Datang is the age of gentry, but it does not belong to the age of gentry. There was no new gate valve in Sui and Tang Dynasties, because the gate valve of the gentry was originally the product of the nine products.
However, due to the adoption of the imperial examination system in Sui Dynasty to replace the nine-level Zheng Zhi system in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the nobles lost the privilege of electing and promoting local officials. There was chaos in the world at the end of Sui Dynasty, one after another, which caused many wealthy and prominent gentry in the past to fall into economic difficulties due to land loss and population decline.
After entering the Tang Dynasty, many noble gate valves have long lost their brilliance and have long gone downhill. However, the prestige accumulated by the Millennium inheritance made them lucky to walk slowly on this downhill road for 300 years before they disappeared completely.
In the early Tang Dynasty, people still had a heavy concept of family status, and the birth of the gentry was still valued by the people of the time, among which the aristocratic gentry with "five surnames and seven expectations" was the most respected by the people of the time. The so-called "five surnames and seven expectations" is also called "five surnames and seven families", namely Longxi Li, Zhaojun Li, Boling Cui Shi, Qinghe Cui Shi, Lu Shi, Xingyang Zheng and Taiyuan Wang, among which Qinghe Cui Shi, Lu Shi, Xingyang Zheng and Taiyuan Wang were four surnames in the period of Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty.
Times have changed, and the four famous families have long been surpassed by the heirs of Li in Longxi, a royal family. Although the aristocratic families with "five surnames and seven expectations" are famous in the state, their official titles are not as good as those of some upstart heroes with low family status in the early Tang Dynasty. However, under the influence of the old concept of family status, those nouveau riche who had low family status in the early Tang Dynasty were keen to marry the Shandong gentry represented by "five surnames and seven expectations" in order to improve their family status.
This made the gentry who had gone downhill self-sustaining. They not only got a high bride price by marrying and selling women, but also re-established a new influence network. It is obviously not in the interests of the imperial power that the old aristocratic gate valve has grown again. In order to suppress these gentry, as early as the early period of Zhenguan, Emperor Taizong ordered Gao Shilian and others to modify the genealogy, hoping to change the old habits by redefining the rank of the gentry.
In the twelfth year of Zhenguan (638), when the first edition of genealogy was compiled, Cui and other Shandong gentry were still listed as the first class. Here, Emperor Taizong was not only dissatisfied, but also quite puzzled. In his original words, I have no suspicion with Cui, Lu, Li and Zheng in Shandong, because they have declined from generation to generation and have no crown. The wanderer is a scholar-bureaucrat. When we get married, we invite more coins. Talents know the world, but they are arrogant and arrogant, selling pine and relying on money. I don't understand what is important in the world.
Therefore, when Gao Shilian and others revised the second edition of the genealogy, they fully implemented the guiding ideology of Emperor Taizong's "respecting the crown of today", and defined the royal family as the first class, the consorts as the second class, and the old aristocratic gate valve condescended to the third class.
Later, in order to further suppress the gentry's gate valve, in the sixteenth year of Zhenguan (642), Emperor Taizong issued a marriage edict prohibiting buying and selling. However, clan records and marriage laws prohibiting buying and selling have achieved general results in practice.
In the era of Tang Gaozong, the situation that "five surnames and seven expectations" were valued by the world has not changed much. So, in order to suppress aristocratic men and improve the status of the second-rate gentry who supported Wu Zetian and the nouveau riche who was born in poverty, Tang Gaozong continued the practice of Emperor Taizong, and made people modify the records of surnames, ranking Wu Shi, a consort, and Shi Li, a royal family, as the first class, and expanding the scope of the gentry to "anyone who got five official titles in the imperial dynasty will be promoted to Jinshi".
Then, a new "imperial edict against marriage" was promulgated, which clearly pointed out that "Wei Bao, Taiyuan, Xingyang, john young Lu Ziqian (Lu), Lu Hun (Lu Pu), Lu Fu, Qinghe Cui Zongbo, Cui Sunyuan, former Yan Boling Cui Yi and Jin Zhaojun Kaili, where seven surnames and ten families are not to be confused."
