On the Imperial Examination System in Qing Dynasty

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July 2

On the Imperial Examination System in Ancient China

The imperial examination system refers to a system in which the imperial court allows ordinary people and officials to voluntarily register with the government, and then select talents from them. After passing the examinations of different subjects, they are awarded official positions according to their achievements. The imperial examination system was formally implemented in the Tang Dynasty. It has been closely associated with the history of Chinese civilization for more than 1,300 years, ending with the last Jinshi examination in the twenty-seventh year of Guangxu in the Qing Dynasty.

The imperial examination system in ancient China experienced several periods:

Sui Dynasty is the origin of the ancient imperial examination system in China. After the Sui Dynasty unified the whole country, in order to adapt to the development and changes of feudal economic and political relations, expand the participation of the feudal ruling class in political power, and strengthen centralization, the power of selecting officials was brought back to the central government, and the imperial examination system replaced the former nine-grade system. In the third year of Yang Di Daye, Emperor Yangdi set up the Jinshi Department, and selected Jinshi through examinations.

The Tang Dynasty was a period when the imperial examination system in ancient China was complete. Examination subjects in the Tang Dynasty are divided into two categories: regular subjects and system subjects. The exams held in stages every year are called regular classes, and the temporary exams held by the emperor are called making classes. The main subjects of regular subjects are Ming Jing and Jinshi. There are two kinds of candidates who take part in the imperial examination: one is students from imperial academy, Hong Wen Pavilion, Chongwen Pavilion and various state and county academies, which were called students at that time. After they pass the exam at school, they can take part in the imperial examination held by the imperial court in Shangshu Province, also called provincial examination. Second, ordinary scholars who are not in the library can apply to the local state and county governments. Local prefectures and counties take the examination step by step, and those who pass the examination passively take the provincial examination in Chang 'an, the capital of Shangshu Province. Such a person is called "xianggong" Candidates who are sent to take the provincial examination can be called jurors and admitted to the provincial examination. The first name is champion or head. Those who pass the imperial examination are only qualified to be an official, and cannot directly get an official position. They must pass the examination of the official department before they can be awarded official positions. The official examination is held after 10 every year and before the following summer. The official department will announce the official position obtained by the examiner in accordance with the procedure of "three notes and three songs", and issue a letter of appointment in the name of the emperor after approval by Shangshu, Menxia and the emperor.

Song Dynasty was the reform period of ancient imperial examination system in China. Due to the development of feudal economy in Song Dynasty, the small and medium-sized landlord class gradually grew, and people who wanted to be officials urgently demanded to step onto the political stage through the imperial examination while their economic strength grew stronger. Therefore, compared with the Tang Dynasty, the imperial examination system in the Song Dynasty developed significantly. First, the imperial examination in Song Dynasty relaxed the scope of admission and appointment. In the Tang dynasty, no more than twenty or thirty people were admitted to the Jinshi, and at least a dozen were admitted. Jinshi in Song Dynasty is divided into three classes, the first class is called Yu, the second class is called Jinshi origin, and the third class is called Tongjinshi origin. As many as 200 to 300 people, or even 500 to 600 people, were admitted at one time in the Song Dynasty. In the Tang dynasty, being an official was only a qualification for being an official, and actually granting an official position had to pass the official examination. In the Song Dynasty, once hired, you could be an official, and the top one could get a senior official. In the Song Dynasty, candidates' origins were not restricted, and even monks and Taoists could take the imperial examinations. Second, the Song Dynasty established a three-level examination system once every three years. The emperor personally took the court examination, and all candidates became the emperor's disciples, avoiding the formation of a clique between candidates and examiners in the name of teachers and students. Third, since the Song Dynasty, the imperial examinations have been officially copied by affixing their names, and a new system has been established to prevent malpractice for personal gain. Sticking a name means sealing a name, place of origin, etc. On the examinee's test paper, and copying it is to copy the examinee's test paper separately. In this way, when marking papers, examiners not only don't know the names of candidates, but also can't identify the handwriting of candidates, thus achieving absolute fair competition. These methods were inherited by Ming and Qing dynasties. Fourthly, in the content of the examination, the practice of only examining poetry and fu in the Tang Dynasty was changed, and the contents of Confucian classics and righteousness were added to the Jinshi subject, and the courses of "knowing the law", "examining the law and making the sentence just and correct" were also set up, and the successful candidates were appointed as judicial officials.

