Was the ancient imperial examination difficult? Who is the source of this eight-part essay? The following interesting historical series brings you detailed articles.

In ancient China, there was a system which was highly respected by foreigners, and it was called "Imperial Examination System". Foreign scholars believe that the scientific examination system not only solves the problem of national talents, but also solves the problem of equality in ancient times. Because there is no family background, anyone can become a court official and honor their ancestors through this road.

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China has a long history. With the development of history, in order to consolidate the rule, the ruling class has to face the talent problem. Before the Qin and Han Dynasties, when the rulers wanted to employ people, they implemented the system of enfeoffment, and distributed official positions, land and people to imperial families, relatives and ministers, thus forming the warlord regime in ancient China in the Spring and Autumn Period. Later, these enfeoffment officials became the overlord of separatist parties, which destroyed the situation of national unity.

After Qin and Han dynasties, although the enfeoffment system was abolished to some extent, the emperor's sons and relatives could still enfeoffment system. For the development of the dynasty, talented people must work, and blood relationship is only to prevent the king from rebelling. This is Liu Bang's game style. Then, after Liu Bangjian's Han Dynasty, how did the Han Dynasty select talents? The so-called "poor recommendation" means that ministers and local officials recommend talents to the court after inspection, which is also called "recommendation". The so-called "conquest of the monarch" refers to those senior officials who think that their subordinates or parties have certain talents and recommend them to the emperor. Although this system is better than the enfeoffment system, it will inevitably lead to cronyism in the long run, and everyone wants to recommend their own people. Therefore, it is not surprising that "cronies" appeared in the Eastern Han Dynasty.

When Cao Cao became emperor, he also realized the disadvantages of talent selection. Therefore, Cao Cao once suggested that "meritocracy is the best way". After Cao Pi ascended the throne, in order to achieve Cao Cao's goal of selecting talents, middle-level officials were set up in counties to mainly inspect talents. At that time, he divided talents into nine categories and recommended them to various counties according to their grades. And this kind of official selection and product distribution with family as the top grade leads to "the top grade does not catch a cold, and the bottom grade is homeless." Therefore, Cao Cao put forward only one goal, and truly talented people were not selected.

In view of the problems in selecting officials in the past, Emperor Wendi of Sui Dynasty implemented the imperial examination system and selected talents through examinations. In the Tang Dynasty, the imperial examination system further developed. The advantage of the imperial examination system is that it ends the problem of being an official for the descendants of the literati class and opens the door to being an official for ordinary people. However, after all, only a few people study. At first, the problem hasn't changed.

Judging from the content of the examination, the Sui Dynasty focused on policy theory, that is, a paper written for righteous politics. This is an improvement, otherwise there would be no standard to measure it. The Tang Dynasty attached importance to the examinations of Ming Jing and Jinshi, the study of Confucian classics of Ming Jing and the examination of poetry and prose of Jinshi. The content comes from mingjing. The so-called "Nine Classics" are three rites, three biographies, three changes, three poems and three books.

This test method is also called "classic", which I introduced in my last article, that is, filling in the blanks in the original text. The Nine Classics does not require writing articles, but only reciting and writing notes, which shows that it is easier to learn in the Tang Dynasty.

The imperial examination in Tang dynasty has a long history, and candidates know it well. As long as they recite the scriptures skillfully, there is no scientific content.

During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, stereotyped writing became popular. You need to quote classics and have your own interpretation and opinions, which is equivalent to a paper. Although the eight-part essay is related to the Tang Dynasty, it has become the "focus" of the imperial examination.

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So who invented stereotyped writing? Eight-part essay one

Wang Anshi is not only a politician, reformer, but also a writer. He passed the imperial examination and became an official. He served as the prime minister of the Song Dynasty twice, serving the reform of Song Shenzong. Wang Anshi's political reform covers many aspects, including taxation, water conservancy and army building. At the same time, in the imperial examination, Wang Anshi thought that the Song Dynasty followed the system of the Tang Dynasty, and the poems in the imperial examination were mainly some impractical words. He suggested to Song Shenzong to restore the ancient method of selecting scholars by reading classics, and to choose poetry as the literati, and to interpret classics by writing.

On the surface, the textual research is "retro", but in fact it is a change. At that time, Wang Anshi's suggestion was questioned by many people in the court. Su Shi advocated poetry and fu, and only Wang Anshi insisted on it. After all, Wang Anshi is the prime minister, and Song Shenzong agrees with him. He encouraged the establishment of imperial edicts to study and teach Confucian classics. He criticized the classics and poems of the Tang Dynasty, and thought that "those who hold the classics are good at memorizing numbers, while those who tend to go to the countryside prefer literary words". It can be said that Song Shenzong should speak kindly, but he was too tolerant of the civil servants in the Song Dynasty. Su Shi still insisted on his position and had some discussions with Wang Anshi. This discussion had a great influence on the later eight-part essay.

Su Shi believes: "First of all, we must know people, and the way to know people is to be responsible. In this way, we can get to know each other, and the court has the responsibility to be honest with each other, and then no one will make a fuss with those small officials. Although the current method has been adopted, the minister thinks it is enough; So that no one knows, there is no real politics, so, or rather, attendants often suffer from no one, what about the conditions of Gong Ju schools? Although it is a retro system, I don't think it is enough.

