Spend a little money on the imperial examination
In China, a big cultural country with a long history and profound connotation, imperi
Spend a little money on the imperial examination
In China, a big cultural country with a long history and profound connotation, imperial examination is undoubtedly the most familiar one if we want to find the institutional cultural heritage inherited from the heavy traditional culture. China, an ancient city, is also regarded as the hometown of examinations, because it invented the imperial examination, a method of selecting talents, and established a civil service examination system for western countries to learn from. Since then, the imperial examination has been implemented for 1300 years, which had an immeasurable and far-reaching impact on politics, economy, military affairs, culture, education and other aspects of China society at that time. In the process of long-term implementation, the imperial examination system gradually formed many functions such as education, culture and politics, and thus created an imperial examination society, which penetrated into all levels of society. After the Song Dynasty, the important position and great influence of the imperial examination in politics made China gradually become an imperial examination society characterized by the talent selection standard of "giving full play to one's talents" and the value orientation of competency-based. China's feudal society moved from family society to imperial examination society, which had profound social and cultural roots-getting rid of human feelings and pursuing social justice. Affected by this, there is still an "examination complex" in China society.
Spending money originated in the Han dynasty, and it was mainly used for the people in the early days. Although "spending money" is in the form of coins, it is not used in circulation and is a "counterfeit currency" in coins. Therefore, it is not too much to call it an ancient "copperplate", because the characters and patterns on coins are varied and fascinating. The rich content of spending money is the epitome of folk customs in past dynasties; The connotation of auspiciousness represents the ancient people's yearning and blessing for a better life.
Spending money has always been a branch of ancient coins. According to their uses, they can be roughly divided into five categories: ancient money, auspicious language, religion, games and special purposes. They can be used as ornaments, ornaments, games, accounting, washing children, auspicious celebrations, divination, martyrdom, rewards, letters, town libraries, memorials, birthdays and hanging lanterns. The theme, patterns and inscriptions of spending money reflect some cultural characteristics such as ideological interest and social consciousness of each era from different angles. Because of this, the imperial examination culture is deeply reflected in spending money. A lot of money has the connotation of imperial examination culture, and the influence of imperial examination on society is all-round. Taking the Song Dynasty as an example, the status of Jinshi in the Song Dynasty was very different from that in the Tang Dynasty. Only by choosing a good name can we "put brown" and reward officials. Therefore, the imperial examination system or the imperial examination led to the rise of the literati class, which constituted one of the themes of social reform in Tang and Song Dynasties. The Song Dynasty followed the principles of "taking scholars regardless of family background" and "testing all articles", which opened the door for all social strata to test science and become officials. As Dai Biaoyuan said in the Southern Song Dynasty: "Nine times out of ten, famous officials and celebrities come from the imperial examination." According to statistics, in the fourth year of Hu Bao (1256), when Wen Tianxiang was the top scholar, the number of civilian families was about 7 to 3. If this data is coupled with classic stories such as Fan Zhongyan's Broken Porridge Map and Ouyang Xiu's Ou Mu Map, it really confirms the realistic possibility that a poor man will eventually become a famous official from the imperial examination, and also shows the relative fairness of the imperial examination in the Song Dynasty. Therefore, some scholars called the Song Dynasty "the imperial examination society".
Since Taizu, the Song Dynasty has implemented a three-level examination system, namely, solution examination, provincial examination and palace examination. Jinshi first obtained the qualification of jury in the local examination, and then went to the central provinces to try the Jinshi. After the entrance examination, there is also the examination of the emperor entering the palace, which aims to put the right of Jinshi in the main position and put an end to the personal relationship between candidates in the Tang Dynasty. Only in this way, although the court examination in the Song Dynasty was a mere formality, the ceremony was solemn and glorious, which made Zhongju Jinshi feel the majesty of the emperor personally. First of all, roll call is the first, also known as "biography". The roll call was called out in turn from the top scholar in the Master of ceremonies Palace, and conveyed to the candidates after the provincial examination who listened to the list outside the hall. In the Southern Song Dynasty, Yang Wanli wrote a poem: It was amazing to hear the sound in the temple first and wipe your eyes in front of it. Famous in the dragon and tiger list, people are in the clouds.
We can see these scenes from spending money. For example, in the Qing Dynasty, good news cost three yuan and positive news cost three yuan. The so-called "three yuan" means that the imperial examination system is called the provincial examination and the national examination, and the first place in palace examination is Xie Yuan, Huiyuan and Champion, collectively referred to as "three yuan". One after another won the first place in the provincial, general and palace examinations, which is called "Lianzhong Sanyuan". Those who take the exam are called Tong Sheng, those who take the exam are called scholar, and the first one is called desk. The official higher-level national examination is called provincial examination, which is held in the provincial capital. The candidates are scholars from all over the country. After the exam, it is called Juren, and the first name is "Xie Yuan"; The next level is the exam, which is held in the department of rites. The candidate is a juror. After the exam, it will be called Gong. The first place is Huiyuan, and the second to fifth place is Jingyuan. The court examination was held in the emperor's golden palace, presided over by the emperor himself, and the candidate was Gong, who was called Jinshi after the examination. The first place in palace examination was awarded as the "Top Scholar". In the ancient imperial examinations in China, * * * had 17 people.