But its effect is still very general. Because it has not changed the status quo of the traditional gentry's gate valve, it has even become a bragging tool for some gentry's gate valve. It seems that the gentry who are not on the marriage ban list are not really first-class gentry. Subsequently, these gentry halls are still sought after in the marriage market.
However, no matter how self-sustaining the traditional aristocratic gate valve is, it cannot change the pace of the times. After Wu Zetian proclaimed herself emperor, she paid more attention to civilians than the former emperor Li Tang, because she was not born in a noble family. In order to recruit talents, Wu Zetian sent people all over the country to collect talents and send them to Beijing. Wu Zetian personally assessed those who passed the examination, regardless of their origins.
Secondly, Wu Zetian also issued a letter to the civil and military officials at home and abroad and the people to do a bootstrap. In this way, the common people have another ascending channel. Not only that, the Wu and Zhou Dynasties further improved the imperial examination and established the martial arts examination. How Wu Zetian expanded the scope of selecting officials undoubtedly further reduced the space for the gentry to enter the official career through the traditional way of door shadow.
In the Xuanzong period of the Tang Dynasty, more and more gentry lost the shelter of the door shadow and had to enter the official career through the imperial examination. Fortunately, these gentry, who have passed down for thousands of years, usually have a lot of books at home and profound family studies. Therefore, after they joined the imperial examination, many people made gratifying achievements in becoming the top scholar. According to Mr. Yang Xiyuan's statistics, there were 369 prime ministers in the Tang Dynasty, among whom 8 132 were from the imperial examinations. It can be seen that the imperial examination has a great influence not only on civilians, but also on the gentry.
In May of the 21st year of Kaiyuan (733), Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty ordered: "Many people run private schools and want to send them to the counties to listen to them." The establishment of private schools further popularized education to the public, which not only impacted the family inheritance of the gentry, but also rolled up the imperial examinations. Compared with before, the imperial examination became more and more difficult, people paid more attention to scholars and their followers, and gradually surpassed the pure aristocratic background.
However, there are exceptions to everything. Not all the gentry valued the imperial examination, and not all the emperors of the Tang Dynasty rejected the gentry. Let's talk about the gentry who don't value the imperial examination. For example, Li Deyu, the prime minister of the late Tang Dynasty, who was born in the Li family of Zhao County, himself disliked the form of taking officials in the imperial examination and advocated that the imperial court should use officials or their children. And his good friend Qin Zheng, another prime minister of the later Tang Dynasty who was born in a noble family, disliked the imperial examination and even proposed abolishing the imperial examination. Moreover, both of them refused to take part in the imperial examination, and both entered the official career through the shadow of the door. Ironically, Li Deyu's grandfather Li Qiyun and Qin Zheng's father Zheng Juezai both entered the official career through the imperial examination.
To some extent, Li Deyu and Qin Zheng were the disguised beneficiaries of the imperial examination system. Then, they opposed the imperial examination, which obviously violated the process of the times and had no substantive operability. After all, it was deeply rooted in the hearts of the people to choose candidates for the imperial examination in the late Tang Dynasty. A large number of poor civilians and down-and-out gentry changed their fate through the imperial examination, and at the same time occupied many seats in the imperial court.
At present, the emperors in the late Tang Dynasty changed their attitude of suppressing and rejecting the aristocratic halls. For example, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty preferred to use aristocratic children, and even bluntly said that it could be used in aristocratic law. At that time, Cui Xun's home in Boling and Cui Yi's home in Qinghe reached more than 20 people respectively. Since the Middle Age, the clan has been promoted to the first class "and" four generations of Ma Xu are the same, and six brothers are three products. Zhai, Yan and Wei are the five rites, followed by the official department. Tang Xing has nothing. "
So some people say that this is the revival of the noble gate valve in the late Tang Dynasty. However, the reality is that after Daxing Imperial Examination, the confluence of scholars and scholars is a foregone conclusion. This is not so much a temporary phenomenon as a revival. As early as five years in Huichang, Tang Wuzong (845), the imperial edict clearly pointed out that only "former scholars and celebrities who graduated from the academy" can be called "well-dressed households" and only "well-dressed households" can enjoy the privilege of being exempted from official duties. This privilege belonged to the gentry in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. Because they were "well dressed families" in the old society.
