Some seemingly clear and true phenomena, whether in reality or in history, are largely ignored or imagined by independent views, but this is not necessarily the case. They need to be re-observed, reconsidered and reinterpreted from different angles.
I know He Huaihong because he is the translator of Meditations, and the author is one of the most thoughtful Roman emperors. A man named Aurelius, a wise man who is expensive as an emperor, left many deep thoughts on life, the world and society in his busy official business, so this little book can be described as "the emperor's thinking on horseback".
He Huaihong is famous for his two books, Hereditary Society and Elected Society. The reason why I know them is when the horizon is in the ascendant. At that time, the busybody posted the contents of this book in Tianya community. In my spare time in that year, I finished fragmented reading. According to Mr. He's interpretation, I constructed the general context of China's ancient official selection system, and extracted some vivid examples from the book for reference.
"Always associated with the imperial examination", I believe this should be the professional thinking and subject thinking of every high school teacher, especially the high school history teacher. The college entrance examination, the most core, concrete and direct goal of senior high school education in contemporary China, is even a little inferior, with only the meaning of "college entrance examination". As the main way of selecting officials in ancient China for a long time, the imperial examination has far-reaching influence and great effect. However, compared with the contemporary college entrance examination, there is a limited crowd objectively, probably above the scholars. In other words, not the whole society and all families have the opportunity to participate in the rising competition. In other words, the education system supported by the imperial examination is still elite education. However, in today's mass education has become a reality and the popularization of high school education has quietly arrived, the heavy burden contained in the college entrance examination can be imagined. This also involves the topic of "fairness of opportunity".
From Chaju to Imperial Examination, it began with Emperor Wudi and was finally promulgated, which was more prosperous in Sui and Tang Dynasties. Its prosperity has opened up a new channel for the upward mobility of social strata, that is, the opportunity for elites to share power. This is an uncivilized and civilized channel, which is relatively open and fair. If not, it will block the flow of inertia, and even trigger a political turn of a large number of young and middle-aged intellectuals from one side, and then vote for the Qing government with their feet. There is a saying that the end of the imperial examination kicked off the Qing Dynasty.
From the perspective of sociology and political science, He Huaihong collected decades of research concerns through these two volumes, made a normative interpretation of this field, and historically analyzed the origin and trend of social stratum mobility in China, as well as the changes in social and cultural significance caused by it. Therefore, this book can be regarded as a key reference book for understanding the official selection system in China.
The second volume of this book, Elective Club, centers on the imperial examination. He Laoshi explained from the beginning that the concept of "election" is completely different in the context of the East and the West, just like the "feudalism" in ancient China and the "feudalism" in our textbooks today.
"China's' election' is essentially different from the popular' election' originated from the West. As a free and universal form of democratic premise, modern election is a procedural form of recognized rules. According to this rule, people choose several people or one person from all or part to hold certain positions. " After the "Axis Age", it seems that the East and the West are two completely different cultural origins. The core essence is the development of "human" and "human society". Although it can't be said that it is a completely opposite clue, it can at least be said that parallel lines don't intersect. There are great differences between a civilization with Christianity as the core and a civilization with Confucianism as the core, and the difference of "election" is only one of them.
"In ancient China,' election' can be said to be the top-down selection of rulers, or' sages' selected' sages', that is, a few people selected a few people. This is a top-down choice. Although almost everyone is not excluded in theory, in fact only a few people participate or are selected, and even only a few people participate, and even fewer people can operate smoothly. Participants or candidates are actually selected or recommended by themselves, and finally selected through the recommendation of others or through objective examinations. The chosen people are naturally a group of people, not one person, nor the highest decision-maker, but only officials under the monarchy or people who are qualified to be officials. Candidates mainly rely on their own morality, talent, fame, family, or cultural literacy. Every time they are elected, they do not constitute a unified group, but are still some individual people. Every election has not brought about a change in national policies, but only injected new blood into the ruling class. Therefore, it is always an elite, and it is the activity of a few people from form to essence. Its selection criteria are limited by a predetermined material and do not involve the fundamental basis of national and political legitimacy, but it provides a stable, reasonable and predictable expectation for society, which is of great significance to the distribution of social materials, the establishment of social stratification and the change of personal status. "
China used to be a unique "world" and a relatively isolated "world". The word "tianxia" in ancient China directly refers to the earth under the sky, which means the world, but the word "tianxia" at that time actually mainly refers to China, so the word "tianxia" is geographically China, a folk, not a noble, but a person who constitutes all families. Therefore, changing one's surname and name is "national subjugation" and cannibalism is "national subjugation". Since Mencius put forward the concept of "five hundred-year cycle", the concept of historical cycle has been formed in ancient China. The world always runs over and over again on Sunday, or once every 500 years, or it will be divided for a long time.
