Everyone has paid attention to this issue.
In this era, shortage of manpower is a common phenomenon, otherwise there would be no need for countries to linger under the feudal system for so many years. Especially in Eastern Europe, where the Purple Horde Khanate is located, the situation is even more serious.
At the beginning, Zhu Wenkui once asked Guo Kang why the purple tent did not organize a unified examination when selecting managers. Guo Kang told him at that time that right now, given the situation here, there was no need to hold an imperial examination.
Guo Kang believes that one of the prerequisites for the imperial examination is that there are enough scholars, so selection must be carried out in a relatively fair way. But here, there is no such condition at all.
Education in the Central Plains was a rather scary system in the eyes of other ancient civilizations. In the bamboo slips era, it was possible to continuously expand the boundaries of the nobility to the lower classes through education, leading to the proliferation of "scholars".
In the era of using paper, the situation was even more obvious. The spread of education has become something that cannot be stopped. Not only is the aristocratic era gone forever, but the gentry clans will not last long.
In fact, later generations believed that clan politics only existed in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. In other eras and regimes, aristocratic families could only maintain a certain degree of influence. Later, many aristocratic families simply relied on military merit to survive. But after the advent of printing, even this fragile state could no longer exist.
The emergence and improvement of the imperial examination were the result of this development, not the cause. As for why it has developed and improved rapidly since the Song Dynasty, the story of Huang Chao is the most typical example: Because he has been unable to pass the exam, Huang Chao resented the family members for controlling the examination room, and eventually led the crowd to rebel, conquered Chang'an, and massacred the family members there. Family. People at the time lamented that "the inner treasury was burned to ashes, and the bones of public ministers were trampled on in the streets." This group never recovered from the fall.
Therefore, the goal of the imperial examination is not entirely to select the best talents - this method can indeed screen out qualified people, but it is obviously not very good at screening out talented people.
On the other hand, the imperial examination focused more on fairness, or at least making the vast majority of scholars feel fair. In this way, the emergence of "yellow nests" can be suppressed to the greatest extent. To do this, even at the expense of some flexibility and efficiency. Because the government actually doesn't need so many wizards. For the imperial court, a stable structure composed of a large number of qualified personnel is the best choice, which is far better than taking risks.
As for top management talents, because of the extreme talent surplus unique to the Central Plains and the mature and mature bureaucratic system, it is basically guaranteed that those who can climb to the top will not have mediocre qualifications. This task does not require an imperial examination to achieve.
Therefore, the imperial examination can be said to be a very targeted system under a special civilization and special environment. This is also the case with Zhongyuan's entire talent training and selection system in this era. For other places, you can only take a look, it is really difficult to learn.
Like the Purple Horde Khanate, the family itself was one of the centers of education. The status of each family largely comes from their continuous cultivation of talents and the delivery of officials to the military and administrative systems. There is actually no way to do this, because the education here is so backward that even the most educated Greeks back then were crippled by continuous invasions and civil wars.
At present, although there are internal assessment and selection mechanisms here, such as regular examinations within the legion, screening military officials with qualified clerical skills as a reference standard for promotion and rewards. But these are not considered imperial examinations, and they are very different from the imperial examination system in the "post-Huangchao era".
And another center of education is the church.
As the most effective education system in Europe, the church takes over almost all aspects of education. From rural priests teaching children literacy and arithmetic, to various local seminaries, to major church universities, it can be said that the church is present from enlightenment to higher education. As for other parts of Europe, the proportion of church education will only be greater.
It can be said that this system is the most suitable in Europe today. That’s why the church is so concerned about the problem of talent shortage—because it is their responsibility to provide qualified personnel.
The Ross area was even more backward. These dioceses not only had to undertake religious tasks, but also had to help with some administrative responsibilities. Guo Kang estimates that these places will be dominated by churches for a long time. Because secular education is really a luxury, I am afraid it will be hopeless in the short term.
Of course, according to the philosophy of the Purple Horde Khanate, it doesn't matter whether it is secular or not.
There is actually a conceptual understanding issue here.
In Guo Kang's time, the concept of "secularization" in people's minds was a concept proposed by the French. The French meaning of this word is "lay believers".
The church divided believers into three types at that time: lay believers, that is, ordinary believers; friars, that is, monks and nuns; and clergy, that is, people with formal positions such as priests and bishops. Therefore, the meaning of secularization is actually "lay believerization", which means competing for power with the church, thereby taking back the education, thought and other fields controlled by the church under the control of the secular government composed of lay believers.
This concept is not "going to Christianity", but simply "going to church". Because Europeans at that time could not imagine a society without Christianity...
During the most radical era of the Revolution, the French also made some attempts. Some people try to stop worshiping Heavenly Father and instead worship abstract concepts such as "reason", called "reason worship".
Believers in the worship of reason renovated churches in various places, including Notre Dame de Paris, and renamed them "Temple of Reason." Crosses were destroyed and statues in cemeteries were destroyed in various places to show their break with Christianity. Festivals and rallies are also held to promote and celebrate. At its peak, it almost became a new national religion.
Although it seems that it is just replacing the Heavenly Father with an abstract "Tao", the promoters of rational worship insist that it is not an ordinary religion. Momolo, one of the leaders, warned his followers that reason is just an abstract concept, not a god, but a part of man himself. Another leader, Cruz, said bluntly: There is only one god, and that is the people.
And this level of change still caused huge confusion. Many found it too radical and unacceptable, while others accused the change of promoting debauchery and depravity.
In the process of attacking the church, some people took the opportunity to line their own pockets and embezzle church property. Rich people in the city rushed to buy church properties at low prices, but refused to assume the public welfare responsibilities that the church was once responsible for, causing dissatisfaction in the countryside.
Conflicts broke out even between cities. Lyon, the second largest city, criticized the policies of Paris, the largest city, and refused to obey, while Paris threatened to directly send troops to massacre opponents... Everyone became a mess, causing even more serious chaos.
In the end, these extreme actions aroused the dissatisfaction of moderates. Under the leadership of Robespierre, a representative of the moderates, the radicals were purged, and Momolo and others were guillotined. The worship of reason subsequently lost ground, and this attempt basically failed.
This matter is a valuable reference. If France after the Enlightenment cannot withstand such changes, then it would be better for Eastern Europe to be honest these days.
Wei Zhuang's poem "Qin Women's Song" has been lost for a long time in history. Although this poem was very famous at that time, and Wei Zhuang was also called "the scholar of Qin women's chant" by his time, it was lost in the Five Dynasties. According to the records of the Five Dynasties, it was the ministers who particularly disliked the phrase "the sky will trample all the ministers' bones". In order to avoid trouble, Wei Zhuang himself asked not to continue to spread it.
The complete poem known to modern people comes from Dunhuang and was discovered only in modern times. Among the scriptures stolen by the British Stein and the French Pelliot, there was a copy of this poem. Later, after the collation by Luo Zhenyu and Wang Guowei, it became known again.
(End of chapter)