However, the "well-dressed households" in the new era need not the gentry, but the Jinshi and the gentry. In this context, the popularity of the gentry gate valve in the eyes of the world has long ceased to exist. After Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty came to power, there was naturally no need to deliberately suppress the cremation as in the previous Tang Dynasty.
Crucially, the Tang Dynasty itself was in a fog-like turmoil. After the Anshi Rebellion, the separatist regime in the buffer region became a chronic disease in the Tang Dynasty, and another era belonging to martial arts quietly opened, which originally did not belong to the gentry who emphasized literature and ink.
Second,
Waiting for September 8 of the lunar autumn,
Blooming chrysanthemums are in full bloom, Chang 'an is fragrant, the city is bathed in the fragrance of chrysanthemums-Italy, and the land is like golden chrysanthemums.
On the day of publication, in a restaurant in Chang 'an, a candidate who lost Sun Shan's name left angrily after mentioning the song "Last Floating" on the wall, completely giving up the idea of being an official in the imperial examination. This man is Huang Chao, the leader of the peasant uprising army.
Many years later, at the end of the first year of Guangming (880), Huang Chao revisited his old haunt and led the peasant rebels into Chang 'an. At this time, Li Xian, the emperor of the Tang Dynasty, followed in the footsteps of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, and took thousands of riders to Chengdu.
When Huang Chao, the leader of the peasant uprising army, first entered Chang 'an, he showed that his attitude was ok. He not only prohibited his men from plundering the wealth of the people, but also told the people of the whole city: "The Yellow Emperor started to fight for the people, not because Li didn't love you Cao, but because you Cao were in peace."
Unfortunately, the good times did not last long. As Huang Chao ascended the throne in the Hanyuan Hall of Daming Palace, he changed from the leader of peasant uprising to the founding emperor of Daqi, and other things changed quickly. At the beginning of Huang Chao, in principle, the original officials of the DPRK were retained under the four products, and the rest were dismissed. But in reality, many of Huang Chao's subordinates, like him, started from humble origins, and many people held a grudge against the gentry officials in the Tang Dynasty.
As a result, out of personal hatred, these people killed many officials and plundered their property. In this regard, Huang Chao failed to ban it, because he himself hated those officials of the Tang Dynasty. Then, he was busy liquidating the adherents stranded in Chang 'an, such as Tang Prime Minister Dou Lu and Cui Ling, left servant shot Yu Cong, right servant shot Liu Ye, Prince Pei was authoritarian, and the rest was hidden in the people, assistant minister Li of punishments, Jing Zang in the people and others, all of whom were searched and executed by Huang Chao during this period.
However, in order to adhere to the principle of ministers and solar terms, General Tang, Dr. Kubu Langzhong Zhengbu and others refused to surrender to Huang Chao's army and directly chose to commit suicide. Then, Zhang Zhifang, the general of Tang Jinwu who led the crowd to meet Huang Chao's army and entered the city, surrendered to Huang Chao himself, but out of his affection for his old colleagues, he privately hid some ministers of Tang Gongqing in the courtyard wall of the house. As a result, after the incident, he and his former colleagues were accidentally sent to the grave by Huang Chao.
For a time, Huang Chao's murder in Chang 'an aroused people's vigilance. Following the different political space of Tang Emperor's suppression of the gentry, Huang Chao's suppression of the gentry was a physical extinction.
As Wei Zhuang, a poet in the late Tang Dynasty, said in "Ode to Fu Qin": "Huaxuan embroidered hubs are scattered, and there is no half of Jiadi Zhumen ... The inner library is burned into splendid ash, and the sky street is full of bones." Many gentry died at the hands of Huang Chao. Moreover, some late gentry failed to escape the massacre in Huang Chao. For example, Lu Xie, the former prime minister of the Tang Dynasty, committed suicide by taking poison as early as the Huang Chao Uprising Army attacked Tongguan and approached Chang 'an. As a result, after Huang Chao invaded Chang 'an, he sent someone to dig up Lu Xie's tomb and chop it into coffins.
Speaking of Lu Xie's family, it is the "seven surnames and ten families" named in the imperial edict prohibiting marriage issued in Tang Gaozong period. Under such a noble door, it ended in this way, which makes people sigh that the era of the cremation is really over.
