Mencius said: "The laborers rule the people, and the laborers rule the people", in ancient times, the social status of the readers was much higher than it is now, they reached the lower level of the ruling class, and enjoyed various feudal privileges. The New Book of Tang Records records that there are several categories of people who can be exempted from taxes and servitude like the children of imperial relatives and high-ranking officials, they are "guozi, Taixue, four students, junshi, filial piety, shunsun, righteous husband, and festival women", of which the majority of readers. The Song Dynasty reused civilian officials, "the establishment of schools is all over the world, and The Civil Rule of Hai Nei is polite." During the reign of Emperor Zhezong of Song, the imperial court added the Guangwen Pavilion to recruit readers from all over the world. Therefore, intellectuals from all over the country applied for meritorious titles, stayed in the traditional Chinese studies and county schools for many years, enjoyed various subsidies given by the imperial court, did not have to cultivate and work, did not have to recruit for the army, as long as they could pass the examination or obtain the meritorious name, they would not worry about their livelihood.
As early as the Tang and Song dynasties, it was already pointed out that the reader had degenerated into a parasite of society--Li Jifu once went to the imperial court and said: "The world often has three people who work hard, and seven people who sit and wait for food and clothing." "I think that the readers in the school, like the redundant officials, have gradually become a burden on society, they sit and wait for food and clothing, have no dedication, and let them develop, it will be of endless harm." By the end of the Ming Dynasty, the problem of too many readers became more and more obvious, becoming a major cause of intensification of contradictions and social unrest, and gu Yanwu, an enlightenment thinker at the end of the Ming Dynasty, systematically analyzed this problem in the "Rizhilu" and "Theory of Students".
Gu Yanwu's "Theory of Students"
In ancient times, the purpose of education was not to improve the quality of the people, but to train rulers and select talents. According to the Book of Stone Kui, the methods of taking soldiers in successive dynasties were different, the Han people emphasized the strategy, the Jin people emphasized the word endowment, the Tang people used poetry, and the Song people used the policy. At the time of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang chose to use the system of righteousness as the subject of the examination, requiring the readers to create eight strands and imitate the tone of the sages to write, the purpose of which was to strictly enter and exit, so that the readers were bound to the scriptures and history, so that they could be controlled. Education has gradually deviated from the direction of "cultivating rulers" and has become increasingly prominent in the requirements of "selecting and promoting talents.".
From then on, readers did not care about current political events, nor were they as good at analyzing social problems by writing policies and discussions, as the Tang and Song dynasties were, but specifically worked on the format and structure of articles; in the face of the eight strands of literature, the readers were "full of talent, full of learning, full of book history, all useless", only because "a word is not in harmony, full of poor pages, discordant in words, and the whole article is lost." Therefore, the education system of the Ming Dynasty turned people into nerds who did not practice, and when the crisis came and there was no talent available, the rulers retreated from responsibility and said that it was "the students who misled the country", but weren't the students who misled the country trained by the state itself? Therefore, Zhang Dai criticized in the Book of Stone Kui:
"Emperor Gao made a great mistake in raising his son, and the example of his son was also used to make a great mistake for the country..... Emperor Gao's mistake was particularly small, and his self-error was very big. ”
Zhu Zhongba "regarded the world as a great industry" and did everything possible to guard against the readers, hoping to make them "snow case fluorescent windows, white heads and poor scriptures", but the result was that the children and grandchildren had no talents to use.
The withering of talent at the end of the Ming Dynasty can be seen from the suffering of the three masters. In the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, Huang Zongxi of Zhejiang landed on the ground, and Wang Fuzhi of Hunan barely passed after taking the township examination for the fourth time; and Gu Yanwu, as the founder of qing dynasty scholarship, never passed the township examination, and he took the exam for more than ten years, and finally only in the sixteenth year of Chongzhen did he pass the way of "donation" and became a guozi prisoner, but in the following year the Ming Dynasty perished.
