The first prince of Song Dynasty

Chapter 154

China's official selection system has undergone several twists and turns. In the past, aristocratic families controlled the power of the entire country from the imperial court to the local government.

If the emperor's order and the tycoons of the family are not satisfied, then this decree will be difficult to carry out.

Later, Cao Pi, Cao Cao's son, usurped Han and proclaimed himself emperor, and he used the nine-rank Zhongzheng system to include all the talents in the world, so his country was stable.

At this time, the gentry were still very powerful, and officials who came in through other channels could not compete with them at all.

But at this time, the official system has been greatly developed, and children from poor families also have great ways to promote their official careers.

That is to say, they can become officials, so that they are eligible to get a pass to be an official, which is undoubtedly an improvement.

Knowing that in the Sui Dynasty, there was an imperial examination to select scholars, which further opened a door for the children of poor families.

In the Tang Dynasty, it was more standardized, and the imperial examination was divided into Mingjing and Jinshi, which gave more space to those scholars from poor families.

During the period when Wu Zetian proclaimed himself emperor in the Tang Dynasty, he even created the subject of martial arts, which provided convenience for those who practiced martial arts to enter official careers.

In the Song Dynasty, the imperial examination was even more developed. Isn't this the first imperial examination after Zhao Kuangyin's ascension to the throne?

But Zhao Xu still admires this imperial examination. Although he is not an expert in this field, he still thinks it is a pioneering work.

First of all, the imperial examination system established in the Sui and Tang Dynasties is a huge neck in the selection of Chinese officials, and it occupies a very important position in the history of Chinese officials.

Before it appeared, the inspection system of the Han Dynasty and the nine-rank Zhongzheng system of the Wei and Jin Dynasties were relatively advanced official selection systems.

But the emergence of the imperial examination system completely exploded these two systems, why?Because it is relatively fair.

Isn't it a manifestation of this fairness that some poor college students in later generations passed the college entrance examination to go to university?Zhao Xu saw this a lot.

From the perspective of China's development, the imperial examination system is still relatively important, which is beyond doubt.

The emergence, development and evolution of the imperial examination system was adapted to the authoritarian centralization in China at that time.

Of course, the imperial examination system also indirectly contributed to the rich and splendid culture of the Tang and Song Dynasties. Think about the "Three Hundred Poems of the Tang Dynasty" and "Three Hundred Poems of the Song Dynasty" that appeared at this time.

But Zhao Xu knew better that the imperial examination system had a big drawback, which would be very serious in the long run.

This system also restricted the overall development of talent education to a large extent, making a large number of intellectuals obsessed with imperial examinations and weakening the research on science and technology.

This point had a great impact on Huaxia later, and it could not be changed until many years later.

Zhao Xu also wanted to change this state very much. He was able to do something now, which he was quite satisfied with.

But he is even more concerned that it is not the time to think about this issue until now. What he has to solve right now is the subject of the imperial examination.

Just now he was talking about the long-term disadvantages of the imperial examination, which naturally has short-term disadvantages. As the most important way for the imperial court to select officials, it mainly depends on the literary talent of the candidates.

This is a problem, good literary talent does not necessarily mean virtue or ability.But it is impossible to fundamentally see how a person is from an article.

These selected officials will go to the grassroots level of the country in the future. If the selected people are sanctimonious hypocrites, it will be over.

While Zhao Xu was thinking about this, Zhao Kuangyin couldn't help asking:
"Why do you test these subjects? Since the imperial examination, there have not been so many subjects. Even in the Tang Dynasty, there were only two subjects of Jinshi and Mingjing. You did this?"

Zhao Kuangyin worried that doing so would arouse the dissatisfaction of those scholars, a dissatisfaction is nothing, if there are opinions, it will be over.

"Father, did the imperial examination system have such two subjects as Jinshi and Mingjing when it first came out? It was only later. Is there anything wrong with our further development now? We are just following the development of the times."

After Zhao Kuangyin heard this, he didn't say a word, and what his son said was right. Everything is constantly developing, and the imperial examination system is no exception.

In the past, there was no such thing as an imperial examination. Later, the Sui Dynasty was the first to establish the imperial examination system, which opened up a way for scholars.

Later, after the Tang Dynasty overthrew the rule of the Sui Dynasty, the emperors of the Tang Dynasty inherited the system handed down from the Sui Dynasty.

Of course, these systems also include the talent selection system, which is the imperial examination system of Emperor Sui Yang.

But the Tang Dynasty did not simply inherit his system, otherwise, it would be too boring.

In order to prove that they were different from the Sui Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty further improved the so-called imperial examination. It was their move that the imperial examination system gradually became complete.

In the Tang Dynasty, the subjects of the imperial examination were divided into regular subjects and compulsory subjects. I don’t know which emperor created it. It is estimated that it was Li’s second child, that is, Li Shimin.

