Chapter 14 Section 2 Reform of Taixue Examination System in Song Dynasty

Not long after the establishment of the Song Dynasty, the country's "accumulated poverty", "accumulated weakness", "internal troubles" and "foreign troubles" aroused the worries of intellectuals in the ruling and opposition parties.Fan Zhongyan (989-1052 A.D.) was a reformer in the Song Dynasty who was determined to forge ahead and worked hard to govern. He had served as a local official for a long time.In the third year of Renzong Qingli (1043 A.D.), he put forward the idea of ​​rectifying the administration of officials in order to participate in political affairs. He believed that it is necessary to reduce redundant staff, limit grace, and strictly assess to improve the quality of officials.He was very dissatisfied with the practice of only emphasizing imperial examinations and ignoring school education at that time, thinking that it was not about hard work but only about harvest.With the support of Emperor Renzong, he reformed the imperial examination system, stipulating that scholars must study in school for more than 300 days, and must be proved by someone to be of good character before they can take the imperial examination.Those who have taken the imperial examination in the past must also study in school for more than 100 days before they can take the imperial examination again.For the examination method of the Jinshi Department, it is stipulated that there are three examinations, and the examination strategy questions are put in the first place, so as to examine the true talents and learning of the candidates. .It also abolished the "seal" and "transcription" methods in the imperial examination, emphasizing that candidates must have moral cultivation and the ability to govern the country.Due to the intensified struggle within the ruling group, Fan Zhongyan was quickly excluded from the court, his reforms failed, and everything returned to normal.

Fan Zhongyan's reform of the imperial examination system during the Qingli period failed. Su Shi once commented on this: "And the world has always tried to establish a school. During the Qingli period, it was thought that peace could be waited for. As of today, only empty names remain." ( "Dongpo Zouyi" volume 1) But Qingli's reform also played a certain positive role in correcting the morality and style of study at that time.At the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, some people also praised: "When cultivating talents, the style of scholars changes rapidly, so those who talk about schools today call it the style of Qingli." Moreover, the reform of the Qingli imperial examination system abolished the scriptures and Moyi, and changed to "Dayi". The rise of Neo-Confucianism - the study of righteousness and reasoning played an activating role, "Since the Qing Dynasty, Confucianism invented the scriptures, which is beyond the reach of the predecessors" (Volume 8).The famous "Five Sons of the Northern Song Dynasty" Zhou Dunyi, Shao Yong, Zhang Zai, Cheng Hao, Cheng Yi, etc. carried out the exploration of New Confucianism during the Qingli period or later.The establishment of schools in Qingli and the reform of the imperial examination system also paved the way for the establishment and reform of schools and reforms in the Yuanfeng period of Xining (AD 1068-1085) 25 years later.

Wang Anshi (1021-1086 A.D.) was also an aspiring statesman. He pointed out in "Emperor Renzong's Words and Events Book": "The most urgent thing now lies in talents." He believed that the purpose of education is to cultivate the classics The power to cultivate talents for practical use lies in the country, and the method of cultivating them is nothing more than "teaching them, nurturing them, taking them, and letting them go".If the country teaches, nurtures, acquires, and appoints the right way, then the talents will be used inexhaustibly.Wang Anshi criticized that what the school education taught at that time was only "class examination articles" for the imperial examinations, and this kind of school education that exhausted the energy of candidates was not cultivating talents, but destroying talents.He advocated that the central and local administrative agencies at all levels should set up schools, strictly select teachers, and widely recruit promising people to enroll.Students should not only read the books of sages, but also master the legal system of the country.After systematic study and strict assessment, those with excellent grades can be directly awarded official positions by the government without having to pass the imperial examination.Wang Anshi hoped that the school would get rid of its status as a vassal of the imperial examinations, and truly become the main place to send talents to the country.

In the second year of Xining (1069 A.D.), Song Shenzong appointed Wang Anshi as "Shen Zhizhengshi" and began to carry out reforms.In the fourth year of Xining (1071 A.D.), Wang Anshi proposed a new law on the examination and selection, stipulating that the Ming Jing Department should be abolished, and candidates should only be selected from the Jinshi Department.The Jinshi examination abolishes poems, scriptures, and moyi, and emphasizes the meaning and policy theory of the examination. Wang Anshi once criticized the practice of selecting scholars based on their skill in poetry. He wrote a poem:

Wang Anshi believes that letting young people "learn poetry and fu behind closed doors, and even enter the government, they are not familiar with worldly affairs. Wang Anshi took the revival of the three-generation system as the historical basis for the reform of the imperial examination, and promulgated the "Three Classics and New Meanings" as the standard for the examination of classics and meanings.The purpose of his writing "New Meanings of the Three Classics" is to use the scriptures for the world.Wang Anshi personally explained "Zhou Li" called "Zhou Guan Xinyi". "Poetry" was jointly interpreted by his son Wang Yu [pangpang] and Lu Huiqing, which is called "New Meanings of Three Classics".Wang Anshi hopes to use his "Three Classics and New Meanings" to change the content of the imperial examination, which is based on poems and poems to select scholars, and to link the imperial examination with solving practical social problems, and thus revitalize the Song Dynasty.

