Chapter 28 Lecture Five Governing the Country by the People: The Most Prosperous Dynasty and the Smallest Government

The greatest contribution of the Tang Dynasty to the construction of the four major systems was the implementation of the imperial examination system. The imperial examination was founded in the Sui Dynasty and laid its foundation in the Tang Dynasty.The government selects officials through regular examinations, and the content of the examinations is to study Confucian classics—someone calculated that their total number of words is about 900,000.This kind of regular examination was implemented from 605 AD (the first year of Sui Daye) to 1905 (the 31st year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty), and it lasted for 1300 years. Because the method of selecting scholars by division of subjects was adopted, it was called imperial examination.The imperial examination system was an evolution of the military nobility system. From then on, both civil and military scholars had fair access to the system and no longer became an opposing force.As early as the Tang Dynasty, some people discovered the mystery of it. Zhao Gu once wrote a poem saying: "Emperor Taizong really made a long-term plan, and he earned the hero's life." The imperial examination system made the intellectual class absolutely dependent on state power. In the examination action composed of "actions", intellectuals first lost the possibility of independent existence, and then gave up the ability to think independently. That is to say, from the date of establishment of this system, the intellectual stratum that once existed independently has become more and more important in the history of China. completely gone.

A third group within the social elite, the merchant class, remained excluded.Li Yuan, the founding emperor of the Tang Dynasty, stipulated that "commercial and commercial miscellaneous categories are not pre-selected", and closed the door for merchants to enter politics.His son, Emperor Taizong Li Shimin, also advocated the exclusion of businessmen from mainstream society, especially from political circles.He once told his important minister Fang Xuanling: "All kinds of official positions in the imperial court are prepared for sages. Even if the talents are outstanding, they can only make them rich. The sages and gentlemen stand side by side and eat at the same table." This passage is very famous in later generations, and it has been regarded as an unquestionable basic national policy by the rulers of the past dynasties.In addition, Tang Taizong also distinguished nationals of various identities in clothing. Officials above the fifth rank can wear purple robes, those below the sixth rank can wear scarlet green official uniforms, the clothes of subordinate officials are blue, and ordinary people wear white robes. Yes, sergeants wear yellow, while merchants must wear black.

In the sense of political and economic history, the imperial examination system was a complete "reaction" to the aristocratic model.Over the past few hundred years, the aristocratic model and the manor economy have plagued the rulers of the past dynasties, and there are few successful reformers. Wang Mang reformed the system and died in ten years. The chaos of the Northern and Southern Dynasties is all related to this.It was not until the emergence of the imperial examination system that the source of family reproduction was cut off from the system. Tang Taizong's attack on the power of the family can be described as merciless.Once, the Ministry of Rites revised and edited the "Clan Chronicles", and put the Cui family, a traditional aristocratic family, as the first class. Taizong was furious. Generations have declined, and there have been no great figures. I am establishing a clan now to praise the crown figures of my Tang Dynasty. How can I take the Cui family as the first class!" So, he wrote Zhu Zhu in his own hand and proposed that "there is no need to discuss the number Before the world, stop taking today's officials and nobles as high and low grades." Under his intervention, there are 293 surnames in the world, which are divided into nine classes, and the Cui family is reduced to the third class.Lu Simian commented in "History of the Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties": "Although Taizong's practice of public humiliation is a bit far-fetched, its purpose is to attack the power of the family and deny the blood class."

It was under the dual impetus of the system and public concepts that the power of the aristocratic family gradually deteriorated, and Chinese society has since completed the transformation from the aristocratic form to the gentry form.The so-called "wealth and honor do not last for three generations" is indeed the scene after the Tang and Song Dynasties, and it is an alternative description of civilian society.