There were also college entrance examination immigrants in the Qing Dynasty. In some areas, it is more difficult to get a scholar than to get into heaven.

What is "school land"? Spatial allocation of political resources. Simply put, it refers to the number of students (commonly known as "scholars") in Fuzhou County who have been admitted to the children's exam (college entrance examination). The imperial examination system of the Qing Dynasty basically followed the system of the Ming Dynasty, but learned the lessons of the Ming Dynasty and reformed the school quota system. It sets a quota for the number of freshmen in each subject admitted to schools at all levels. Candidates were called "Tong Sheng" before they became famous and "students" after they entered school. Students are divided into catering students, additional students and dependent students. Students who have just been admitted to the school are called attached students.

The school quota system in ancient China is an important carrier of the spatial allocation of political resources. The allocation of school places is essentially the allocation of national resources and power at the grassroots level. In the Qing Dynasty, "the imperial examination must be based on the school", but the admission was limited, that is, the number of places was limited. Because of this, in the Qing Dynasty, the number of school places was the first important social resource, which became the goal of all localities and parties. Scholars are the main force of grass-roots gentlemen in Qing Dynasty. Being a scholar (trainee) is the first threshold for entering the society and becoming an official, which means getting rid of the identity of "people" and having a series of political and economic privileges.

In the ninth year of Shunzhi, there were inscriptions in Xuegong all over the country: "The imperial court set up schools, selected students, exempted meals, provided thick meals, set up academies, learned Taoist officials and taught Taoist officials, and all officials treated each other with courtesy." In the ninth year of Kangxi, the Ministry of Rites approved giving students some political preferential treatment: "If students commit serious crimes, local officials should learn politics first, and then be punished for their crimes. If it is a trivial matter, it must be punished, and it must not be regarded as the same thing as the people. "

Zhong Yulong, the last imperial examination official in the Qing Dynasty, said: "There are three differences between a scholar and a cloth: First, you have to bow long without kneeling. Second, call yourself a student, not a small bottom. See the magistrate said father, see the magistrate said Gong Zu, not sir, sir ... Third, you can't use punishment without consulting first. "Although the trainee may not be called a master when he meets the magistrate, the people must call the trainee a' master'. As the saying goes, "students are all masters when they are promoted to supervisors." Being a trainee means stepping into the gentleman class. At the same time, if you further participate in scientific research and get promoted, you will enter the official gentry camp. A person's way out is to get the right scholar. If you fail to pass the exam repeatedly, there are two ways out. As the saying goes, "the magistrate of a county is above his head, and the instructor is at his feet." "

Because of this, many scholars spend their whole lives trying to get into school. According to the statistical analysis of Zhang Zhongli, in the19th century, the average number of children in a county was slightly higher than 1000, but the number of places was only a few dozen.

Distribution principle: the importance of school places is as mentioned above. The quota principle of schools in various counties in Qing Dynasty is just a simple sentence in the book "Learning Politics" and an example of Huidian. : "In the four years of Shunzhi, Confucianism in each province determined that it was divided into universities, middle schools and primary schools according to the number of people." Shang's A Record of Imperial Examinations in Qing Dynasty, written in combination with his own personal experience, added money and grain to it, saying: "The number of places in each county depends on the level of writing, and the amount of money and grain is divided into universities, middle schools and primary schools", and said in the preface that the imperial examination system in Qing Dynasty was a "multi-disciplinary system". Fogg of the Qing Dynasty also said that "it depends on the richness and thinness of his local style" and "the examination of this system depends on the methods of the next season". The connotation of writing style is not only the number of scholars promoted, but also the number of students taking the exam. The mouth of money and food refers to the local population and the taxes paid.

