Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 19 Advantages and Disadvantages (Part [-])
It is said that stereotyped essays are too heavy on form and "restrains the mind". Didn'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.Like Gao Yushi’s previous civil service exam, the application test was also taken. People who have passed the civil service test should know that it is not easy to write an application essay, which is often the key to gaining points. Syllogism", ask questions, analyze problems, solve problems and so on.In fact, isn’t this a modern version of stereotyped essay?Of course, in comparison, its degree of free play is slightly higher, but the disadvantage is that it is not well judged.Perhaps from the point of view of form, it seems to be more free than stereotyped essays, but sometimes I feel that the writing is very good and the discussion is very exciting, but it does not match the "standard answer" and the score is very low.Or the same article, the person read it and said it was good, but if another person approved the paper, he thought it was nonsense and the score was very low.

In fact, the ancients understood this truth a long time ago, which is why there are strict requirements such as stereotyped essays. First of all, the standard is unified in form, the rules of the game are formulated, and fair choices are made to avoid criticism.Stereotype essays have format requirements, but there is no so-called "standard answer", and at that time, the completed test papers will be returned to the person with marks of corrections on them.Compared with the previous life who only knew the score and could not check whether the paper was correct or not, it was much more open and democratic.

Stereotype essay has both advantages and disadvantages. Generally speaking, since modern times, its disadvantages have been exaggerated, and its great role in selecting talents, ensuring fairness, continuing Chinese traditional culture, and maintaining social stability has been ignored.

In fact, the real biggest drawback of stereotyped essays, from a highly pragmatic point of view, does not lie in the style of writing, but in the scope of the questions.For Ming and Qing stereotyped essays, the scope of examination questions is basically limited to "Four Books" [Note: In theory, "Five Classics" are also counted, but in fact there are very few examinations]. When writing articles, it is almost not allowed to have one's own thoughts. "Speaking on behalf of the sage", it is no wonder that "imprisoning thoughts".Moreover, the examination questions were not limited to the "Four Books", which also caused troubles in the later writing of the questions-every sentence of the "Four Books" was tested over and over again, and there were countless "model essays" for each sentence.As a result, I had to be "ingenious" and come up with various interception questions. Although there are many whimsical ideas and unique approaches in these interception questions, there are also some weird and speechless jokes.

In fact, during the past few years when nothing happened, the Ming reform plan made by Gao Yushi contained a lot of content about the reform of the imperial examination, but it was all after he took power in the future, and it was not just about taking power—— There must be a huge reputation and many foreshadowings made in the early stage as support, and then we can reform step by step and bit by bit.

As for the abolition of the imperial examination system that those who wanted to engage in "****" in the previous life thought, Gao Pragmatic has never thought about it-don't you see so many French Enlightenment thinkers strongly advocating China's imperial examination system?Voltaire, the master of French Enlightenment thought, even wrote in "On Confucius": "No legislator has announced a more useful truth to the world than Confucius," the purest morality of Christianity".The "Declaration of the Rights of Man and the 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 included Confucius' famous saying "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you", respectively. Defines the moral boundaries of liberty and the principles of civic duty.This can be regarded as the first case to include the maxims of foreign sages into the constitution!This shows how much Chinese civilization was admired in France at that time. [Note: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you," a classic in the "Analects of Confucius", which is now 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, but Voltaire also praised the administrative operation mechanism of ancient China, thinking that China was much luckier than the political rule forms of India, Persia and Turkey.Here, he said, "everything is decided by the subordinate yamen, and officials must pass several rigorous examinations before being hired. In China, these yamen are the institutions that govern everything. Six departments belong to the head of the imperial government. The Ministry of Officials is in charge of provincial officials; the Ministry of Households 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; It should refer to the cabinet]. There are 44 subordinate agencies permanently located in Beijing under the six ministries, and officials in every province and city have an auxiliary yamen.”

Therefore, in Voltaire's view, human beings certainly cannot imagine a better government than China's political form, 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.Ordinary decrees come from the emperor, but since there is such a government apparatus, the emperor can do nothing unless he consults well-versed, elected men of insight.Even if people had to kneel before the emperor as if they were worshiping gods, and if they disrespected him a little, they would be punished as a crime of offending the face of heaven, but none of these could prove that this was an autocratic government.

why?Because in Voltaire's view, a dictatorship should be like this: the monarch can deprive his subjects of their property or life for no reason without breaking the law.So if there ever was a country where people's lives, reputations and property were protected by law, it was the "Empire of China".The more agencies that enforce these laws, the less arbitrary the administrative system becomes.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 he does not know and are under the protection of the law.

From Gao Pragmatism's point of view, Voltaire's statement is more or less "China-only", which may have the intention of using China's advanced status at that time to promote the French Revolution.But it has to be admitted that Voltaire keenly discovered an important factor restricting the Chinese emperor's monopoly: that is, due to the popularity of Confucianism, almost everyone from the officials to the common people has become a part of the supervision of the emperor's words and deeds. member.

Confucianism has extremely strict requirements on the "sage king", which also imposed strict restrictions on the emperor's actions in terms of public opinion and popular sentiment. The Sword of Damocles - the one who wins the hearts of the people wins the world.If you say it the other way around: if you lose the support of the people, you are doomed to lose the world.

It's just like Emperor Longqing is criticized by his courtiers to be bloody and bruised, isn't it because of this reason?It's just that Gao Yushi was used to being a "party cadre" in his previous life, and he is not satisfied with the performance of the big officials at present. It is of course necessary to supervise the emperor, but the focus of supervision should not be on trivial matters; and there are so many It is actually very simple for one person to supervise the emperor alone. It does not need to waste too much effort. More importantly, it should be placed on top of the entire administration of officials.

(End of this chapter)