After so many years of national college entrance examination, you say, should "equality" be more priority, or "balance" more priority?
At that time, Sima Guang and Ouyang Xiu were fighting a war of words over the matter of the imperial examination, and they were also fighting over this multiple choice question.
Sima Guang held that fairness in the examination of the imperial examination is the second priority, political balance is the primary task, and the number of admission quotas for the jinshi should be distributed according to each region; Ouyang Xiu is tit-for-tat, advocating that educational fairness is the most important thing, regardless of the east, west, south, and north, and the whole country is unified in admission, "only the choice is the choice."
What is intriguing is that Sima Guangsheng was born in Henan, his ancestral home was Shanxi, and he entered the Shi in Shaanxi, and was an authentic northerner; Ouyang Xiusheng was born in Sichuan, his ancestral home was Jiangxi, and he grew up in Hubei.
So was there a big difference between the north and the south of the Great Song Dynasty at that time?
Of course it's big, and it's ridiculously big.
Later scholars sampled 9630 jinshi from the Northern Song Dynasty and found that the regional distribution was extremely disparate:
There are as many as 9164 southerners, accounting for 95.2%, especially in the Southeast Fifth Road (that is, today's Zhejiang, Fujian, Jiangxi, southern Jiangsu, and southern Anhui), with 7038 people, accounting for more than 73%. Like Ouyang Xiu's hometown of Ji'an, Jiangxi, it is a super education highland, the so-called "hometown of jinshi" in later generations, and there is a saying that "three thousand jinshi crown Huaxia".
Birth determines the concept, in fact, it is very reasonable. Sima Guang and Ouyang Xiu's respective propositions, it should be said, are out of public conscience, but unconsciously, and each represents the interests of the people of the north and the south.
Sima Guang's so-called "northwestern close to the prisoner, the soldiers should be encircled", Ouyang Xiu's so-called "four parties are one, people have no words", they both have a reason, but the two Song Dynasties and three hundred years, the overall is still biased towards Ouyang Xiu's side, in the admission of jinshi regardless of provinces and regions, the national record, which has the above, the huge gap in the number of admissions between the north and the south.
Of course, in order to take into account the political balance, the Tang and Song dynasties adopted the practice of allocating quotas by region in terms of quotas.
Roughly speaking, the township examination is organized by the local state roads, and those who win the list are called lifters, and they have obtained the qualification to participate in the national examination and pass the entrance examination.
Taking the college entrance examination as an analogy, the policy of the Tang and Song dynasties is like saying that the number of people participating in the college entrance examination in various provinces and regions is stipulated (the number of people), but when the college entrance examination is admitted (to obtain the entrance examination), the geographical restrictions are broken and the admission is unified.
In this way, in fact, at the entrance, the policy of the northern region is tilted, because those remote state roads actually get the same number of candidates as the education strong provinces. However, in terms of exports, southern candidates are too bullish, accounting for more than 90% of the admission quota, then there is no way.
Looking at the imperial examination system of the Song Dynasty today, we cannot say that it failed, because after all, it created a prosperous era of culture and science and technology, but only said that it did a very bad job in the regional political balance, and it was too "south".
The real quota at the admission stage is the Yuan Dynasty.
When Emperor Yuanrenzong resumed the examination, he stipulated that a total of 300 people from all provinces, autonomous regions, and township examinations across the country would be selected to obtain the qualifications to enter Beijing to participate in the examination, of which the mandatory requirements were: 75 Mongolians, Semu people, Han Chinese, and Nan people; 100 jinshi were admitted to the examination, and 25 people from each of the four ethnic groups were admitted. In fact, the Southerners are the Han people in the former Southern Song Dynasty, and the northern "Han people" are the same ethnic group, so it is equivalent to the Han candidates are admitted according to the region, the north and south divisions.
The ming dynasty really began to implement quota admission by region.
It is said that in the 30th year of Daming Hongwu, that is, in 1397 AD, the results of the examination were opened, and 52 people were admitted, all of whom were southerners, of which the champion was a Fujian Minhou. This is a bit politically incorrect, what do you make northern candidates think? Especially the chief examiner of this session, he is still a Hunan native, so are you deliberately working together to suppress us northerners? If you continue to investigate deeply, then the emperor is still a native of Fengyang, Anhui, and he is also a southerner, and the capital jinling is also in the south, will you... This cannot be further said.
Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang then ordered a review, but unfortunately, this old scholar and chief examiner of Hunan, Liu Sanwu, did not know how to figure out the true intentions of the leadership, and actually maintained the original judgment unchanged!?
Of course, Old Zhu was furious and ordered the execution of the examiner and the unfortunate Fujian Zhuangyuanlang, and Old Liu was spared death because of his old age, but he was also dismissed from his post and filled the army. Later, the emperor personally read the file, re-issued the list, and recorded 61 people, including 55 northerners and 6 Sichuan people. This is the bloody and dark humor "North and South List" case.
Even if this matter is a thorn, it is rooted in the heart of the Ming Dynasty.
