I have lived forever since the end of Qin Dynasty

Chapter 391 The Necessity of Investigation

"Inspection and examination system." Upon hearing this, Liu Che tapped the document with his fingers and murmured softly, "It's interesting."

This is not the first time that the concept of inspection has appeared.

In the eleventh year of Emperor Gaozu's reign, Liu Bang issued an edict requiring various places to recommend "sage officials".

The edict states: "If there are wise men and officials who are willing to travel with me, I can respect them... If they want to be praised for their virtues, they must personally persuade them to come. Send them to the prime minister's government office, the office, the righteousness, and the year. If you have it, you can't. If you feel sick, don't send him away."

The promulgation of this edict can be regarded as the prototype of the implementation of inspections.

It is no coincidence.

During the period of Emperor Xiaowen, edicts were also issued.

"I will recommend those who are virtuous, upright, and able to speak out and give advice to remedy my shortcomings."

This time the inspection and promotion not only newly stipulated the content of those who were virtuous, upright, and able to speak out and give advice, but also stipulated that counties and even townships should be inspected and promoted based on their population size.

"The three elders, filial brothers, and Litian permanent members are placed according to their household registration, and each of them follows his own will to guide the people."

As for Emperor Wen's twelfth year, he issued an edict again.

"Filial piety and brotherhood are the basis of great obedience in the world; the strength of the fields is the basis of livelihood... Honest officials are the representative of the people. I highly commend the actions of these two or three officials. Today, in the county of Wanjia, there is no response to the order. Is this true human kindness?" This is because the way to promote talented officials is not prepared."

This means that the subject of honest officials has appeared newly in the examination and examination content.

To sum up, the awareness system is not a new concept.

However, Chen Luo's proposal is to normalize, institutionalize and scale the inspection system.

After all, whether it was the period of Emperor Gaozu or the period of Emperors Wen and Jing, the imperial examination system was only a supplementary method for selecting officials. The number of people selected was sparse, ranging from twenty to thirty to no more than a hundred at a time. In addition, the time was not fixed, and some It may not be held once in ten years.

Of course, Chen Luo knew that this was not unrelated to the background of the times.

In the early years of Emperor Gaozu, Emperor Hui, and then Emperor Wen, most of the founding nobles were still alive, and the meritorious faction controlled the main power of the Han Dynasty, and could even check and balance the imperial power.

If the descendants of meritorious officials and Chehou wanted to serve, then their heirs could naturally occupy high-level positions in the court. If they went to serve as officials in counties or princes, they would at least start as county magistrates, even if they did not get involved in the central power. The Xia Chen family also has children who serve as county governors in the local area.

After all, the power and status of the family need to be maintained. As long as the descendants have a little bit of success, the older generation is still willing to support them.

Due to the background of the times, inspection cannot be implemented on a large scale.

There are only so many official positions. If you recruit talented people, but there is no suitable position for them, cumulatively, those talented people will have resentment, just like someone sent you a thousand-mile horse, but you let it sit idle in the stable every day, wasting the natural resources. The world will pity the situation of the Chollima and laugh at your ignorance. No one will be willing to send the Chollima to your door.

As the times continued to move forward, in the later years of Emperor Xiaowen, the first and second generations of hero factions basically all withdrew from the center of power in the court, especially the younger generations in the family, such as the Cao family in Pingyang and the Xiao family in Fengdi. , Liu Di Zhang, etc. have basically withdrawn from the center of power.

At that time, the power in the court was dominated by the civil servants represented by Jia Yi; as for outside the pass, the various princes and kings of the Liu family occupied one side.

After Emperor Xiaojing ascended the throne, in order to combat the excessive local power of the Liu family princes, the Seven Kingdoms Rebellion occurred.

The pacification of the Seven Kingdoms Rebellion indirectly contributed to the rise of the Military Merit Sect.

The leader of the Military Merit Sect is Zhou Yafu, who is inextricably linked to the Meritorious Minister Sect.

Therefore, during the reign of Emperor Jing, the only way to become an official was through military service, and the number of inspections was pitiful.

Until Liu Che came to the throne, no matter whether it was the meritorious faction, the princes or the military meritorious faction, the power was no longer what it was at the beginning, and the foreign relatives who seemed to be prosperous now were actually dependent on the imperial power, unlike the previous factions. , has the strength and status to check and balance the imperial power.

In addition, after decades of development in the Han Dynasty, the population and the number of households have almost doubled. In addition, the vassal states have been divided, so many new counties and counties have been established.

