Keywords: imperial examination system; Civil service examination system; Comparison; use for reference
The imperial examination system, which originated in the Sui Dynasty and developed in the Tang Dynasty, is the longest and most influential official selection system in ancient China, which lasted for more than 1300 years. Even today, the traces left by the imperial examination system in ancient China still look clear and thick, and the role played by the civil service system in contemporary society is becoming increasingly huge and far-reaching. 1933, Ronald once wrote: "Almost all western scholars have not noticed the fact that the existing senior civil service system in the world today originated in China. We have enough evidence to prove China's influence on this system, which is often ignored by western scholars. " Since 1905, the imperial examination system was completely abolished by the Qing court, and it has been more than100th anniversary. In today's 2 1 century, there are undoubtedly profound social and cultural reasons why people will propose and discuss this system that has been abolished for more than 100 years.
As the author of "From Examiners to Examiners" said: "Although the imperial examination system has been abolished for a hundred years, examination, as an important means of selecting talents, has been developing continuously under the new social and historical conditions. The essence of imperial examination culture, such as unified examination form, fair competition, the spirit of selecting talents on the basis of merit, and the mechanism of promoting learning through examination, has been used for reference by China's higher education reform and political system reform, and has had an important and positive impact on the formation and improvement of unified entrance examination for colleges and universities, self-study examination for higher education and national civil service examination system. " This paper compares and analyzes the ancient imperial examination system with the modern civil service examination system in China, summarizes the advantages and disadvantages of the imperial examination system, takes its essence and discards its dross, and draws its rationality from the current civil service examination system in China.
First, the comparison between the imperial examination system and the civil service examination system
< /strong> (1) Examination contents and employment procedures
History often appears the phenomenon of reincarnation. A hundred years after the abolition of the imperial examination system, the national civil servant "must take the exam when he advances" system appeared on the land of China. First, the examination of national civil servants is not an examination (that is, it is not an examination for entering a higher school), but an examiner (that is, selecting national civil servants through examinations)-in this sense, the purpose between the two is exactly the same. Second, they all pass fair and strict (at least in theory) cultural examinations, selecting the superior and eliminating the inferior, so that the winners in the examinations can enter the social management class-in this sense, the means between them are exactly the same. The only difference is in the content of the examination-the imperial examination is an eight-part essay examination, while the current civil service examination involves political, economic, cultural, social and management scientific knowledge.
Civil service examinations are generally divided into oral and written examinations. Countries such as the United States, in addition to oral and written tests, also conduct practical examinations for some technicians. The examination content pays attention to reality, emphasizes ability, and pays attention to the combination of generalists and professionals, and conducts different forms and contents of examinations for different types of civil servants; The recruitment procedure is relatively simple, which can be roughly divided into four stages: recruitment, examination, selection and trial. Although there are oral and written examinations in China's imperial examination, the content of the examination is seriously divorced from reality, and it does not pay attention to ability. It is limited to the Four Books, the Five Classics, poems and songs, and encourages rote learning, and the eight-part essay style is rampant, which often leads to the situation that what you have learned is not used and what you have learned is not used. The examination and employment procedures are more complicated and have more levels. Take the Qing Dynasty as an example, its entrance examination has to go through a process of county examination, government examination, college examination, township examination, general examination, palace examination and appointment. It often takes a person most of his life to achieve the final success, even when he is old.
Through the above simple comparison, we can easily understand that with a little rational thinking, the imperial examination system can not be completely denied. The formation and fixation of the imperial examination system as a national system is not the subjective design of manpower, but the result of the optimal choice in the comparison of various methods. Similarly, the continuation of the imperial examination system for more than 1300 years is by no means the result of any feudal emperor or ruling class's deliberate maintenance, but the natural result of its relative rationality, practicality and operability.
