When it comes to the examination of selecting talents in the Ming Dynasty, I believe that most people will think of the imperial examination of the literati of the Ming Dynasty, which does have an extremely important position in the history of the Ming Dynasty, but this also covers another kind of examination for the selection of talents in the Ming Dynasty, which is the martial arts examination of the martial arts.
In fact, the martial arts examination was not unique to the Ming Dynasty, as early as the Tang and Song dynasties, the martial arts examination was proposed and implemented, but the Tang Dynasty did not record much about the martial arts, because the historian believed that "the election method is not enough," so it was not recorded.
In the Song Dynasty, the examinations of the martial arts and the imperial examination were arranged on the same day, but due to the underground status of the warriors in the Song Dynasty, there are not many records and descriptions in the history books, but it can also be recorded from the "Zizhi Tongjian": "In the eighth year of the Heavenly Sage, there were 249 Jinshi, 573 people in various subjects, only 8 people were taken from the martial arts, and 14 people were referred to. "It can be seen that the martial arts of the Song Dynasty are almost useless.
1. The establishment of the Ming Dynasty's martial arts
Those who are familiar with the history of the Ming Dynasty know that the Ming Dynasty established two systems for the army, one is the hereditary system of guards and the other is the meritorious system obtained through military contributions.
If a soldier wants to be an officer, it is not your talent that you see, but the contribution of military merits, which led to the Ming Dynasty after the "Battle of Tumubao", a large number of generals with military talent were reduced, and the newcomers who were promoted were not capable, which indirectly promoted the establishment of martial arts in the Ming Dynasty to select talents.
The Ming Dynasty Tianshun eight years (1464) proposed the establishment of martial arts, when the "Wuju Law" was promulgated as the standard for the martial arts examination, but the "Wuju Law" did not even set the specific time of the martial arts examination, it can be seen that the Ming Dynasty did not attach importance to the martial arts at that time, which also led to the selection of few talents through the martial arts.
It was not until the third year of Zhengde (1508) that under the proposal of Liu Yu, the secretary of the Ministry of War, the "Wuju Tiaoge" was officially promulgated, and its appearance further made up for the shortcomings of the "Wuju Law", so that the Wuju examination really began to develop in the Ming Wuzong period.
"Wuju Tiaoge" perfected two aspects, 1, formally established the time of the beginning of the martial arts, to the meridian year of October, the Wuju township test was held in various places, first in September to notify the health office, send the reference to the capital division, Fuzhou County to send the reference to the political division, other references to the imperial history, to October to start the examination, the township examination passed can go to Beijing to participate in the examination.
2. The examiner mechanism has been improved, and the examiners of the township examination are served by the provincial magistrates, the three division officials, and the provincial school officials, and the examiners of the examination are served by two Hanlin officials, and the same examiner is served by the subordinate officials of the Ministry of Counsel and the Army, and the invigilators are served by the two supervising imperial historians.
The official promulgation of the "Wuju Township Examination" preliminarily standardized the rules and operating procedures of the Wuju Township Examination, and the promulgation of the "Wuju Township Examination Style" in the thirteenth year of Zhengde (1518) further standardized the rules of the Wuju Township Examination in detail, which also made the rules of the Wuju Township Examination in the Ming Dynasty officially established.
Second, the content of the martial arts and the reference personnel
The Ming Dynasty martial arts examination was born in the Tang and Song dynasties, the Tang Dynasty was mainly a test of martial arts, the Song Dynasty was mainly a test of strategy, and the Ming Dynasty combined the characteristics of the two.
1. According to the record of "Ming Wuzong Record": "On the first day of the first nine days, compared with its riding and shooting, people send nine arrows, and those with more than three arrows are combined." On the twelfth, two games, compared with its foot shooting, also sent nine arrows, and those above one arrow were combined, and they were all read in front of the Beijing camp. On the 15th, three trials were conducted in two ways and one in the literary field. ”
From this, we can see that the main way of the martial arts examination in the Ming Dynasty was the civil and military examination, and for those who passed the examination, another palace examination should be conducted, but the emperor of the Ming Dynasty did not seem to be too concerned about the martial arts examination.
In the second year of the Ming Dynasty (1622), Zhen Shu played in the matter at that time, hoping that the martial arts examination would be held after the examination, and the emperor would preside over the examination of the strategy, and then hand-pick the champion, Tanhua, and Bangyan, but at that time, Zhu Youxiao of the Ming Xizong did not attach importance to the martial arts, which led to this proposal being delayed.
In the history of the Ming Dynasty, there were only five martial arts palace examinations, namely the fourth year of Chongzhen (1631), the seventh year of Chongzhen (1634), the tenth year of Chongzhen (1637), the thirteenth year of Chongzhen (1640), and the sixteenth year of Chongzhen (1643).
It can be seen that only Chongzhen held the Wuju palace test, because Chongzhen four years (1631) Ming Dynasty officially added the palace test in the martial arts, according to the "Ming Huidian" record, before Chongzhen four years (1631), the first name of the examination was the champion.
2. The Ming Dynasty did not have too many requirements for those who came to participate in the martial arts examination, unlike the Tang and Song dynasties, when the martial arts examination was in the hands of the bureaucrats and elites, and the commoners were not in a weak position at all, and the Ming Dynasty broke this phenomenon.
