How was the imperial examination system, which had been passed down for 2,000 years, abolished?

After the 1880s, with the spread of Western learning and the development of the foreign affairs movement, the imperial examination system, which had been practiced in China for more than 2,000 years, changed. 1888, the Qing government permitted the establishment of the Arithmetic Department to recruit students, which was the first time that the natural sciences were included in the examination, and in 1898, it established a special department of economics, which was designed to recommend people who were capable of coping with the times and helping to solve the problems of the world.

(The imperial examinations)

The reformists were always critical of the imperial examinations. Kang Youwei pointed out that the eight stocks were useless, and that there was no hurry to change the imperial examinations than to abolish the eight stocks, and demanded that the eight stocks be abolished. Stop the eight-study test post, the implementation of economic six subjects?

Guangxu had in the new reform of the imperial edict to abolish the eight shares of the scholar, where the township will test and the examination of the child are changed to test the theory. Only after the failure of the reform, Cixi restored the imperial examination system.

The current of the times can't be stopped, and on September 2, 1905, the Qing government issued a decree stating: ? That is, since the beginning of the C wu section, all the township will stop all the tests, the provinces of the age of the examination will also stop, and the former students were given to the amount of the way out, and the rest of the articles, are in accordance with the request for processing.

In short, the school of the ancient school system, and its rewards for the origin and the imperial examinations are no different. All the time, the original chapter to cultivate the reading of the Bible as the basis; the various sciences, in particular, all cut in the practical. It is in the government and gentry to affirm the purpose, heard the wind rise, build more schools, universal education, the country has gained the benefit of the tree, that is, the local also have the honor.

The edict announced the end of the imperial examination system, which had been in effect for more than 1,300 years since the Sui Dynasty.

(The release of the imperial examination results)

The imperial examination system, as a means of promotion for the scholarly public, has always been the focal point of the country's political, cultural and social systems. The abolition of the imperial examinations meant the end of the traditional career path and a change in the social system. However, it is surprising that the abolition of such a major system as the imperial examinations did not cause much social reaction.

The subject categories of the imperial examination include: jinshi, jianren, bakong, yugong, vice list (vice-gong), en-gong, yearly-gong, shenglian (granary, attached students, additional students), teaching, transcripts; donations include: granary tribute, additional tribute, attached to the tribute, tribute, granary supervisor, additional supervision, attached to the supervisor, supervisors, and so on.

The imperial examination system is not only an educational system, but also a system for selecting officials. In the Qing Dynasty, there were two main ways to enter the civil service, the imperial examination and the donation, and the imperial examination was the most important way of selecting officials.

However, at the end of the Qing Dynasty, there was a division within the Chinese gentry class, with the proportion of those who joined the civil service by the imperial examination decreasing and the proportion of those who joined the civil service by donations increasing. There were even more donations than official positions, creating a strange phenomenon in which the different paths overwhelmed the right path, and it was difficult for those who came from the right path to get real positions.

(Qing Dynasty Tribute Academy)

In the first year of the Tongzhi period, Jiang Qiling, the governor of Shuntian Prefecture, submitted a report: "Recently, the Ministry of Justice has chosen a method of selecting officials, and it is difficult for them to obtain a real position. Recently, the Ministry of mandarins selection method, the right way personnel a few days to the class, to the extent that there is a memorial should not be examined in the Chinese style of the examination? In the late Qing Dynasty, donations to the background of the big open, the final of the imperial examinations naturally can not cause a greater social sensation.

The imperial examinations for ordinary scholars, or their only way up. The abolition of the imperial examinations, the academy was developed,?

The abolition of the imperial examinations has been carried out, and the origin is in the academy, then into the academy of both the future of the hope, and the divergence of the road, so into the academy of the people do not suffer from the lack of it.

The Qing government, in the process of abolishing the imperial examinations, also focused on how to match the traditional merit with the new style of education, so that the readers in the new school system to find a way out.

In the Hundred Days' Reform, Kang Youwei and others argued for reform of the imperial examinations and the abolition of the eight-study system, but the proposal was not effectively implemented as the reform failed.

In April 1901, Yuan Shikai suggested that the change of the imperial examinations, the increase in the examination of the actual study of a section, after a few years, to take the cab more practical, the actual study of the people. Zhang Zhidong and Liu Kunyi in the "Jiang Chu will play three fold", put forward the change of the chapter of science and technology, section by section decreasing the number of science and technology, with the academy to replace the science and technology, and ultimately abolish the science and technology of the views of the people, so that the ? all the students and councillors are out of the academy?

They devised a set of correspondence rules, where graduates of elementary school, secondary schools, higher schools and universities corresponded to the attached students, granaries, tributary students, lifts, and jinshi, respectively. Zhang and Liu considered this to be ? a way to take into account the subtle influence of integration without stifling it? The way to do so.