"The chronology of China is also a symbol of the concept of circular history. No matter the date of heavenly stems and earthly branches or the date of the dynasty, it is the same. The lost dynasty is like a big circle, while the successive emperors are like a small circle. When the dynasty ends or the emperor dies, the calendar starts again. They do not have the nature of dividing history into two parts within one year and constantly pointing to the future in a straight line and overlapping way. And a person's method of recording life is also cyclical. For example, when the zodiac is recorded, it will be repeated, and so will the trunk and branch calendars. Sixty years is almost exactly the life span of the ancients. In other words, it is the approximate period from sensible (conscious) to death, and people have to meet their own birth years several times in this life. "
Can you describe it like this? China's ancient concept of history is not a linear thinking, nor a continuous upward trend imagination, but a circle, a closed road to advance wave after wave. When China meets the West, it suddenly finds that a society is completely unfamiliar with itself in form and far exceeds its own civilization in strength, and the traditional view of social history with simple cycle will go bankrupt. China people quickly accepted the linear, one-way, irreversible and gradual view of history and time, and formed their own "five-stage" cognitive model. Klebel, a sociologist, said, "Every time you look at the world from a different angle-no matter how small it is, you will see something you have never seen before." The basic pattern of traditional society remained basically unchanged from Qin and Han Dynasties to the end of Qing Dynasty. This is another objective political system foundation for the existence of the imperial examination system:
"One is the monarchy. The monarch is in the supreme position. Although he is bound by fate, ancestors' customs and even some laws to some extent, basically, he is the highest authority birthday girl and the source of power and law.
The second is bureaucracy. Under the monarch, a bureaucratic system centered on civil servants runs.
The third is the social hierarchy. There are always two classes in society: the literati class who ruled with the monarch and the agricultural, industrial and commercial class who accepted the rule.
The fourth is the integration of social order and ethical order. The ethical order we are talking about here is family ethics and kissing principle, which is the basic meaning of "ethics" in the traditional understanding. Before the Spring and Autumn Period, this integration was also reflected in the political system, the most prominent being the feudal system. After the Qin and Han Dynasties, this integration was mainly reflected in the concept consciousness and the grass-roots patriarchal clan system. "
It is in such a relatively eternal state of political structure that tea ceremony and imperial examination have existed step by step for two thousand years on the road of gains and losses, forming a unique long-scroll landscape in the origin of various systems in ancient China, a long historical drama with mixed feelings of sadness and joy, and a series of literary masterpieces about talented people and beautiful women.
Chen Yinque said: "Although the discipline of Jinshi was established in the Sui Dynasty, it has a special honorific title, thinking that the only right way for the people of the whole country to be an official actually began in Tang Gaozong's generation, that is, during the dictatorship of Wu Zhao. Even Xuanzong, the situation has become a foregone conclusion and will end in later generations, so it will not change. "
The imperial examination in Song Dynasty has been customized, and its position in society is more important. It has become a great step of the times, especially for the Korean army, and even the only way out, even saints are not spared. Zhu also said, "Although Confucius is resurrected, it is inevitable." Imperial examination is not only directly related to being an official, but also has a series of regulations or customary traditions of rising social status. Even if you have taken the county exam, you have a name in the government. You can sign it by writing a complaint. A scholar above doesn't have to kneel to answer in class. They have many enviable privileges and treatments in law. "Everything is inferior, only reading is high." The higher the fame of the imperial examination, the higher the social status, and equal attention should be paid to dignitaries and non-dignitaries. "Scholars are the treasure of the country, and Confucianism is the treasure of the table."
