Chapter 20 Lecture 5 Qing Dynasty-3

Let's talk about the examination system in the Qing Dynasty.If the examination system is a policy of obscuring the people, the Qing Dynasty deserves it.At the end of the late Qing Dynasty, Zou Rong said in the book "Revolutionary Army": "The Manchurians in China are only the smallest part of the eighteen provinces, and their officials in the dynasty are more than the smallest part of the eighteen provinces. Today Try to think of it from the lack of Manchu and Han vacancies of Beijing officials. Since the University Shilang Shangshu is full of Han and lacks the same level, such as the cabinet, there are six full bachelors, four Han bachelors, six Manmeng servants, and two Han army Han servants. Man Shi reads 12, Han Shi reads 2, Man Meng Zhong Shu 94, Han Zhong Shu 30. Another example is the six departments of Yamen, there are about 400 vacancies for Man Lang Zhongyuan and other principals, more than 30 officials, and more than 100 households. , there are more than 30 in the Ministry of Rites, forty in the Ministry of War, more than 70 in the Ministry of Punishment, and more than 80 in the Ministry of Industry. The rest of the ministries are full of people, and there is no Han. The vacancy of the Han Langzhong is only 162. Every quarter, the gentry In the record, under the general title of officials and officials, only a few people who are in charge of the Hanlang Zhongyuan are marked, and the lack of fullness is not mentioned, and there is no secret that it cannot express the world. It is the full lack of staff in the six departments, and it is three times the lack of staff in the Han Dynasty. , the style of writing and posting is not counted here. And the provinces are really short of roads, and most of them are released by the six divisions. Why is it that the Manchus are full of people in the country? Treasurers are all appointed by the Manchurians, and no Han people are wrong. The remaining academicians, the Zongrenfu, the Metropolitan Procuratorate, the General Secretary, Dali Temple, Taichang Temple, Taipu Temple, Guanglu Temple, Honglu Temple, and Guozijian I don’t have time to count the vacancies in Luanyi Yamen. There are more vacancies than Han vacancies, and none of them can be equal.” Zou Rong’s words really portrayed the reality of the tribal regime in the Qing Dynasty.The purpose of China's examination system is to open up the political power and select genuine talents for distribution to various government departments.The current tribal regime in the Qing Dynasty has absolutely no intention of opening up the regime, so the examination has only become a method of restraint and cage.In other words, only let the Han people also taste some sweetness, and open up a corner of the regime, as a condition of compromise.Zou Rong also said: "As for the selection of key points in imperial examinations, although the Han people occupy seven or eight out of ten, there are more extras in the main tasks, and the Hanlin is poorer, and it is difficult to fill the gaps. Opening workshops is like Chaohai. It has different intentions. It also set up more provincial examiners, scholars, and state and county education posts, so that useless people can be used to treat useless things. Fortunately, among hundreds of millions of people, there are those who have actually ascended to the position of university ministers and ministers. His head and teeth are falling out, his old age is exhausted, and the rest is in the hands of the Manchus. However, it is a rule that Han people must be born in the Hanlin before they are worthy of worship, while Manchus, no matter what their origins, can be both civil and military. There is a deep meaning in it."Zou Rong's statement also exhausted the position that the examination system could occupy under the tribal regime.May I ask whether the elections and examinations of the Han, Tang, Song, and Ming dynasties were also carried out in addition to the regimes of the Liu surname and the Li surname regime, so that those who passed the elections and examinations of this generation could have a share of the pie at their discretion?Even in the Han, Tang, Song, and Ming dynasties, there were muddled accounts of clan relatives and eunuchs arbitrarily using their power. However, this was just a temporary corruption of personnel, not a difference in the system itself.It can be seen that for each system, it is not appropriate to discuss the system itself, but to look at the effectiveness and actual impact of the system in terms of the relationship between the system and other government systems.Therefore, the examination system of the tribal regimes of the Yuan and Qing dynasties should never be regarded as the same as the examination system under traditional Chinese politics.Before Zou Rong, people like Gong Zizhen in the Daoxian era had already seen the intentions of the Manchu regime.It was only because the Han people were not allowed to criticize publicly at that time, so like Gong Zizhen's generation, they could only criticize the examination system in the past dynasties in Chinese history, saying that it was just the emperor's selfish intentions, and he was playing with him.When we understand people and discuss the world, this should be discussed separately.

