It is said that the eight-part essay is too formal and "restricts the mind." Don't the ancients understand this truth? If you know this but still don't change it, then there must be a reason not to change it, and you must have carefully weighed the pros and cons. For example, the civil service examination in Gao Pragmatic's previous life also tested the application essay. People who have passed the civil service examination should know that it is not easy to write the application essay, which is often the key to getting points. The content is mainly about today's hot and difficult topics, and there is also a fixed format to follow. What " Syllogism", asking questions, analyzing problems, solving problems, etc. In fact, isn’t this the modern version of the eight-part essay? Of course, in comparison, its degree of freedom of expression is slightly higher, but the disadvantage is that it is difficult to judge whether it is good or bad. Perhaps from a formal point of view, it seems to be much freer than the eight-legged essay, but sometimes I feel that it is well written and the discussion is exciting, but it does not match the "standard answer" and the score is very low. Or the same article, this person said it was good after reading it, but when another person marked the paper, he thought it was nonsense and the score was very low.
In fact, the ancients understood this truth long ago, which is why there are strict requirements such as the eight-part essay. First, unify the standards in form, formulate game rules, and ensure fair choices to avoid causing criticism. The eight-part essay has formatting requirements, but there is no so-called "standard answer". Moreover, the test papers after the examination will be returned to the person with marks of correction. This is a huge pressure on the examiners, and they must be careful and careful. Compared with the previous life where I only knew the score and could not check whether the changes in the paper were correct or incorrect, it was much more open and democratic.
The eight-part essay has its advantages and disadvantages. Generally speaking, its disadvantages have been exaggerated in modern times, while its huge role in selecting talents, ensuring fairness, continuation of traditional Chinese culture, and maintaining social stability has been ignored.
In fact, the biggest drawback of the eight-legged essay, from a high pragmatic point of view, is not the style, but the scope of the topic. For the eight-legged essay of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the scope of the test questions was basically limited to the "Four Books" [Note: Theoretically the "Five Classics" can be counted, but in fact very few were tested]. When writing articles, they were almost not allowed to have their own thoughts and could only "Speaking on behalf of the saints", it is no wonder that "confining thoughts". Moreover, the exam questions only included the "Four Books", which also led to trouble in setting questions in the later stage - "Four Books" was read over and over again, and every sentence was passed, and there were countless "model essays" for each sentence. As a result, I had to be "ingenious" and come up with various cross-cut questions. Although there were many whimsical and original questions in these cross-cut questions, they also inevitably made some weird and speechless jokes.
In fact, when he had nothing to do in the past few years, the Ming Dynasty reform plan made by Gao Jingshi included a lot of content about the reform of the imperial examination, but that was all after he took over the power in the future, and not only took over the power - but also It must be supported by a huge reputation and a lot of preparations made in the early stage, and then the reform can be carried out step by step and bit by bit.
As for the abolition of the imperial examinations that those who wanted to engage in "****" in the previous life had not thought about at all - haven't you seen that so many French Enlightenment thinkers strongly advocated China's imperial examination system? Voltaire, the leading thinker of the French Enlightenment, even wrote in "On Confucius": "No legislator has ever announced more useful truths to the world than Confucius." "'Don't do to others what you don't want others to do to you' is more than The purest morality of Christian doctrine.” The "Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen" attached to the French Constitution of 1793 and the "Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man and Citizen" attached to the French Constitution of 1795 both include Confucius' famous saying "Do not do to others what you do not want others to do to you", respectively. Principles that define the moral boundaries of freedom and the duties of citizenship. This is the first time that the mottos of foreign sages have been written into the constitution! This shows the extent to which Chinese civilization was highly respected in France at that time. [Note: "Don't do to others what you don't want others to do to you." This classic line from the Analects is now very prominently engraved in the lobby of the United Nations Headquarters in New York, and is known as the "golden rule" for handling state relations. ]
Not only did he worship Confucius, Voltaire also greatly praised the administrative operation mechanism of ancient China, believing that China was much luckier than the political governance forms of India, Persia and Turkey. Here, he said, “everything is adjudicated by the first-level subordinate yamen, and officials must pass several rigorous examinations before being hired. In China, these yamen are the institutions that govern everything. The six ministries belong to the head of the imperial government. ; the Ministry of Personnel is in charge of provincial officials; the Ministry of Revenue is in charge of finance; the Ministry of Rites is in charge of etiquette, science and art; the Ministry of War is in charge of war; the Ministry of Punishment is in charge of prisons; and the Ministry of Work is in charge of public works. The results of affairs handled by these ministries are reported to a highest agency [Note: It should refer to the cabinet]. Under the six ministries, there are 44 subordinate agencies permanently located in Beijing, and officials in each province and city have an auxiliary yamen."
Therefore, in Voltaire's view, humans certainly cannot imagine a better government than the political form of China, and the ancient Chinese government was not the autocratic government in Montesquieu's mind. Under this administrative system, it was impossible for the emperor to exercise arbitrary power. General laws come from the emperor, but because of such a government agency, the emperor can't do anything if he doesn't consult elected people who are proficient in the law. Even though people had to kneel before the emperor as if they were worshiping gods, and even the slightest disrespect to him would be punished as an offence, none of this could mean that this was an autocratic government.
Why? Because in Voltaire's view, a dictatorial government should be like this: the monarch can not follow certain forms, but only rely on his personal will to deprive his subjects of their property or lives without breaking the law without any reason. So if there was ever a country where people's lives, reputations and property were protected by law, it was the "Chinese Empire". The more agencies there are to enforce these laws, the less arbitrary the administrative system will be. Although the monarch can sometimes abuse his power to harm a few people he is familiar with, he cannot abuse his power to harm the majority of the people whom he does not know and who are protected by the law.
In Gao Pragmatic's view, Voltaire's statement was somewhat "China-only", and he may have had the intention of using China's advancement at that time to promote the French Revolution. But it has to be admitted that Voltaire keenly discovered an important factor that limited the Chinese emperor's autocratic power: that is, due to the deep penetration of Confucianism into the hearts of the people, almost everyone, from officials to common people, has become a supervisor of the emperor's words and deeds. member.
Confucianism has extremely strict requirements for the "sage king", which also places strict restrictions on the emperor's actions in terms of public opinion and popular sentiment. This restriction eventually even formed a hand that hung over the heads of rulers of all dynasties. The Sword of Damocles - He who wins the hearts of the people wins the world. If we say it the other way around: if we lose the support of the people, we are doomed to lose the world.
Just like Emperor Longqing is constantly being criticized by his ministers until his head is bloody and his body is completely bruised. Isn't it because of this? It's just that Gao Pragmatic was used to being a "party cadre" in his previous life, and it is difficult to be satisfied with the performance of the current officials. Supervising the emperor is of course necessary, but the focus of supervision should not be on those trivial matters; and there are so many It is actually very simple to supervise the emperor alone. It does not require too much effort. What is more important is that it should be placed on the entire administration of officials. It cannot be reduced to the bottom, let alone the cart before the horse.
