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introduction
The recommendation system of the Song Dynasty was inherited from the Tang Dynasty and was an important condition for the Song Dynasty to become officials, and all those who wanted to become officials must be recommended before they could enter the dynasty as officials. This has a big drawback, and there are many people recommended by officials because they paid money.
Therefore, many talented people were buried, and the imperial court could not truly form a "cultural wind". The Miscellaneous Poems of Jihai contains:
"Kyushu is angry and thunderous, and Wan Maqi is sad."
It is to lament that they are buried, after all, it is a sadness, and there are many officials who actually have no talent and are indiscriminately charged in the officialdom. Such officials have no say in the officialdom, and as long as they do not speak indiscriminately in the imperial court, they will basically not be discovered.
This phenomenon also contributed to corruption and party strife in the Song Dynasty, although the Song Dynasty used different systems for recommending elections at different times.
However, with the passage of time, the recommendation system of the Song Dynasty became more and more loose and could not be fair and just, but was more inclined to form parties for personal gain, and gangs and factions, which gradually made the recommendation system gradually decay and become more and more rigid.
1. The recommendation system of the Song Dynasty was implemented
The basic process of the recommendation system of the Song Dynasty was divided into the subject, the petition, and the recommended. The recommender was the main official selected by the officials in the Song Dynasty, and its responsibilities included: responsible for recommending officials; selection of talents for the emperor; supervise the selection and appointment of cadres, etc.
Because the imperial court attached importance to talents, Emperor Shenzong of Song established the "Jin Shi Branch", and stipulated that those who were born in official eunuchs or had remarkable achievements should be the examiners. The Northern Song Imperial Examination was presided over by the prime minister and held once every year on the ninth day of September and lasted about three months. There is no limit to the number of candidates who can take the test, but candidates are required to have a certain level of literacy and literary literacy.
The recommended person needed to be discussed by various officials of the imperial court, and finally decided by the emperor. The advantage of this system is that it can give full play to the role of officials such as the prime minister and the privy seal, which is conducive to the handling of government affairs.
The disadvantage is that this system is not suitable for large-scale gatherings, because in such cases ministers may attack each other and even cause chaos.
In ancient times, emperors had great power, so it was impossible for them to decide anything at will. For example, the "Compilation of the Continuation of Zhi Tong" contains Emperor Taizong:
"Since the restoration of the puppet country, the officials have benefited the people, and the court trial has been used to receive the princes, and the Spring Palace of Emperor Taizong, since Xianping, is the resumption of the court test. It is the honor of the Son of Heaven, and the position of the Prince Spring Palace. ”
The things that the emperor would personally decide were relatively big things, and in this case, some ministers wanted to benefit themselves, so they began to fight above the court, which would affect the fate of the recommended person.
In ancient times, if a person was recommended to become an official, then he had the opportunity to enter the imperial court and thus obtain a higher position. However, this situation is not for everyone.
After all, there was still the imperial examination system at that time, and the assessment of the imperial examination system was very strict, and if you wanted to pass the exam, you had to have enough talent to be favored by the emperor.
Therefore, in order to be successful, many people work hard in other aspects, and they can also get mixed up in the officialdom because of their ingenuity. But such existence is rare.
Second, why was the recommendation system so popular among the rulers of the Song Dynasty? What is the reason behind this?
First of all, we must know that there are two main ways to select the ancient imperial examination, one is the recommendation system and the other is the imperial examination system.
The recommendation system, in which officials were appointed directly by the emperor, generally only applied to civil officials in the imperial court, while the imperial examination system was a formal examination, in which the winner could become an official.
In the ancient imperial examination, the most important thing was the first place, because only the first place could be called a champion. So many people want to be number one.
But this idea is basically difficult to work, after all, the ancient imperial examination is very competitive, and many people take it every year, if you want to stand out, you have to put in more effort than others.
Secondly, in order to expand the source of high-quality talents of the imperial court, plus people who read often will make you prone to a stereotyped state and inflexible thinking, so the Song Dynasty monarch hopes to select some shrewd and capable people from society. To put it simply, the people that Emperor Taizong of Song wanted to recommend were all his own people, not gangs, and only loyal to the monarch.
But the disadvantages are also obvious, because there are too many such people, and it is easy to cause corruption within the imperial court. Therefore, when Emperor Taizong of Song selected talents, he paid great attention to morality, and his son Zhao Dezhao was also a very talented person.
But instead of inheriting his father's mantle, he became a gentleman, doing nothing all day and not doing his job. This result made his father very angry.
So they demoted him to a commoner and let him go home to farm. But Zhao Dezhao did not give up his ideals, he still insisted on studying, hoping to get ahead one day.
