One of the greatest contributions that China has made to human history is the "examination system", which to this day is the "examination system" used by all countries in the world. But before the emergence of the imperial examination system, China used that kind of system to select talents in ancient times?
People who understand China's ancient talent selection system know that in ancient times, there was a system of inspection and examination, a system of nine products, and a system of examinations, and today we will talk about the system of selecting talents in the Western Jin Dynasty -- the system of nine products in the middle.
The so-called "selection of talents" in the Nine Pins Zhongzheng system is actually the selection of talents among the children of nobles, but as an "aristocrat", it must be "talents"? Did the "Nine Pins Zhongzheng System" select the sons of nobles as officials from the very beginning?
Next, Search Shijun will take you to see the Nine Pins Zhongzheng system in the early Western Jin Dynasty.
The Jiupin Zhongzheng system, also known as the "Nine Pins Official Law", is a system established during the Cao Wei period, when Cao Wei was in urgent need of selecting various talents. After the war, population mobility and social changes have greatly restricted the system of township elections, and the central government cannot obtain sufficient talents through the township election system, so the "nine-pin Zhongzheng system" also came into being.
For the Nine Pins Zhongzheng system, So shijun also sorted out some of its characteristics:
Establish "Zhongzheng officials" for all states, counties, and counties, and visit, examine, and evaluate people who are more responsible and influential in their own areas, and use this as a qualification to be selected as state officials. "The above Situ, Situ re-check, and then Pay Shang Shu to choose."
To a large extent, the Zhongzheng officials solved the problem and solved the impact of the war on the selection of national talents at that time. The replacement of the Wei and Jin dynasties did not cause as much chaos as in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, so the "Nine Pins Zhongzheng System" was also well inherited by the Western Jin Dynasty. After nearly fifty years of operation, the "Nine Pins Zhongzheng System" officially established by Emperor Wen of Wei has also undergone many changes, because with the changes in the background of the times, the Nine Pins Zhongzheng System has also had great problems.
In the early Western Jin Dynasty, some powerful ministers in the ruling class attacked the shortcomings of the Jiupin Zhongzheng system.
Search Shijun turned over the historical materials in the "Book of Jin" and found that the criticism of the Jiupin Zhongzheng system mainly focused on the following four aspects:
(1) "Nine pins to visit people, only ask The Right Question"
Soon after Emperor Wu's reign, the Marquis of Guannei and Duan Zhuo of Yilang were the drawbacks of the Zhongzheng system of Shangshu Li Chen Jiupin:
The right to determine the "Nine Pins" is only controlled by Zhongzheng Guan, and the only basis for Determining grades in Zhongzheng is "Menzi", that is, Mendi?, according to which the grade is determined, and the result becomes "According to the superior product, the descendants of non-princes should be Kundiye." ”
(2) Liu Yi, a servant of Shangshu, believes that there are "eight losses" in the Nine Pins Zhongzheng system, and its core is "Now Li Zhongzheng, Ding Jiu Pin, High and Low Arbitrary,
Honor and disgrace in hand". The Zhongzheng official has the final decision on the candidate official of the official department, but the official department does not have the right to verify the candidate official, and can only follow the decision of the Zhongzheng official, and the choice of the Zhongzheng official? It is only "to know its valve reading, not to discern its wisdom and foolishness."
(3) In the early years of Taikang, Emperor Wu of the Imperial Guards and Sima Liangshang Shuwu accused the Jiupin Zhongzheng system of "gradually staining in the middle and making plans."
The fixed products of the capital make the world wait and see, only the position is precious, and the people abandon morality and ignore the Tao karma, and fight for how much is at the end of the cone knife, and the customs are damaged, and their disadvantages
Not fine".
(4) At that time, some people also wrote books to ridicule the Nine Pins Zhongzheng system.
The "Theory of Chongjian" said: "There are deficiencies in official positions, and the officials chosen by the lord do not know what to use, but the officials of the case are secondary." Those who are of the same talent who use it first, and those who are not sons of the powerful, will have the thoughts of the powerful. Those who look at the officials have no political achievements, and they are not the sons of powerful people, and the rate is mostly due to seniority. ”
Wang Shen's "Treatise on the Interpretation of The Times" records: "When Si Shiye, it is not the high and humble of the door capital, and the weight of the position of power is ?...... Those who talk about fame and position are flattered by the times, and those who hold high reputations follow suit because of their resources. ”
From the historical records of the time, Sou Shijun found four problems in the ruling politics of the early Western Jin Dynasty:
(1) The local officials at all levels controlled the channels for the selection of officials, and thus controlled the political power through the continuous delivery of reserve officials to the state.
