Characteristics and reasons of imperial examination system and prime minister composition in Song Dynasty

Characteristics and reasons of imperial examination system and prime minister composition in Song Dynasty;

In the early Song Dynasty, although it was still in a state of semi-war, Zhao Kuangyin did not slack off in the imperial examinations. In the year of the founding of the People's Republic of China (960), the first imperial examination was held, and 19 people were admitted. Why do you want to recruit 19 people? Since the Tang and Five Dynasties, the number of scholars in various subjects has been around 20 or 30, and it is better to be short than excessive. Of course, the first subject of the Song Dynasty needs to set an example for the future, so we chose 19 outstanding figures. In the second year, I took the exam again and only accepted 1 1 person. In the following years, there were about ten scholars in each list, and it was rare that Gander only admitted six people in four years (966).

Zhao Kuangyin is a country ruled by literati. How can so many people fill many jobs in the country? In 970, in order to win over scholars, he gave an imperial edict to the Ministry of Rites who presided over the imperial examination, ordering them to sort out the children's files of the last ten years, the later Zhou Dynasty and even the later Han Dynasty, and make statistics to see how many people failed the 15 exam. After careful verification, the names of 106 people headed by Sima Pu were indeed listed. With a stroke of his pen, Zhao Kuangyin said: These people are really hard to get, and they all have undergraduate degrees. In the Song Dynasty, this kind of Jinshi had a special name, called "Cohen Jinshi", which was given by Emperor Kane. Zhao Kuangyin's Cohen is a bit big this time, but it is not unreasonable. At least we can see how flexible this great politician is in governing the country and how generous he is in recruiting talents. Since then, "Cohen" generally only involves a very small number of people, which is not uncommon throughout the Song Dynasty.

After talking about the special phenomenon of "Cohen", I returned to the regular scientific research. The imperial examination in the early Song Dynasty basically inherited the Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, and it was still a routine examination and a system examination.

"General subjects" are permanent subjects, similar to public examinations such as the college entrance examination today. The state stipulates the outline, content, time and specific procedures. Besides Jinshi, there are other subjects, including Nine Classics, Five Classics, Kaiyuan Rites, Three History, Three Rites, Three Biographies, Ming Classics, Faming and Zi Ming. Every autumn, candidates from rural areas in central China gather in Beijing at the end of winter, and the national unified examination is presided over by the Ministry of Rites in the following spring. The so-called "Nine Classics" are the nine classics set by the Tang Dynasty and the "Five Classics" are the five classics set by the Western Han Dynasty. Kaiyuan Rites is a large-scale ritual book compiled in the Tang Dynasty, and it can also be regarded as a special examination of practical "rites", while "Three History" refers to historical records, two Han Dynasties and the annals of the Three Kingdoms, which can be understood as the history department. It can be regarded as a special examination of etiquette theory. The three biographies refer to Zuo Zhuan, Yang Gongzhuan and Liang Bochuan, which can be regarded as a special examination of the history books of the Ministry of Economics. Ming Jing refers to the unified examination of all classics, which can be regarded as the examination of traditional Confucian classics. Fa Ming is a method test, and Zi Ming is.

We need to say a few more words about "Jinshi" and "Mingjing". Since the Tang Dynasty, scholars have paid the most attention to these two subjects, among which Jinshi is the most important. The reason is simple: China scholars are optimistic about their future careers, and they often climb to the high position of Zaifu, while Mingjing's future is much more bumpy, and few people can eventually become senior officials. Other small departments know at a glance that even if they are admitted, they will only be small business officers for life, and it is difficult to grasp power.

"Making the subject" is a small-scale examination presided over by the emperor himself. This form of examination originated from the shooting strategy of the Han Dynasty and was very common in the Tang Dynasty. In the Song Dynasty, some "regular subjects" were gradually formed, that is, frequently repeated subjects. For example, the sage founder established in the Taizu era can be outspoken and remonstrant, classic and excellent, profound in knowledge, can be a model, and can educate detailed and idle officials. Renzong's sage and ability at the time were square, and he was able to speak bluntly and remonstrate extremely. The tomb of Broadcom was enlightened, and his knowledge was clear and practical. His detailed understanding of official management made him succeed in politics, learning caves and strategizing, and his army was brilliant. Although the scope of the system examination is not large, the qualifications of candidates are very wide. Both the incumbent official and Shan Ye Wang Can were recommended by the Prime Minister to take the exam. Those who have been admitted to the Jinshi can also take the examination system. Fu Bi, a famous minister in the Northern Song Dynasty, originally wanted to take an examination of Jinshi. It happened that his father-in-law, Yan Shu, was the examiner of that year and needed to be avoided, so he had to take the systematic examination of that year. Another example is Su Shi and Su Zhe brothers. In the second year of Jiayou (1057), he was admitted to Jinshi, but he was not reconciled. Both of them took the systematic examination in the sixth year of Jiayou (106 1) and entered the third class. According to the textual research of Ye Lang, a poet in the Song Dynasty, Su Shi should be "a man who can speak and admonish directly", which is very consistent with Su Shi's later self-mockery. After experiencing many hardships, Su Shi sighed with emotion: "He should have taken the exam and achieved excellent results, so he thought he could really speak frankly and remonstrate with the exam." I just know that the remonstrance was extinguished once and for all, and now Huangzhou is cool. "

The number of questions in the science examination in Song Dynasty is quite large, and it is not as we imagined that you can get ahead by answering a paper. Take the Jinshi exam as an example, we should "try one poem, one ode, five strategies, ten posts in the Analects of Confucius, ten meanings in the Spring and Autumn Period or the Book of Rites". Among them, poetry, fu and theory are the most important. The so-called "back" is called "back sutra", which is the paragraph in the back sutra; The so-called "ink meaning", that is, the pen answers the meaning, which is stipulated as ten. Why is it called dictation "posting"? Because this kind of examination cuts off the first and second sentences of the classic original text, only one or two sentences or one or two lines in the middle are exposed, so that the examiner can fill in the front and back. In addition to Tiejing and Mo Yi, Current Affairs Policy has three answers. These three items are not very important in the Jinshi exam, but they are very important in the Ming Dynasty, almost all the exams. Otherwise, why do Jinshi always look down on the Ming Sutra? It is because most of the classics of the Ming Dynasty rely on rote memorization, unlike the literature of Jinshi. Because of the large number of examination questions, candidates have to stay in the examination room for three or four days to answer all the contents, whether they are in the township exam or after the exam.

