Ding Xueliang: When the imperial examination appeared, it was one of the most advanced systems in ancient civilizations all over the world. Selecting civil servants through imperial examinations is a great contribution of ancient China people to the world. First of all, we must affirm this point, otherwise there will be no sense of history. The rise of modern industrial civilization in the west has shown that it is a more powerful and advanced civilization. To the East, China, the largest country in the East, has been defeated. At that time, compared with western modern education, the disadvantages of the imperial examination system were exposed. There are several basic differences:
First of all, western modern education is no longer an old-fashioned elite system. Its purpose is not only to train officials for the government, but also to train professionals for the most important aspects of human civilization, such as economy, law, science, technology and military affairs. At the same time, it has not abandoned the educational ideal of ancient Greece, maintained its most basic educational concept, and strived to make individuals develop in an all-round way. On this basis, the division of labor in industrial society has become quite specialized and skilled. At this time, education must have new contents, new teaching methods and examination methods, new training objectives and measurement standards. However, before it was abandoned, China's imperial examination system was a gap between two eras, not just a difference in details, compared with western modern education.
Under the most fundamental difference, there are differences between the second level and the third level. For example, the most important thing in imperial examination education is to find the basis of sages, which is "reading books" in today's words. Whether it is your thinking, learning process and examination method, your performance and overall evaluation during the whole study period depend on your original judgment. This is completely different from the orientation of modern western scientific spirit. Modern education in the west mainly takes you to the unknown world. Exploring the unknown world, of course, can't throw away the accumulated knowledge of previous majors, but this accumulated knowledge is its starting point, not the highest evaluation standard. This is very important and the most fundamental direction. One is to look back-you can't go against what the sage said before; A person thinks that what the former people said is very important, but what is more important is that the former people don't know. This difference leads to the atrophy and decline of one civilization, while another civilization has vitality and can continue to prosper.
Beijing News: In other ways?
Ding Xueliang: From the institutional level (organization and regulations), the imperial examination education in China has always been arranged by the government and belongs to official schools. My middle school alma mater is a provincial official school in Song Dynasty. Before that, there were also schools run by county, state and court. However, western modern education is diversified, and only part of it belongs to official schools. There are universities in the church and universities in the private sector. Part of the government's education is reflected in providing grants, hardware, paying teachers' salaries and so on. However, it will not interfere with the teaching content and subject setting on a daily basis, limit the ways and means of examinations, and operate the school as a yamen. Under the traditional imperial examination system, these things can only be moved by the imperial court or even the emperor, because he wants to train officials who follow the rules.
The following can be further compared. Modern education in the west, at least in principle, guarantees all citizens the right and opportunity to receive education, and cultivates talents from all walks of life, including those who want to join the government as civil servants and those who want to join the army. But fundamentally speaking, it wants to cultivate modern citizens, that is, citizens who are responsible, law-abiding, free to choose, contribute to society in the professional field and participate in public affairs, which constitute the connotation of modern British citizens. However, China's imperial examination education has no sense of citizenship at all. The imperial examination is to choose officials for the emperor and the imperial court, and the people who take the examination are just to be officials. Because training government officials is the only purpose of the imperial examination, striving for ideological norms in ethics and politics is actually casting the thoughts and mentality of all students with a mold.
Beijing News: Especially since the Ming Dynasty, the interpretation of Confucian classics must be based on Zhu's interpretation.
Ding Xueliang: This is a very ironic thing. Zhu's hometown is Huizhou. At that time, Zhu was an innovative talent, and he was not a person who completely followed the book. At that time, China culture and Chinese civilization, including society, needed to answer some new questions. He was full of exploration spirit and freedom of thought, and was repeatedly suppressed and persecuted by the court and emperor at that time. Once he was used by the court after his death and became a new idol. But he opposed blind obedience, so he died pitifully.
Beijing News: Therefore, it is inevitable that the imperial examination will come to an end.