Besides, when the Manchurians ran into China, they first conquered Mongolia and then came to China.Therefore, he is particularly tender towards Mongolia and Tibet.Especially for the Mongols, they deliberately win over them.As for North Korea, because they have always been very loyal to the Ming Dynasty, Manchurians discriminate against Koreans very much.The Mongols often granted Beizi, Baylor, Prince and the like, and became relatives of Manchuria.At that time, the Manchus came first, the Mongols came second, and the Chinese came next.The Manchu emperors especially believed in Lamaism, like Lama Temple in Beiping, which is a Lama Temple.This is what they want to use religion to restrain Mongolia and Tibet.Religion has also become a kind of magic under the use of Manchurians.So although they can believe in Confucius and worship Lama at the same time.These are not beliefs, and they are all spells.They want to rule China, lest they are not strong enough, and then they will draw on Mongolia, which also invaded China before.So the Manchus treated them like brothers.At the same time, they are prohibited from doing business with the Chinese.He ruled these places and set up a Lifan Yuan, which is a little like the current Ministry of Foreign Affairs.The Lifan Academy does not use Han people. The Lifan Academy is managed by Manchurians, and there are Mongols below. Manchurians are mixed, but the Chinese are not allowed to foresee.His intentions, speaking now, are completely imperialists.The term imperialism originated in the West, but China has never had it.From the Qin and Han Dynasties to the Ming Dynasty, China never became an empire.An empire necessarily has its conquered lands, which are not equally ruled by their own governments.For example, Britain sent governors in Hong Kong and India in the past, and France also sent governors in Annan to manage these conquered territories separately.This is called imperialism.Americans do not want the Philippines to join the Federation, but they also do not want to send a governor to rule, because sending a governor will become an empire.The governor of Hong Kong and India is nominally appointed by the king, not by the cabinet.Its own politics is democratic, but its colonies are subordinate to the empire and are not allowed to have democracy.If the United States also sends a governor to manage the Philippines, will the president of the United States be equal to the emperor of the United Kingdom?This goes against the spirit of America's founding.The Americans refused to do this, and they did not want the Philippines to join the Federation, so they allowed it to become independent.This is because a country has the scale of a country, the system of a country, its founding spirit and traditional history, and cannot be changed casually.Although the Americans value the business of the East, they can only think of other methods. They cannot send a governor to manage the Philippines and overthrow the entire historical spirit since the founding of the country.So today the Soviets talk about American imperialism, but the name does not match the reality.But to say that Britain is a kind of imperialism towards Hong Kong is inescapable.Because he divided the whole country into two parts, one is his own country and the other is conquered land.This is the beginning of the empire.In the Qing Dynasty, there were eighteen provinces in the so-called headquarters, and there were vassals outside, so it was said to be like a Western empire, but it was different in detail.Because the Qing people treated Mongolia better than people from China itself, the Mongolians had to be crowned princes, but the Chinese did not.The British absolutely cannot treat the people of Hong Kong better than the people of their own country. It can be seen that even if the Qing Dynasty was also an empire, things were subtly different.Our problem now is that we like to use other people's ready-made nouns casually, and we don't understand the exact explanations of these nouns.Westerners call China the Great Qing Empire, and also call Kangxi the Great Emperor. There are empires in the West, and there is a so-called Great Emperor, but China has never had such a system or such an idea.But we like to call the Han Empire and Qin Shihuang the Great.Under the concept of name rectification, these should be carefully distinguished.

