Research On The Relations Between Imperial Examination System And The Book Of Songs

The imperial examination is an important system of talent selection in ancient China. The Book of Songs is an important test content in the imperial examination. Therefore, the Book of Songs and the imperial examination system are closely related. The development and change of the imperial examination system influence on the study of the Book of Songs, and the development of the studies on the Book of Songs react on the imperial examinations. The cross study of the imperial examination system and the Book of Songs research is not only contribute to the research on the history of the study of the Book of Songs but also beneficial for the study on the history of imperial examination. However, so far, the study of this topic is still weak, the research mainly focused on the cohort study and monographic study, there is no holistic and systematic research.The imperial examination system has lasted for more than 1300 years. During these times, the interactive relationship between the imperial examination system and the study of the Book of Songs has been changing. Therefore, in order to reveal the relationship between the imperial examination system and the Book of Songs more clearly, based on the previous research results, this thesis take the time as the clue, through macroscopic investigating the imperial examination system of development and change of all previous dynasties, deep analyzing on the existing examination paper, the scholar’s examination paper, and the examiner comments, and combining the learning attitude of scholar with its study atmosphere, author based the literature about imperial examination system to fully explore that the imperial examination system impact on study the Book of Songs,and the studies on the Book of Songs react on the imperial examinations.The influence of the imperial examination system on the Book of Songs research is two-sided, both positive significance, but also have a negative impact. There are two main positive significances. First, the imperial examination system to promote the promotion and popularization of the Book of Songs. Second, it also promote the innovation of the research of the Book of Songs, such as the Book of Songs learn to doubt resolution wind in Song Dynasty, the study of the Book of Songs by the flourish of learning from the literary perspective transformation in Ming Dynasty, the Book of Songs textual criticism in Qing Dynasty, etc., in a certain extent by the influence of the imperial examination system. The negative influence of the imperial examination system in the study of the Book of Songs mainly includes the following three aspects,(1) The examination mode causes the scholars only pay attention to recite rather than the research of the Book of Songs in Tang Dynasty, so the research results quite to be few;(2) Examine by the eight-legged essay led to the decline of the study of the Book of Songs in Ming Dynasty;(3) the strict examination standards force scholars to adopt the standard textbook, and imprisons the scholar’s thought, this is not conducive for the development of the study of the Book of Songs. The imperial examination system had a profound influence on the study of Book of Songs, at the same time, the development of the Book of Songs also applies to the imperial examination. The development of the research of the Book of Songs provides a new examination standard for the imperial examination system and the evaluation standard, in order to meet the needs of the new imperial examination system.