Later, he was finally admitted to the Jin Shi and became an official. However, his career was not smooth, and it was not until the Zhenzong period that he was posthumously given the title of Taifu and died by suicide.
This official position was very important at the time, because it was in charge of the emperor's edicts, so his power was also very large. However, he also has no talent, just a civil official.
Finally, the recommendation system of the Song Dynasty was an innovative system, combining "lifting the priest" and "selecting the pass" into one, and the monarchs of the Song Dynasty concentrated all the virtuous people in the imperial court, forming a "good and virtuous style".
The literary atmosphere of the Song Dynasty was stronger and more open. In this environment, many literary figures have emerged, such as Su Shi, Xin Qiqiao, Li Qingzhao and others, whose works are very classic and have been handed down to this day. Their contribution to the Song Dynasty was also very large, and they played a certain role in the cultural inheritance of the Song Dynasty.
According to the History of Song:
"In the first year of Yuan Yu, the edict decreed that the attendants, the imperial history, and the son of the kingdom could each raise the scriptures and cultivate the two scholars. In the first year of Shaosheng, the chief supervisor of the Zhao Guozi, the Taiwan counselor, and the foreign supervision department can also be recommended. ”
With the development of the recommendation system, the recommendation system has gradually declined, and many people who are officials in the DPRK have used the recommendation system to recommend their families. In this way, many innocent people were implicated, and even some people ended up with a different head because of improper recommendation.
In fact, in ancient times, the relationship between officials was still very good, but over time, this relationship slowly became delicate. Especially when the imperial power was gradually strengthened, many people began to intrigue and calculate with each other for their own interests. This continued until the Qing Dynasty.
3. Joint and several liability of the recommendation system of the Song Dynasty
Although the old piece system in the late Song Dynasty gradually went downhill, in the process of struggle, there was still a rare clear stream in the recommendation system of the Song Dynasty, that is, joint and several liability.
Officials of the imperial court at that time, whether civil or military, had certain responsibilities, and if they made mistakes, they had to bear the corresponding responsibility.
But there are many regulations in people and real life things are a lot of unrealistic, this joint responsibility is very embarrassing, accountability is not, not accountability can not play a role in punishment, in the face of this accountability attitude is not obvious, and there is no clear indication of who is right and who is wrong.
The joint relationship of the recommendation system did not occur in the Song Dynasty, but already appeared during the Qin Dynasty. The emergence of this system can effectively safeguard the interests of the country, and at the same time ensure that the power of the emperor is not violated.
The Song Dynasty also particularly encouraged whistleblowing, which people at the time liked very much because it made their officials more clean and effectively prevented corruption.
This is also a manifestation of joint and several liability, Su Shi once said:
"The rulers of the world shall not be known to everyone, so they let the chief officials do it, and they are afraid that they will act for personal gain and not others, so they let the chief officials do it."
The main types of collateral effects are as follows. The first is to commit the crime of stolen goods, especially stolen goods, which the Song Dynasty attached the most importance to, and private sin is the inability to control one's selfish intentions and lead to mistakes.
The second is that the official is untrue and unresponsible, and in the face of these situations, the Song Dynasty did not do anything, but instead promulgated some legal provisions exempting from responsibility. This accelerated the decline of the Song Dynasty.
In fact, the emperors of the Song Dynasty also knew about this problem, but they did not dare to face it because they feared that their rule would be threatened. So they can only turn a blind eye and let the situation develop. There were many things that the emperor could not really decide, which led to the demise of many dynasties.
The recommendation system of the Song Dynasty existed for a long time, and in so many years that the Song Dynasty existed, only six years did not implement the recommendation system. During these six years, most of the officials of the imperial court entered the officialdom through the imperial examination.
Therefore, in the officialdom of the Song Dynasty, many people entered the officialdom through the imperial examination, so only during these six years, the political environment of the Song Dynasty was relatively stable.
Because the emperors of the Song Dynasty were some literati, they were more open-minded and did not particularly reject some feudal superstitions. The living standards of the people have also been improved to a certain extent.
epilogue
In the Song Dynasty, when the imperial examination system and the recommendation system coexisted, I personally felt that the imperial examination system was relatively fair, because it was not a hammer sale, but a selection of talents through examinations.
So for the children of the cold family, it is a very good opportunity. However, under such circumstances, there are still many people who are reluctant to take the imperial examination.
One is that family conditions do not allow, and the second reason is that the ancient imperial examination was an opportunity to select talents, and only after passing the imperial examination could you become an official. The grade of officials is very low, and some people do not want to follow the path of becoming officials.
Bibliography:
History of Song
"The Aspects of the Selection and Appointment System of Civil Officials in the Song Dynasty"
《Studies on Bureaucratic Politics of the Song Dynasty》
General History of China's Political System
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