From talent selection to subject admission: the change of admission rules of Chinese imperial examination system from the case of North and South.

The case of the North-South List in the early Ming Dynasty was a famous unjust case in the history of imperial examinations in China. In the thirty years of Hongwu (1397), Ding Chou tried to recruit 5 1 person, including Song Cong, and all the northern scholars failed the list. This aroused the dissatisfaction of northern scholars, who thought that examiner Liu Sanwu was a "southerner living in his hometown privately". In the end, Liu Sanwu, Bai Xindao, Zhang Xin, Chen An and other examiners were killed unjustly. As the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang was always suspicious and strengthened his imperial power by hook or by crook, and the North-South List case was one of the important manifestations. Zhu Yuanzhang made the North-South List case, not only to appease the northern scholars, but also for his own political balance. Since then, China's imperial examinations have been divided into different disciplines, which has influenced it to this day. I. Contradiction between "Northwest People" and "Southeast People" For a long time, the north was the political, economic and cultural center of gravity of China, but after the Tang Dynasty, this situation changed. The Anshi Rebellion in the Tang Dynasty and the Jingkang Revolution in the Song Dynasty directly accelerated the southward shift of China's economic center of gravity. For example, in the Southern Song Dynasty, there was a situation that "the Soviet Union and Shanghai were familiar with each other and the world was sufficient". The economic center of gravity moved south, accompanied by the cultural center of gravity moved south. During the Song Dynasty, southern culture occupied a dominant position. Take Song Ci as an example. There are 133 1 poets in Song Ci, among whom southerners account for 82.6%. Of the 65,438+000 poets in Song Chao compiled by Hao Zhizhen in Qing Dynasty, 89 were southern poets. Apart from Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan, Ouyang Xiu, Wang Anshi, Su Xun, Su Shi, Su Zhe and Ceng Gong were all southerners in the Song Dynasty. The talent of painting in the south far exceeds that in the north; Su Shi, Mi Fei, Huang Tingjian and Cai Xiang in Song Dynasty were all southerners. In the field of historiography, about 130 people in the Song Dynasty have historical books handed down from generation to generation, and most of them are southerners. In the Song Dynasty, there was a contradiction between "Northwest Jinshi" and "Southeast Jinshi" in the admission of imperial examinations between the north and the south. During the Northern Song Dynasty, due to the continuous improvement of the southern economy, social stability and people's study, southerners began to take advantage of the imperial examinations. According to statistics, there were 9,630 scholars in the Northern Song Dynasty, including 9 164 scholars from Nandao, accounting for 95.2% of the total. Among the Southern Roads, there are 7,038 people in the five Southeast Roads, including two in eastern Zhejiang, two in western Zhejiang, eastern Jiangnan, western Jiangnan and Fujian, accounting for 73% of the total number of scholars in the Northern Song Dynasty. On the premise of a certain number of students, the south has a large number of students and the north is at a disadvantage, which weakens the interests of northern scholars to some extent. Southern scholars represented by Ouyang Xiu advocated "selecting talents", which was a procedural fair competition, but at the same time safeguarded the interests of southern scholars. The principle of "taking people by Tao" advocated by Sima Guang is actually the principle of regional fairness, which can also be said to be the principle of "compensatory justice". In the end, Sima Guang won the victory in North Korea, and the Northern Song Dynasty practiced "taking people by Tao". When Song Shenzong was in China, northerners from the five roads of Alignment, Shandong, Henan and Shuozhou implemented special courses, which made the number of candidates between the north and the south more balanced. However, after the change of Jingkang, the imperial examination in Song Dynasty settled in the south, and Guo Xu dominated the north. During this period, the Jinshi admitted in the Southern Song Dynasty were basically southerners, while the Jin State ruled a wider area. After the separation of the North and the South and the relocation of the capital to Yanjing, a national election was held. After the establishment of the Yuan Dynasty, the imperial examination system was severely hit. For example, the Yuan Dynasty stipulated that 300 people who passed the national rural examination would attend the meeting, including 75 Mongolians, 75 Semu people, 75 * * people, 75 southerners, 100 people, and 50 people in the fourth class. On the surface, in fact, due to the absolute advantage of the number of * * *, the official career of the Han nationality has been hit. But under this formulation, northerners have a greater chance of being admitted than southerners. Second, the case of the North and South List: Zhu Yuanzhang's ruling balance Zhu Yuanzhang rose in the southeast, and the talents he relied on were mainly located in the southeast. Before crossing the river, Li Shanchang, Feng and other people joined Zhu Yuanzhang's staff. After crossing the river, Zhu Yuanzhang's rule in Jiangnan stabilized, and a large number of literati took refuge in him. Zhu Yuanzhang "conquered the city and used it by officials and Confucian scholars in the Yuan Dynasty". In order to attract talents, Zhu Yuanzhang also established the Lixian Pavilion. After Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty, the ministers in the DPRK were basically from the south, such as Li Shanchang, Xu Da, Chang Mao (son of Chang Yuchun), Hu, Deng Yu, Tang He and other important ministers in Huaixi Group. There are other aquamarine, Liu Ji, Song Lian and Fu Youde. They are all southerners. In order to curb the bureaucratic forces in Huaixi, headed by Li Shanchang and Hu, Li Shanchang initiated the Hu case, involving Li Shanchang, Song Lian, Chang Mao and others, and the total number of victims reached more than 30,000. Later, Zhu Yuanzhang initiated the aquamarine case, involving more than 15000 people. Xu Da and other innocent generals were also killed by Zhu Yuanzhang. At this point, the power of Huaixi Group in the imperial court was almost carved up by the roots, and the southern ministers also suffered a major blow. Zhu Yuanzhang attacked the forces of southern bureaucratic groups such as Huaixi, and its fundamental purpose was to safeguard his own monarchical power and maintain the balance of power in the imperial court. Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang is bound to increase the reuse of northern scholars. Hu case and imperial examination are the key for the country to select talents on a large scale, and they are also the need for the emperor to balance the imperial power. In the early Ming dynasty, the imperial court did not conduct imperial examinations, but mainly selected talents through inspection. During the reign of Hongwu, recommendation was more important than imperial examination, and recommendation was more important than founding the country. Chaju means that every province should provide imperial academy with Gong Shi and tribute students, which also takes care of the regional disparity to some extent. In the seventeenth year of Hongwu, the imperial examination was officially implemented. During the period of 10 when the imperial examination was resumed, southerners always occupied an absolute advantage, which made northerners begin to miss the imperial examination system of the Yuan Dynasty. So Zhu Yuanzhang tried to reform the imperial examination. "Northerners have been in the Yuan Dynasty for a long time, worried that adherents still have the thoughts of the Yuan Dynasty, and want to win them over in the name of fake imperial examinations." In the thirty years of Hongwu (1397), there is a very accidental phenomenon, that is, 5 1 Jinshi admitted are all southerners, but none of them are northerners. Many northern scholars were greatly dissatisfied with this result, so they published the list as the "Southern List" and jointly published it, accusing the examiner Liu Sanwu and Bai Credo of favoring southerners. Zhu Yuanzhang sent Zhang Xin, Dai Yi, Wang Junhua, Zhang Qian, Yan Shu Zai, Dong Guan, Huang Zhang, Zhou Heng and Xiao Yi to retake the exam, and tried to add northerners to the official posts. However, after re-reading, it was found that the examination papers of northerners were poor in arts and sciences and had taboos, so the admission results remained unchanged. After the survey results came out, northern scholars reported that Liu Sanwu and Bai secretly instructed Zhang Xin and others to deliberately present them in a thick volume. Zhu Yuanzhang was furious and decided to let Liu Sanwu, the examiner, be the Aquamarine Party to defend the border with the old. Bai Xindao and Zhang Xin were executed that year; The southern scholars who were originally admitted, such as Lian, Liu E, Song Cong and others, were also stationed in defense. Soon after, Zhu Yuanzhang personally wrote a question and recruited 6 1 northerners, which was called "North List" in history. It can be analyzed that Zhu Yuanzhang's unjust death of examiner Liu Sanwu was not only to appease the northern scholars, but more importantly, to improve the distribution structure of bureaucrats and achieve the balance of power. When the northern scholars first wrote to the book, Zhu Yuanzhang hoped to increase the number of admission places in the north, and actually gave a hint. And Zhang Xin and others are too serious, and the result is naturally Zhu Yuanzhang's great dissatisfaction. Third, from the north and south to the provinces, since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, southern scholars have always occupied a dominant position in the imperial examinations. For example, during the period of Zhu Yuanzhang, although the southern scholars suffered such unjust cases as the "South-North List Case", they still accounted for 7 1% of the total in the period of Hongwu. During the periods of Wen Jian and Yongle, the proportion of southern scholars reached 83%. In this state, northern scholars always fail in imperial examinations. "In previous years, northern scholars were unqualified, so laziness became the norm." Obviously, if this situation continues, it will not be conducive to the development of northern culture and the balance of regional power. During the reign of Emperor Hongxi, Yang Shiqi advocated the division of the north and the south, with "60 in the south and 40 in the north", which later evolved into three volumes: the south, the north and the middle. At the time of admission, the south volume accounted for 55%, the north volume accounted for 35%, and the middle volume accounted for 65,438+00%. The policy of dividing papers put forward by Yang Shiqi was formally implemented in Xuande period. However, after the implementation of the south, north and middle volumes, the national enrollment has not yet reached a balance. The economic and cultural gap between the northern and southern provinces is also huge, even greater than that between the southern provinces. Among the southern scholars, Jiangsu and Zhejiang scholars are the most competitive. According to the statistical data of the social history of Ming and Qing Dynasties, we can draw the following conclusions: in the early Ming Dynasty, Jiangxi kept the first place in the national Jinshi list for a long time; After the middle of Ming Dynasty, Zhejiang became the overlord of scientific research. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Jiangsu replaced Zhejiang as the first. Comparatively speaking, Guizhou, Yunnan and Guangxi do not have much advantage. In the north, Shandong, Henan and Shaanxi have advantages, while Gansu and other provinces are at a disadvantage. In the early Qing Dynasty, following the imperial examination system of the Ming Dynasty, there was no scholar in Gansu from 1644 to 17 12. In view of this phenomenon, the imperial examination system in Ming and Qing dynasties began to determine the middle quota by province in the fifty-second year of Kangxi (17 13). Since then, the selection of scholars by province has become customized and has been used until the abolition of the imperial examination. Taking into account the interests of all provinces under the principle of ensuring fair recruitment and merit-based admission is conducive to regional fairness. After admission by province, Jiangsu and Zhejiang remain in the top two, but the competitive pressure is unprecedented. In the north, Hebei and Shandong ranked third or fourth, and Henan and Shanxi ranked sixth or seventh. It can be said that they took full care of the northern provinces, such as Gansu, and there were 255 Jinshi in the whole Qing Dynasty, which made great achievements. Changes of the Yangtze River in Liu Jun and the shift of economic and cultural center of gravity to the south: Zhang Mingyang's ultimate pursuit of the ancient imperial examination in China: Nan Bingwen; Tang Gang's China Chronicle Series; Ming history; Zhao Guoping's view on the balance between the north and the south in the imperial examination in Ming Dynasty: Xu Zi's simple use of talents; North and South advance together.