Under such circumstances, a large number of vacant official positions appeared.

Liu Che wanted to appoint a group of capable officials instead of just filling the extra local official positions, so the inspection system became a good choice.

"There are as many talents in the world as there are crucian carp in the river. Your Majesty's desire for talents is like bait thrown out, so that the talents are willing to gather together. The adoption of the inspection system is to 'fish' all these talents ashore for His Majesty's use. Used by big men." Chen Luo used an analogy to describe the relationship between talents and inspections, speaking slowly.

Liu Che rubbed his chin and fell into thought.

He was thinking about the pros and cons of the examination system.

Now I really lack available talents, no matter which aspect, I feel that it is almost boring.

If according to Empress Dowager Dou's idea, the Han Dynasty continues to use Huang Lao's techniques to govern the country, then the current configuration is completely sufficient, but if he wants to expand his territory in the future, he will not have an invincible general in the front, and there will be no food and grass in the rear... What if he wants to expand his territory in the future? Victory is achieved on the battlefield unless the enemy is also a mess.

Although it is also a kind of victory to win against the enemy, Liu Che doesn't like it.

Gradually, he began to consider how to implement the inspection and examination system.

About a quarter of an hour later, Liu Che raised his head and said, "Boyu must have been thinking about this issue for a long time, right?"

The design of top-level political systems does not happen overnight.

Every small policy change is likely to affect thousands of people.

For example, during Shang Yang's reform, the well-field system was changed to private ownership of land. It seemed that it was just a simple change in land ownership relations. In fact, it was a great encouragement to the people of Qin at that time. Farming and war strengthened the country, which laid the foundation for unifying the world. .

As for the inspection system proposed by Chen Luo, it seems to be just a system for selecting talents, but it fits the anguish in the hearts of the Han people today. This is why Liu Che believes that Chen Luo has been thinking about this issue for a long time.

Chen Luo replied: "I have traveled far and wide and met many knowledgeable people. Their talents, knowledge, and conduct are all superior to mine. They are far superior to me."

But when I asked them why they didn't become officials and benefit the people, these people sighed helplessly.

This happened so often that I started to think about the reason.

When I went south to provide disaster relief this time, I was even more worried when I saw in Lujiang that the prefect had lost his moral character.

If there are few local officials who do practical things and there are many insects and rats, then His Majesty's promotion of good governance is misinterpreted as bad, and the people will also feel resentful. "

At the end of the story, he did not forget to give Lujiang Prefect another blow.

Let the other party die completely.

With a cold snort, Liu Che said with a serious look: "That guy, who eats the king's salary but sucks the people's fat, really deserves to die.

Thanks to you for discovering it, otherwise no one would have exposed it and he would have been able to sit back and relax.

But I still have a question, that is, after the adoption of the inspection and promotion system, how to ensure that the elected officials are suitable people? "

Regarding this issue, Chen Luo had already prepared a draft. However, he thought for a moment, paused for a while, and then continued to answer: "I think we can start from the requirements of the police.

The first is a virtuous person, considering issues such as the important affairs of the world and governing the country and the people.

They can be sent to counties or serve as six hundred stone officials in the court for several years of experience, and then promoted based on their performance.

The second one is those who understand the classics, laws and regulations, and examine the difficult cases in the Han Dynasty.

Assistance can be delegated to local governments, with local officials handling government affairs and then arranging their future based on future performance.

The third is those who are brave and know the art of war. Test their control, shooting and strength.

He can be sent to the border to serve as a centurion, and his position can be promoted according to military merit.

The fourth one is a person who is good at arithmetic, and his arithmetic is tested.

They can be sent to coordinate the fields, number of households, and food rations in various counties of the Han Dynasty, and reward them according to their performance. "

He finished reporting the overall plan and paid attention to every detail.

A wise man governs, a man who knows the law makes the rules, a brave man fights, and a man who knows how to count is responsible for the inspection.

Especially the fourth point is even more profound.

You must know that Mohism advocates equality, which is not in line with the thoughts of the rulers.

Even if it has strong vitality among the people at the moment, if there is no upward path, it will eventually become a niche and die in troubled times.

Therefore, Chen Luo proposed arithmetic as a subject.

The Mohist disciples were either calculating project data or checking trade amounts in the caravan.

Both are inseparable from mathematical calculations, and practice makes perfect day after day.

In terms of arithmetic, no other school in the world is stronger than them.