The allocation of school places The determination of school places in Qing Dynasty began in the fourth year of Shunzhi. According to Jiaqing's "The Complete Book of King James", Confucianism in Zhili and other provinces was divided into universities, secondary schools and primary schools, depending on the number of humanities; Admission of young students, 40 universities, 30 middle schools and 20 primary schools. " At the same time, the number of catering students and co-opted students was also determined: "There are 40 catering students in each province, 30 in state schools, 20 in county schools and 0/0 in health schools, and the number of co-opted students is the same." At that time, the Qing court entered the customs soon, and everything was in a hurry. This quota may be a bit too favorable, so it will be adjusted after 10: "Fifteen years of Shunzhi, children will be directly admitted to the province, Dafu 20, Dazhou County 15, and primary school 45." However, this adjustment seems a bit harsh, especially for low-end schools, so the second adjustment was made after 12: "Kangxi passed the nine-year senior high school entrance examination, and all provinces took the children's schools, and the counties remained unchanged, with 12 middle schools and 87 primary schools." Although this adjustment is only aimed at primary schools, the number of places has been greatly increased, which is obviously very beneficial to improving the general level of culture.

Kangxi's adjustment seems to be still effective. It was not until half a century later that Yongzheng readjusted: "In the second year of Yongzheng, the imperial edict said: I, Emperor Saint Zuren, took an examination of my life. For 60 years, I have been studying in Shanhai. There are many candidates in the province, and some are too old to pass the exam. " It ordered the governor, the state and county with the most prosperous nuclear culture, to change primary schools into middle schools, middle schools into universities, and universities were admitted according to government quotas. "Since then, the total number of counties in the Qing Dynasty has not changed.

This table reflects the general situation of the whole country. As far as the Yangtze River Delta region is concerned, the above general principles basically do not play much role. As Mr. Li Shiyu said: "Due to the extremely uneven development of cultural undertakings in various places, the actual number of places in some areas is still different." Qianlong's "Jiangnan Tongzhi" records that "the five-year quota of Shunzhi is 60 in the Zhou Dynasty." Not only official schools, but also the enrollment quotas of counties in the south of the Yangtze River in the five years of Shunzhi are different from the above-mentioned national regulations. Gan Long's "Jiangnan Tongzhi" contains "40 universities, 25 middle schools and 0/2 primary schools", which is slightly lower than the national average.

When the number of students in the whole country was greatly reduced in the fifteenth year of Shunzhi, the Jiangnan area obviously showed a relatively high level. According to the Records of Jiangnan published by Ganlong, there were 20 official schools, universities 15, middle schools 12 and 8 primary schools. Compared with the whole country, government schools, universities and middle schools are all the same, while primary schools are nearly twice as high. It goes without saying that in terms of the number of schools, primary schools are the most in all kinds of schools. It is conceivable that the total number of places in Jiangnan is on the high side. The total number of places in Kangxi's nine years rose slightly, and the only change was to increase the number of primary schools from 4-5 to 7-8, that is, to take the level before Jiangnan as the national general rule.

In the twenty-eighth year of Kangxi, the number of places in Jiangsu and Zhejiang rose again without any change in the total number of places in the country. According to the book "The Book of King James, Academic and Politics", the imperial edict of "Jiangsu and Zhejiang are prosperous in humanities and broaden the number of students enrolled" was promulgated that year. Results "0/2 primary schools, 0/6 middle schools, 20 universities and 25 government schools" were approved. This adjustment is equivalent to half of the increase in places after half a century. Later, the number of places went up, and the whole country was not unified. The scope of application was only "the most prosperous place in humanities"; It can be seen from the records in Gan Long's "Jiangnan Tongzhi" that this area is the implementation area of this policy.

However, it should be noted that "General Rules" and "General Rules" are only a policy platform and are not the only factors that determine the actual quota. On this basis, there are two other measures that can lead to the expansion of school places. One is kindness, that is, whenever there is a grand ceremony or happy event in the court, the emperor will temporarily increase a certain number of places out of courtesy. The other is donation, that is, when the country is in urgent need of money, local governments are often allowed to donate money to expand the quota, especially during the suppression of the San Francisco rebellion and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement.

As a scarce resource and an effective means to control local society, it is very difficult to improve the level of school places. Throughout the Qing Dynasty, except for the general adjustment of the system, there were few places where the quota level could be improved. At the same time, it is not easy to increase the number of places without improving the level of running schools. However, expanding the quota is the common aspiration of all localities. As long as there are opportunities, such as territorial adjustment and household registration change, all localities will make full use of them to broaden them.