(B) official assessment and promotion methods
Modern civil servants generally follow the principles of democracy and openness, objectivity and justice, and protection (referring to the right of civil servants to appeal against unfair assessment comments, and even bring a lawsuit to the court). Promotion is usually composed of examination promotion, examination promotion and seniority promotion. The purpose of these practices is obviously to ensure that the assessment and promotion of civil servants are reasonable and objective. Although there are many good principles and methods in the examination and promotion of officials under the imperial examination system and under the western civil service system, they are often branded with more human relations because they are under the rule of man in feudal society. Officials are often judged not according to the ability and performance of the examinees, but according to their own likes and dislikes and their relationship. In the history of China, countless officials, such as Fan Zhongyan and Ouyang Xiu, were unable to be promoted or even relegated because of unfair assessment, which not only prevented a large number of talented and knowledgeable people from coming to the fore and giving full play to their talents, but also accelerated the pace of the demise of various dynasties.
Since the reform and opening up, due to the transformation of our society, great and profound changes have taken place in both the economic system and the political system. The establishment of the civil service system is one of them. The current national civil service system clearly stipulates that you must pass strict and fair examination procedures before you can enter the civil service, thus ending the non-institutional, non-procedural and arbitrary selection of civil servants. This is undoubtedly a great progress. However, compared with the ancient imperial examination system, this kind of examination still has some preset conditions for candidates, such as education level (that is, college diploma or above), identity conditions (such as the location of household registration and the previous occupation of candidates), and so on. At this point, I think we should learn from the advantages of the ancient imperial examination system: that is, we should abandon all preconditions and make the state's administrative organs open to the largest possible society, so that all Chinese people and citizens who are interested in becoming civil servants can take the examination, even if they don't have a college diploma, their household registration is not local, they are workers and peasants, or they are engaged in other social occupations. Only in this way can we embody openness, fairness and justice, and at the same time expand the scope of talent selection. Some people may think that this will greatly increase the number of candidates, which is not conducive to operation and management. In fact, this concern is superfluous, because modern society is a pluralistic and open society, and the range of people's choice of occupation is much wider than that of ancient times, so there can never be many people willing to take the civil service examination. And even if there are many people who refer to it, we must adhere to the principle that the examination is open to the whole society.
(3) at the level of laws and regulations.
China's imperial examination system appeared in a feudal society with strict hierarchy and imperial power as the center, and the emperor's edict and imperial edict were decrees, so it was very arbitrary and ruled by people, and it did not form a corresponding complete system and regulations. Imperial examinations often change with the emperor's will, which can be abolished, established, lifted and stopped. Take the Song Dynasty as an example. From the seventh year of Song Taizu Kaibao (AD 974) to the first year of Jiayou in Song Renzong (AD 1056), it has been 97 years since the founding of the People's Republic of China in the Song Dynasty, and there were only 44 imperial examinations.
The western civil service system has its legalization and regularization content since the day it came into being. Every country has a civil service system, and at the same time, there are relevant laws and regulations on the main body of the civil service system. For example, the Order in Council of Britain 1855 on the Employment of Civil Servants of the Royal Government, the pendleton Law of the United States 1883, the General Statute of Civil Servants of France 1946 and the Federal Officials Law of Germany 1953. These laws and regulations ensure the continuity and effectiveness of the civil service system from the institutional level.
At present, China's laws and regulations related to the civil service system are1Provisional Regulations on State Civil Servants promulgated in August 1993. Compared with the relevant laws and regulations promulgated in western countries, this regulation is not only insufficient in quantity, but also needs to be further refined and improved in content. Accelerating the construction of laws and regulations related to the civil service system is not only the requirement of socialist legal system construction, but also the internal need of objectivity, fairness and scientificity of civil service management.
Second, look at the modern civil service examination system from the imperial examination system.
< /strong> (A) the political perspective
1, imperial examination system, which greatly broadens the channels for the selection of officials and makes the selection open to the whole society. Anyone who is literate can take the exam, thus breaking the monopoly of the rich family on administrative power. Even the people from the poorest families can enter the ranks of social managers through this normal competition procedure, and "when the dynasty is Tian Shelang, it will be the emperor's hall at dusk.". There is no seed in the phase, and men should be self-reliant. " Therefore, it is a complete overthrow of bloodline theory and hereditary system. In today's sociological discourse, it started a "smooth social mobility mechanism", which broke the solidification of social class boundaries to a certain extent, thus providing more opportunities and hopes for social members, easing conflicts caused by social status differences, releasing social tension caused by social injustice, and maintaining social stability to a certain extent.