Where is the new imperial examination in Song Dynasty?

Song dynasty perfected many disadvantages before and established the best examination content. Compared with the Tang Dynasty, there were many new changes in the imperial examinations in the Song Dynasty.

The most positive thing in this respect is the establishment of a paste name system, which is to seal up all the information that candidates may cheat, such as name and place of origin, so that examiners and marking staff can't know who each paper belongs to. In the early years of the Song Dynasty, the custom of asking for gifts remained the same, and the paste name system was not adopted until Zhenzong. At that time, many people objected to posting names, such as Fan Zhongyan and Su Song. They all mentioned that posting names is too risky: they are notorious at ordinary times and have good exam results. Do you admit or not? With the passage of time, it is proved that posting names is the most reasonable, just and speechless means. When Su Shi took the Libu exam, the examiner was Ouyang Xiu. At that time, Ouyang Xiu was the most optimistic about Ceng Gong. When he got Su Shi's paper, he was very happy. He decided that this must be Ceng Gong's answer sheet, and named it as the title. Open the paste name and see, it turned out to be Su Shi. No matter whether Ouyang Xiu is out of business or private affairs, it is difficult for him to give high marks to his favorite students when he is an examiner.

The second is the final establishment of the examination time. The financial, material and human resources used by the country every year in the Tang Dynasty can be imagined. The Song Dynasty was the second year of British Emperor Zong (1065), which was set as a big ratio of three years. This time has not changed until the last lecture. The "Year of Grand Tournament" mentioned in the novel means that there is an examination for rites this year, and it is the champion.

The third is the change of writing style. In the second year of Jiayou, Ouyang Xiu paid tribute. He has always hated stylized articles that groan without illness. When he gained the absolute right to speak, all the papers that Wen Cheng had lasted for a hundred years were lost, and all the articles he took were "ancient prose" with ontology, so Su Shi and Su Zhe took advantage, because these two brothers were best at discussing the success or failure of ancient and modern times. Ouyang Xiu is said to be the "standard-bearer" of the ancient prose movement in the Song Dynasty, which was established at this time.

The fourth is the change of examination content and subjects. In the early Song Dynasty, poetry, fu and theory were stunts, while the first two were stunts, and they should be written according to rhyme. Once the verse is published, even the best article is zero. The change of examination content is one of the consequences of Wang Anshi's political reform. In his letter to Zongshen, he wrote: "Learning from the past is learning. Please build a school to restore the past. Its Ming Classics and other subjects want to be abolished, and the Ming Classics have increased. " It means not to set up so many subjects, and to cancel all Ming Classics and Fa Ming, and only to keep Jinshi subjects. Also, in the future, only classics will be tested, and poetry will not be tested. The reason is: since childhood, a person has written poems and fu, and he is familiar with phonology, but he knows little about the words of saints. Once he is an official, how can he know how to govern the country and the people? From then on, the imperial examination will no longer test poetry and fu, but only classics.

What do you mean by "A" and "B"

When we read ancient books, we often see the words "Jinshi A" and "Jinshi B", and there is always a feeling of incomprehension. At first, there was no A and B in the imperial examinations in the Tang Dynasty. From the high-impedance Li Yuan to the early Tang Dynasty, all Jinshi were called "B subjects". In order to show his virtue, Emperor Ming of the Tang Dynasty issued a decree saying, "There is no Jiake in modern times. Starting from me, we must open the door of Jiake and let the best talents become the model of the world. " In the last Tang Dynasty, "Jiake" became the top three names of Jinshi.

Great changes have taken place in the Song Dynasty. In the previous Jinshi examination, subjects A and B both referred to Jinshi, and subject A must be better than subject B. For example, the biography of Emperor Taizong's Five Years of Taiping and Xingguo (980) clearly recorded that Zhang Yong, a famous official, was a scholar B. Ouyang Xiu's son, Ouyang Bi, and Su Shi, a great writer, are both B subjects. Until the late Northern Song Dynasty, subjects A and B were still the concept of Jinshi grade, that is, subjects A were the first class, subjects B were the second class, and even the third class appeared.

In the Southern Song Dynasty, it was clearly stipulated that the Jinshi examination was divided into five grades. Li Zongbao four years (1256), Wen Tianxiang list * * admitted 60 1 person, including Grade A 2 1 person, Grade B 40, Xie Fangde ranked first in Grade B, and the rest were Grade A, Grade A, Grade A .. The Biography of Song Shi Xie Fangde said that he took the Jinshi exam in Baoyu. " Except Hu Si, they will be abandoned. "It means that Xie wants to be a top student, but the result is only" in the second class ",but he refuses to accept it. Comparing these two materials, we can see that "Dimethyl" and "Branch B" in the Southern Song Dynasty are equivalent concepts, so there is no formal "Branch B" after the Southern Song Dynasty, but people still call the second-class Jinshi "Branch B".

In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the names A and B appeared again, which made it easier to distinguish them: all the regular Jinshi who passed the court examination were called A, and those who did not pass the court examination were called B.