Ding Xueliang: When the imperial examination is over, why should people of insight abolish it? Not long ago, I told a western journalist that the symbolic step for China to move from a traditional society to a modern society was not to overthrow the imperial system, but to abolish the imperial examination system and establish a new school. Imperial examination is the moral, spiritual, psychological and institutional basis for the continuation of imperial system. 19 1 1 year, the Xinhai revolution in Wuhan overthrew the monarchy in one fell swoop, which was a very specific thing in operation. The abolition of the imperial examination system is a very important thing, which means that we can't take the old road again. Even if the rational elements in the imperial examination tradition are reborn in the future, new genes must be injected, and this new gene comes from modern education in the West. This can be seen clearly. Most of the westerners who first came to China were missionaries, explorers and businessmen. /kloc-In the 7th century, they admired China's imperial examination system because it contained many reasonable elements. However, by the end of 19 and the beginning of the 20th century, these reasonable components were imprisoned in an overall unreasonable framework in China.
The Beijing News: Then why did the education of the Republic of China replaced by the imperial examination soon succeed?
Ding Xueliang: In the early years of the Republic of China, the national situation was not very good. At that time, there was a warlord regime and the country was very poor ... but at that time, education made a very good start. There are three basic reasons:
First, the earliest intellectual elites at that time reached a consensus: the old road can no longer be taken, and a new one must be taken. If these ideological and intellectual leaders do not have this consensus, it will be difficult for Qi Xin to take the first step together.
The second point is closely related to this. Introducing the world's proven advanced educational methods and ways of doing things into China is the way of Europe and America-the Opium War made a few advanced China people realize this. China was even more excited when the Japanese became aggressive. Because China was defeated by Europe and America in the early years, another reason is that the two sides are not the same. However, China was even more shocked to be defeated by the Japanese. Historically, Japan has been learning from China, and China was later shocked by the West. But soon Japan had the Meiji Restoration, which proved that the European and American methods were effective not only in the west, but also in East Asia-Japan became the only country outside the white world that entered industrialization and modernization through reform and learning from Europe and America. Therefore, at that time, the elites in China didn't realize to take a new road abstractly, but introduced effective methods and systems that have been proved by time. Among many possible new roads, this one has been verified twice in the west and the east respectively.
Third, bad things turn into good things. At that time, the provinces were scattered and there was no strong central government. Of course, there are also many shortcomings and advantages. As long as there are a few open-minded officials or intellectual leaders in any province, they can act immediately without waiting for orders. The most important thing to be avoided in reform is to cut across the board. There must be several ways to try to compete with each other and compare the gains and losses, so as not to be blocked by one road and have a chance to try and make mistakes.
Fourthly, education in China was not completely bureaucratic. Even if you make a good start, you can do it well at first, but once you regard the university as a yamen in the future, your vitality will soon fail. People who regard universities as government agencies, in order to make themselves higher, will of course turn universities into stepping stones instead of trying to run them well. At that time, most of the people who studied abroad came back, because they had the opportunity to "try" in various schools, so that a hundred flowers blossomed immediately. President Cai, President Hu and President Mei are all "returnees" of that era. Yang Zhenning, Li Zhengdao and others who are now relished are all students trained by professors under their leadership. At that time, compared with western professors, good teachers in China University had nothing to "transition". Many students went to western universities to study, and they didn't need to "transition" because they held the same educational philosophy and teaching methods.
The Beijing News: However, the school-running model and educational philosophy at that time did not last.
Ding Xueliang: After 1952, China's higher education system copied the Soviet Union, and the Soviet Union's mode of running a university was the same as running a factory and an army. The factory and the army are a unit with vertical leadership and fixed tasks, and the university has also been made into the same model. Since then, China's higher education has deviated from the mainstream of international higher education, and its achievements are only reflected in cultivating applied and engineering talents at the expense of innovative research in basic science and engineering, not to mention innovative research in economic, legal, political and international relations in social sciences, which has been suppressed. The imperial examination tradition does not seek innovation, but only conservatism; Do not seek diversified development, but seek sameness; Do not pay attention to discovery, only reread classics; Then completely copy the Soviet Union in structure and system, and combine the most negative things in the two.