In the second year of neutralization (882), Tang Jun began to counterattack. With the defection of Huang Chao Zhu Wen, the confrontation between the two sides reversed. Two years later, when Huang Chao was pacified, Tang Xizong returned to Chang 'an and held a captive ceremony in Daxuan Building, as if the old Tang Dynasty had returned.
But in reality, the days of the Tang Dynasty and the gentry are gone forever. Zhu Wen stepped on Huang Chao's body and stepped onto the historical stage, becoming the new favorite of the times with the gesture of making the emperor. Huang Like came from a humble background, and her attitude towards cremation officials was the same as that of Huang Chao.
In June of the second year of Tang Tianyou (905), at the behest of another former imperial examination loser, Li Zhen, Zhu Wen killed more than 30 "clean clothes" such as Pei Shu, Dugu Lost, Cui Yuan, official department minister, Ministry of Industry minister wang pu, Taibao minister and Ministry of War assistant minister.
This incident was called "the disaster of Baima Post" by later generations. What is interesting is Liu Can, a person who drew up a murder list for Zhu Wen's "The White Horse Post Disaster". Born in Hedong, Liu is the grandson of Liu Gongzhuo, a famous minister in Tang Dynasty, and Liu Gongquan, a famous calligrapher. From birth, this man is a standard cremation, but for his own career, he abandoned the spirit of integrity that the cremation has been proud of for thousands of years, flattered Zhu Wen, and deliberately put his excluded ministers on the killing list in Zhu Wen.
The disappearance of the gentry spirit wiped out the reputation of the gentry and completely ended the gentry era. At this point, the cremation and Shu Ren is no different.
Third,
Zheng Qiao, a historian in the Southern Song Dynasty, said in A Brief History of Clans: "Since the Sui and Tang Dynasties, officials have books and families have pedigrees. The selection of officials must be based on books, and the marriage of families must be based on pedigrees. ...... Since the fifth season, taking a scholar does not ask about family background, and marriage does not ask about reading. "
It can be seen that after the death of the gentry, the barriers of gate and valve disappeared, and people's social consciousness also changed. Since the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, people have more choices in choosing a spouse, regardless of family status. Selecting talents regardless of family background will give more talented people a chance to display their talents.
Compared with the previous Tang Dynasty, the Song Dynasty was obviously a more people-friendly and civilian era. Take the imperial examination as an example, the number of candidates in the imperial examination in the Tang Dynasty was not as large as that in the Song Dynasty, and in most cases, the gentry dominated. Because in the early days of the imperial examination in the Tang Dynasty, there was no need not to paste the name. Therefore, the children of the gentry in the Tang Dynasty can increase their success rate by "writing papers", that is, giving their proud works to dignitaries and even examiners in advance to improve their reputation; In the Song Dynasty, not only the wind of "writing volumes" continued, but also the system of "copying books by affixing names" was resolutely implemented, which was more fair and perfect than that in the Tang Dynasty.
Naturally, it also mobilized the enthusiasm of more civilian children to take the exam. During the Northern Song Dynasty 167, nearly 30,000 people were admitted to imperial academy, far exceeding the Tang Dynasty. Behind this data, the expansion of enrollment in the Song Dynasty is one of the factors. On the other hand, the popularity of education in the Song Dynasty is wider. After all, the gentry's gate valve is gone, and the inheritance of family studies has developed into school education. During the Northern Song Dynasty, a large number of "state studies" and "county studies" were established in various places. Although there were also "state studies" and "county studies" in the Tang Dynasty, it was not supported by farm production as in the Song Dynasty. Therefore, the maintenance of these schools in the Tang Dynasty was always underfunded. Subsequently, the quality of education was also dwarfed.
With the popularization of education, more people have joined the ranks of scholars, and reading is naturally no longer the patent of gentry. From the Tang Dynasty to the Song Dynasty, with the demise of the gentry, the civil class began to rise gradually in the Song Dynasty, which really let Lao Wang Xietang fly into the homes of ordinary people.
At this point, culture and education no longer simply serve the nobility, but begin to serve the ordinary people more.