When the Manchus came to China, all their policies were to use the Manchu tribes to control the Chinese.And then win over Huairou Mengzang to coerce the Han people.This is all mentioned above.Now let's talk about how they treat the Han people.When they come to China, the Chinese will of course resist, and the leaders of the resistance must of course be intellectuals.So they started courses to obtain scholars, inherited the Chinese examination system, and expressed the openness of the regime. Chinese scholars still have to be officials, and you are allowed to participate in politics and be the highest officials in the government.But in fact there is another way to prevent you.For example, every yamen uses Manchu and Han people, and the governors and governors of other provinces use more Manchu people and less Han people.This is not enough. The most brilliant policy of the Manchurians is to deliberately oppress Chinese intellectuals and please the lower classes to break down the resistance of Chinese society.On the one hand, they belonged to Huairou and oppressed China.On the one hand, it is restraining Chinese intellectuals to alleviate resistance.Another aspect is to oppress intellectuals and please the lower classes.It can be said that it is very thoughtful to pay attention to these three aspects.Kangxi and Yongzheng were also very capable emperors. Under their rule, China had no freedom of speech, freedom of association and press, and there was still a very terrible literary inquisition.All kinds of oppression, and intellectuals cannot resist.At the same time, it is precisely because they also know how to please the people.In the Qing Dynasty, there was a method of so-called land distribution of grain, which only collected land rent and no longer required a tax.This is what they themselves praise the so-called benevolent government.In the 50th year of Kangxi, the national population at that time was 24.62 million. From this year onwards, the Qing government issued an edict to never add taxes—that is, the population tax, while the population is still surveyed. Five years Once edited, Dante's Fu will never be added again.In fact, this regulation is not a benevolent government.Because speaking from the perspective of Chinese history, the two-tax system included the small tax stalls in the land rent, and later required farmers to serve as servants or pay for immunization. This was wrong later.Wang Jinggong formulated the immunization money. After a while, the people will have to work as errands again, so the Ming Dynasty proposed another whipping method, and then the errands were included in the land rent.When the Manchurians ran into China, everything was under the lighting system, and the land tax was also collected according to the regulations in the Wanli period. Then the servants had already been allocated to the land rent, and now they are still required.In the time of Kangxi, the combination of ground and ding once again, this is still evolving according to the inertia of Chinese history, changing from time to time, at most restoring the old forehead of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty, in fact, it cannot be otherwise.How can this be regarded as benevolent government?What's more, after the integration of land and land, taxes are actually still increasing.Therefore, this method will soon lose its effect of pleasing the people.And basically speaking, if the population tax is added to the land tax, the population will increase in the future, making the people irresponsible to the country.Until now, ordinary people in China, unless they have land and houses, seem to have no responsibility for the country. This is really not a good system.In short, in terms of institutions in the Qing Dynasty, there are really few items worthy of our praise today.

I often say that there is no permanent system in history.What's more, if it's a magic spell, if it's done temporarily based on selfishness, how can it last long?People in the Qing Dynasty wanted to please the people, and this plan was not bad.But they deliberately oppressed intellectuals.They only need to have obedient officials, and no upright people are allowed.The result is political slavishness, mediocrity, perfunctory, corruption, and lack of spirit.Politics is corrupt, even if you try to please the people, the people will not get benefits.By the time of Qianlong, the Manchu bureaucrats were becoming more and more unbridled, and political corruption was accelerating. At that time, the resistance consciousness of Chinese intellectuals had subsided, but the pain suffered by the lower classes gradually became unbearable.As a result, civil upheavals occurred everywhere, and repeated servants repeatedly rose.The most famous one is the so-called Chuanchu Cult Bandits, which the Manchu court took great pains to flatten.But the root causes still exist, and some of them have not diminished.Therefore, even if the Manchu Qing government did not encounter the communication between China and the West, and there was no invasion of Western forces, it would still have to collapse soon.