According to Liu Daxia's "Discussion of Martial Arts and Martial Arts": If there are people who are proficient in military affairs and skilled in martial arts, whether they are mountain village husbands, private schools in schools, or just soldiers in the guards, they can register for the examination in the local government, and the local government must treat them with courtesy, and if the reference person is short of money and food, they must also give subsidies.
It can be seen from this that the Ming Dynasty directly broke the narrow crowd of people who could come to participate in the martial arts examination, including civilians living at the bottom, and also let the people at the bottom see a way to rise, and the people gradually formed a "wind of Xi martial arts." ”
3. In the Ming Dynasty, the treatment of the martial arts people is also quite good, when Zhengde, the successful lifter "each person is rewarded with a silver flower, weighing five dollars, and then increased to eight dollars, made into two branches, and given a foot of red yarn, and the government also has to prepare the banquet, and the back is to increase the silver flower to one or two five dollars, made into three branches." "It can be found that the rewards given by the imperial court are constantly increasing.
At the same time, for those who want to participate in the examination, if they are unable to go to Beijing to participate in the examination due to insufficient money and food, the local government will also give them a monetary subsidy. It is advisable to give six taels of silver first, and the remaining twenty-four taels, and wait for each student to receive it when he leaves for Beijing. To sum up, it can be seen that the Zhengde period still attaches great importance to the Wuju people.
3. The role and influence of the martial arts system in the Ming Dynasty
1. The martial arts system of the Ming Dynasty allowed people living at the bottom who could not afford to read to see a way to rise, which indirectly improved the defense of the border areas, and at the same time allowed the army to supplement more excellent officers, and further improve the combat ability of the army to resist foreign invasion.
2. Breaking the hereditary system of military attachés and the local guarantee system, both of which have great limitations, the hereditary system of military attachés has led to a large number of officers who do not have real talent and learning, which is also one of the reasons for the sharp decline in the combat effectiveness of the army in the middle and late Ming Dynasty.
The local guarantee system allowed the magnates to monopolize the ascent channel of the commoners, and a large number of talents with real talents but humble backgrounds were blocked, and at the same time, the magnates could arrange for their own children to serve in the army, and gradually control the military power, which was something that no emperor would allow.
3. Transferring the social atmosphere at that time, in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the "style of literati" and "the spirit of emphasizing literature and light on martial arts" prevailed in the world, which directly led to the underground status of military attachés, and an eight-rank civil official could even scold a third-grade military attaché, which also made the military attache at that time gradually lose the bloody nature of the battlefield.
For example, Qi Jiguang, Hu Zongxian and other famous generals in the world also had to claim that they were disciples of the sage, and they had to study the Four Books and Five Classics every day to protect themselves, which also made the civil officials more unscrupulous and casually impeached military attachés, and at that time there were a large number of talented military attaches who were impeached and removed from power because they offended civilian officials, such as Wang Yue, Zhai Peng, Yu Dayou, etc.
This made a large number of military attachés tremble every day, thinking about how to curry favor with civilian officials, how to keep their positions, and had no intention of resisting foreign invasion, and the emergence of the military examination system gradually reversed this phenomenon, so that the status of military attaches was improved, so that they had no worries.
Fourth, the defects of the martial arts system
1. Although the military examination system has improved the situation of the low status of military attachés, the source has not been solved at all, and the court is still a civilian official who decides the life and death of a martial artist, so that in the back, the military examination of the Wuju Township Examination is actually dominated by civil officials who read the Four Books and Five Classics, and the military attachés who are really familiar with the art of war and proficient in the use of soldiers have become foils, which is really a bit ridiculous and generous.
2. It is difficult for a martial artist who has only obtained primary merit to become an official, compared with the literati imperial examination, if he only wins the imperial examination, he can at least be a nine-grade sesame official, and even has the privilege of tax exemption, while the martial artist who only obtains the primary merit cannot enjoy these privileges, and he can't even be a military commander, so he can only start from the big head soldier.
This also led to the Wuju Township Test System, which gradually became weak, and did not bring a steady stream of military talents to the Ming Dynasty, and only a few martial champions could not change the situation of the Ming Dynasty at that time.
3. The system that cannot be changed with the times, in the "Wuju Township Test Grid" established at that time, there is a principled norm, that is, "first to strategy, then to martial arts." It is this norm that leads to the fact that most of the people selected by the martial arts are "Zhao Kuo" who talk about soldiers on paper, and they actually don't understand the real war.
A war is not just a test of strategy, for the commander, when the overall situation is the most important, the most important thing is to judge the enemy's intentions, the arrangement of their troops' daily schedule, the supply of food, etc., should be the overall situation, not just focus on strategy, "one general is incapable of exhausting the three armies," which is also the fundamental reason why hundreds of thousands of troops in the late Ming Dynasty were embarrassed to use.
summary
The establishment of the Wuju Township Test System in the Ming Dynasty, as a "good medicine" for the treatment of diseases in the Ming Dynasty, although it brought a little "cure" to the Ming Dynasty, "but the Ming Dynasty did not really insist on "drinking it," a large part of the Ming Dynasty's rulers at that time did not pay attention to it, and only stayed on the surface.
The lack of attention of the ruling class, the solidification of the content of the examination, and the examination standards that cannot be changed with the time are the reasons why this "good medicine" did not save the "critically ill" Ming Dynasty.
bibliography
1. "Information Governance Guide"
2, "Martial Arts Law"
3, "Wuju Style"
4, "Wuju Township Test Grid"
5, "Ming Wuzong Record"
6, "Daming Huidian"
7, "Discussion and Martial Arts"