The Influence of the Imperial Examination System on Chinese Culture

1. Key points: The imperial examination system has continued in China for more than 1,300 years, and it has had a great influence on China, especially on culture. Admittedly, any one thing has two sides, similarly, we judge the imperial examination system is also divided into two, its impact on Chinese culture has a positive side, there is also a negative side. Positive impact is mainly manifested in: through the imperial examination absorbed a lot of poor people into the regime, is conducive to the expansion and consolidation of the political basis of feudal rule, changed the feudal society in the early days of the rich and powerful clans to hold the situation of the dynasty; the majority of commoners through the imperial examination into the official, to the feudal regime injected vigor and vitality; the selection of officials from now on there is an objective basis for the level of cultural and intellectual knowledge, is conducive to the formation of a high-quality team of civil servants; the Power, position and knowledge combined to create a tradition of respect for teachers in the Chinese nation and the atmosphere of hard work and study; promote the prosperity of literature. With the development of the imperial examination system, the Ming and Qing dynasties, the implementation of the eight shares to take the scholars, a serious constraint on the applicants, so that the intellectuals do not speak of practical learning, binding the intellectuals of the mind; on the development of academic culture has had an extremely negative impact; the end of the Qing dynasty, the imperial examination system seriously hindered the development of science and culture, is to lead to the backwardness of the natural sciences of modern China is one of the important reasons; this system is not conducive to knowledge innovation, more unfavorable to the innovative The system is not conducive to knowledge innovation, and even more so to the cultivation of innovative talents.

2, details: tracing the history of China's five thousand years of civilization, we can clearly see a glittering system with milestone significance - the imperial examination system. The culture of imperial examination is profound and profound.

China is a large country, the imperial examination system has continued for more than a thousand years, in Chinese history, bear the integration of the traditional social life and maintain the cultural and ecological balance within the society's function. It has played a pivotal and regulating role in the operation of traditional Chinese politics, culture, thought, education, economy and social life. This system was founded in the Sui Dynasty, perfected in the Tang Dynasty, developed in the Song Dynasty, declined in the Yuan Dynasty, flourished in the Ming Dynasty, and ended in the Qing Dynasty. 100 years in the history of China's civilization is only a short moment, but the history of the imperial examinations is more than 1,300 years.

The education system and elite selection system centered on the imperial examination was the link that maintained the interdependent relationship between the social and political elites, as well as the basis for maintaining the allegiance of the social classes to the monarch, the Confucian ideology, and the authority of the state.

In our country's long feudal society, successive rulers in order to consolidate their dominance, have attached great importance to the cultivation and selection of talents, the state on the one hand, vigorously develop education; on the other hand, continue to explore, and gradually established a set of examination and selection system, the most important of which is the creation and improvement of the imperial examination system. The biggest difference between the imperial examination system and the previous talent selection system, also makes it in the maximum range to attract the country's talented and ambitious. Its establishment seemed to be a bright light for those who were born in poverty, bringing them the bright hope that one day they would rise to greatness. The invention of the imperial examination system maximized the elimination of the interference of power and ensured the justice and fairness of the selection of officials. Compared with hereditary and recommendation systems, the imperial examination is undoubtedly a fair, open and impartial method. Some people call the imperial examination the fifth major invention of Chinese civilization. Today's examination system is still, to some extent, a continuation of the imperial examination system.

The imperial examination system, which adheres to the principle of "free application, unified examination, equal competition, selection on the basis of merit, and public listing", breaks the hereditary relationship of bloodline and the monopoly of the clan on politics, and it is a direct and powerful reform of the system of selecting officials in the ancient society of China. It gave the small and medium-sized landowning classes and common people a platform for fair competition through the imperial examinations, and expanded the feudal ruling base while making a large number of outstanding talents of low status and humble origins stand out. Especially in the Song Dynasty, where the imperial examination system was becoming more and more perfect, successive emperors almost always boasted of rewarding the poor and suppressing the powerful, and took special measures to restrict the children of "noble families", which objectively gave the commoners an opportunity to emerge more easily. In the Song Dynasty, there was not only the phenomenon of "commoner" scholar, but also many ordinary people's children changed their own destiny and that of their families through the imperial examinations.