During the Jiaqing period, there were frequent incidents, and later triggered the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.Judging from the present, everyone sympathizes with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and thinks it is a national revolution. This is true, but the reality is not always the case.At least they are too ignorant of politics. They have occupied Nanjing for more than ten years and have hardly made any achievements in the system.They are more decent in the military system, but they have never realized the importance of the navy.For the lower class people, they want to implement the land equalization system and a more superficial socialism. They probably have this idea, but when it comes to politics, they are too low.First, the name of the country is an ominous sign. How can there be a country that is formally established and called the kingdom of heaven?This is an exposure of their rudimentary knowledge of Western Christianity.Coupled with the word Taiping, the Yellow Turban Rebellion in the Eastern Han Dynasty believed in the way of Taiping.Their subconsciousness seems to be affected by this, and the name of the country, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, could have foreshadowed their failure.Such a country name is too contrary to historical tradition.Precisely because there are too few scholars in this group, this is the success of the Manchu regime in deliberately separating Chinese intellectuals from the lower classes.During the Revolution of 1911, the name of the country was the Republic of China. This was different because there were scholars in the revolutionary party.Moreover, as soon as Hong Yang came out, he was called the King of Heaven, King of the East, King of the South, King of the West, King of the North, and King of Wings. Those titles can only be found in popular romances, how can they become a formal system?After the civil strife in Nanjing, Yang Xiuqing killed them, but many people continued to be kings, and their names became even more absurd.Xiao Chaogui's son became King Youxi, and Hong Renfa and Hong Renda were also called Elder Brother Wang and Second Brother Wang.Even when the Manchus first entered China, they did not behave in such a crude and naive manner.Just because the Manchurians were just beginning to thrive, they were able to use Chinese intellectuals, but the Hong Yang Group could not.They burned Confucian temples everywhere. Confucius' books were called monster books. They wanted to completely overthrow the traditional culture of the nation. Even if there were no Zeng Guofan and Zuo Zongtang at that time, Hong Yang would still fail.Below the kings, there are heavenly officials and prime ministers. These official names are really ridiculous.How can someone not read at all, overthrow all the past historical traditions of their own country, just copy some foreign religious traces, heavenly father and brother, and talk nonsense, and they can get things done?We don't have to talk about everything else, but looking at the names of their countries and officials, we know that they are bound to fail.If the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom succeeds, the whole of Chinese history will fail.At that time, Hong Yang was not unable to overthrow the Manchu Qing Dynasty, but at the same time they wanted to overthrow the entire history of China, so they could only fail.The Chinese in modern times are also thinking of overthrowing the entire history of China, so they have more sympathy for the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.But then again, the history of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom failed, and the Manchu Qing regime was gradually transferred to the Chinese.There were also many Chinese who served as great officials in the borderlands, and the army became the Hunan Army and the Huai Army, which forced out the reforms of the Manchu Qing government.

Now we will talk about reforms and revolutions after the fall of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.At that time, it was Sun Yat-sen who advocated revolution, and Kang Youwei who advocated reform.Kang Youwei's theory cannot be said to be completely wrong.He said that as long as a country can have a constitution, it doesn't matter whether there is an emperor or not.At that time, Britain had an emperor, and Germany, Japan, and Italy also had emperors. We don’t have to revolutionize and abolish the emperor. We can implement the constitution as much as we want, and let the Manchus still be emperors.But Kang Youwei only knew that the emperor was harmless to the constitution, but he didn't know that the Manchu emperor was backed by a tribal regime.There is absolutely no so-called constitutionalism in tribal regimes.Mr. Sun Yat-sen advocated revolution, and he must overthrow the emperor. Kang Youwei's reform turned into protecting the emperor, and it seemed that the emperor must be there again.Kang Youwei really didn't see it clearly. He thought that as long as Emperor Guangxu listened to him, the reform would be successful. This was his big mistake.This mistake is that he did not understand the so-called political concept of sovereignty like Westerners.He did not understand the politics of China at that time, which was the politics of Manchu tribal sovereignty.It is the Manchus who hold the sovereignty, so where is the so-called autocracy of the emperor?He mistakenly believed that traditional Chinese politics was just the autocracy of the emperor, so he thought that as long as the emperor listened to me, the autocracy of the emperor could be transformed into a constitution for the emperor.Later, when Kang and Liang failed, Liang Qichao once said with emotion: There has been no formal revolution in the two thousand years of Chinese history.His words are also good.But he didn't know that under traditional Chinese politics, there was no need for revolution.But at their time, it really had to be a revolution.Without revolution, the tribal regime of the Manchu Qing could not be overthrown.Liang Qichao, like Kang Youwei, mistook China's traditional politics since the Qin and Han Dynasties as imperial autocracy.He didn't know that at that time, behind this system, there was another force supporting and supporting it.It is not that the emperor alone can be autocratic. The emperor has their tribe behind him—the Manchus support the emperor, and only then can autocracy be possible.Now that Emperor Guangxu couldn't