According to this regulation, the examinations held in installments every year are called regular subjects, and the examinations held temporarily by the emperor's edict are called system subjects.

There are a lot of subjects in Changke. If Zhao Kuangyin hadn't read books on this subject for next year's imperial examination, he really wouldn't be able to remember it.

Zhao Kuangyin vaguely remembers that there are more than 50 kinds of scholars, Mingjing, Jinshi, Junshi, Mingfa, Mingzi, and Mingshu.

Of course, these were only implemented in the early years of the Tang Dynasty. Later, many subjects were cancelled, and a lot of things were said to be of no great use.

Therefore, the two subjects of Mingjing and Jinshi became the main subjects of the regular subjects in the Tang Dynasty, and they were also permanent subjects.

But the Tang Dynasty is the most famous, and it can be said that the most famous is the Jinshi Department.Most of the prime ministers in the Tang Dynasty were Jinshi.

If you think about it, many prime ministers are Jinshi, and this shows how important this Jinshi is.

Generally speaking, the Mingjing repeats the investigation of the scriptures and Mo Yi.The so-called post scriptures are to expose one page of the scriptures, cover the left and right sides, open only one line in the middle, and then cover the three characters with a paper post for the tester to fill in.Moyi is a simple written test on the words and sentences of the scriptures.

In other words, it can be almost the same as writing texts silently, so when it comes to Tie Jing and Mo Yi, as long as you are familiar with the scriptures and annotations, you can pass the pilot test, which is very simple.

It is very difficult to get a Jinshi, and you must have real talents and real learning, so there was a saying at that time that "thirty old Mingjing, fifty young Jinshi".

Therefore, the gold content of Jinshi is greater than that of this Mingjing. Who makes it difficult for others to take the exam?

The three top armors that are often said in later generations, champion, second place and Tanhua were also established at this time, but the word second place did not appear in the Tang Dynasty.

No. 1 in the exam is called the champion, and the fellows have to pool money to hold a celebration event. In fact, it is to celebrate and connect with each other, to pave the way for yourself in the future, and to mix with the fellows.

Then why did it become Tanhua again? It turned out that those who were in the middle school at that time had to go to the garden to celebrate together called Tanhua Banquet.

Of course, the beautiful young men among Jinshi will go to famous gardens to pick flowers to meet the number one scholar, and will be called flower hunters.

Zhao Kuangyin knew all of this, but what he didn't know was that Tanhua only became the No.3 head armor in the Song Dynasty.

However, after attending the banquet in the Tang Dynasty, these new Jinshi had to sign their names under the Wild Goose Pagoda of Ci'en Temple to show their glory. This is also the famous "Yanta Pagoda Title" in later generations.

In the Tang Dynasty, the selection of scholars not only depends on the test scores, but also the recommendation of various people, that is, a very famous person recommends you.

Therefore, for their own future and for their future promotion, the examinees rushed to the servants of the ministers one after another, submitting their masterpieces to them, which is called submitting papers.

Of course, you can not only recommend yourself to some ministers, but you can also vote your favorite works to the Ministry of Rites.

The submission of papers does make talented people stand out, and it brings great help to one's own imperial examination path.

At that time, Wang Wei, a famous poet in the Tang Dynasty, once voted his poems to the princess at that time, and it was indeed a success.

But Zhao Kuangyin still disliked such people the most, and many bullies and thieves also entered the officialdom by virtue of this platform.

It is conceivable what such a person can do after entering the officialdom, needless to say, I know it.

The following is what Zhao Kuangyin is most interested in, because martial arts also took place in the Tang Dynasty.

Martial arts began in the second year of Wu Zetian's Chang'an, AD [-].Candidates who should take the martial arts exam will be examined by the Ministry of War.The test subjects include horse shooting, infantry, flat shooting, carbine, and weight-bearing.

The people selected in this way are all future brave generals in the army, which Zhao Kuangyin is very satisfied with.

But he was not ready to set up martial arts again. Although he appreciated the talents selected by these martial arts, he was even more afraid that the strength of the generals would expand again.

He is about to restrict military generals, can he perform martial arts again, isn't this uncomfortable with himself?
"What you said is also reasonable. The imperial examination has been continuously developed, especially in the Tang Dynasty. It was refined. Tell me what you want to add, but what you say must be reasonable?"

Zhao Kuangyin took a deep breath:

"Because I'm going to start a course to obtain a scholar in the second year of Jianlong. We need these literati, so we have to think of a complete way to know?"

"The things I want to add are of course beneficial to our Great Song Dynasty and the people. Otherwise, why do we need these things? Isn't the purpose of our imperial examinations to select useful talents?"

Zhao Xu was not surprised at all that Zhao Kuangyin also reopened the imperial examination.

Otherwise, it is really impossible to find so many people for a while. The imperial examination is the most feasible way. It seems that Zhao Kuangyin is going to make a big move again.

(End of this chapter)