Later, from the first year of The Jianwen Emperor to the 22nd year of the Yongle Emperor, a total of 9 ranks of jinshi were opened, and 1621 were admitted to the examination in the provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Gansu, and Huguang in the southeast; 92 were admitted to the provinces of Yun, Gui, Gui, and Sichuan in the southwest; and the directly subordinate areas in the north, plus the provinces of Ji, Lu, Henan, Jin, and Shaanxi, only 225 people were admitted, accounting for only a pitiful 11.6%, and the average number of people in each province was only 1/6 of the southeastern provinces, which was not dismal.
This thing really shakes the country.
In order to meet the needs of his rule, Zhu Yuanzhang, the ming emperor, laid down the organizational principle of "more adjustment between the north and the south", that is, local administrative heads must cross the north and south according to their place of origin, and this system was later continuously improved, and officials not only had to take up posts in different places, but also strictly prohibited marrying wives and buying houses in different places to prevent collusion of interests and corruption. If people in the north can't pass the imperial examination, they won't be able to enter the career path, so how can they "adjust the north and south more harmoniously" and how can they stabilize the Ming Dynasty?
Then from the entrance and exit, at the same time to find a way.
At the entrance, according to the concept of the Akihito era (1425), the number of candidates admitted to the provincial, district, and township examinations, that is, the number of candidates who have obtained the qualification for entering the Beijing Examination, is limited as follows:
Nanjing Guozijian and Nanzhili (Jiangsu, Anhui, Shanghai): 80 people;
Beijing Guozijian and Beizhili (Hebei, Tianjin, shandong, Henan a small department): 50 people;
Huguang (Hunan, Hubei, and a small part of Henan): 40 people;
Guangdong: 40 people;
Henan: 35 people;
Sichuan: 35 people;
Shaanxi: 30 people;
Shanxi: 30 people;
Shandong: 30 people;
Guangxi: 20 people;
Yunnan: 10 people;
Cross toe (northern Vietnam): 10 people
Guizhou: Not separately listed, candidates are merged into Huguanghang Province to take the exam.
The above is not all listed, but it can already be seen that the proportion of candidates in the north is relative to the previous "college entrance examination" scores. For example, the quota of North Zhili + Henan exceeds the quota of South Zhili where talents gather.
Southern Zhili region of the Ming Dynasty
In terms of exports, the number of 100 people admitted by examination must be divided according to the place of origin, 60 people in the south and 40 people in the north, which is the "north and south list". Later, in order to take care of the emperor's hometown and the remote areas in the southwest, Fengyang and the surrounding prefectures and counties were added to the four provinces of Yun, Gui, Sichuan, and Guizhou, and a separate "middle list" was given 10 places. That is to say, among the recruits admitted in each class:
Southerners make up 55%;
Northerners make up 35%;
Fengyang is surrounded by the four provinces of Yun, Gui, Sichuan and Guizhou, accounting for 10%.
Of course, the policy must also keep pace with the times, and in practice, this quota is actually dynamic. According to statistics, when actually admitted, the proportion of southern provinces will generally be slightly higher than this limit, that is to say, northerners actually cannot pass the examination by 35%.
By the seventh year of the Ming Dynasty (1456), the allocation of places at the entrance had also changed greatly, stipulating that the quota for the provinces to be sent to the central government was:
South Directly Affiliated and North Zhili: 135 people each;
Jiangxi: 95 people;
Fujian, Zhejiang: 90 people each;
Huguang, Guangdong: 85 people each;
Henan: 80 people;
Shandong: 75 people;
Sichuan: 70 people;
Shanxi and Shaanxi: 65 people each;
Guangxi: 55 people
Yunnan (including Guizhou): 30 people.
Because the Guozijian in the south and north of beijing includes candidates from all over the country, in fact, the southerners have the advantage, so the proportion of candidates in the north has dropped significantly. This is also a policy pullback at the top.
Beijing Guozijian
This system was patched up and used until the early years of the Qing Dynasty.
In the 51st year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1712), because the list of the north and south was still too extensive, some remote provinces, such as Yun, Gui, Gui, etc., could not pass the examination for many years, and simply continued to subdivide, changing to a provincial admission system similar to today's college entrance examination. This policy was not without controversy at that time, but, to quote the Qianlong Emperor, it was:
The style of writing in each province is high and uneven.
(National unified admission) is bound to go to Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces to take the number of people in the majority of them,
A small province in the border province may even be one who is not in the middle,
It is not the meaning of local materials.
To put it bluntly, Qianlong, like Sima Guang, still insisted that political balance should take precedence over educational fairness, and once the whole country was recorded, then the circle of jinshi would be the world of Jiangsu and Zhejiang people, and the bureaucratic system would be easily unbalanced.
It is also very necessary to take care of remote and backward areas and promote "common prosperity."
For example, before the admission of provinces, the Ming Dynasty opened 22 lists of jinshi in 72 years from Hongwu to orthodoxy, Guizhou did not have one, Yunnan only 8 people, in other words, an average of 9 years, only 1 Dianjinshi, compared to the southeast anointed land, "one door nine jinshi, five miles and three champions, nine sons and ten zhizhou, ten miles and nine government, one hundred steps and two Shangshu ...", in fact, is not conducive to the stability, unity and balanced development of the country.
