The words "Thirty Old Ming Classics, Fifty Young Scholars" broke people's attention and recognition of jinshi. Although during the Northern Song Dynasty, The Song Emperor had abolished the Ming Classics, it still did not change the status of jinshi, and entering the career path has always been the ultimate goal of most ancient readers.
Cold Window has been reading hard for thirteen years. In ancient times, how many people chose the head overhanging beam cone thorn stock in order to obtain the merit name, and the spiritual influence of various spontaneous learning has been so far, before there is "Cheng Men Lixue", after there is "Fan Jin Zhongju", although the two have a great difference, but it is not difficult to explore carefully, it is not difficult to pronounce a feature.
"Cheng Men Lixue" and "Fan JinZhongju" are both positive for the bureaucratic appraisal system. Speaking of "Cheng Men Lixue", it is very familiar. The story of "Cheng Men Lixue" mainly shows the respect of students for teachers, which also indirectly shows people's yearning for knowledge and their yearning for meritorious names at that time.
Fan Jinzhongju
It is true that the main intention of the "Cheng Men Lixue" allusion is the respect of the students for the teacher, which reflects the respect for the teacher, but it is also impossible to completely deny that the students in the story do not have any selfish intentions. If the student does not have any courtesy, no teacher will really impart knowledge.
In this way, it can be unilaterally guessed that in fact, students are also selfish, and what they want is the knowledge of the teacher, to achieve the ultimate goal or ambition - to enter the career and obtain a meritorious name.
If it is difficult to see the "utilitarianism" in the allusion of "Cheng Men Lixue", then "Fan Jin Zhongju" is exactly the opposite. The story content and development in "Fan Jin Zhongju" are very easy to reflect the reader's yearning for the name of merit, which can be described as utilitarian.
The mention of "Fan JinZhongju" in the "History of Ru Lin" requires the essence of it: the attitude of the people around Fan Jinzhong after Fan Jinzhongju, this alone can roughly explain the reason why Fan Jin went crazy.
It is worth mentioning Wu Jingzi's "History of Ru Linwai", which tells all kinds of strange stories throughout the book, which seems to be extremely vulgar, but in fact it mocks the phenomenon of inflaming and flattering the power of the time, and the book makes a secret criticism of feudal thought.
In the fifty-six times of the "History of Ru Lin", it is the fact that "Fan Jin Zhongju" is the most ironic to the "Eight Strands of Literature", and the step-by-step distortion and change of the reader is vividly depicted.
"Fan Jinzhongju" is roughly summarized: from the greatest literary figure of the Qing Dynasty, Wu Jingzi. "Fan Jin Zhongju" is a small story in the "History of Ru Linwai", although the story takes the Ming Dynasty as the time background, but it is based on the main social conditions of the Qing Dynasty as the final point of discussion.
At that time, the Qing Dynasty followed the Ming Dynasty's Eight Strands of Literature as a way to reform the people's thinking. The emergence of the Eight Strands of Literature broke the original imperial examination system in one fell swoop, and reformed the original dexterous assessment into a dissemination machine for the emperor's thought, and the emergence of the Eight Strands of Literature gradually hardened the mind for a time.
Although the Eight Strands of Literature has many drawbacks, it cannot hinder people's yearning for a career, among which Fan Jin is one of the readers who are addicted to the Eight Strands of Literature. Fan Jin has been studying hard since he was a child, and he is bent on obtaining meritorious names, but due to family and ability problems, Fan Jin has never been able to cross the threshold of Xiucai.
Gradually getting older, Fan Jin chose to start a family first, and Fan Jin did not stop after becoming a family. During the years when Fan Jin was reading the articles, his old father-in-law Hu Butcher never paid attention to him, first of all, Fan Jin was a scholar, who had no financial resources at all, and always had to rely on his wife.
The second is that Fan Jin has not been able to achieve any remarkable fame for many years, and even rumors that his talent is only the examiner who looks at him as old and pities him. For a variety of reasons, Hu Butcher was difficult to Fan Jin everywhere, and even sometimes he would make a big fight and insult him.
In addition to the reluctance of the family, the fellow villagers also looked down on Fan Jin. Fellow villagers believe that a talent who is about to pass the flower armor can have anything to do, and he is still not delusional and must be delusional. In the case that everyone is not welcome, Fan Jin also gradually sees the facts.
It wasn't until after he finished his twentieth exam in his life that all changed. After Fan Jin's twentieth exam was listed, the people around Fan Jin changed dramatically.
After learning of Fan Jinzhong's move, the whole township began to congratulate Fan Jinzhong, and even the Hu butcher began to change his mouth, saying that he was a good son-in-law, and his vision was really good, and this was just the beginning. Fan Jin was very confused about the news of Zhongju among the people, thinking that this was not true.
But then more and more people, people of higher and higher status, congratulated him, and he became more and more sure of the news in his heart. In the face of earth-shaking changes for a time, Fan was in and out of God, and people from all walks of life changed, which was the world's heat and cold.
All kinds of ugly faces appeared in Fan Jin's eyes, and he was a little confused about the so-called human sophistication, which was all ugly brewing because of the Eight Strands of Literature. The next second, Fan Jin went crazy.
Bureaucracy of the Qing Dynasty
Thinking from this perspective, it can be concluded that Fan Jin is crazy because of the ugliness of society, but there is also another possibility - too excited. Why Fan Jin would be excited to the point of madness, in addition to the reason for his final success in years of downfall, there is also the most important reason - to step on top.
After Fan Jinzhong lifted, what awaited him was the position of Jinshi, which meant that Fan Jin needed to prepare for the test. But this has not yet reached the jinshi, why are you so excited? The answer to this question requires an understanding of the characteristics of the identity of the lifter.
Fan Jin took the seventh place in the Guangdong township examination, that is, Ya yuan, which seems to be a mediocre ranking but has no small advantages. At that time, the next year after the examination, the person could enjoy the reimbursement of the imperial court's journey, and on the way to the capital, the person did not need to worry about the cost.
In addition, after becoming an enumerator, regardless of whether or not you can get the excellent rank in the examination, you can be willing to be elected, and you can be admitted to the promotion of officials, general judges, etc. Among them, people will be divided into two types of people, and these two types of people will be evaluated according to appearance, physical fitness, and age.
Different types of people will have different official positions, so as to achieve a different class. Although Fan Jin is already fifty-four years old, the fact that he is a man is already immutable, so his entry into his career is also an inevitable result.
In the field of competition of tens of thousands of people, and the body and age do not occupy any advantage, in such a situation, in modern terms, it is not an exaggeration to say: the difficulty is only higher than that of Kao Qinghua, not lower than Kao Qinghua.
There is also a point that needs to be mentioned, the change in social status brought about by lifting people. After the Qing Dynasty became a person, people would change from the title of Geshe, change the original title to "Laoye", and when meeting lower officials, they did not have to kneel and prostrate.
In this way, the social status of people has been greatly improved and changed. In such a situation and environment, can a poor and almost desperate Fan Jin not be crazy? Even modern people will be crazy because of their status as people at that time.
brief summary
Fan Jinzhongju seems to be a small story of the Ming Dynasty, but it secretly depicts the distortion and corruption of the Eight Strands of Literature and the Imperial Examination System during the Qing Dynasty. What should have been a desire for knowledge was changed under the feudal system.
Various feudal systems created a harsh social environment, and this was one of the fundamental reasons for the eventual demise of the Qing Dynasty. Hardening people's thinking and increasing the differences between people have exposed the so-called checks and balances of the Qing Dynasty's imperial power and the cause of the disaster of the country.