At that time, "Yi", "Poetry", "Shangshu", "Zhouli", "Book of Rites" were designated as great classics, and "Mencius" as concurrent classics.There are four exams in the Jinshi Department: the first exam is the Great Classics, the second is the Concurrent Classics exam, the third is the theory exam, and the fourth is the strategy exam.Later, it emphasized the mastery of laws and regulations and law enforcement to judge cases, so the content of examination laws and regulations was added.The palace examination only examines policy questions, and the number of words is limited to more than a thousand words.Due to the abolition of Ming Jing, the admission quota of Jinshi has been expanded.And newly established the Ming Law Department, trial laws and regulations, "Xing Tong", Dayi and Judgment of Cases, in order to cultivate legal talents who implement the new law.

Taixue was the highest institution of learning in feudal society, and it was a place to directly train and send high-ranking officials for the imperial court.The Song Dynasty followed the established laws of the past dynasties and set up Taixue in Bianjing, which is the highest-level and largest institution of higher learning in the country.However, since the early Song Dynasty, Taixue has been mismanaged, and it has only an empty name.After Wang Anshi came to power, he first focused on rectifying and reforming education on the reform of Taixue.In the fourth year of Xining (AD 1071), Wang Anshi formulated the new system of Taixue, and in the second year of Yuanfeng (AD 1079), it was revised by Li Ding and others, and 140 articles of the "Taixue Order" were issued, making the method of Taixue more complete and detailed.This is the earliest education law in ancient China. The focus is to establish a comprehensive and strict examination system for Taixue—referred to as "Sanshe Law", also known as "Sanshe Selection, Inspection, Promotion and Compensation Method" or "Sanshe Examination and Selection Method". ".

The main contents of the "three rounds method" are: Tai students are divided into three grades: upper dormitory students, inner dormitory students and outer dormitory students.Initially, the number of students in the upper dormitory was 100, the number of students in the inner dormitory was 200, and the number of students in the outer dormitory was unlimited.Registered students hold the certificate of the state and county of their native place and undergo inspection, and those who pass the inspection are students in foreign housing. At the end of each month and each quarter, teachers conduct quiz and high school exams on students, called "private exams", and record students' conduct and learning performance on a monthly and quarterly basis.This kind of usual assessment results, accumulated to the prescribed standards, students can take the entrance exam.If the "private examination" fails three times, those who have already been promoted will be punished by demotion.At the end of each year, the school holds a big exam for the students who meet the standards outside the dormitory, which is called the "public exam". Based on the results of the big exam and with reference to their usual moral behavior and academic performance, they will choose the best and replace them as inner dormitory students.Every two years, the school holds a "Student Examination" for the students who meet the standards. Based on the test results and referring to the performance of "practice" in daily life, the best candidates are selected to be the students of the upper dormitory.The students in the upper house are divided into three grades according to their accumulated test scores and their usual performance in "practice".If you get the upper class in the upper class of the imperial examination, it is equivalent to the imperial examination and can be directly awarded an official position by the government; if you get the middle class in the upper house, you can directly participate in the last imperial examination - the imperial examination; if you get the lower class in the upper class, you can directly take the imperial examination For provincial examinations, you can also stay in the school to serve as auxiliary teaching staff and administrative staff such as Xuezheng, Xuelu, Xueyu, etc.

The main feature of the "Three House Law" is to give schools the function of directly sending talents to the country.Schools are no longer the preparation places for the imperial examinations. The academic performance of students in school is equivalent to the results of the imperial examinations. Excellent students can bypass the imperial examinations and directly obtain official positions. Greatly improved the status of school education and the enthusiasm of students in school learning. Before the implementation of the "Sanshe Law", Taixue had long been an empty shelf in name only. After the implementation of the "Sanshe Law", the face of Taixue changed greatly.Later, Taixue developed to a scale of 100 students in the upper dormitory, 300 students in the inner dormitory, and 2,000 students in the outer dormitory. It can be seen that the "three dormitories" promoted the development of Taixue.Since then, this "Sanshe method" has been paralleled with the imperial examination.

Although the "Three Houses Method" can use the students' daily academic conduct as the basis for promotion, application and appointment, and avoids the drawbacks of a life-long exam, it also has its limitations. According to Juan 6, after the implementation of the "Three House Law", in order to obtain admission and promotion, "thus belittle scholars, pretend to be words and deeds, create false reputations, and go to the door of the public official like a market!" This is also the truth. After Wang Anshi's reform failed, he was very depressed. In a poem "Reading the Jinshi Examination Paper", he expressed his sigh and melancholy because the reform proposal could not be realized: