My life is like walking on thin ice

Chapter 421 Overjoyed
What is this monster that was born prematurely in Chinese civilization due to the emergence of the imperial examination system?
Ji An called it: the civil service group.

But if Liu Rong were asked to name it, he would definitely call it: the literati, scholar-official class.

In the course of Chinese civilization, the hostility and struggle between the scholar-official group and the military generals and meritorious officials group can be said to have lasted for five thousand years.

Civil officials thought the military officers were crude and ignorant of the general situation;
Military generals dislike the literati who only talk but do nothing.

On the surface, this is a stereotype between two different groups.

But in fact, these are two groups with conflicting interests, who are attacking the other party in order to ensure their own interests as much as possible.

——The feudal regime itself is an extremely huge cake.

In theory, the emperor eats the most delicious and largest piece, followed by the heroes and meritorious officials;

The rest will be fought for.

Military commanders contended, civil officials contended, and relatives of the emperor’s wife contended;
In the end, all the cake is gone, and the cake that originally belonged to these "outsiders" is left, so they will fight for the parts that do not belong to them.

For example, the founding fathers will inevitably be squeezed out of the power decision-making layer by new meritorious military generals and civil officials and relatives over time;

Even the emperor might lose the cake that should have been enjoyed by him alone to the best outsiders, such as the prime minister, the general, or the imperial relatives and generals.

People in later generations often said: Civil officials and military generals are the two legs of all feudal dynasties. If either one is missing, the dynasty will be lame.

It is like the Qin Dynasty, which was strong in military power but weak in culture. It was aggressive and tyrannical, and finally perished in the second generation.

It is also like the weak Song Dynasty, which was prosperous in culture but weak in military power - the eternal quatrain says that the foreign barbarians, who paid millions of silver in the treasury as annual tribute, were left to guard half of the country.

In the impression of most people in later generations, the entire feudal history of China seems to consist of only two opposites: civil and military.

As for the emperor, while making use of these two opposing groups, he also had to rely on subtle imperial tactics to seek a relative balance between the two.

But in fact, throughout the five thousand years of Chinese history, all the disputes within the regime are nothing more than "struggle for power and profit", that is, dividing the cake.

If the cake is well divided and everyone is satisfied, then naturally the ruler and his subjects are in harmony, and the civil and military are in harmony - the ruler is wise and his subjects are wise, the civil and military are strong, and the maternal relatives are gentle as jade;
On the contrary, if one party is not satisfied with the cake it gets, it will target a group that does not seem strong enough, or at least does not deserve such a big cake, and then attack it without limit;
The purpose is just to take the cake that the other party has shared and put it into your own bowl.

For example, if the emperor is dissatisfied with the cake he gets, that is, the power in his hands, he will instinctively centralize power;
The centralization of power by the emperor will naturally lead to the seizure of power in the outer court.

As a result, people inside and outside the court said that the emperor was "not doing his job", and the emperor said that the court was full of treacherous ministers who did not know how to be loyal to the emperor.

For example, civil officials feel that military generals are too powerful and relatives of the emperor are overly favored, which makes them seem dull and useless, so they will instinctively suppress them.

It is impossible for the oppressed to surrender without a fight;
Therefore, the civil officials said that the military generals were more powerful than their masters and had ulterior motives, and that the external relatives controlled the government and brought chaos to the government.

On the other hand, military generals say that civil officials are useless, while external relatives say that civil officials are sour grapes because they cannot eat them.

In addition to this - in addition to the emperor, civil officials, military generals, and relatives by marriage, other interest groups would also emerge in certain specific historical periods.

For example, eunuchs or warlords.

But for most of the time, these four parties were the ones wrestling at the poker table of China's feudal regime.

Especially after the relatives by marriage were gradually squeezed out of the table, only the emperor, the civil officials and the military officials were left.

——The emperor needs civil officials to govern the country and military generals to fight wars;
Civil officials and military generals need to realize their own life values ​​by "learning civil and martial arts and serving the emperor", such as gaining promotion, getting rich, being recorded in history, and blessing their descendants.

Both parties need each other.

But when it comes to the pie of "power", there are irreconcilable contradictions between the two parties, or even between the three parties.

The emperor always thinks: It would be best if someone else could do all the work for him, but it would also be best if he could hold all the power in his own hands, without giving any to others.

Wanting it all is indeed shameless, but it is also the most real and instinctive expectation and goal of feudal emperors.

Civil officials and military generals are slightly different.

——Most of the time, civil servants want fame, status, and power;

What military generals want is respect, wealth, and trust.

