What did the Ming Dynasty do to ensure the fairness of imperial examinations?

Since ancient times, there has been a problem of regional disparity in talent selection. Compared with the selection system of "Shi Qing Trial Record" in Zhou Dynasty and "Nine-level Clock System" in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the imperial examination system established in Sui Dynasty and followed and perfected by Tang, Song, Ming and Qing Dynasties was relatively fair and just. But even so, due to the increasingly obvious differences in the level of economic and cultural development in different regions, the differences in the number of people admitted to the imperial examination are also increasingly obvious, and the regional contradictions are increasingly prominent.

Take part in imperial examinations

In the first year of Song Yingzong Zhiping (1064), Sima Guang, a native of Xu Shui Village, Xia County, Shaanxi Province (now Xia County, Shaanxi Province), put forward the suggestion of "taking people by the way". Ouyang Xiu, a native of Yongfeng County, Jizhou (now Yongfeng County, Ji 'an City, Jiangxi Province), who participated in politics at that time, disagreed. He advocated that "only ability is the choice". Some scholars believe that this is "the first important debate on the allocation of places between the North and the South in the history of imperial examinations in China". However, this debate did not last long, nor did it set off any stormy waves, nor did it cause a tragedy of rolling heads and rivers of blood, which has long been ignored by the world. However, all this was postponed until the early Ming Dynasty after 333 years.

First, the stills of Zhu Yuanzhang's "North-South List" case in the early Ming Dynasty

In February of the 30th year of Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang's Hongwu (1397), the imperial examination was held once every three years. The people of the whole country gathered in Nanjing, the capital of Beijing, to show their skills and win Gui Zhi. Zhu Yuanzhang delineated that he was 85 years old at that time, and his personality and knowledge were good. Because of his generosity and lack of talent, Liu Sanwu, a contemporary scholar and academician who calls himself "Tantan Weng", is the main examiner, and Bai Xintiao is the examiner.

After marking the examination papers, Liu Sanwu admitted 5 1 candidate. In March, these 5 1 candidates passed palace examination again, and finally Chen? Yin Changlong and Liu Shizhen are the top scholar, the second place and the flower detective respectively. Post it for publicity. So this list was published in the spring, and all the recorded 5 1 Jinshi were from the south, so people later called this list "Spring List" and "South List".

Jiangnan Gongyuan (now China Imperial Examination Museum)

In this imperial examination, all the 5 1 Jinshi admitted are southerners! Examiners in the north are all famous in Sun Shan. This strange phenomenon has never appeared in previous imperial examinations. Losers, especially people in the northern region, are naturally unwilling and conspire in series frequently.

Six days later, the last northern performer gathered in the Ritual Department, complaining and accusing the examiners Liu Sanwu and Bai Xindu of favoring southerners. There are also dozens of candidates who have fallen out of the list on the streets of Nanjing, shouting all the way; What's more, they stopped the sedan chairs of past officials and petitioned for complaints. At that time, public opinion was in uproar, and examiners were full of rumors such as corruption, bribery and geographical discrimination. 10 Many censors also played Zhu Yuanzhang in succession, demanding a thorough investigation of the case.

The students who failed in the class protested.

On March 10, Zhu Yuanzhang, who was deeply angry, wrote a letter, led by Zhang Xin, an assistant minister who was also deeply suspicious of the results of the senior high school entrance examination, and took nine officials, including Dai Yi, You Zanshan, Wang Junhua and Si Zhilang Zhang Qian, and the top three in palace examination, 12 people, Yin Changlong and Liu Shizhen, to re-read the first test paper and increase the number of northern scholars.

After several days of intense and serious examination, at the end of April, the "investigation team" finally made an investigation conclusion: 5 1 person admitted to the "Spring List" was all admitted on the basis of genuine talent and practical learning; Bribery, bribery and geographical discrimination are all fabricated false rumors. The "investigation team" was also ordered to submit the examination papers admitted after re-reading. What makes Zhu Yuanzhang angry and deeply suspicious is that some of the supplementary examination papers submitted this time are unreasonable in sentences and art, and some are disrespectful.

After the conclusion of the investigation was announced, all kinds of rumors not only did not disappear, but caused public outcry again. Northern scholars firmly believe that 36 and the United States illegally cheated and continue to complain; Someone reported to Zhu Yuanzhang that Liu Sanwu, Bai Xindao and others secretly bought off the personnel of the "investigation team" headed by Zhang Xin, and instructed Zhang Xin and others to submit some unreasonable documents on purpose, so as to convince Zhu Yuanzhang that the northern government soldiers were indeed inferior.

In May, Zhu Yuanzhang issued a letter to severely reprimand Liu Sanwu and Bai Daoxin as "Yu Yu Party". In addition, more than 65,438+00 years ago, Liu Sanwu played a song to thank the Prime Minister Hu for his "rebellion". Zhu Yuanzhang firmly believed that Liu Sanwu was also an "anti-thief". Zhu Yuanzhang was old and famous for Confucianism, so he was saved from death and sent to the northwest to guard the border. More than 20 people were executed that year, including Zhang Xin and Bai Xindao. Chen? , Liu Shizhen, etc. , was also found guilty, assigned to the frontier. In the "investigation team", only Dai Yi and Yin Changlong were exempted from punishment for obeying Zhu Yuanzhang's imperial edict to admit northern Jinshi.

Zhu Yuanzhang flew into a rage

In June, Zhu Yuanzhang personally presided over the court examination in Fengtian Hall. Han Kezhong, a native of Wucheng, Shandong Province, was appointed as the champion, Wang Shu, a native of Changqing, Shandong Province, was the second, and Jiao Sheng, a native of Leping, Shanxi Province, was the flower explorer. Therefore, the second list was published in the summer, and all the 6 1 Jinshi admitted were northerners, so later generations also called it "Summer List" and "North List". At this point, the "North-South List Case", which was noisy for a while, led to dozens of deaths and dozens of exiles, came to an end.

Second, the establishment of the North-South Imperial Examination System In fact, the case of the "North-South List" mentioned by Hongwu in the past 30 years is not the first time since the founding of the Ming Dynasty that the South is superior to the North in the imperial examination. According to the statistics of the Index of Scholars in Ming and Qing Dynasties, there were 867 scholars in various subjects during the Hongwu period (including the "North-South List" in Hongwu's thirty years). Among them, there are 620 southern scholars, accounting for 7 1% of the total. Therefore, the confusion of Hongwu's 30-year "North-South List" case ended in a bloody case, not because the culture and knowledge exposed in the imperial examination were superior in the south but inferior in the north, because this phenomenon existed for a long time. For Zhu Yuanzhang, it may have been a common phenomenon. For the vast number of northern losers, the fire of anger and unwillingness is slowly growing inside. This kind of emotion, perhaps like lava deep in the earth's crust, is accumulating strength and looking for an outlet. .

Imperial Examination Statistics in Hongwu Period

Perhaps the key reason why this exam is so unbearable is that all the candidates admitted to this exam are actually from the south, while the reference candidates in the north are all celebrities in Sun Shan. This "weird" phenomenon has aroused people's endless "reverie", especially the top scholar in the north. Finally, without any evidence, he was dragged out together with bribery and fraud in the examination room. Zhu Yuanzhang used bloody violence to solve the case. First, he believed that the authority of the emperor was provoked by a few "corrupt" officials. Especially for Zhu Yuanzhang, who is famous for his brutal iron fist in the ancient history of China, Liu Sanwu openly "corrupted" under his nose, which is really "unbearable for his uncles and aunts"! Secondly, on the surface, Zhu Yuanzhang accepted all the northern scholars through the "summer list" similar to children's "anger", in fact, in order to temporarily meet the demands of the northern scholars, to combat and limit the influence of interest groups in the south of the Yangtze River, to calm the storm of public opinion, to win the hearts of northern scholars, and to eliminate discrimination and confrontation between the north and the south.