The Ming Dynasty was the heyday of the ancient imperial examination system in China. The rulers of the Ming Dynasty attached great importance to imperial examinations, and their methods were more rigorous than those of previous dynasties. Before the Ming Dynasty, the school was only one of the ways to transport candidates for the imperial examination. In the Ming dynasty, becoming an official became the only way for the imperial examination. People who entered imperial academy to study in the Ming Dynasty were generally called Guo Jianzi. There are generally four kinds of supervisors: those who send students to prison for study, those who send bureaucratic children to prison, those who send people to prison and those who donate money to prison. Great changes have taken place in the procedure and content of the imperial examination system in Ming Dynasty. The imperial examination is divided into three grades: after having obtained the township examination, the senior high school entrance examination and palace examination. The rural examination is a local examination held by the southern and northern Zhili provinces and ministries. The location is in the south, where the Beijing government and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are stationed. Once every three years. The examinee in middle school is Juren, whose name is Xie Yuan. Participants will take the court examination presided over by the emperor. Palace examination is divided into three categories, namely, three first-class scholars, several second-class scholars and several first-class scholars ... Through step-by-step examination, the rulers can choose the most useful talents from them. An important change in the content of imperial examinations in Ming Dynasty was the establishment of the system of taking stereotyped writing of scholars. Zhu Yuanzhang, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, adopted Liu Ji's suggestion and stipulated that all levels of examinations should use four books and five classics. The author can only answer according to the classic explanations of Cheng and Zhu in Song Dynasty, and is never allowed to express his own opinions. In Ming Xianzong's time, he even created the format of "stereotyped writing", requiring the article to be dual paragraph by paragraph in form. Piling and carving are completely divorced from social reality. Therefore, it imprisons people's thoughts more than poetry and prose in Tang and Song Dynasties, which makes the imperial examination system fully serve the needs of emperor's autocracy, and at the same time leads the imperial examination system itself to a dead end.

The Qing Dynasty was the period when the ancient imperial examination system in China disappeared. The imperial examination system in the Qing Dynasty was basically the same as that in the Ming Dynasty, but the policy of ethnic discrimination was implemented. Manchu enjoys all kinds of privileges, and it is not necessary to pass the imperial examination to be an official. The imperial examination is only a ladder for Han officials to participate in political power one day. The content of the imperial examination still uses the eight-part essay of the Ming Dynasty to imprison the literati's thoughts. After that, it gradually declined and its disadvantages became more and more. Although the rulers of the Qing Dynasty criticized the cheating in the imperial examination, the cheating became more and more serious due to the defects of the imperial examination system itself, which became an obstacle to historical progress and was finally eliminated.

Generally speaking, the advantages of implementing the imperial examination system in ancient times outweigh the disadvantages. From a personal point of view, its enthusiasm reflects that a person from an ordinary family wants to enter the imperial court, get a high title, and then be promoted and made a fortune, worship his ancestors, have a prosperous career and be rich. Everything depends on the imperial examination. Its negativity reflects that if an ordinary person attaches great importance to his fame, or is bent on being an official for other reasons, he will devote all his life's efforts to studying hard, and he could have started other opportunities for road development, but all of them will not be considered. Some people can't go to high school on the day they die, can't fulfill their lifelong wishes, and finally hold a grudge. Therefore, sometimes we can't blindly regard the imperial examination as a life-and-death political battlefield, wasting good time and gradually accelerating social corruption. From the social point of view, it embodies its enthusiasm, opens the examination, attracts many poor scholars to enter the political power, and makes them understand that taking the imperial examination can be a good way out. It is conducive to expanding and consolidating the political foundation of feudal rule and improving the administrative efficiency of society. It changed the situation that nobles dominated state affairs in the early feudal society, and the majority of civilian landlords entered the imperial examination as officials, which injected vitality into the feudal regime. The imperial examination system has become the only fair objective basis for selecting officials, which is conducive to the formation of a high-quality civil service team. The combination of reading, examination and being an official, and the combination of power, position and knowledge have created the tradition of respecting teachers and attaching importance to education in China and the atmosphere of diligent study, further promoting the prosperity of literature. As a civil service selection system, its negative side is that the imperial examination directly led to the selection of hundreds of thousands of Jinshi and nearly one million juren. This huge community will certainly nourish many corrupt officials or despicable black sheep. They do their jobs but don't do their jobs, and the policies given by the emperor to their parents are not implemented. The implementation of stereotyped writing in Ming and Qing Dynasties severely restricted candidates from content to form, which made many intellectuals not pay attention to practical knowledge and bound their original active thoughts. Instead of promoting the development of academic culture, it has corrupted the good social atmosphere. Until the late Qing Dynasty, the imperial examination system seriously hindered the development of science and culture, which was one of the important reasons for the backwardness of natural science in modern China.