2. The imperial examination system has greatly strengthened the official-oriented consciousness of "studying to be an official"-this point, even those who vigorously defend the imperial examination system have to admit. In fact, the official-oriented consciousness is a universal social psychology that any traditional society must have, and it is not limited to China. Just because the feudal society in China lasted for the longest time, this kind of consciousness is the most stubborn, and in a sense, it seems to have become a collective unconsciousness. Originally, scholars don't have to be officials-just as Xunzi, a great thinker in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, said: "Scholars don't have to be officials, but officials must be like learning." However, in a highly centralized feudal country, the benefits (material and spiritual) brought by being an official are too much, and no one, especially a scholar, can resist this temptation, so a strong social and cultural atmosphere and strong social and cultural psychology will be formed.
3. The ancient imperial examinations were organized by governments at all levels. The emperor would appoint trusted ministers as examiners, and governments at all levels would also appoint corresponding officials to organize the examinations. This practice may be the only choice under the power structure at that time. In modern society, it is not desirable. During the Republic of China, Dr. Sun Yat-sen followed the example of western capitalist countries to separate the three powers. However, considering the need of selecting officials and the tradition of imperial examinations in China, he created a power structure of "separation of the five powers" by himself-specially set up an examination institute to select officials. This examination institute is a relatively independent institution, parallel to the Executive Yuan, the Legislative Yuan, the Judicial Court and the Supervision Institute. The purpose of his setting is to be fair and just. Because the executive yuan, as the government, organizes the examination, it selects talents for itself, and it is impossible to supervise and restrict it. In the ancient imperial examinations, bribing the examiners, courting friends and cheating in the examination hall ... are a lot of objective facts. And by another authoritative specialized examination institution specializing in this matter, it is possible to minimize this drawback. In view of this, I think the current national civil service examination should be organized and implemented by people's congresses at all levels. Because the National People's Congress is the organ of state power and exercises state power on behalf of the people, civil servants who serve the people should be chosen by the people, not by the government itself. Secondly, the organization and implementation by the National People's Congress can better ensure the fairness and justice of the examination.
(B) Economic perspective
The imperial examination led the people's attention and intelligence to the channel of being an official, neglected other disciplines and industries, and formed the social concept and atmosphere of "everything is inferior, only reading is high" As a result, the most talented people in China are literary talents and political talents, but there are few economic and scientific talents. China lags behind in science and technology and basic science because these contents were not tested in the imperial examination. Mathematicians Zu Chongzhi, Zheng Xuan, architect Lu Ban and physicist Mozi were all well before the Imperial Examination. In the Tang Dynasty, the imperial examination also tested mathematics, law and other applied sciences, and then it gradually became dominated by Confucian classics. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it became a rigid stereotyped examination, which did not allow candidates to give full play to their ideas, which greatly curbed people's thinking and limited their ability to play, thus the economy could not develop well.
(3) Cultural perspective
1, the imperial examination system takes the level of education as the standard for selecting officials, which is a correct principle in any case. Because any society must be managed by people with high cultural accomplishment, the advantages and disadvantages of civilian administration and samurai dictatorship are clear at a glance.
Although the practice of taking eight-part essay in imperial examination must be abandoned, the emphasis on literary accomplishment should be preserved and managed to be included in the content of modern civil service examination. The level of literary accomplishment actually reflects the level of one's humanistic accomplishment. Intellectuals trained by higher education in modern times all have high professional knowledge, and their majors are becoming more and more detailed due to the development of science and technology, but it is hard to say whether they have a certain cultural accomplishment. At present, I am afraid that most of our cadres are from science and engineering, but their knowledge in humanities is relatively lacking, which is undoubtedly very unfavorable for them to manage public affairs. Therefore, it is undoubtedly of great benefit to learn from the tradition of attaching importance to literary accomplishment in the imperial examination and add relevant contents of literature, history, especially China traditional culture to the modern civil service examination, so as to enhance their humanistic quality and cultivate their national spirit.