However, since the Tang and Song Dynasties, due to frequent wars in the north, the economy in the south has developed rapidly, and the ancient economic center of China has moved south, and the level of economic and cultural development in the south has far exceeded the objective reality in the north. Zhu Yuanzhang could not solve and eliminate it by a few imperial edicts or simply by bloody and violent means.

The process of China's ancient economic center of gravity moving southward

According to some scholars' statistics, from the first year of Wenjian (1399) to the twenty-second year of Yongle (1424), nine examinations were held, and I938 Jinshi were admitted. Among them, scholars from South Zhili, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Huguang, Fujian, Guangdong and other southern provinces have 162 1 person, accounting for 83.6% of the total; Jinshi 9 1 person in Guangxi, Guizhou, Yunnan, Sichuan and other southwest provinces, accounting for 4.7%; North Zhili, Henan, Shandong, Shanxi, Shaanxi and other northern provinces have 225 Jinshi, accounting for only 1 1.6%. The above statistics show that the huge difference in the economic and cultural development level between the north and the south makes it impossible and unrealistic for the scholars in the north and the south to achieve 1000% fairness and justice when taking the imperial examination. The problem of regional differences between the north and the south, which will try to recruit students, still cannot be truly solved fairly.

After Emperor Renzong of Ming Dynasty (reigned from September 65438 to1May 425), Yang Shiqi, a great scholar, played an important role, thinking that scholars in the north were "talented" and those in the south were "frivolous". He suggested that after the test, "the name of the test paper should be stamped, and please write the words South and North in a foreign language in the future. If you take 100 people in a subject, 60 people in the south and 40 people in the north, then both the north and the south are used. " Emperor Renzong of Ming Dynasty thought that Yang Shiqi's suggestion was reasonable, so he sent a letter to the ministers to discuss whether the scheme of "taking undergraduate students, taking six points in the south and four points in the north" was reasonable and feasible. It's just that the discussion is inconclusive. Ming Renzong died in May of 1425. This proposal has also been shelved.

Mingrenzong

After Emperor Xuanzong of the Ming Dynasty ascended the throne, Xuande wrote in the second year (1427): "The imperial examination of the Ministry of Rites takes 100 people a year, with 60 scholars from the South and 40 scholars from the North."

In the second year of Jingtai, Ming Daizong (145 1), played by the Ministry of Rites, regardless of north and south, was selected on the basis of merit. Although some ministers raised objections to this, doe's suggestion was adopted and implemented. However, after review, doe's proposal was withdrawn. The system of distributing documents between the north and the south has been restored.

Stills of Emperor Taizong of Ming Dynasty

In the fifth year of Jingtai, the Ming Dynasty further defined the geographical scope of the south, north and middle volumes. Nanjuan, including Yingtian (now Nanjing, Jiangsu), Jiangsu and Songzhu, as well as Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Fujian, Huguang, Guangdong and other provinces; The northern volume includes Shuntian, Shandong, Shanxi, Henan, Shaanxi and other provinces; The middle volume includes Sichuan, Guangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou and other provinces, as well as Fengyang, Luzhou, Chu, Xu and Hezhou.

Third, the establishment of the imperial examination quota system. How many people will be tested in each imperial examination? There was no clear regulation in the early Ming Dynasty, so the number of admissions was uncertain. For example, in the twenty-four years of Hongwu (139 1 year), Xin Weike only admitted 3 1 Jinshi; In the eighteenth year of Hongwu (1385) and the second year of Yongle (1404), 472 scholars were admitted. The admission quota mainly depends on the examination level of candidates. If there are many excellent students, record more; On the contrary, there are few records. Then it was decided by the emperor temporarily.

In the 11th year of Ming Xianzong Chenghua (1475), 300 people were admitted to the B-level examination. This is the official beginning of the admission quota of imperial examinations in Ming Dynasty. Of course, although Ming Xianzong has stipulated to admit 300 students, it also points out that if there are special reasons, it can recruit 50- 100 students. Since then, the number of places admitted to the imperial examinations in the Ming Dynasty has basically stabilized at 300. There were several exams, and 320 people and 350 people were admitted respectively, with a slight change.