get out of the circle of the Manchus, how could he reform this system?If we want to break up the Manchu tribe group, we must revolutionize it.Speaking of the power behind the government, this is the position and background of the Communist Party today.As for the traditional regimes in Chinese history, regardless of Han, Tang, Song, and Ming, they had no private power, private stand, or private background. Their stand and background were the people of the whole country, the whole society.Therefore, when encountering political corruption, you only need to change a group of people and slightly modify the corrupt system, and you can still continue.Therefore, in the history of China, there were only rebellions, let alone revolutions.In any dynasty, since there is no selfish power to support it, if it becomes corrupt, the world will be in chaos.But there is no real force that hinders us from bringing chaos back to order.Now there is this force that is hindering us and we must overthrow this force.This situation, which must be overthrown, forced a revolution.Therefore, the rise of the Tang and Song Dynasties cannot be called a revolution, but only a change in personnel, and at most it can only be called a reform.But at the end of the Qing Dynasty, revolution was the must.His regime of more than two hundred years is different from that of the Han, Tang, Song and Ming Dynasties.To use Western rhetoric, it can be said that all sovereignty rested with the Manchus at that time.To overthrow the Manchurians is to overthrow this political privilege.We cannot say that all sovereignty in the Han Dynasty belonged to the Liu family, and all sovereignty in the Tang Dynasty belonged to the Li family.In traditional Chinese politics, such privileges rarely existed since the Han Dynasty.When I described the political system of the Han and Tang Dynasties above, I have already analyzed and proved it in detail.Now the political power has fallen into the hands of a special group, which is the Manchu tribe.If we talk about political sovereignty and political system separately, then there are two schools of thought. One is Kang Youwei, who advocates reform rather than revolution. He looks at the system but not at sovereignty.The other faction is Zhang Taiyan, who advocates only revolution, not political reform. He looks at sovereignty and not at system.Among these two factions, Mr. Sun Yat-sen believed that revolution was indispensable, and reforms were necessary after the revolution.The most important point of the reform is to completely abolish the inheritance of the throne, and there is no need for an emperor at all.He wanted to create a new system by referring to the ancient and modern systems in China and the West.Of course, Kang Youwei and Zhang Taiyan were pure scholars. Mr. Sun Yat-sen was a great statesman, he had the cultivation of a scholar, and he also had a deep observation of politics and society. He knew China and the West, so his revolutionary theory also different.

Later, the Manchu Qing was overthrown, but even the entire history and culture of our China was also overthrown.This is because people at the time mistakenly believed that the political system of the Manchu Qing Dynasty was completely the old Chinese tradition since Qin Shihuang.He also mistakenly believed that such a system could be summed up in one word as the autocracy of the emperor.Therefore, because of dissatisfaction with the Manchu Qing regime, it affected dissatisfaction with the entire historical and traditional culture.But if the entire traditional culture is overthrown, ordinary people will lose their sense of mutual respect and mutual trust in the past traditions of their country.A country's politics cannot be separated from power.The stability of political power must depend on a spiritual right that is observed and believed in by the public.Once that power is overthrown, other powers cannot be established for a while, and all politics cannot be built again.Therefore, Mr. Sun Yat-sen advocated that there should be a psychological construction after the revolution, which seems very correct.For example, we talk about the examination system, which is of course a system with a very long tradition in our Chinese history, and behind this system, there is its greatest spirit supporting it.However, when Mr. Sun Yat-sen proposed this system again, he would inevitably encounter many difficulties and setbacks.Because after the Qing Dynasty, the belief of mutual respect and mutual trust in the examination system in the Chinese spirit has long been broken.When we want to rebuild the examination system today, we are no longer just talking about the problem of the system, but we have to start from scratch psychologically.In other words, to implement this system, we must first have confidence in this system.Even in the Qing Dynasty for more than two hundred years, the day of the provincial examination and the day of the examination have never changed.This is because the people of the whole country have a common respect and confidence in this system, so even the date of a day has not been shaken for hundreds of years.This is not the power of the system itself, nor is it oppressed by other political forces, but the support of a psychological force of mutual respect and trust in society.This is true of all politics and all systems.Now we seem to be dealing with all political systems with an experimental attitude, but this system has not entered a state of mutual respect and mutual trust, and it is a big problem to try it out based on a theory.Even new things from other countries for a month or two, or new theories of a few people, we are happy to try and use them casually.May I ask, where can politics without historical inheritance and institutions without tradition be established?We insist that Chinese history is bad, that Chinese society must be thoroughly remodeled, and that the political system is confused with the slogan of revolutionary overthrow.Instead of basing ourselves on historical facts, we empty-handedly clamored to overthrow them.In fact, the issue has been turned around. It is no longer a certain kind of politics and system that should be overthrown, a certain kind of society and economy that should be transformed, but the entire culture that should be abandoned.It can be seen that the theory of thought, talking about this part, will involve other parts.Without multiple considerations and long-term verification, it is impossible to draw a conclusion.