Tian Qiu and Guizhou Kaike Township test

Tian Qiu (1494-1556) was a native of Sinan, Guizhou, born in Xiangmendi, received a good family education from an early age, and had a high cultural attainment in his youth. Tian Qiu was honest and upright as an official, dared to speak out, and throughout his life he served the country and the people, promoted advantages and eliminated disadvantages, and made a lot of achievements, especially asking guizhou to open a township examination, revitalizing guizhou education, and developing guizhou talents, making the greatest contribution.

Since the Sui and Tang dynasties, the selection of talents in successive dynasties in our country has been subject to examinations. This method of opening up science and taking scholars was even more popular in the Ming and Qing dynasties. Candidates must first take the examination in the county or the prefectural courtyard, and after obtaining the xiucai, they will then take the township examination in the province. After obtaining the qualifications for lifting people, they can enter Beijing to participate in the examination and take the gongshi examination. Only then can they take the temple examination to enter the army. Only by being admitted to the Jinshi could he be appointed by the imperial court. More than 150 years after the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, the readers of Guizhou could only participate in the examination of the government and county courts in the province. To take the township examination, first to go to Sichuan, then to Huguang, and then to Yunnan. Not only do you have to travel long distances, go through hardships, spend a lot of money, and there are very few people who pass the test. Such a toss is extremely unfavorable to the development of Guizhou talents and the development of Guizhou education.

In the twelfth year of Ming Hongzhi (1499), Jiao Jun, the general of Guizhou, and Zhang Chun, the imperial envoy of Guizhou, went to the imperial court and asked them to try to obtain soldiers from their own townships, but they were not approved. In the ninth year of Ming Jiajing (1530), Tian Qiu, who was then serving in the Ministry of Rites, in order to let the readers in his hometown get rid of the pain of going to the examination from afar and so that his hometown could produce more talents, he gave a "Opening of Xianke to Teach Hongwen And Sparse" to the imperial court, please open the Guizhou Township Trial Institute. Tian Qiu also cited the two Guangdong provinces as an example to illustrate that after Yunnan and Guizhou set up separate departments, more talents could be produced, and proposed that after Guizhou and Yunnan set up separate departments, he also hoped that the imperial court would increase the number of places stipulated by the two provinces and add a few more people to "encourage people far away with the wind and make them agitated."

In order to develop talents in his hometown, Tian Qiu spared no effort and shouted loudly, which was rare and valuable. With Tian Qiu's unremitting efforts and the support of Wang Xing, the imperial envoy of Guizhou, the Ming court finally agreed to open a separate township examination in Guizhou in the fourteenth year of Jiajing ((1533), and decided to take 25 examinations for each township in Guizhou, and in the sixteenth year of Jiajing (1537), Ding Youke and Yunnan officially separated the examinations. According to historical records, in the middle of the 276th century of the Ming Dynasty, there were only 27 people in Guizhou who entered the army in the 169 years before the opening of the scientific expedition, and 75 people in the 107th year of the opening of the scientific expedition to the end of the Ming Dynasty. In the future, more talents will rise up and catch up with the Central Plains. In the 267 years of the Qing Dynasty, there were as many as 641 people in Guizhou. Guizhou's opening of the township examination and the increase in the number of solutions is a major event in the history of education in Guizhou, which is inseparable from Tian Qiu's efforts.

In order to encourage young students to be self-motivated and support the children of poor families, Tian Qiu took the lead and advocated that the gentry donate funds to buy roll fields and solve the cost of examination papers for candidates after guizhou opened a separate science and township examination. Therefore, guizhou from the opening of the science and township examination, to the end of the Qing Dynasty abolished the examination system, the previous candidates, do not have to pay their own money to buy examination papers.

In addition to striving for Guizhou to set up separate departments, Tian Qiu is also extremely concerned about the establishment of schools in remote areas of Guizhou, and he believes that in order to properly manage the country, the most important thing is to let the masses of the people be educated and indoctrinated, and to achieve this goal, it is necessary to build as many schools as possible. After that, he also wrote to the imperial court "Please Jianwu Chuan An Shun Yinjiang School Shu", teaching in Cantonese, saying that guizhou only had fu wei jianxue at that time, and there was no prefecture and county jianxue. These prefectures and counties are far from the prefectural guards, the rivers are blocked, and if the water rises in summer and autumn, it is difficult for students to go to school, and there are many local talents, and because they have been recuperating for a long time, they have not been taught because they are rich, so it is regrettable. Ask the imperial court to allocate funds to promote education and cultivate talents. Because of Tian Qiu's efforts, the three prefectures of Wuchuan, Anshun, and Yinjiang also established Confucianism one after another.

Tian Qiu devoted himself to revitalizing Guizhou's education and developing Guizhou talents. After that, the Ming government ordered that all governments, prefectures, and county health centers should set up official schools, and various localities have set up Confucianism, academies, social studies, and righteous studies. Since then, there has been a great revival of culture and education, more people reading, and more talents.

In total, in the Ming and Qing dynasties, through the examination, there were more than 6,000 people in Guizhou, more than 700 people in the middle school, and three high school leaders. It is clearly written on the list of Inscriptions of the Ming and Qing Dynasties and relevant materials. Especially in modern times, Guizhou is full of talents, such as Guiyang Li Duandi, Zhou Yuhuang, Yao Mangfu, Ding Daoheng, Luo Shengxuan, Huang Qisheng, Xie Liuyi, Qin Tianzhen, Xu Jiansheng, Zhu Qiling, Yan Yinliang, etc., are all influential figures in the country.