"When it comes to the secretary of state, who is not moral, talent is rare." - "Man Jiang Hong" Wei Zi Weng
During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the status of the door valves of the shi clan reached its peak, even if this history is mentioned now, people only know the flow of the shi clan, and they are like a number of family treasures to the famous people, but they do not even know how many regimes were changed in this period, and it is no wonder that there is a "iron door valve, an emperor of flowing water".
In order to break the monopoly position of the scholars since the Wei and Jin dynasties, take the power to the central government, and select truly available talents, the rudiments of the imperial examination system began to appear from the Sui Dynasty. Although the Sui Dynasty did not last long and died in the second dynasty, this new system of selecting talents made the later Li Tang royal family feel its role in centralizing power.
Therefore, during the tang dynasty of Emperor Gaozu And Li Yuan, the imperial examination system had already decreed that "the bachelors of the states had early Ming Jinghe, Junshi, Jinshi, Ming Yu Body, and those who were called by the townships, the county examinations were commissioned, the governor repeated, took their qualifications, and paid tribute with the things every October." "In the Tang Dynasty, there were more than a hundred generation subjects, and the form was very different from the later solidified imperial examinations, such as the heavy poetry and song endowment during the Tang Xuanzong period.
The word Zhuangyuan appeared earlier than the list eye and tanhua, as early as the Tang Dynasty, the first place in the list was already called zhuangyuan, and the second place and the third place of the list eye, tanhua title, is related to the Song Dynasty appeared in the "Qionglin Feast", but also in the Song Dynasty, divided into three ranks of jinshi, that is, the third class: first class, second class, third class.
Although the imperial examination system has finally broken a gap for the scholars who have been monopolizing the knowledge and education of the state, which has greatly strengthened the ability of the central dynasty to control the localities, and the people at the bottom have the hope of obtaining class promotion through reading and studying, after thousands of years of evolution, the imperial examination system has gradually become a tool for the feudal ruling group to enslave the minds of the common people.
During the Tang Dynasty, the imperial examination system of a hundred flowers blooming truly and informally selected talents never returned, and although the imperial examination system in the Ming and Qing dynasties ushered in its peak, it was also completely solidified, and the eight shares of scholars became the only criterion for evaluation, making the thinking of readers begin to be rigid.
With the influx of advanced ideas and technologies in the West in the late Qing Dynasty, those wonderful inventions and modern scientific research achievements crushed the "Zhihu Zhi Ye", the imperial examination system also began to fall to the altar, more and more people with lofty ideals began to choose to study abroad or study in school, through new science to prove themselves, and finally in the Guangxu years, the imperial examination system finally completely launched the chinese historical stage.
In 1904, China held its last imperial examination. In this exam, a person named Liu Chunlin became the title of the champion of that year's exam. Unexpectedly, only a year later, the late Qing government abolished the imperial examination, and Liu Chunlin became the last ruler in all of China.
Speaking of Liu Chunlin, this title has come with quite a few opportunities. At first, the first place set by the chief examiners was actually Zhu Ruzhen, and the second place was Liu Chunlin, and according to the custom, the ranking of this examination needed to be given to Empress Dowager Cixi before it could be announced. In the past, Empress Dowager Cixi did not care who these first few were, but at this time, the Qing government was worried about internal and external troubles, so that Cixi even held the 70th birthday with some trepidation, so she wanted to see these "Wenqu Stars Under the Stars" stained with auspicious omens.
I didn't expect this to see the problem, how is the first place called "Zhu Ruzhen", or is it from Guangdong? The word "Zhen" obviously made Cixi think of Zhenfei who opposed herself everywhere; and Guangdong was one of the regions with the highest calls for revolution in modern china, where Mr. Sun held high the banner of anti-Qing, Liang Qichao and Kang Youwei of the Xinhai Revolution also came from here, and even Hong Xiuquan of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom before was also a Guangdong native.