Facts have proved that asking candidates to write an article can show their thinking ability, language organization and expression ability, logical reasoning ability and the breadth of their knowledge ... In short, writing an article is a comprehensive reflection of a person's cultural level. At present, Chinese exams in schools at all levels still require writing, which is the reason. Moreover, the composition test is the most difficult to cheat. Of course, writing an article is really an armchair strategist. Writing a beautiful article does not necessarily make you a good "official". But if a person can't even write fluently, his language is inaccurate, his logic is confused and his reasoning is unclear, his cultural accomplishment can be imagined, and it is doubtful whether he can be a good "official".
2. As an important national system in ancient China, the imperial examination was held every year (usually in autumn), and many candidates who failed in the first year could take the examination in the second and third years, instead of "taking one exam for life". This selection method based on culture naturally formed a good orientation, which made the whole society pay attention to cultural education, and the atmosphere of reading and studying spread all over China, making China a country that attaches the most importance to education, thus ensuring the continuation and inheritance of civilization. China has become the only country among all ancient civilizations that has not interrupted its own civilization, and the imperial examination system has indeed contributed.
However, although the repeatability of this kind of examination provides candidates with more opportunities, it is also easy for candidates to indulge in it, so that they still enjoy it until they are white-haired. Therefore, the age limit of candidates (such as under 35 years old) should be stipulated. However, it is still a principle to allow candidates to repeat the exam, so as to avoid the tragedy of talent being buried because of one or two failed exams.
Three, the imperial examination system of China's civil service examination system.
< /strong> As a talent selection system in feudal society, the imperial examination system lasted for more than 1300 years in China. From its emergence to its final demise, the reason was not the examination system itself, but the rigidity of the examination content, which led to its demise. It is worth learning from the current civil service examination system in China.
(A) the implementation of multi-modal examination system, comprehensive selection of social talents.
1, the imperial examination is an effective competition mechanism, its competition object (administrative post) is open, and it is open to all competition subjects (scholars). Moreover, the object of competition is not limited to a certain level, from the prime minister to the magistrate. The imperial examination is attractive to all scholars, and there are many people who take part in the scientific examination. It is a lifelong goal for many scholars to gain fame through the scientific examination, and the number of people employed is extremely limited, which shows that the competition in the scientific examination is very fierce and it is an effective competition mechanism. However, in China's current civil servant selection system, most of the civil servants are middle-level, low-level, below the chief clerk and in non-leadership positions. The scope of competition is small, the level is low, the competition is not attractive enough, and the competition is not fierce enough, which is not conducive to extensive access to talent resources. We can learn from the way of selecting talents in the imperial examination, further expand and improve the scope and level of competitive posts, expand the proportion of competitive posts and strengthen the competitive mechanism.
2, the implementation of multi-modal examination comprehensive selection of talents. In the Tang and Song Dynasties, the imperial examination system implemented three selection systems, namely, solving the examination, provincial examination and palace examination. In the Qing Dynasty, it actually implemented four selection systems, namely, children's examination, provincial examination, general examination and palace examination. Strict multi-modal selection was conducive to selecting talents with high cultural quality and strong administrative ability to enter the state administrative institutions, thus improving the administrative efficiency of administrative institutions. However, in China's current cadre selection system, the appointment system has no examination procedures and is basically a "candidate", which is difficult to be fair, fair and open; The examination and selection system is basically presided over by the personnel agency of the local government, and consists of examination papers and interviews. There is no strict multi-modal selection method, especially the interview is a mere formality, which provides an opportunity for recruiting corruption, which is not conducive to selecting truly outstanding talents into the ranks of cadres. We can learn from the multi-level examination system of selecting talents in imperial examinations, truly select top talents from all walks of life to join the ranks of cadres, and continuously inject vitality into the ranks of national cadres.
(B) legal norms of the examination system, to ensure fair and equitable selection.