After the Kangxi Dynasty, the principle of admission by province was roughly 1 jinshi for every 5 people, so as long as the quota of people was properly allocated, the central government could achieve both merit-based admission and regional balance.
At the same time, the sub-district quota has also become a very effective means of social governance, and provincial officials have actively sought a quota for the imperial court, that is, a quota for raising people; local prefecture and county officials have sought a township quota from the province, that is, a quota for talents, which has become one of the objective evaluation indicators for the local cultural and educational level and the performance of the chiefs.
In addition to the ordinary batch, there are various early approval and special plans for our college entrance examination admission today. In the Qing Dynasty, it was required that local provinces, within the total amount, must set aside a special quota and target the remote and backward areas of each province, which further took care of the internal balance of regional development in addition to the national balance, a bit like the national special plan and the local special plan of the modern college entrance examination.
Taking Fujian Province as an example, the number of people in the province is 85, and 2 people must be put into the "Taiwan Brand" plan to give Taiwanese candidates, and even increased to 6 during the Xianfeng period. Because of the inconvenience of the road, Taiwanese candidates who come to the provincial city of Fuzhou to participate in the township examination can also enjoy the "official sending" treatment and do not have to worry about the travel fee. Starting from the Qianlong Emperor, if the number of Candidates in a certain class of candidates reaches more than 10 in the examination of Taiwanese candidates, at least guarantee that 1 jinshi will be admitted to the examination.
Taipei Confucius Temple
It is clear that these initiatives contribute to national unity and national cohesion. After the Sino-Japanese War, Japan invaded and occupied Taiwan, but Taiwanese candidates ventured across the sea to come to the mainland to take the imperial examination, and it was not interrupted until the abolition of the imperial examination in 1905, when this cultural connection was suspended.
So much, in fact, I want to say, there are three main points:
First, the imperial examination is not equivalent to the modern college entrance examination, but the two have three things in common:
One of the most important ascending channels for the social elite
One of the most effective means of regulation of social governance
A value identity that the whole society is eagerly concerned about
Therefore, the system design of the imperial examination and the college entrance examination must adhere to the principle of fairness, but we must not only pay attention to fairness, but even within a certain historical period and a certain geographical scope, there are more important priority factors.
In the future, the new college entrance examination reform, can the whole country line and unified admission?
That's where it is.
Second, in general, the selection of middle and high-level talents should consider regional balance, while top-level talents often pay more attention to equality than balance.
Just like the modern college entrance examination, it is a provincial plan; but the examination and research is a national line (public course), and in this tone, it is slightly adjusted.
And the development of the imperial examination to the Qing Dynasty, the number of admission places in the examination is divided into provinces, but the ultimate palace examination, in principle, the emperor can not look at the place of origin, all by the level of the examination paper to record the imperial list.
For example, during the Guangxu period, the quota for admission to the Jiangsu Provincial Examination was 25 people, but there was a Qing generation, at the time of the "Imperial List", Jiangsu only had 119 first-class soldiers, accounting for 34.8% of the country; a city in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, produced 26 Champions, accounting for 22.8% of the total number of Qing Dynasty Champions, which was 5 times more than the number of Champions (5 people) in Shandong (21 people in the examination quota), the hometown of Kong Meng.
Therefore, if you are a Jiangsu person in the Qing Dynasty, instead of complaining that the quota will take care of the remote areas when the examination is held, and I was born in a strong province of education, but I have suffered losses, etc., it is better to take the temple examination with a bang, where you can compete for the title, regardless of your place of origin.
This truth actually exists today.
Third, absolute equality does not exist, and we Chinese actually pay more attention to "reciprocity".
Just like a big family, there are many brothers and sisters, there are always going out to work hard to earn money to support the family; it is also necessary to sweep the court and keep the home "beautiful as a flower"; there must be some people who stay at home, take care of the "old mother" to eat and live, and solve the family's worries. Everyone does their duty, and the contribution value will not be absolutely equal, but they have made "equal" contributions to the family.
Let's say That Jiangsu and Zhejiang, there is a Qing generation, jointly contributed nearly 60% of the first-class jinshi; but the Qing Dynasty also has a martial arts test, there is a Qing generation, 112 Wu Zhuangyuan, one-third are Hebei people, the number of Wu Tanhua, Wu Bang Eye, Hebei is also the first in the country. The country cannot do without readers, and of course it cannot lack sword bearers, and everyone can do their best and contribute equally.
This truth also applies today.
For example, you let damei Xinjiang fight with Shanghai for finance? That certainly can't catch up, and it won't catch up for decades. But Xinjiang's importance to national security is incomparable to Shanghai's. Therefore, it is also reasonable for the older brothers and sisters to earn money and pay the "living expenses" to the old mother, and the old mother to engage in "transfer payments" and subsidies to the younger siblings who are busy with housework.
These truths, put on individuals, actually make sense. Taking it to look at today's college entrance examination, of course, there will be more insights and decisions.