The Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties were a period of great changes in China's feudal society. It experienced the Sui Dynasty (58 1-6 18), the Tang Dynasty (6 18-907) and the Five Dynasties (907-960). It was a period of reconstruction and high development of China's unified feudal autocratic country, which experienced from division to unity and from unity to division.

In terms of education system, the Sui and Tang Dynasties was not only the finalization stage of the centralized education administration system and school education system in China feudal society, but also the emergence and development of the imperial examination system made the ancient education in China enter a new era.

Section 1 Political education policies and administrative systems in Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties

I. Cultural and educational policies

(A) the cultural and educational policies of the Sui Dynasty

Although the Sui Dynasty was short-lived, it had a history of only 37 years from 58 1 year when Emperor Wendi unified the north and the south and established the Sui Dynasty to 6 18 year in the Tang Dynasty. However, it successfully ended the disintegration of hundreds of years since Wei and Jin Dynasties, and the situation of national reunification emerged.

Sui Wendi Sui Wendi made great efforts to govern. In order to strengthen centralization and realize the guiding ideology of governing the country with Confucianism, he pointed out in the imperial edict in November of the third year of Emperor Chengzu of Ming Dynasty (AD 583): "I am in the imperial palace, thinking deeply about the way of governing the country, trying to make different people learn from each other's strengths and replace punishment with morality." The country replaces punishment with morality, and Confucianism is the ruling ideology, so Confucianism is needed to educate people and train officials. Emperor Wendi of Sui Dynasty also wrote an imperial edict to persuade students to study, emphasizing that "it is important to build a country, not before school, to respect teachers and protect the people, not before ceremony", and "it is not before ceremony to govern the country", requiring all counties and counties in the country to set up doctoral ceremonies, and the national temple in Shi Jing also expanded in scale, which led to the temporary prosperity of Confucianism.

Emperor Wendi of Sui Dynasty did not reject Buddhism and Taoism while worshiping Confucianism. He believed in Buddhism, repeatedly called Buddhism a "sacred religion", said to himself, "I am proud of Buddhism", and ordered the pagoda to be widely erected and a large number of Buddhist scriptures to be engraved. However, Buddhism did not intervene in the field of education and influence politics in the Sui Dynasty, and Confucianism was the dominant ideology in the Sui Dynasty. Emperor Yang Di was even more enthusiastic about Confucianism. In July, the first year of Daye (AD 605), he issued an imperial edict, seeking talents and promoting learning, emphasizing that "teaching is the foundation of the country, and changing customs must start here." During the period of Yang Di, Ming Classics was set in the imperial examination, and a large number of ancient books were collected, and the bibliography classification of Classics, History, Zi and Ji was established, which made a certain contribution to the collation and revision of Classics. It can be seen that the cultural and educational policies of the Sui Dynasty seem to respect Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, but in fact they are dominated by Confucianism.

(B) the cultural and educational policies of the Tang Dynasty

After the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, Li Yuan presented the book "Promoting Learning" in the seventh year of Wude (AD 624), pointing out that "since ancient times, learning has always been the first, and learning is full of benevolence, righteousness, courtesy and wisdom, so it can be beneficial and profound. At the end of the principal and interest, I advocate Confucianism, open the eyes and ears of future generations, and practice the ring of the first king. " Before Li Shimin ascended the throne, Emperor Taizong married eighteen bachelors and was closely related to Confucian scholars. After he ascended the throne, he often discussed the strategy of governing the country with Confucian ministers. He once made it clear that "the only person I am good at today is the education of Yao Shun, Zhou and Confucius", and stressed that "only by learning to respect Confucianism and cultivating sages can we be beautiful in customs and become civilized."

With the establishment of the policy of worshipping Confucianism, Confucian classics have also been paid attention to. In view of many errors and fallacies in the Scriptures, Emperor Taizong specially ordered Yan Shigu, a former assistant minister of calligraphy, to read the Five Classics and "promulgate the world and instruct judges". These Five Classics are the final versions of Zhouyi, Shangshu, Shi Mao, Book of Rites and Zuozhuan, and they are used as the unified teaching materials of the school.

Confucianism has been defined as the foundation of governing the country, so the selection and appointment criteria of officials at all levels are also based on Confucianism. School education and imperial examinations in the Tang Dynasty also focused on Confucian classics. During Tang Wenzong's reign, he ordered the engraving of Shijing, which was completed in the second year of Kaicheng (AD 837). The Book of Songs is divided into twelve classics (except Mencius, which became the thirteen classics popular in modern times). These stone classics have become a model for studying and studying Confucian classics in the future. The unification of Confucian classics marks the final establishment of the dominant position of Confucianism.