However, the imperial examination is not a mere examination system, but has been playing an invisible comprehensive ability to closely link the cultural, social and economic fields with the structure of political power, forming a multi-faceted interactive whole.

The imperial examination system promoted the development of school education. Because of the fame that could be gained through the imperial examination, intellectuals of lowly background in general strongly demanded to enter the school to study. The creation of the imperial examination system objectively promoted the development of feudal education. The examination is mainly based on the Confucian classics, which is a positive significance for the end of the school education since the Wei and Jin dynasties popular style and the metaphysical ideas, for the unity of the content of the school education and teaching standards, for the so-called "five-foot boy shame not to hear the literature and ink," the atmosphere, but also has positive significance.

The imperial examination system has promoted the inheritance and popularization of traditional Confucian culture and driven the civil society to respect humanism and education. It has made a significant historical contribution to the integration of domestic ethnic cultures, social integration and national unity, and it has promoted the standardization of Chinese language and script and the development of the art of calligraphy. At the same time, the imperial examination also had a significant impact on folk culture, and had a spontaneous influence on the popularity of cultural practices, some of which were even transformed into folklore.

The Imperial Examination has explored and cultivated a large number of talents for the successive dynasties of China. In the past 1300 years, there have been nearly 100,000 successful applicants and millions of successful applicants. Of course, not all of them are knowledgeable people, but can pass the five passes through the six generals, through the examination into the scholar, most of them are not idle generation. Among the famous ministers and ministers of the Song and Ming Dynasties and the Han Dynasty of the Qing Dynasty, the majority of them had a bachelor's degree. After Emperor Yingzong of the Ming Dynasty, the practice was even more "non-junshi not into the Hanlin, non-Hanlin not into the Cabinet", the imperial examination has become a must for high-ranking officials. When Matteo Ricci came to China in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, he saw that the scholarly class responsible for governing the whole country was created by the imperial examination system.

The imperial examinations also contributed to the popularization of knowledge and the popular culture of reading. Although this impetus was motivated by the general pursuit of fame and fortune rather than by a desire for knowledge or spirituality, objectively speaking, because the imperial examinations became the norm, the literary style in China was generally improved. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, there were no less than half a million scholars most of the time, counting the Xiucai, and millions of children. Among them, except for a few who could further their career, most of them became grassroots intellectuals living in different places, which played a certain role in the popularization of knowledge. Moreover, since these scholars were all products of the same system and studied the same "holy books", they indirectly maintained the unity and centripetal force of culture and thought in different parts of China.

The imperial examinations produced a large number of famous ministers, ministers and statesmen who were good at ruling the country and securing the state, as well as many thinkers, literati, artists, scholars, educators, diplomats, etc., who made outstanding contributions, such as Wang Wei, Han Yu, Liu Zongyuan, Liu Yuxi, Yan Zhenqing, Liu Gongquan, Bai Juyi in the Tang Dynasty, Ouyang Xiu, Wang Anshi, Su Dongpo, Sima Guang, Zhu Xi, Bao Zheng, Kou Zhun in the Song Dynasty, Zhang Ju Zheng, Tang Xianzu, Zhang Ju Zheng, Tang Xianzu, and Kou Jun in the Ming Dynasty, and Zhang Ju Zheng, Tang Xianzu, and Zhang Ju Zheng, and Zhang Ju Zheng. Zhang Juzheng, Tang Xianzu, Hai Rui, Xu Guangqi, the Qing Dynasty Ji Xiaolan, Liu Yong, Zheng Banqiao, Lin Zexu, Weng Tongduo, Zhang, Cai Yuanpei and other cultural celebrities are all from among the top students, graduates and graduates, are the Chinese nation of excellence.

