Chapter 3 Section 1 The Examination and the "Official Teacher" System in the Qin Dynasty

Qin Shihuang unified China in 221 BC, establishing the first feudal dynasty of centralized absolutism.In terms of politics, economy, ideology, and cultural education, the Qin Dynasty did a lot of major things to consolidate unity and meet the needs of social development, such as establishing the county system, unifying weights and measures, writing the same text, and doing the same thing, and so on. teacher" system.The so-called "official teacher" system, as "Han Feizi Five Beetles [du Du]" said: "In the country of the Ming Lord, there are no books and slips, and the law is the teaching; there is no words of the previous kings, and the officials are the teachers." It means that It is said that in a country with a wise monarch, there are no words written in books, but laws and regulations are used as teaching materials; there is no set of speeches handed down from the previous kings, but officials are used as teachers.

According to the eighty-seventh volume of "Historical Records", in the central court of Qin Dynasty, there was a kind of palace school, such as "Zhao Gao was ordered to teach Huhai, and he learned the law for several years." This can be said to be the beginning of the education of royal children. atmosphere.The focus is also on "teaching with the law". According to Yunmeng's "Bamboo Slips from the Qin Tomb in Sleeping Tiger Land" unearthed a few years ago, the official schools established by Qin Pu in counties and counties are called "Xueshi". Students in the "school" are called "disciples". "Disciple" must be the son of "Shi". "History" is equivalent to low-level civil servants such as secretaries and archivists in government agencies at all levels. "Students in the school" are all registered, and government officials can serve them and flog them within the scope of the law, but they can be exempted from military service and corvee service, which is a great preferential treatment.

There are two main aspects of the teaching content of the "study room".One is to learn the laws clearly, and legal education occupies an extremely important position. "The people of Qin are contrary to the ancients, and the "Poetry" is banned, and only the law is used as a teacher." (Zhang Xuecheng's "Wen Shi Tong Yi · Shi Shi") The second is to learn to write, write names, and recognize names. "Cang Jie Pian", "Yan Li Pian" and "Bo Xue Pian" were the three teaching materials in the "School Room" at that time. After the "students in the school" pass the examination, they can graduate and become officials.However, disciples have to go through a period of assessment and practice before becoming officials.As an official, a disciple can only do "history" at the beginning, and he will be promoted based on his work performance in the future.Xu Shen once said in "Shuowen Preface": "Wei Lv: The schoolboy seventeen has already started the test, and the satire [zhou mantra] has nine thousand characters, which is history." "Hanshu Yiwenzhi" quotes Xiao He The law also said: "Taishi examines schoolchildren, and if they can satirize more than 9,000 characters, they are considered history." It can be inferred that these regulations have inherited the system of the Qin Dynasty. "Bamboo Slips of the Qin Tomb in Sleeping Tiger Land" also proves this historical fact. According to the "Chronicle" of the Qin Bamboo Slips, a person named "Xi" was 19 years old and was appointed as a historian after passing the assessment. Already started to try" match.Judging from the Qin bamboo slips, the Qin Dynasty also tried the method of working in the society for a year after graduating from the "school", and then granting official positions according to their abilities.The one-year trial is actually a kind of assessment method to improve the students' practical work ability.

In short, the purpose of the Qin Dynasty's implementation of the "official teacher" system of "taking officials as teachers" and "taking the law as teaching" was to cultivate a group of small officials with sharp pens.Therefore, the Qin Dynasty attached great importance to examinations, such as examinations of laws and decrees, examinations of reciting books, examinations of writing and prose, and the assessment of actual work ability.Although the Qin Dynasty was short and the historical materials were insufficient, there is no doubt that the "official teacher" system of the Qin Dynasty attached great importance to examinations.