Douglas Ray pointed out that "equal opportunity" has two different meanings: one is future consideration-everyone has the same possibility to achieve a set goal; The second is the consideration of means-everyone has the same means to achieve the set goals. "China was a hierarchical society in ancient times, dominated by hierarchical order, but there were many equal ideas and violent demands in both big and small traditions." Imperial examination is a conditional opportunity fairness under the background of elite education, while college entrance examination is an almost all-round open opportunity fairness under the premise of mass education, which is related to the key node of life. It is conceivable that the imperial examination is important to the elite and the college entrance examination is important to the lives of ordinary children.
The Warring States period is an era when the upward way is not institutionalized. Of course, intellectuals still have opportunities to take risks, even by hook or by crook. Tourists do have the largest activity space in China's history. "The establishment of the Qin Empire ended all this, and the golden age of tourists came to an end. Tourists will soon be unable to swim any more. They either become officials or grassroots people. If we want to give full play to their talents, we must bring them into the political system of the country. "
At the beginning of the dynasty, a large number of talents were always needed to govern the country, not all of them were military strategists and soldiers. Liu Bang gradually realized that he could not rule the world at once. In the first year of Yuan Guang (BC 134), Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty initially ordered the county to raise a filial piety. This is the most memorable year in China's academic and political history.
"(Ancient) China didn't take the road of universal' equality of rights' before trying' national equality'. People in China in history don't know what "rights" are. Although they actually enjoy many rights, they are not given a general name. In the political field, the equal rights that ancient China people were concerned about were not universal suffrage, but the equal opportunities of being an official reflected in ancient elections. This opportunity has the following characteristics: first, it is an optimal opportunity. Once an official, it will bring the greatest benefits and benefits, not only gain power, but also gain prestige and wealth; Second, it is increasingly becoming the main opportunity to rise in society. Although there are other ways to succeed, these methods are different. In the later period, only the imperial examination is the right way, which can be said to be the only rising step for the poor. Third, close to a single institutional opportunity can be inferred from the first two characteristics. Although there were some other opportunities in ancient China society, they were all accidental, and only it provided a stable and consistent hope. "Shan" is the integration of people's main and highest value desires in society: that is, it only points to officialdom, and "Shan" also means that the methods and standards of ancient elections and candidates are changing day by day. In this way, we can say that the development of ancient elections in China is a development of "single maximum (political) opportunity equality". "
"Everything depends on the future" and "a college entrance examination will determine Kun's success or failure", which is an interpretation of the continuation of the college entrance examination and the imperial examination. We can also know that the importance of the imperial examination in China's ancient politics, as well as the importance of the college entrance examination and the contemporary education system, can affect the whole body, and it is difficult to change. We know that today's college entrance examination draws lessons from the imperial examination in terms of standards, technology, operation and mode of thinking, such as locking the court, affixing names, plagiarism and even negative cheating, which is also a continuation of national culture and psychology.
"In a society, what criteria are used to allocate resources such as power, wealth and prestige can be said to be the most important issue that affects and restricts this social structure, especially for a society that flows up and down a lot. How the development of ancient electoral system (including Chaju, Jiupin Zheng Zhi and Imperial Examination) more and more rejected the intervention of other factors, everything depended on the examination, that is, everything was decided by the articles in the examination room, and all the factors that were easy to inherit, such as political power, wealth, family fame, etc., were suppressed as much as possible, and all the factors that tended to accumulate, such as personal conduct, academic colonization, literary name, etc., finally constituted the imperial examination system in Zhu Juan.
Note: He Huaihong: Elective Society: A Study of Social Form from Qin and Han Dynasties to the Late Qing Dynasty, Peking University Publishing House, 1, 201June 7.