According to Ouyang Xiu, the passing rate of the solution test is "100 people". The ratio of the number of candidates in the province to the number of candidates in the examination is higher in Song Taizong, reaching 65 to L, which shows that "the author is like a forest, and the candidates are like a cloud", but the Level 3 exam has passed all the way, and the lucky one who won the laurel in the middle of the month is not one in a million, but it is not far away. So it was praised by people.
Although the selection of the imperial examination is by no means a thoroughfare, there is no feasible way for the Su Han family to change the threshold except to be the top scholar. The influence of the imperial examination on society is all-round, and the level of entering the ground in the Song Dynasty is far from that in the Tang Dynasty. As long as you call the roll, you can "release the official" and realize the dream of "the official has a wife, the wife has money, and the money has a field".
And the legendary champion Lang's unparalleled sense of honor and cool strength when he was named by the people: "Jade Palace passed the gold medal list, and you gave me a gift." Three hundred generations of heroes, follow me to Yingzhou. "No wonder Han Qi, a famous minister, sneered at Di Qing:" What a good boy to sing the champion outside Donghua Gate! "This is also obvious in terms of spending money. As shown in the following figure, these auspicious meanings express people's wishes and expectations for scholars, such as "winning three yuan in a row, giving birth to your son early", "the champion in the DPRK", "the champion in the DPRK", "the champion in the satellite" and "giving birth to your son early".
On the day of Jinshi and roll call, he took off his cloth and called it "release brown", giving him a robe and adding a robe, symbolizing leaving Shu Ren and embarking on his official career. Then, the emperor gave a banquet to congratulate the new scholar. "Qiantang legacy" says that graduation has "five honors": "two honors and one honor; Overwhelming, Errong also; The royal banquet presented flowers, and everyone sighed for beauty and glory; Cloth in, green robe out, four glory out; I am happy when I am old, and the hope of leaning against the door comforts me. " In short, even the children of ordinary families can study hard through the cold window, and once they are admitted to high school, they can become bureaucrats. In this way, the imperial examination system has exerted a subtle value orientation on the whole society, so that Zhu also teased Confucius: "Living in this world has revived Confucius. No way. "
In the imperial examination culture, one of the most famous stories is the "five-child examination". It is said that in the Five Dynasties, there was a man named Dou who was responsible for giving advice to doctors. He is keen on running education and attaches great importance to family education. Therefore, five sons graduated successively, which is very promising. In the three-character classics of children's enlightenment books, "Dou Yanshan has a righteous side, teaches five sons and is famous in the world", thus forming the idiom that five sons graduated from the department. In terms of spending money, there are often contents about "five sons in the master". For example, the "five sons in the master" in the Qing Dynasty carried auspicious money as the mother sample, and the "five sons in the master" in the Qing Dynasty carried the plan of turning fish into dragons to spend money.
In the imperial examination culture, the most famous immortal is "satellite" or "kuixing", which is one of the eighteen nights. There is a saying of "Zhu Kui's Articles" in the Book of Filial Piety in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Later generations attached it as a god, built Kuixing Pavilion and made statues to worship it, and regarded it as the god of the rise and fall of the main text, while the imperial examination was regarded as the god of Chinese style, and Kuixing was changed to Kuixing. Zhang Song Gan Yuan's poem "Appreciating the Emperor's Enshou" says: "Green hair shines on the stars, and Pingkang strives to see it. Five thousand volumes of splendid liver and intestines. "
Kuixing, like Wenchang God, is deeply admired by scholars because he is in charge of literary movement. In the past, almost every town had Kuixinglou and Kuixingge. Because "Kui" means "ghost" grabbing "fight", Kui Xing is visualized again-a pair of claws bared. Legend has it that his pen is specially used to name emperors and princes. Once it is scored, the literary and official movements will follow, so the literati in the imperial examination era regarded it as a god. In the Tang and Song Dynasties, the image of a dragon turtle was carved on the steps of the main hall of the palace. If you are admitted to the Jinshi, you will enter the palace and stand under the main hall to meet the imperial list. According to the regulations, the champion who won the first place in the exam is qualified to stand on it, so it has the reputation of "the champion wins the championship". Tong Mi of the Song Dynasty recorded in Miscellaneous Knowledge that he won the first prize at that time, and the court "sent a pair of gold-plated star cups (plates)". Shen Lu, an Amin, also described the lively scene of the literati posting a map of Kuixing on the right and selling Kuixing statues in the examination room in "Yanshan Waiji". All these show that all students want to be "champions and first". "Kuixing" also often appears on spending money.
Imperial examination society refers to a society where imperial examination plays an important role in political life and social structure, and its influence is everywhere. Due to the increasingly powerful functions of imperial examination in education, culture and politics, it gradually penetrated into all levels of society. Although there are obvious limitations, the feudal rule of 1300 can't stop it. It is precisely because of its long-term existence and great historical influence that the imperial examination became a prominent feature of China's feudal society. The so-called spending money, spending money outside, spending money intertwined, each with its own characteristics, all kinds of tricks, full of fun, exquisite and extraordinary, showing the scene of social activities at that time from one side. Therefore, the imperial examination system inevitably occupies an important position in the decoration of spending money. It can also be seen that spending money has high artistic appreciation value and research value in the history of coins. Therefore, it is worth our further exploration.
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