into the governance structure.
In this sense, the imperial examination is not only a social progress, but also a great progress, which directly promotes the development of culture and knowledge.