It's just that both are so extreme that they are unacceptable.

The reputation that civil officials want is to be recorded in history;

The most important position is to be a living saint;

The power he wants is to have power over both the government and the country.

The respect that a military commander wants is to be personally received by the emperor;

The wealth we want is to be rich enough to rival a country;

The trust that is needed is to entrust full military power to him.

Both want to be loved and respected by the world at different levels - and to be loved and respected to a degree that the emperor cannot accept or approve of;

Both of them also want to seize power that the emperor is very reluctant to give up, or even impossible to give up.

So the question becomes: I will never give you what you want—at least not voluntarily;
At the same time, I ask you to give me what I want.

I need you, so we can't fall out.
You have no other choice, so you also need me...

It was in this delicate relationship of fighting without breaking - needing each other but also having conflicting interests - that the three parties together spent the most exciting thousands of years in Chinese history.

What happened later is also known to everyone: because of the greater threat to the imperial power, the military generals were the first to be eliminated from the table among the three parties.

After that, the civil officials represented the "ministers" and played a game with the emperor as the "king".

If the ruler is strong, the ministers will be weak and submissive;
If the ruler is weak, the ministers will be strong and abuse their power.

At this point, it is not difficult to understand what kind of monster this imperial examination will give birth to.

——In Chinese history, the civil servants and scholar-official class sat at the same table with the emperor, military generals, relatives of the emperor, eunuchs and other forces, and eventually became the only one who was not eliminated except the emperor, becoming the "last opponent" of the feudal emperor.

This class, or this group, is different from any other interest group.

They monopolize knowledge, thus monopolizing bureaucratic positions and indirectly monopolizing access to politics;
Because of the knowledge they have learned, they are naturally in the same camp and naturally have a strong sense of "grouping together for warmth".

Unlike the military commanders, relatives, and eunuchs who were calculating their competition with the same kind most of the time, the premise for the civil officials to fight and compete internally was that all external threats had been swept away and eliminated;
Only when there is no external threat, that is, no military generals, relatives of the emperor, eunuchs and other forces against them, will the civil servants have time to engage in internal fighting.

Once these groups exist, the civil servants will spontaneously turn against each other and unite against the outside world.

Slowly, they will push their opponents off the table one by one, until finally, only they and the emperor are left playing at the table.

The outcome of this game is often tragic.

——Because feudal emperors cannot do without civil officials;

For feudal emperors, if they want to build a bureaucratic system to rule the country, they must do so through the literati and scholar-officials. There is no alternative at all.

But for civil officials, the emperor can be replaced.

If this one doesn’t work, try another one.
If you really can't change it, then wait.

After this difficult emperor dies, sooner or later an easier emperor will take the throne.

As for what you said, the royal bloodline is so strong that it is difficult to deal with several emperors in a row?

It doesn’t matter;

The emperor is something that can be easily dissolved in water...

"I wonder how people in the future will comment on your Majesty's actions today?" "——I can't tell what's wrong with it;"

"I just feel inexplicably flustered..."

As a person of his time, Ji An certainly had no idea what kind of monster the civil servant and scholar-official class would eventually grow into.

However, the keen sense of smell of a qualified politician still made Ji An instinctively sense some danger.

——In the Han Dynasty today, why is there no conflict between civil and military officials, or a situation where the civil officials and scholar-official class force the emperor to deprive him of power?
Because in today's Han Dynasty, there is no distinction between civil and military officials.

As a unified Chinese feudal regime founded on military power, and the last glimmer of the Han Dynasty's vassal state, the current Han Dynasty's bureaucratic system is actually constructed with military personnel as the framework.

It should be said that in this era, the literati and scholar-official class had not yet emerged, or had not yet separated from the military men, that is, the group of military meritorious officials.

In the Han Dynasty today, civil officials are military generals, and military generals are civil officials.

Wearing official robes to govern the people and wearing armor to command the army is the norm in the Han Dynasty today.

Civil and military affairs are inseparable and belong to the same group, so naturally there will be no diametrically opposed conflicts.

However, with the emergence of the imperial examination system, "pure literati" without any military background will inevitably begin to appear in the Han Dynasty bureaucracy.

Different from today, the Han Dynasty already had all-round bureaucrats who were proficient in both civil and military affairs - these "pure literati" - were almost immersed in the ocean of books and knowledge since childhood.

They had no military merits to their name, no old friends who had served in the army or held official posts;

They will not be like the existing officials, who have the life creed of "civil and military affairs are inseparable" and "civil officials must be able to fight wars, and military generals must be able to govern the people."