Sometimes, things have ups and downs, so today three generations of saints are resurrected. Their election must be made public, and their assurances must be made public. Li Qing has tasted the school, and the whole world believes that peace can last for a long time. As for today, there is nothing. Today, your majesty will aspire to morality, morality and art, and be responsible for Dacheng's nine-year career, and change the present ceremony to make the present custom easier. At the same time, it will send manpower to run the palace, gather people's money to improve tourists, and set up schools and teachers; What's the difference between not being handsome when simply teaching people and acting off the screen? As for tributes, or rural virtues, just write an article; In other words, you want to test your sense of honor by changing the scriptures and pasting ink, and none of them are true.

A husband's desire to promote virtue lies in the cultivation of a gentleman and the evaluation of likes and dislikes to show his vulgarity. If he wants to set up a branch and name it, he will teach the world to judge and dominate the market. Comment on people with filial piety, the brave cut their share, and the fearful go to Lu's tomb. If you use honesty, you will get rid of cars, horses, clothes and Filipino food, and anyone interested in it will be everywhere. Since the article says so, theory is useful and poetry is useless; From a political point of view, poetry, poetry and tactics are useless. However, from the ancestors, the abandoned people thought that they would take the scholars away, but it was actually a fact. Modern articles are gorgeous, without Yang Yi. Making a billion dollars is still there, and so are loyal and smart people. If you learn from ancient books, there is no such thing as the Art of War with Sun Tzu, so that you are still with Fu, then you are too pedantic. Since the Tang Dynasty, many people have been famous for their poems. Why did they lose to the world and waste it? "。

Why did you take out the original text of Su Shi's article? Because what Su Shi said is reasonable, if Song Shenzong had listened to Su Shi, there would be no so-called eight-part essay. The imperial examination in the world won't be so difficult.

Wang Anshi will not lose money for everyone. He opposed the establishment of schools and teachers, and restricted talents with books. He believes that talents in the world don't have to go to school, but they can be hired according to their real talents.

Su Shi's view has some merits, but it is also deeply influenced by previous lives. There is still a certain gap between Wang Anshi's thought and Wang Anshi's. Wang Anshi advocated "promoting learning, establishing teachers and teaching classics", that is, "changing people into customs". When Song Shenzong asked Wang Anshi what he thought of Su Shi, Wang Anshi said: "Now there are few talents, different academics and many theories, which cannot be attributed to morality. Moral schools need to be built, and the method of tribute cannot be changed. If there are many people on this topic, there is no other way to go from the edge of the official, and there can be no sages during this period; If this theme is good, it is not. Today, when you are young and strong, you are only emphasizing the justice of the world. You study poetics behind closed doors, and you are not used to this world. This scientific method corrupts talents, not as good as ancient times. "

Wang Anshi's remarks as prime minister are of course more important than Su Shi's, but more importantly, his opinions really meet the requirements of Song Shenzong. Therefore, Wang Anshi's suggestion was finally recognized and supported by Song Shenzong and most ministers. So the origin of stereotyped writing is Wang Anshi, but this origin has been forgotten by history.

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Wang Anshi advocated reforming the contents of the imperial examination in order to select more talents in the Song Dynasty, but Wang Anshi didn't know that his measures were actually destroying talents. Wang Anshi felt something in the later implementation. He once said regretfully, "I want to turn a scholar into a scholar, but I don't want to turn a scholar into a scholar."

Wang Anshi's imperial examination reform opened the way for the selection of literati in Ming and Qing Dynasties. Eight-part essay mainly expounds Confucianism, which is consistent with Wang Anshi's thought. Therefore, from the imperial examination reform in Song Shenzong to the Qing Dynasty, the way of selecting scholars by literary works has not changed.

After Wang Anshi's political reform, the article became the main means of fame, which has not changed from Song Dynasty to Qing Dynasty, but the form of the article is the same as stereotyped writing, which is also called stereotyped writing.

Articles about imperial examinations in the Song Dynasty were rarely preserved, but Tan Cong mentioned that Uncle's "General Catalogue of Sikuquanshu" was a model of eight-part essay at that time.

Zhang Tingjian's scripture comes from "Self-purification Sacrifice to the First King", and the "scripture" here means plan. The title is "Yin Rebellion and Brutality". His half-brother, his two uncles and Bi all have their own ambitions and express their loyalty to the former king in different ways. His son escaped and later fell into the hands of Zhou, who was sealed in the Song Dynasty. Kiko became a slave and Beagan was killed. These three people are all respected by Confucianism.

From the content point of view, the stylistic features of Confucian classics in Song Dynasty have been formed, which is not much different from the eight-part essay in Ming and Qing Dynasties. In the structure of the article, the stylized words such as breaking the topic and entering the topic in the Song Dynasty are scattered without too many restrictions. Since then, the eight-part essay in Ming and Qing Dynasties has been different.

When writing eight-part essay in the Song Dynasty, some examinees often wrote some words of competition and tried to please the examiners with many antitheses. A Qing Qian Daxin said: "Although Song Xining studied Confucian classics, his five-character and seven-character style has changed. Scholars are used to pairing, writing fluently and opposing. It will really happen. " In the book Shangshu Weizi, there is an article about twins in the Song Dynasty. I won't give too many examples here. The appearance of Confucian classics in Song Dynasty, especially Jennifer, laid the direction for the eight-part essay in Ming and Qing Dynasties.

Eight-part essay is difficult to write, especially gorgeous articles, which are even harder for emperors and examiners to like. They need profound Confucianism and the ability to master ancient Chinese. Therefore, the ancient imperial examination was very difficult, and it was even more difficult to write an eight-part essay to get in.