At this time, Cixi was already very dissatisfied with this first place, and her brows were wrinkled tightly, but when she turned to the next Liu Chunlin's examination paper, her eyebrows slowly stretched out, because Liu Chunlin's good hand was too pleasing to the eye. Liu Chunlin was good at calligraphy, and the first-hand calligraphy was quite famous at that time, known as "DaKai Xueyan (Yan Zhenqing), Xiaokai Xueliu (Liu Chunlin)".
Coupled with the fact that the word "Chunlin" has the meaning of spring wind and rain, in Cixi's view, this is a good omen, so with a big stroke of the pen, the original list eye became Zhuangyuanlang, and Zhu Ruzhen became the list eye.
However, at this time, it is no longer meaningful to consider whether this is a champion or a list of eyes, after all, Liu Chunlin did not have long been in high school, the decaying ship of the Qing government finally sank on the bottom of the deep sea, and in 1912 AD, the Qing Dynasty was completely destroyed, marking the complete end of China's feudal dynasty.
So what did Liu Chunlin, the last ruler of China, do after the fall of the Qing Dynasty, and how was he treated in the Republic of China?
After becoming a champion, Liu Chunlin was not assigned a post, and the Manchu Qing court sent him to study in Japan at public expense. To put it bluntly, the government of the late Qing Dynasty had begun to panic, but it was not willing to admit its fate, so it wanted to let these talented people go out to study more, and come back to save the crumbling late Qing government.
When Liu Chunlin was in Japan, he studied at Tokyo University of Political Science and Law, he saw the advanced points of Western society, and after returning to China, he was determined to promote the constitutional movement of the Qing government. However, in the decadent Qing Dynasty, you were not knowledgeable enough, and if you wanted to move in peace, you had to "be a man".
Moreover, the purpose of the Qing government sending him out to study was not to let him "make a constitution", but to let him continue to protect the Qing government, it is obvious that what Liu Chunlin learned was not what the Qing government wanted. In addition, Liu Chunlin did not despise flattery, and was even more reluctant to pay bribes and gifts, so he was never allowed to reuse it, and sat on the cold bench in idle posts for a long time.
The anti-imperialist and anti-feudal revolutions that broke out throughout the country finally led to the abdication of Puyi, the emperor of the late Qing Dynasty, and China entered the Era of the Republic of China. Liu Chunlin, because of his own knowledge, did not "lose his job" with the fall of the Manchu Qing, but was appreciated by Yuan Shikai and served as the secretary general of the president in the Republic of China government.
However, everyone in the Republic of China government during this period understood that the factional struggle of the central government was very serious, and at the same time, the local areas were divided by warlords and the bandits and bullies of the people were rampant. The upright Liu Chunlin did not want to join the crowd around him, resigned his official position in the seventeenth year of the Republic of China, and took his wife and children to live in seclusion in the countryside, all day long farming and fish farming.
Later, Japan established a puppet state of Manchukuo in the northeast, and had long heard of Liu Chunlin's name, and specially invited him to take up the post of minister of education; Liu Chunlin was unwilling to betray his country and nation and blasted all the lobbyists sent by Japan out of his home. In order to show his determination not to go out of the mountain, he completely broke off contact with the outside world and immersed himself in the study of calligraphy every day.
Although he is no longer involved in politics, Liu Chunlin still has a sad and compassionate heart, and after leaving his job, his life is not rich, but he still chooses to pay for the construction of a school for the children in his hometown, so that the children in the village have the opportunity to read and write. After hearing about the floods in the south, he also generously donated money and took the lead in raising funds for the victims.
In 1944, at the age of seventy-two, Liu Chunlin died of illness in Beiping. Throughout Liu Chunlin's life, although he grew up under the feudal society, his thinking was open and advanced, and he had his own principles and bottom line for dealing with the world, and truly achieved "the worries of the world before the world", but unfortunately, such a talent could not be born in an era that allowed him to fully display his talents.