If you follow the long river of history and return to ancient China, you will find that the selection of talents has always been a job in ancient society, and if it is compatible with the selection of talents, there will inevitably be a set of systems to standardize the selection behavior.
Speaking of the ancient examinations, what often comes to mind is the appearance of a student carrying a book box into Beijing to take the exam, so how did the ancient imperial examination system evolve? Let's explore it together.
The imperial examination system is actually a system used to select talents or officials in ancient China, which is under the jurisdiction of the central government, and generally adopts the method of sub-subject examination, and the reason for the existence of the imperial examination is also related to the stability of social order and the stability of the political regime.
If the central government selects talents from the people, then it can concentrate talents from all levels of society to the central government to the greatest extent possible, which is conducive to breaking the monopoly of the nobility on the official field, and the ancients generally tended to study for the official to go to the career, so the popularization of the examination system is also conducive to forming an atmosphere of eager learning in society, which can be conducive to social order and maintain feudal rule.
Since the Sui and Tang dynasties, the imperial examination system has been produced and continuously developed, in the Tang Dynasty, the types of imperial examinations have been continuously enriched, and more than fifty subjects have been set up, and the two subjects we are most familiar with are the most popular subjects in the Tang Dynasty.
In addition to examining some scriptures, etc., but also to examine the poetry of fuwen, etc., with a certain degree of difficulty, the candidates need to be proficient in the ancient articles, and have their own insights, we are familiar with the literature many people are born into the soldiers.
During the Wu Zetian period, the Tang Dynasty also appeared martial arts, mainly to select some brave and good warriors, brave and strategic military talents, under the jurisdiction of the military department, and generally more examinations, mainly to examine equestrianism or archery techniques.
The Tang Dynasty examination system was relatively perfect, and there were various types, and a large number of talents were selected for the country, and the relatively fair examination system maintained social stability, and the strong national strength of the Tang Dynasty also had an important relationship with this.
In the Song Dynasty, the types of subjects in the imperial examination were greatly reduced, and the jinshi subjects were still the most popular, but the Song Dynasty increased the number of admission places, giving more talents the opportunity to display their talents. The Song Dynasty established a three-level examination once every three years, and accordingly, it was born with a temple examination, a provincial examination, and so on.
The social relations of the Yuan Dynasty were more complicated, the invasion of foreign nationalities, the intermittent examination of the imperial examination, and did not receive much attention, so the imperial examination system did not have a great impact in the Yuan Dynasty society.
But in general, it also continued the examination method of the Song Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty can be said to be the heyday of the imperial examination system, during which the imperial examination system received great attention, the examination was diverse, and it was very strict, and there was rarely a situation of fraud.
However, the Ming Dynasty has a point that people criticize, that is, the main investigation of the Eight Strands of Literature, so that students have to learn the Eight Strands of Literature, resulting in the students' spirit rigidity, although the academic atmosphere is strong, but it lacks the characteristics of flexibility and flexibility.
In the imperial examination of the Ming Dynasty, many jinshi were born in the cold door, so it can be seen that the imperial examination system gave many cold disciples the opportunity to enter the career path, which played an important role in maintaining social stability.
By the Qing Dynasty, the imperial examination system was still developing, but there were many policies mainly for the Manchus, and many Han Chinese did not have the opportunity to enter the core position of the state's institutions until the imperial examination system was later abolished.
It is undeniable that the examination system has played an important role in China's history, expanding the method and scope of selecting and promoting talents in a relatively fair and just manner, greatly improving the utilization rate of talents, and alleviating social contradictions.
In the society, an atmosphere of eagerness to learn and upward mobility was formed, which in the long run played an important role in the economic and political development of the country, and also promoted the development of literature and expanded the political basis of feudal rule. It also has some shortcomings such as restricting ideas, but the imperial examination has always accompanied the development of Chinese history with its own unique characteristics.