Ming Xianzong stills

In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, ministers in power, eunuchs and even ordinary scholars all changed and falsified the relevant systems such as quota admission and regional admission in the imperial examination for their own benefit. In the 22nd year of Ming Xianzong Chenghua (1486), Wan 'an (now Wanchong Village, Shangyi Town, Dongpo District, Meishan City, Sichuan Province) and Shangshumo (now a native of Changning County, Sichuan Province), who were deeply prized by Ming Xianzong at that time, accepted the request of the Chief Secretary of Sichuan Province, and reduced the admission places for Jinshi in the south and north areas by two, and included these four places in Sichuan. This act of destroying the patriarchal clan system is an unfair change, which was abolished in the second year of Hongzhi, Emperor Xiaozong of the Ming Dynasty (1489). In the third year of Zheng De (1508), Zhao Duo was the eunuch Liu Jin (from Xingping, Shaanxi), the cabinet college student Jiao Fang (now from Nancaodian, Biyang County, Zhumadian District, Henan Province), and after adding Sichuan 10, he was divided into the south volume. The number of admission places in the north and south increased to 150. In fact, this has greatly increased the number of admission places in the North Volume Area.

Different from those dignitaries who openly and arbitrarily change the examination rules, some ordinary Jinshi have adopted opportunistic means such as relatives changing their native place and occupying places in areas with less fierce competition in order to increase their chances of admission. (Modern people call it "college entrance examination immigrants"). The Ming government treated "college entrance examination immigrants". Once discovered, hell to pay said: "Those who falsely report the papers in North China will be expelled from the Ministry." That is, cancel their admission qualifications.

Wen said that with the imperial examination becoming the main or even the only way to select talents in the late ancient China, a series of problems, contradictions and conflicts arose around the imperial examination. These contradictions and conflicts broke out with the increasing differences in economic and cultural development levels between the north and the south in the Ming Dynasty.

The existing historical facts show that the "North-South List Case" in the early Ming Dynasty was not a fraud case in the examination room. In fact, it is an extreme event that has been detonated for a long time because the contradiction between examination fairness and regional fairness cannot be properly resolved. Zhu Yuanzhang killed innocent examiners and recorded many examples of the north, so as to suppress the southern forces and win over the northern scholars, and then consolidate the ruling foundation of the Ming Dynasty. However, these solutions are only expedient measures and cannot effectively solve the problem. During the years of Wen Jian and Yongle, the proportion of candidates from the south and the north in the imperial examination was high or low, which well illustrated this point.

The initiative of Emperor Renzong of Ming Dynasty, the North-South Grading System officially implemented by Emperor Xuanzong of Ming Dynasty, the North-South Grading Examination officially implemented in Ming Daizong, and the admission of imperial examination places officially implemented in Ming Xianzong are all effective solutions adopted by the rulers of Ming Dynasty in order to eliminate the economic and cultural differences between North and South and solve the fairness of examinations and regions. After the above schemes are implemented one after another, the promoters only need to compete in their respective regions. As far as northern scholars are concerned, the scope of competition is undoubtedly greatly reduced. More importantly, they don't have to compete with Jiangnan, which is highly developed in economy and culture and far beyond the north, which undoubtedly greatly improves their chances of getting into Shangguan. The above measures greatly promoted the prosperity and development of education in the northern region, and also enhanced the centripetal force and cohesion of the northern region to the imperial court.

Because the above measures effectively take into account the fairness of examinations and regions, except for a few periods that were temporarily destroyed due to the interference of powerful officials and eunuchs, the original system was restored soon, and it was running smoothly on the whole, showing the superiority of the above system. However, in the Ming Dynasty, bureaucrats attached great importance to the "rural party" and formed gangs, which led to the regional party struggle among the "Qi Party", "Chu Party" and "Zhejiang Party" in the late Ming Dynasty, probably related to the trial implementation of the North-South system by the Imperial Examination Council.