On December 5, 1901, the Qing court approved the "to comply with the purpose of the examination of the school election to encourage the constitution of the folding", the formal provisions of the school graduates passed the examination to give the gongsheng, cunshuoren, jinshi of the merit of the birth.

(New school teachers and students)

The abolition of the imperial examinations cut off the traditional scholar's career path, but the scholar's opportunity to gain merit is broader than before. The Declaration commented that the academy was no different from the imperial examinations, and that after graduation, the students were compared to the students in secondary schools, the students in provincial schools, and the students in universities, making the academy one and the same. It is a great thing that the school is merged into one. The great thing.

The combination of the imperial examination and the school, the school will be very prosperous, because? The way of profit and fortune, all the people tend to compete also?

After the abolition of the imperial examinations, how to arrange the way out of the old scholars?

Cixi also asked Zhang Zhidong:? If the abolition of the imperial examinations and the fear of losing the hearts of scholars, such as how?

Zhang Zhidong thought:? Taking non-scholarship by the school can not be, the abolition of the Imperial Examination of the inconvenience, but the old students in their thirties and forties years old ear, their strength can be rich and strong into the school is enough, and the school is wide open, the old students in their thirties and forties years of age can be more for the small school of teaching, but also for the broadening of the way out of the school is not the Imperial Examination of the one stop, that is, there is nothing to do.

Fact that the imperial examinations are not immediately immediately abolished, so it must wait for the three sections to reduce all of them, is also for this reason. Cover these three subjects, if you can no longer win, have been all fifty or sixty years old, and will not want to re-enter the field carry on.

It is Zhang Zhidong's explanation to dispel Cixi's concerns,? Then Oracle that with the Office of Political Affairs to properly discuss the report.

(Zhang Zhidong)

After the abolition of the imperial examinations, the Qing government in 1906 put forward several ways to solve the problem of readers: one is to set up a wide range of small and medium-sized school halls, so that students into the halls of peace of mind to learn, the second is to set up a teacher training center in the provincial capitals for the elderly students enrolled in school, the third is to set up a higher education, teacher training halls, all add a quota for the year more than 20 students to enter the school, the elementary school is not yet enough to enable them to make up. The third is that all the higher education institutions and teacher training institutions have set up quotas for students who are more than twenty years old.

Because of the perfect measures, a good solution to the worries of the readers.

After the abolition of the imperial examinations, the Qing government asked the governors, the school government ?

Advise the gentleman to set up a wide range of small schools, cut the official in the cost of not urgent, donations to the gentry rich family, cooperation, and at the same time?

Although the gentry group opposed to the abolition of the imperial examination system, but after the abolition of the imperial examination, they quickly sent their children into the school, and at the same time keen to open the school. For example, in Jiangsu Province, all the academies, except the government academies, were founded by the scholar-gentry.

(New-style academies in the late Qing Dynasty)

According to Qing government statistics, before the abolition of the imperial examination, in 1903, 67% of modern schools were set up by the officials, in 1904, the figure was 85%, and after the abolition of the imperial examination, the figure dropped to 37% in 1906.

The proportion of private schools rose rapidly. Especially in the more economically developed Jiangnan area, the number of private schools far exceeded the number of government schools. Shanghai alone, in 1906 **** there were 125 primary schools, the government 27, private and private as many as 98.

During this period, the gentry class took advantage of the abolition of the imperial examinations to cooperate with the officials, so that the lower class gentry gained more benefits.

The traditional Chinese society is a society with a ? super-stable structure? of society.

From the Qin and Han Dynasties to the late Qing Dynasty, although there was a change of dynasties, the whole history and culture were continuous, and a very important reason was the existence of the scholar-class.

The Chinese have always believed that ? All things are inferior, but only the study of books is high?

Chinese people have always believed that ? the scholarly and the scholarly are the best? The Chinese have always believed that the best people are those who study and learn. The Chinese tradition of "scholar-agricultural-industrialist The social foundation of Chinese society was also changed. The social foundation of the traditional Chinese society was also changed.

Old photo: Families of the rich and gentry class in the late Qing Dynasty

With the abolition of the imperial examinations, the link between the elite and the system was broken. The overall trend of the elite was to move to the margins, and eventually the marginal forces rose.

And the representatives of the fringe power? The local gentry not only used the academies and so on to gain status for themselves and their clans, but also intervened heavily in local public **** affairs, causing the stratification and reorganization of local society.

The status of the gentry class after the abolition of the imperial examination has changed a lot, and more and more scholars stepped into the class of the gentry through the academy, which is also a new change brought to the Chinese class after the abolition of the imperial examination.