Beijing News: But this oneness also has its reasonable components.
Ding Xueliang: Yes, but at one point what is reasonable cannot be turned into a line, let alone a surface. "Practicing the world" has no educational goal except further education. Kindergarten, primary school and middle school are all tested. Only by doing better in the exam can we continue our further studies. In this way, contemporary education in China has seriously distorted and bound the development of students in other aspects since primary school. This consequence is obvious. Many graduate students who go abroad to study in universities are from the best universities in China, and they can do well in exams. If they are asked to do research, many people will immediately show their weakness in receiving education in China, and some people will not look for information. Only by actively looking for it can your exploration spirit and skills be developed. In the better schools in the west, children will use the word "doing research" from the fifth and sixth grade of primary school, because the homework given by the teacher is not fixed, and children have to look for it in libraries, newspapers and the Internet. A single educational goal, a single educational method and its leading single examination method are restoring the heavy historical burden in the later period of the imperial examination. The culture and imperial examinations in the Tang and Song Dynasties were relatively open, and the current examination methods are more similar to the imperial examinations in the late Qing Dynasty.
Beijing News: What is the relationship between Chinese studies and imperial examinations?
Ding Xueliang: The word "Sinology" comes from Japan and is equivalent to "Western learning". The theory of Chinese studies only existed after the emergence of "new learning", and it was a huge challenge. At this time, the consciousness of Chinese studies would appear. Therefore, the views of western learning and middle school imply two major knowledge systems, two major civilization systems and two major education systems.
At the beginning of China's imperial examination system, it was no problem to focus on your own knowledge system. During the Han and Tang Dynasties, China culture was not single, but a very open civilization. Many people come to China to do business, be an official, study and work. They have brought colorful new things in race, descent, lifestyle, thought, religion and language. Chinese civilization at that time was broad and inclusive. When did it change from an open civilization to a conservative and introverted civilization? Mainly originated from Yuan soldiers attacking the Central Plains, because a relatively uncivilized nation defeated the Central Plains and ruled it in the most cruel way. Since then, Chinese civilization has become more and more timid and introverted, afraid to take the initiative to communicate with foreign civilizations. In the Ming Dynasty, the emperor ascended the throne in an unorthodox way. His first consideration is how to make his men obey and keep his throne. The governance style of him and his successors gradually made China people lose the spirit of openness, adventure and innovation. There was no concept of "national studies" in the Han and Tang dynasties, because Chinese civilization is a vast water with many sources. When "Sinology" becomes a clear concept with clear content, it shows that China's traditional culture has declined and is strongly challenged by foreign civilizations. If today's people look at China culture, including Chinese studies, not with the mentality of the Han and Tang Dynasties, but with the mentality of the late Qing Dynasty, I think it would be too sorry for our great ancestors!
The function of the imperial examination system in the middle and late period is to make China culture more and more single, anaemic and lacking in creativity. It is a disabled skeleton that limits the development of life. The establishment of stereotyped writing status is equivalent to turning the vast Yangtze River into an increasingly narrow artificial river. The result is a negative screening of multiple sources, multiple genes and profound Chinese culture, leaving many lifeless things. One of my teachers told me that in the early years of the Republic of China after the abolition of the imperial examination, the exams of Peking University and Tsinghua were all on the same topic for three consecutive years: on Qin Shihuang, and told the students in advance that you could freely exert whatever knowledge you had. This is remarkable. It shows an open mind, which is completely different from the imperial examination era and is a new atmosphere in the period of great change.
(The full text of the interview was published in the Beijing News on September 9, 2005.)
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