None of the three masters of the late Ming Dynasty passed the imperial examination, which shows that the selection system of the Ming Dynasty can no longer select real talents, and all it can cultivate and select are only some students who are good at exam pedantic, not the real Confucianism of the world--it is precisely the same system that causes the degeneration of readers.
Eight shares of soldiers led to the real talent name fall to Sun Mountain
The Ming Dynasty's selection methods were mainly schools and imperial examinations, in which most officials were admitted through the imperial examinations, and schools reserved talents for the state and educated students so that they could pass the imperial examinations. Therefore, the "Ming Shi Electoral Chronicle" said: "The examination must be carried out by the school, and the school can not start from the examination." "Because the Ming Dynasty was very strict in the examination of the imperial examination, using the system of righteousness to do the questions, so there were very few people who could pass the examination to obtain official positions, and those who did not pass the examination would mostly return to the school, continue to be students, prepare to take the exam after three years, and every year all localities would also come in to study, resulting in the accumulation of students.
Gu Yanwu said in "On TheOry of Students" that the purpose of the state in setting up student members was to gather talents from all over the world, and to use them as reserve cadres to focus on training in schools. However, by the time of the Ming Dynasty, the number of students had become more and more extensive, as many as half a million people, who had learned in schools instead of practice, and all they had learned and taught were "the texts of the field house", just to help students pass the imperial examination, rather than to increase their talents, resulting in the phenomenon of "knowing the ancient and modern times, for those who can use the Heavenly Son, thousands of people can not be one".
Gu Yanwu also exposed the mentality of the students, believing that they did not love meritorious names and political ambitions like the Tang and Song dynasty readers, but in order to avoid military service, enjoy courtesy, and not be beaten, so it is said that "those who wish to be born today must not be worth their meritorious names, but only to protect their families." The people of the Tang and Song dynasties were ashamed of their white-clothed talents, while the Ming Dynasty's xiucai enjoyed a life of mixing days in school. Matteo Ricci's Notes on China shows that the Chao Xiucai, dressed in robes and boots on his feet, represented the high citizens of the city; they did not have to bow down to the magistrates. Next to the school, the government will also build many rooms for the students to live in for free, and every year they will be given cloth and cloth, clothing and boots, and every holiday, there is also a reward money. If there are births who have not yet taken a marriage leave, the government will give them money as a dowry, and after marriage, they will also set up more than twenty houses in the red warehouse to support their wives and children.
Students do not need to participate in social labor, do not have to worry about their livelihood, their task is to attend classes, complete homework, pass tests, abide by school rules, and that's it. If you can pass the examination and get an official position, you can continue to study in the school, as long as you can pass the examination and do not violate discipline, you can enjoy the fun of "getting old in the field". Therefore, Gu Yanwu explained that seven out of ten people who read in the DPRK were only admitted to school to "protect their families"; they had no lofty ambitions, no political ideals, no concern for the rise and fall of the country, and no concern for the accumulated shortcomings of society; as long as they could study with peace of mind and have no worries about food and clothing, then the years would be quiet and all things would be fine.
In this way, the schools of the Ming Dynasty were originally designed to cultivate talents, but they were occupied by a bunch of parasites. Those with political ambitions, on the other hand, have fallen behind in the fierce competition, and although there are many readers, there are few talents.
Make a living by taking a reading exam
During the Hongwu period of Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, the students in the Guozijian were mainly the sons of nobles, so these people did not need to pass the imperial examination, and they could also be awarded official titles by the emperor, called "MengJian"; in addition, all localities would also pay tribute to one or two students to study in the Guozijian, called "Gongjian"; at the time of Yongle, those who would try the first were also allowed to enter the Guozijian to study, called "Jujian"; during the Jingtai period, because of the shortage of military food in the imperial court, they ordered all the envoys, prefectures, and counties to produce eight hundred stones. They can go to prison and study, and those who enter the school by paying money are called "routine supervisors".
