As a high-profile examination for the selection of talents, the examination system has run through the entire feudal society since its inception, from its establishment to perfection, and then to the gradual development to the final, and the changes between them are great. For example, the content of the Tang Dynasty imperial examination involved current affairs policies, the Thesis, and essays; the content of the Song Dynasty examination was mostly the Thesis, Moyi, and poetry; in the late Qing Dynasty, the content of the imperial examination became the Eight Strands of Literature. Regardless of the changes, the imperial examination system seems to be the fairest talent selection system at that time.
However, during the prosperous Tang Dynasty, when all aspects of the economy were prosperous and developed, perhaps there was a little bit of attention that was not often paid attention to - the Tang Dynasty's examination system examination, when reading the examination papers, actually adopted a non-nameless way?
Imagine if the current regular examination, if it does not take the form of the admission ticket number, and puts everyone's big name at the beginning of the examination paper, then the risk of cheating secretly is greatly improved? If the grading teacher is familiar with a certain student, how can he be sure that there will be no bias? So, that's not particularly fair.
However, in the Tang Dynasty, the examination system of the imperial examination, instead of being named, the chief examiner also relied on the candidate's reputation and reputation in his daily life as the main reference for the grading of the examination papers. That is to say, the popularity and popularity of the poems written by the candidates, as well as the quality of the reputation, determine whether they can be admitted to the main examiner.
In fact, this has certain benefits. Because to some extent, "the aroma of wine is not afraid of deep alleys", if there is really talent, then the poetry will be widely circulated, and the reputation will be greatly enhanced. For example, Su Shi, Liu Yong and others, although they were not From the Tang Dynasty, they became famous by relying on their poetry and talents. Therefore, no matter what class you are in, as long as you are literate enough, sooner or later you will be famous.
But this also leaves an opportunity for the vast majority of less talented people. Due to the orientation of admissions, candidates read hard in the cold window, enter beijing to catch the exam, and the first thing they come to is not to review well, but to make friends with celebrities in advance and submit their poetry works to them. If your work can win the favor of famous people, you can win their recommendation, which is beneficial to your own fame.
Over time, this gradually became a common practice among the scholars who took the imperial examination in the Tang Dynasty.
Therefore, there was a word that was very popular at that time: "line scroll". Specifically, before the examination of the imperial examination, the scholars who want to participate in the examination first give the works that they have previously obtained to the powerful and important ministers and celebrities, and use their hands to "market" their reputations and pave a smooth road for the scientific examination.
It is also conceivable that there is indeed "deep water" in this. Although the scientific expedition uses fame and reputation as the evaluation criteria for reading the papers, the starting point is good, but this is very easy to cause others to have an opportunistic mentality. As a result, everyone did not prepare well for the scientific expedition, but spent most of their time, energy and financial resources on social friendship.
If you can find the most stable backstage and backing, then this time the scientific expedition is mostly stable. If you can find the recommendation of the prince, then don't retreat to the poet. For example, Wang Wei, a famous poet of the Tang Dynasty, is said to have received the recommendation of the King of Qi during the scientific expedition at that time, and his fame was greatly improved, and he passed the jinshi examination in the year of the weak crown, and his glory was infinite for a while.
Of course, Wang Wei's own talent is also worthy of such recommendation. It can be seen that there is also a certain reason for evaluating the fame and reputation of soldiers as important reference factors. In the middle and late Tang Dynasty, the "scroll" basically became a must-do thing for candidates who participated in the scientific examination, if they disdained or forgot, it was basically named Sun Shan, ready to start again.
Of course, there are also some people who did not find the "direction" at the beginning, such as Han Yu. As one of the eight masters of the Tang and Song dynasties, Han Yu participated in three scientific expeditions, and none of them won three times. Just during the fourth scientific expedition, he met Zheng Yuqing, the retired prime minister, and took the opportunity to "line the scroll". Because Han Yu's poetry was very favored by Zheng Yuqing, this "former prime minister" was in his social circle to promote Han Yu's fame. Sure enough, this year's scientific examination results came down, and Han Yue successfully passed the entrance examination, and his reputation has been established since then.
From Han Yu, we can learn that when you fail, don't be discouraged, sometimes it is not necessarily your own flaws, it may be the wrong method and direction.
From our point of view today, the fact that the scientific examination papers are not pasted does not seem to be very fair, but from a historical point of view, it was still a relatively fair situation for that time. Compared with only the scholar clan who can become an official, the imperial examination provides a way for the children of the cold door, if there is really talent, even if the family is poor, they can rely on talent, have a reputation, and the day when they are admitted to the list.
Author: Our team has a falling moon