Bacon once said: "Reading history makes people wise, reading poetry makes people smart, mathematics makes people thorough, science makes people profound, ethics makes people solemn, the study of logic and rhetoric makes people argumentative, and everything that is learned becomes character." ”
However, the readers of the Qing Dynasty had such a characteristic, that is, they could not distinguish their ancestors clearly. Logically, such a situation should not happen to the Qing Dynasty readers. Because, China's thousand-year-old imperial examination system and China's social form determine that readers must know the ancient sages well, but on the contrary, they are the manifestations of no knowledge and no culture.
So, what is the point of saying that the Qing Dynasty scholars could not even distinguish between their own ancestors? Let's take a look.
At the end of the 19th century, when reviewing the knowledge structure of Qing Dynasty readers, the people of that time pointed out such a problem:
"Middle-earth scholars, who have always studied in addition to taking exams, can deeply understand one of the ten historians, can be familiar with the political affairs of the country and the dynasty, one of the hundred two, and can be next to the political affairs of the five continents, all kinds of specialized art scholars, but one of the thousand two." Although there are provinces along the coast and in the Yangtze River treaty ports, the atmosphere has shifted slightly, or the number of talents is more than this, and the number of people in the remote provinces is not more than this number..."
At the end of the Qing Dynasty, in the minds of the readers, there was a kind of idea of industry to save the country, they understood the superiority of advanced science and technology abroad, and they also correctly realized that the examination system seriously limited people's thinking. However, at that time, students were only allowed to study and study books related to the content of the imperial examination, such as: Eight Strands of Literature, Four Books and Five Classics, etc., and some events in history were not clear.
Even, there are many readers who have already entered the army and the first, but even celebrities such as Sima Qian and Fan Zhongyan are not aware of it. What's more, even the founding emperor of his own country could not tell the difference. I don't know the history of my own country, so I am even more stunned by the history of foreign countries. Some people describe the readers of the Qing Dynasty, do not know what dynasty the Han and Tang Dynasties are, do not know the ceremonies, music, and soldiers, only know Zhu Zi, and know shiwen.
Obviously, it should be the most knowledgeable group of people, but in fact, it is the most superficial person under the heavens. Historical Qing Dynasty readers have also made a scandal about which year Tai Shi Gong was born as a scholar, and what kind of scandal his work "Shi Ji" was.
Among them, the most excessive is that when Qing Officials borrowed books and read the Book of Han, they actually said: "Such books are of no use in the world." Moreover, when reading the General History of China, I thought that "China" was "Japan", and even it was not clear who Yue Fei was. This social situation is generally a serious barrier between Qing Dynasty readers and history.
As we all know, the Qing Dynasty period was the most prosperous period of China's imperial examination system, among which the eight strands of scholars, the four books and five classics required readers to be able to cope with examinations only by studying scriptures. The scope of the exam is the approved books, and if you cite historical materials in the exam, you cannot be admitted. And this is the "talk of experience" passed down by the older generation.
At the same time, such examinations have high requirements for the morality, character, and quality of bachelors, which led to the decadent and backward official system of the Qing Dynasty. In the popular novels of the time, such a social situation was described in detail.
At that time, the eight-strand examination was changed to a policy examination, and there was a teacher named Xia Shi, and his students hurried to visit Mr. Xia shi after hearing the wind.
Of course, it was not to ask for advice, but to vent his dissatisfaction with Mr. Teaching.
From the students' language descriptions, we can know that other books have begun to teach the theory of the policy early in the morning, and the books read are also the books of the policy class, such as: "Selected Ancient Texts", "Outline of Easy to Know" and so on. However, when Mr. Xia Shi was teaching, he did not pay attention to the content of the countermeasure theory, so these students lagged behind others.
Unexpectedly, Mr. Xia defended: "The secret handed down by the old gentlemen is only to teach people to read four books and read five sutras and then read eight strands, and the other miscellaneous books are not taught at all." ”
He thinks that this is the right education.
Of course, this is also the most real situation of Qing Dynasty readers, at the beginning of the private school, all taught was some four books and five classics, eight strands of literature and the like, and the old gentlemen also ate this bowl of rice. As soon as the policy is changed, those old gentlemen who only know the Four Books and Five Classics and the Eight Shares will have nothing to point out. There was a young man named Luo Shufu, who had originally done a show talent through the township test, and his future was also OK. However, he did not choose to study the new policy articles, and still followed the old man to learn the eight strands of the older generation. As soon as the policy of the examination was changed, his fate was destined to be changed.
After that, those books such as general history were quickly excluded because they were not mainstream and disappeared in these years.
According to records, by the end of the Qing Dynasty, there were no historical books for children to enlighten, and the only historical records left by the Yuan Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty became the rarest materials at that time.
In addition, there is another important point in the education of the Qing Dynasty, that is, education does not include the history of the Qing Dynasty. Because the Qing Dynasty imperial examination system shielded the history of the Qing Dynasty, many readers in the Qing Dynasty were ignorant of this. The situation of "asking the criminal name Qiangu without knowing, and percussing the palm of the old dynasty and ignoring it" can be seen everywhere in the group of readers.
This is still because the imperial examination system does not attach importance to historical facts, and there are some political factors in it. The taboos made in history are also the reason why history books cannot be widely disseminated. The readers of the Qing Dynasty not only could not understand the history of other dynasties, but also did not understand the historical facts of the current dynasty, which was the social atmosphere at that time.
It can be said that the Qing dynasty government's control over history was extremely strict, which also caused a fault in China's history. However, if a country cannot even pass on its history, how can it not perish? Therefore, the demise of feudalism began when the readers stopped studying history, which was also the root cause of their inevitable demise.
As we all know, taking history as a mirror, history is the inheritance, accumulation and expansion of culture, and the trajectory of human civilization. However, it is worth noting that history is produced at any time, a truthful record of people's free activities in the past. The meaning of its existence is: let people sum up the past, enrich the future, take history as a mirror, and borrow the past to discuss the present. In addition, history can provide the present person with an understanding of the past as a reference for future actions.
Therefore, to a large extent, history and ethics, philosophy and art are both important achievements of human spiritual civilization.
Resources:
[The Complete History of the Qing Dynasty", "Political Gains and Losses in Chinese Dynasties: The Qing Dynasty", "The Imperial Examination System and Chinese Culture", "Reading Changes and Knowledge Transformation: A Study of The Examination Books used in the Late Qing Dynasty"]