After that, in every year of famine, or there were police on the border, or the imperial court was short of money, or needed to build a large number of civil engineering, they opened the door of convenience for the "routine supervisor". Regarding this phenomenon of corruption, The Rebbe Shangshu Yao Kui said: "Taixue is a place to cultivate talents, and those who are close to them directly send forty-year-old students, and those who receive grass and horses move tens of thousands, which is invincible." And let the world be virtuous in goods, and the morale is getting worse and worse." Although Emperor Mingxianzong knew its drawbacks, he could not change it--Zhu Yuanzhang set up the imperial examination and school to control the readers, and in later generations, this system was further alienated into a means for the government to accumulate wealth, exacerbating political corruption.
Regarding this kind of corrupt phenomenon, Gu Yanwu said bluntly: "The members of today's life are ten and seven or eight with joints, and those who have martial arts and worship are all worthy of money." "In order to find a place for their children to live and live, those rich families paid for them to be sent to school, not for the purpose of obtaining meritorious names and serving the country, but to enjoy welfare and live a leisurely life." The authorities complain all day long that "students have misled the country", but they have selected and trained such students.
With regard to the social phenomenon of people who read books becoming parasites, Gu Yanwu put forward a countermeasure of "abolishing the life of the world.", he believed that "meritorious names" and "protecting one's family", "collecting handsome people" and "compassionate people" could not be taken into account; it was necessary to reform the school system, remove all redundant personnel, and make them withdraw from school for the people; only those who were familiar with the Five Classics, the Twenty-first History, and the affairs of the world should be allowed to stay, so that "there are practical people in the state and people who have knowledge of the scriptures." ”
The students were idle and privileged all day long, they went in and out of the public gates, obstructed the administration, and bullied others; the magistrates also had to pay three points of respect to them, and when they were responsible, they shouted "Kill the soldiers!" "Pit shit!" As a result, government decrees are not in line with each other, and the orders are inconsistent, and the harm is no less than that of the eunuchs and officials. Therefore, "abolishing the birthrights of the world" and abolishing the privileges of parasites can make "the government clean".
Students are parasites of society, they only guard a few ancient books, write a few words, have nothing to do except exams, but enjoy super-standard treatment. Under the corrupt school system, "the rich work together to earn a living, while the poor flee and die", exacerbating the unfairness of social distribution, resulting in an excessive burden on the poor. Therefore, "abolishing the world's living members" and depriving the parasites of their welfare can make "the people's hardships".
The Ariake generation has a fierce party struggle, and the academic field is also a portal, attacking and insulting each other, causing tears. The reason for this lies in the formation of a party and a group among the students and members, those who are also an examiner are called "fangshi", and those who are also on the same list are called "the same year"; they pull relations in all kinds and engage in gangs and gangs; they do not ask questions about right and wrong, only talk about the portal, not only harm the government and the people, but also build the party, which eventually leads to the death of the people and the government. Therefore, "abolishing the world's living members" and destroying the relationship network of parasites can make "the habit of the portal removed".
The Ming Dynasty's method of taking soldiers was too single and rigid, and it was necessary for the world's readers to first become students, and then pass the imperial examination before they could become officials, and did not achieve "eclectic and degrading talents", so in the end of the period, there would be a situation in which no one was available and the use was not human. Gu Yanwu was already aware of the harm of the eight strands of scholars at that time, saying that the state had set up the imperial examination to assess whether the candidates knew the purpose of the Six Classics and whether they understood the affairs of the world; however, there was a system of righteousness cards there, which insisted that the candidates have to make eight strands of articles, so that they would abandon the classics and not read them, ignore the affairs of the world, and read all those few shiwen and fan texts, becoming a bunch of devious students.
Readers should pay attention to "practical application through the ages", not to mud on chapters and sentences, and should not read books for examinations. As long as the imperial court adopts such a single approach as opening up science and taking soldiers, it will inevitably cause all kinds of drawbacks, and for this historical lesson, Gu Yanwu summed up: "Fu takes the soldiers to rule the country with the people, and only out of one way, there are no non-evil people!" ”