The imperial examination was guaranteed by corresponding laws and regulations in each period. The Tang, Song, Ming and Qing dynasties have clearly stipulated the conditions for entering the exam, the time, subjects, procedures, content establishment, writing requirements, marking procedures, ranking procedures and corresponding treatment. For example, in the Tang Dynasty, it was stipulated that those engaged in industry and commerce could not take part in scientific research, that is, "self-managing industry and commerce, specializing in their own business, and not being an official". In order to ensure the quality of candidates and select outstanding talents for the country to the greatest extent, the governments of various dynasties that implemented the imperial examination supervised the tribute of qualified talents through laws. For example, it is stipulated in the Tang Law that local and Beijing academic libraries must present outstanding candidates to national examinations every year according to regulations.
However, China's current "Provisional Regulations on State Civil Servants" has not yet passed the legislation of the National People's Congress, the examination time is irregular, the examination content is not uniform, especially the marking and admission procedures are not uniform everywhere, which is subjective and arbitrary, which affects the seriousness and fairness of the examination.
(C) the examination content should be scientific and reasonable.
The abolition of the imperial examination system is mainly due to the rigidity of the examination content, which can not reflect the true talents and practical knowledge of the selected talents and achieve the goal of selecting outstanding talents for the country. The current national civil service examination should draw lessons from the imperial examination in content setting, instead of taking a set of examination papers to test the world, we should consider the needs of various employing departments and the different nature of posts in various industries, absorb the advantages of the imperial examination in the Tang Dynasty, and adopt the method of combining basic knowledge examination with professional knowledge or professional skills examination. Select compound talents with considerable cultural foundation and corresponding professional ability to enter the national civil service, and realize the transformation from the previous emphasis on knowledge level to the modern emphasis on comprehensive quality.
(D) Examination recruitment should be promoted from recruitment to promotion, and the proportion of appointment system should be expanded.
The imperial examination system only implements the examination system when recruiting talents, and the promotion of officials depends entirely on the evaluation of higher authorities, resulting in the phenomenon that officials at all levels are blindly pleased with the world in order to get promoted, regardless of the lives of the people. Its appointment method is similar to today's appointment system, and many disadvantages have been mentioned above. The most important thing is that this appointment system, which lacks democratic color, leads bureaucrats at all levels to ignore the faces of ordinary people and does not represent the interests of the masses. Officials are alienated from "public servants" to "rulers" on high, leading to the opposition between officials and the people. To prevent similar phenomena, it is required to further intensify the reform of the appointment system and change the status quo that power is concentrated in the hands of a few leaders in the process of cadre selection.
Examination recruitment should be applied not only in the recruitment process, but also in the promotion stage, so as to reduce the possibility of manual operation in the selection of cadres and promote the atmosphere of continuous learning of the whole cadre team. At the same time, we should also expand the proportion of cadres elected by the people, give local, grass-roots and especially the broad masses of the people the democratic rights they deserve, let the broad masses of the people participate in the selection of leading cadres, and choose leading cadres who can truly represent and work for the interests of the people. Resolutely put an end to the phenomenon of "selecting and employing people, one person has the final say" and "selecting people among a few people". Whether a cadre is admitted, appointed or promoted depends on the integration of the judges, the masses and the leading bodies.
Only in this way can we truly reform and improve the existing cadre selection and appointment system, establish a system of selecting and appointing party and government cadres at all levels with the examination and appointment system as the core, and establish an efficient and clean national civil servant team.
To sum up, both of them are large-scale social examinations, and the modern civil service examination and the imperial examination system are directly inherited or indirectly related to the imperial examination in terms of examination content, examination function or social impact. Nowadays, the imperial examination system has stopped, but the way of selecting talents in exams with a spirit of fairness has not and cannot be abolished. Comparing the history and reality of examination from the perspective of "Imperial Examination" is helpful for us to explore the inherent law of examination development, and can provide rich historical materials for today's examination reform, so that the examination system can develop healthily along the right track.
(Author: Ji Chunlei Unit: Nantong Qidong Recruitment Office)