They would come together under different names, such as being of the same year, the same subject, or even being classmates or fellow students, to keep each other warm.

The most crucial thing is: as emerging vested interest groups, they will inevitably stand in opposition to the existing interest groups.

——Ji An, standing on the opposite side of them...

"Your Majesty always says that when young officials encounter problems, they should talk less, do less, and watch more and think more."

"This matter..."

"Look at it;"

"Lets see……"

With an unexplained worry that arose only out of instinct, Ji An stood up from his seat and nodded slightly to the middle-aged general not far away.

Then, a burst of rough roars, typical of warriors, rang out in the examination room.

"In compliance with your majesty's order, this autumn's imperial examination will be held to recruit scholars and select talents for the country!"

"The papers will be distributed at 8:30 a.m., the exam will start at 9:12 a.m., and the exam will end at : p.m.!"

"When you hear the drum sounding to end the exam, candidates must put down their pens and papers within three breaths and stop answering questions!"

"Those who disobey orders will be punished by military law!!!"

...

"During the exam, candidates are not allowed to talk to each other or look around!"

"Anyone who secretly looks at other people's test papers will be punished by military law!!!"

...

"Candidates are not allowed to make noise, shout, or leave their seats without permission!"

"Violators will be punished by military law!!!"

When the soldiers said this, the candidates present were shocked.

——This imperial examination has too much of a military vibe.

The invigilators were the Imperial Guards, the garrisons were the Imperial Guards, and the people who maintained order in the examination hall were also the Imperial Guards.

Coupled with these three consecutive "punishment by military law", all the candidates present had the illusion that they were in a military camp instead of an examination hall.

But soon, everyone accepted this reality and nodded silently to show that they understood.

——This is the Han Dynasty.

In this era when Confucian scholars can split durians with their bare hands and old pedants can ride horses and shoot arrows, it is not so inappropriate to use military law to regulate the order in the imperial examination hall.

More importantly, military law is often used in extremely critical occasions and moments.

In other words, using military law as the basis for order in the examination room meant that this imperial examination was very important and significant to the court in Chang'an.

Otherwise, why use military law to scare people?

Therefore, with endless imagination about the future and beautiful vision of future prospects, the candidates soaked their pens, ground their papers, and waited quietly for the test questions to be distributed.

Soon, huge wooden boards that were two people tall and three people wide were carried into the examination room by the soldiers and placed within the field of vision of the candidates.

"The time limit for copying the test questions is half an hour!"

With another call, the candidates hurriedly dipped their pens into ink and began to write furiously.

After all, it was the first round of imperial examinations, the difficulty was very low, and no accidents occurred during the period.

The exam ended three hours later, and most of the candidates looked relieved.

——After the imperial examination rules were announced, the candidates also figured it out;
There were three rounds of imperial examinations, each one more difficult than the last, but in the end only a group of grassroots officials with a salary of 400 shi at the highest and 100 shi at the lowest were recruited.

To put it bluntly: in this era, anyone who had access to knowledge, became a scholar, and could travel a long distance to reach Chang'an smoothly, who didn't have some connections that could help him or her seek an official position?

After more than ten or twenty years of studying hard, going all the way to Chang'an, and participating in three rounds of imperial examinations, in the end you can only become an official by relying on your connections?

This is too uneconomical...

But if you use the imperial examination as a channel to enrich your personal resume, then it would be very worthwhile.

Generally speaking, through the imperial examination, scholars undoubtedly proved their academic level through a fairly fair and just platform.

In the past, you studied the "Spring and Autumn Annals" and I studied the "Book of History", and it was hard to say who was more knowledgeable.

And now, I have passed three rounds of imperial examinations, and you have only passed the first two - the reference system is established at once.

Furthermore, this reference system is not entirely about comparing people.

Whether there is a chance to be recommended or recruited in the future, the imperial examination results will undoubtedly be a plus point.

To put it mildly - it's okay even if you don't pass all three rounds.

By passing one or two rounds, at least you have proved yourself.

When you return to the local counties, whether you seek an official position or intend to seek refuge with the powerful and become their retainer, people will look up to you.

It was in this atmosphere of celebration with almost no exceptions that Ji An learned of a great event that was enough to make the whole world celebrate, when people were still worried about the future of the imperial examination and even the future of the Han Dynasty.

——The last missing piece of the current emperor Liu Rong’s panel may be filled in.

——A maidservant who came with Empress Cao in the Pepper Palace was pregnant...

(End of this chapter)