Along the way, the ancient imperial examination system experienced constant reform and progress, and the ancient imperial examination evolved into the current college entrance examination. In fact, the current college entrance examination also has some historical existence of the imperial examination system at that time, and the two have something in common. For example, the test papers at that time were all labeled with names, and now the college entrance examination system also needs to be labeled with names to prevent the phenomenon of favoritism and malpractice. For example, the imperial examination is to select the best people in the country, and the college entrance examination is also national, which is conducive to more elites gathering. Like the person who took the first place in the exam at that time, the higher the official position. The current college entrance examination is also the best university to choose the highest score, and the future is determined by the score. Secondly, the current college entrance examination system is more advanced than the ancient imperial examination system, and you have to stay in school for three days and three nights until the exam is successfully completed. Now the college entrance examination doesn't have to be like this, but it will take two days to complete four courses in different subjects. In the ancient imperial examination system, only men were allowed to take the exam, and officials were even more masculine. Now, both men and women can take the college entrance examination, and the gender discrimination system has been abolished. The ancient imperial examination system created conditions for the mutual transformation of members of different classes in feudal society. The opportunity to be an official is determined by the examination, and the only way out after graduating from high school is to be an official. Now the college entrance examination is to choose the major you are interested in according to your own preferences, and then develop towards your ideal and finally get the opportunity to apply for a job. After winning the first place in the ancient imperial examination, he was the champion, and there was no higher education. Now, after the college entrance examination system, it is an undergraduate course, and even continues to take postgraduate, doctoral and postdoctoral exams, and it is promoted step by step. In the ancient imperial examination system in the Qing Dynasty, there were chaotic situations such as fraud cases and Jiangnan prisons, and the means were sinister and sinister, which made people panic. However, there are also fraud incidents in the current college entrance examination, but with the use of scientific and technological means and the severity of punishment, there are few introductions.

Therefore, the imperial examination system is related to the current college entrance examination, and the country is also improving its shortcomings step by step. The implementation of a system is bound to have advantages and disadvantages, and how to achieve perfection is exactly what China has been thinking about. To transport and train talents from all walks of life for the country, or to bring them into the current college entrance examination system, we must adhere to the principle of fairness, vigorously develop education and improve the overall quality of the people. This is the only way to revitalize China.

1. What procedures do students need and what exams do they have to pass to become tribute students?

Palace Examination-Palace Examination takes an examination written and invigilated by the emperor himself in the palace, which is called palace examination. Candidates who succeed in the palace examination are called Jinshi. Palace examination is the highest-level examination in the imperial examination system, which began during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Tang Dynasty and has been followed in subsequent dynasties.

The imperial examination in Qing Dynasty was held in the third year of Shunzhi (1646). The imperial examinations in the early Qing Dynasty were held outside Tiananmen Square. In the fifteenth year of Shunzhi (1658), it was changed in front of the hall of supreme harmony in Danyong. In the first year of Yongzheng (1723), it was moved to the main hall because of the cold weather. After Qianlong, palace examination was changed to Baohe Hall. The topics of court examinations are generally decided by the emperor. In order to prevent leaks, the reader secretly drew up a topic and immediately sent it to the emperor for reading. After that, it was supervised by the producer and auditor on the spot, and the printing office was on alert all night. After Gong Sheng's answer sheet, it will be graded by the marking officer. After repeated reading, the papers were ranked, and the names, resumes and three generations of the top ten papers were hidden and presented to the emperor for ranking.

After the ranking was determined, the examination paper officer introduced the top ten to the emperor, and then wrote the big and small gold lists. The small golden list was given to the emperor for his royal viewing, while the big golden list was hung outside the left gate of Chang 'an on the day of transmission, and then the golden hall transmission ceremony was held in the Hall of Supreme Harmony, which was a grand ceremony for the emperor to announce the first place in the Jinshi. There are three types of Jinshi in Qing Dynasty, one is for Jinshi discipline, the other is for Jinshi origin, and the third is for fellow Jinshi origin. The top three in Grade A are also called "No.1 Scholar", "No.1 Scholar" and "Flower Exploration" respectively, and are awarded the positions of editor and editor by the Hanlin Academy.