(2) In the selection of officials, the officials of the Central Committee are basically selected according to their own subjective wishes, while the officials of the central government do not have the right to review and divide the ranks of the selected officials.
(3) The standard for obtaining assets only looks at "door capital" and "potential position", but does not look at talent and morality, which makes the world trend worse, people flatter and attach funds, abandon talent and morality and emphasize family names.
(4) Propose to abolish the nine-pin Zhongzheng system and restore the old township juju lixuan: "Now except for the nine products, it is advisable to quasi-ancient system, so that the courtiers can be common."
He is both knowledgeable on the road to talent, and can vigorously enter the public heart of the sage, the clarity of the reign, and the sincerity of the canon. ”
The final result of the operation of the nine-pin Zhongzheng system for nearly half a century is that "there is no cold door in the upper product, and there is no potential family in the lower product". In fact, the ruling regime did not have much room to choose from in terms of selecting and appointing officials, so So Shijun believed that although the Jiupin Zhongzheng system was not the only way to select officials, it was the main way to select officials. It made the political structure of the feudal regime solidified and lifeless, and lacked a positive and innovative vitality.
Didn't Sima Shi know that the "Nine-Pin Zhongzheng System" had developed to the present, and the role of selecting talents was already inferior to that of the original? If you know why you did this?
"At the beginning of the Tai Dynasty, His Majesty practiced the throne, and all the servants he served were the heroes of the ancestors, and if they were not his descendants, they were zengxuan." - Book of Jin
The Cheqi general Chen Qian was the Duke of Gaoping, the Wei general Jia Chong was the Cheqi general and the Duke of Lu, The Shangshu Ling Pei Xiu was the Duke of Julu, the Servant Xun Xun was the Duke of Jibei, the Taibao Zheng Chong was the Duke of Taifu and Shouguang, the Taiwei Wang Xiang was the Duke of Taibao and suiling, the chancellor He Zeng was the Duke of Taiwei and langling, the imperial master Wang Shen was the general of the Horse Riding and the Duke of Boling, sikong Xunxun was the Duke of Linhuai, and the general Wei Huan of Zhenbei was the Duke of Xiangyang. The rest of the knights were added to the rank of knight, and Wen Wupu was added to the second rank. - "Book of Jin, Emperor Wu"
The ministers mentioned in this passage of the Book of Jin were the core backbone of the ministers with different surnames who formed the Western Jin Dynasty. Judging from the process of their family members entering the army, the central high-ranking officials of the Jin Dynasty and the officials who sent out local military towns were supplemented by hereditary means by means of door capital. The number of disciples of the gate valve and the positions they occupied constituted the main body of the officials of the Western Jin Dynasty. This way of entering the army with door capital is actually in line with the principle of using capital to determine the product under the nine-product zhongzheng system. Therefore, So Shijun thought that the fierce criticism of the Content of the Nine Pins Zhongzheng System by the Shi clan that controlled the central government was only a factual discrepancy between the names of the characters recommended by the prefecture and county Zhongzheng, and did not accuse the children of the Central Shi Clan of relying on the position of heir.
However, it is worth mentioning that some high-ranking officials attacked the "Nine-Pin Zhongzheng System", and the beneficiaries of the "Nine-Pin Zhongzheng System" were precisely the children of high-ranking officials, which exposed the contradictions between the family clans after the establishment of the Western Jin Dynasty, and the manifestation of this contradiction was the contradiction between centralized power and local decentralization. Sou Shijun believes that the reason why Emperor Wu of Jin was well aware of its mysteries but did not take action was that he was able to take advantage of the contradictions and conflicts between the Gate Valve Clan and put them in a delicate balance.
On the long road to becoming emperor, the Sima clan has revealed the political character of the Menmen clan itself for independence and decentralization, as well as the basic law of eventual replacement. Emperor Wu of Jin drew profound lessons from this and used them easily in his later political career. He would never allow the other Gatekeepers to follow the path he had taken.
The specific manifestation of Emperor Wu's means of rule in the early Western Jin Dynasty was that, on the one hand, the selection of officials under the Nine Pins Zhongzheng system also met the general requirements for the entry of the Mengmen clan, and this preferential condition satisfied the desire of the high-ranking officials and nobles in the DPRK to monopolize the power, and also caused contradictions and conflicts between the scholars in the central government and the powerful forces that controlled the local choice; on the other hand, it allowed the members of the imperial family to fully enter the Western Jin Dynasty, forming a strong confrontation between the Mengmen clan represented by the Sima clan and other clans. This was an important way of distributing power in the ruling politics of the Western Jin Dynasty.