Giving the Mohist children a reasonable channel to enter the officialdom will give the Mohist family more choices for future development.

This can be regarded as Chen Luo's selfishness, leaving a "back door" for the Mo family.

Hearing this, Liu Che was very satisfied and nodded slightly.

Boyu did not set random standards. These talents were exactly what he longed for.

However, after careful consideration of the previous cases of the Han Dynasty soliciting talents from the people, we found that there seemed to be some omissions in Chen Luo's proposal.

After thinking about it, he added: "The Han Dynasty ruled the world with filial piety. A filial son can also serve as an example for the world. He recommends filial sons to become officials, and the world also has an example. What Boyu just said is only among the rural talents. If there are Honest officials should also have opportunities to go further."

Filial sons and honest officials may not have any outstanding performance at the political level, but they are consistent with the Han Dynasty's governing philosophy and are suitable for spiritual propaganda.

"Your Majesty is wise. I didn't expect that I still had some oversights in what I was thinking about day and night. Fortunately, you checked it out." Chen Luo exclaimed.

But he actually knew it.

With the precedent of inspections during the reign of Emperor Wen, as well as the national conditions of the Han Dynasty, it is basically impossible to abolish the two contents of "filial son" and "honest official".

The reason why he kept silent at first was because he had arranged all the matters by himself. So what should Liu Che say?

Sitting in the top position, he kept nodding his head and saying "right, right, right"?

If you just want to show off, then there is no problem if you do this, but if Liu Che is dissatisfied, it will easily make things impossible.

Therefore, it is obviously more appropriate to leave a few "loopholes" to allow the other party to have a sense of participation.

"By the way, what kind of assessment is Boyu talking about?" Liu Che rubbed his chin with great interest.

Chen Luo pursed his lips and said: "These recommended talents, filial sons, and honest officials can gather together in the capital, and then take the exam in the main hall, where His Majesty will personally set the test, and based on the merits of their results, they will be selected as candidates. Standards for assigning high and low positions.”

In fact, it was not that I had not thought about implementing the imperial examination system directly in one step.

But the conditions of the times did not allow it.

The relatively fixed political systems that appear in each era are not accidental, but must be in line with the development of the times.

The prerequisites for the imperial examination system were, firstly, that there were enough scholars in the world, and secondly, the content of the imperial examinations was relatively fixed.

Are there enough scholars among the big men today?

Even among the noble families, the children of military generals could not read a few Chinese characters, let alone the common people.

The overall literacy rate among the Han people is probably less than 3%.

Moreover, among those who are literate, less than one in ten can interpret the classics and have studied systematically.

Under such circumstances, there was no basis for holding the imperial examination.

As for how to formulate the content of the imperial examination, the dispute may not stop.

Although today's Han Dynasty does not have hundreds of schools of thought running rampant, various schools have their own areas of prevalence and a basis for support.

Even though Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty only respected Confucianism in history, Confucianism was divided into several factions, and they fought to the death for decades before finally deciding the winner.

Not to mention that there are so many schools of thought now. If the exam questions are set according to the words of one school, the students of other schools will probably complain. Even depending on which school takes advantage, the various internal factions will also give out their opinions. There are a variety of answers, and there is no standard answer at all.

If you want to solve it, you have to force the children of other families to change families and then use the family's opinions as the test questions. This can barely solve the problem on the test questions.

But it may only take twenty or thirty years to solve exam questions and force unified thinking, but it may take hundreds of years to increase the number of scholars in the world.

During this period of time, the only ones who were able to study were the children of the original meritorious sect, so they went back to the old path, allowing those powerful people who had lost power to regain their power, and after experiencing the stage of losing power, I am afraid they will have a negative opinion of "books" "This trend relies on stricter control, which is not conducive to the spread of knowledge.

This is not what Liu Che wants to see.

Therefore, Chen Luo's final choice was still the inspection system at this stage in history.

It is indeed the official selection system that best suits the current situation of the Han Dynasty.

"Then the talented people in these places don't understand the standards for my questions, so what should I do?" Liu Che asked, thinking very carefully.

Rubbing his chin, Chen Luo responded and gave a solution, "Before the assessment begins, these people can be arranged to study together in a certain place, and their knowledge level can be tested in advance before being assessed by Your Majesty.

For example, the inspection time is set in February every year, and these talented people arrive in Chang'an before April to study for three to five months, and then His Majesty inspects them in September. "

(End of this chapter)