Today, although we have entered the age of computers and multimedia, the traditional system still affects our culture. Because the system and culture complement each other, the system is the carrier of culture. So looking at today's college entrance examination, we can easily find many similarities between the imperial examination and the modern college entrance examination. Starting from exploring the historical development law of the relationship between the imperial examination and the school education and teaching, and looking at the relationship between the modern college entrance examination and the school education and teaching, we can provide historical reference for the current college entrance examination reform, so that the college entrance examination reform will be conducive to the middle school's cultivation of talents, and the university's selection of talents and cultivation of talents. The imperial examination is like the ancient college entrance examination, and the college entrance examination is like the modern imperial examination. Both of them are competitive and open selection exams, recognizing only the results and not the people. In contemporary China, the college entrance examination system is one of the fairest systems in society, the examination selection follows the principle of ability-based, just like swimming, swim through the past, swim through, swim through, power, birth, money and other methods can not old you. The imperial examination and the college entrance examination can select the talents with high cultural literacy. The imperial examination mobilizes the enthusiasm of the private school and the enthusiasm of the scholar, promotes the popularization of culture and education, helps to clarify the rule of officials, and replaces the appointment of a person as a relative with the appointment of a person as a wise person.

The imperial examination system is rooted in the specific soil of our country, its existence depends on the authoritarian dynasty, but also to promote the unity of the country and the unity and diversity of the Chinese nation **** with the development of history. To the imperial examination for the "right way" and Confucianism for the examination content of the practice of the secular nature of the regime and ideological indoctrination into a natural integration, is a major creation of China's traditional politics. It objectively unified Chinese culture to the premise of Confucianism, which was conducive to the development of a traditional centralized state.

However, the shortcomings of the imperial examination system have been exposed over time, and it has become an important factor hindering social progress.

Since the imperial examination system was based on Confucian political standards and values to select talents, unite people's hearts and constitute the basic means of acquiring status and power, the abolition of the imperial examination system deprived the state of the fundamental means of maintaining the orthodox status of Confucian ideology and the Confucian value system in the long run. This led to one of the most significant cultural ruptures in Chinese history between traditional cultural resources and the values of the new era.

The imperial examination system also produced family tragedies. Because the imperial examination system and its first-place winners enjoyed a wealth of preferential honors, and because it was an important way for ordinary people to get ahead, tragedies often occurred in which poor scholars abandoned their wives and children after high school, and I believe that no one knows of Chen Shimei's scandalous reputation. This although very important reason lies in the person's ideological values, and sense of responsibility, but the imperial examination after all gave it such a piece of soil to survive.

Finally, the imperial examination system leads to official corruption. The imperial examination system with the wheel of history, the emergence of the politicization of the imperial examination system, heaven and earth, ruler and relatives of the teacher's education and caused the prevalence of relations between the teachers. This resulted in the serious phenomenon of nepotism in the division. These relationships in the officialdom ganged up with each other, and the officials protect each other. One of the best examples is the great corrupt official He Shen in the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty. He took advantage of Emperor Qianlong's favor and became rich by accepting bribes. Moreover, he repeatedly used the questions of the imperial examinations as bait to collect bribe money from the candidates. This is not conducive to the country to build a good system of fair and open society. It caused darkness in the officialdom and chaos in the society.

Because of these shortcomings of the imperial examinations, reforming the system has become a social **** knowledge, and finally on September 2, 1905, the imperial examination system ended its more than 1,000-year-long history, thus making this year a watershed between the old and the new eras.

The abolition of the imperial examination system deprived the state, in the long run, of the fundamental means of maintaining the orthodox status of Confucian ideology and the Confucian value system. This led to one of the most significant cultural ruptures in Chinese history between traditional cultural resources and the values of the new era. In rural areas of a significant part of China, illiteracy rates have instead risen even higher than in traditional societies. The cultural break between modern and contemporary China can be at least partially explained by this.

The rise and fall of the imperial examinations had far-reaching consequences, signifying a fundamental rupture in China's history, the end of China's "millennium" of inheritance, and the beginning of its "century of change", which constituted a key element in the chain of social change in China. It constitutes a key link in the chain of social change in China, and its significance exceeds that of the end of a dynasty.

Today, the imperial examination system has disappeared for more than 100 years, and although it has been lost like running water, it is an important foundation of Chinese originality as a long-lasting Chinese culture. It represented a trend and a pursuit that included the pursuit of knowledge, the desire for talent and fair competition regardless of background.

Looking back over the past hundred years, we feel that the imperial examination system, despite its limitations and shortcomings, is a great creation of our people's wisdom and a major invention. No matter how many years have passed since then, it is still a great success, and people can still remember its influence on Chinese culture.

Reference: Yang Qifu, "The Scientific System and Modern Culture"

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