Although the Tang Dynasty highly praised Confucianism, it also advocated Taoism, Buddhism and a hundred schools of thought. Taoism, in particular, was favored by the rulers of the Tang Dynasty, ranking second only to Confucianism. In terms of policy, "it is difficult for the two religions to cooperate." Feng Wen Jian Ji said: "Li is an old gentleman, so he worships Taoism." Li Yuan once regarded Laozi as his ancestor, so he worshipped Taoism, and the order was: Taoism first, Confucianism second and Buddhism third. When Xuanzong was in power, he made Buddhism by Taoism, set up metaphysics, recruited talents and studied Taoist classics. Since then, Taoism has become increasingly prosperous. When the emperor took Taoist classics as the content of the imperial examination, Yi Feng wrote in the third year (AD 678): "The Tao Te Ching and the Filial Piety Ching are both classics, and they must be passed in public." And set up the subject of "Taoju". Many emperors in the Tang Dynasty believed in Buddhism themselves. Li Yuan once advocated the construction of Buddhist temples and Buddha statues. The worship of Buddhism reached its climax during the reign of Xianzong. Due to the rulers' admiration for Buddhism, Buddhist education flourished. At that time, every big temple was a place for Buddhist teaching and research. There is a "lecture hall" in the temple, and the Zen master has a lecture hall. Therefore, although Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism had their own advances and retreats in the Tang Dynasty, their cultural and educational policies generally respected Confucianism and valued Buddhism.

(C) Cultural and educational policies in the Five Dynasties

At the end of the Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, the country was divided and the society was in turmoil. The history of China entered a period of disintegration and constant war. In a short period of 53 years, Hou Liang, Later Tang Dynasty, Later Jin Dynasty, Later Han Dynasty and Later Friday Dynasty appeared successively. At the same time, wuyue, Nanhan, Fujian, Guan, Chu, Qianshu, Nanping, Houshu, Nantang and Beihan also became independent. At that time, wars were frequent, social life was extremely unstable, rulers had no time to care about education, schools were not repaired, and the education system of past dynasties was not perfect. It can be said that school education is the most declining period in the history of education in China.

There are not many historical records about the cultural and educational policies in the Five Dynasties. Judging from the only historical data, it mainly inherits the cultural and educational policy of worshipping Confucianism in Sui and Tang Dynasties.

Second, the educational administrative system.

The educational administration in Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties was innovated in system, and its management organization and operation mechanism were more perfect than those in the previous generation.

(1) Central education administrative organ

In ancient China, a relatively complete centralized educational administration system was established in the Sui Dynasty. There are two notable features in the establishment of the central education administrative system in Sui Dynasty: First, the system that Si Tuleideng and Taichang were the chief education officials was abolished. Situ and Taichang have been the education chiefs who presided over cultural and educational elections since the Han and Wei Dynasties. Since the Sui Dynasty, Si Tuleideng's name still exists, but he has become an irresponsible consultant. Secondly, the Guo Zi Temple (later renamed imperial academy) was established as the administrative organization responsible for school education, and the wine festival was set as the highest education chief. In the early days of Emperor Wen's accession to the throne, in order to strengthen the management of school education, the Imperial Palace was set up in the central government, with 1 person in charge of education and 1 person in charge of official books and documents. In the third year of Yang Di's great cause (AD 607), Guo Zi Temple was changed to imperial academy. It is the first time in the history of China that the central government has set up institutions and officials specialized in education management.

The Tang Dynasty was the final stage in which the centralized educational administrative system in China feudal society became more and more complete and fully operational. The central educational administrative institutions in Tang Dynasty had multiple characteristics. First, the Tang Dynasty inherited the Sui Dynasty system, and took imperial academy as the specialized educational administrative institution to manage the He Wenguang Museum of six schools. Secondly, due to imperial academy's subordination to the Ministry of Rites and the implementation of the imperial examination system, the Ministry of Rites became the highest administrative body in charge of education through the laws governing the world's tributes. Thirdly, due to the self-contained system of imperial aristocratic education, some central departments have set up professional education institutions, and there are some specialized management education institutions outside imperial academy. The functions of the central education administrative institutions are as follows:

(2) Local educational administrative institutions

Sui and Tang dynasties implemented a two-level system at the local level. In the tenth year of Zhenguan in Tang Dynasty (AD 636), Emperor Taizong divided the world into 10 roads. In the 21st year of Kaiyuan in Li Longji (AD 733), Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty changed the 10 road to 15 road, and gradually made the resident road become the first-level administrative division above the state level, and the local administration became the road, with three levels of counties. Magistrates, magistrates and their assistant officials, such as Shao Yin, Biejia, Changshi, Sima, and county governors, such as county magistrate, Cheng, chief bookkeeper and Wei, are all "people-friendly" officials, responsible for "managing civil affairs", "persuading farmers to be farmers" and "preaching", so they are also founders and responsible officials of local education. In the Tang Dynasty, there was no special local education administrative organization, and the local education chief had a long history and was in charge of state and county official schools. One of the important tasks of a regular waiter is to preside over the examinations of local officials. In another place, the chief education officer is a minister who joined the army, and his duties are: "to be in charge of official examination, judgment, election, sacrifice, truth-seeking, Taoism, Buddhism, attendance, book opening, medicine and furnishings." "