The Reform And Abolition Of The Imperial Examination System And The Modern Transformation Of Chinese Civilization

Using the modern transformation of Chinese civilization as a coordinate, around the abolition of the imperial examination system in the late Qing dynasty, this paper discusses the following problems:the civilization background of the imperial examination system, the important function of the imperial examination system in the Chinese civilization, the process and method of reforming and abolishing the imperial examination system in the modern era, the immediate problem and the profound influence caused by the abolition of the imperial examination system, and the methodology ideas behind the reform method. The core idea of this paper is that the imperial examination system played an extremely important role in the Chinese civilization system. This system was highly imbedded into the social structure and also had some good aspects of successful human civilization in common. However, the highly integrated Chinese civilization which was linked by the imperial examination system was highly heterogeneous with modern civilization, which brought great difficulty to the modern transformation of the imperial examination system and Chinese civilization. In the end, under the influence of external pressure and some particular cognition, methodology ideas and appeals, the reformers at that time adopted the method of "joining the imperial examination system into schools", which meant selecting scholars from schools instead of the imperial examination system, thus the traditional examination system was abolished. But this practice brought about some terrible problems and left some white space, which also to some extent caused the collapse and degradation of Chinese society. The eastern civilization was confronted with many reformation dilemmas in the course of studying the West and achieving modern transformation. The case of the reform and abolition of the imperial examination system illustrated that the method of copying the western form directly and starting all over again would brought about "dual-deterioration". The conflicts and disorders caused by the rejection reaction, the malignant expansion of bureaucratic state and the power out of control, and the dysfunction and degradation caused by the collapse of our own civilization, those aspects listed above would also caused the institutions implanted from the West to become deteriorate and lose its positive functions, which was an underlying reason which caused frustration to the modern transformation of China and the failure of the institutional transplant.This paper carries out over the following several aspects:1. The Chinese civilization evolved into great unification political structure, which had its historical rationality. In the tense political ecology of the Warring States Period, the advantage of centralization of state power made Qin trump, and the Chinese civilization stepped into the great unification era from then on. The great unification kingship had a directional influence to the Chinese history, Han bearing the system of Qin dynasty more or less reflected the path dependence of institution. Moreover, in the eye of long duration, the fact that the great unification kingship could rebuild itself again and again reflected that it had its historical rationality. To be specific, on the one hand, the historical rationality reflected in the functional advantages in responding domestic and foreign challenges:the organizational skills and coordination capacity, and the concentrated ability to use resources made it competent in preventing floods by water control, in disaster relief and in defense of nomadic people. On the other hand, the scale advantage of great unification could set up circulation platform, deepen the collaboration, and promote the development of civilization.2. The inner limit of great unification political structure made the domestication of power become the key of the survival of Chinese civilization. It had some necessity that Confucianism got its development opportunity in that political structure. Highly concentrated power tends to abuse, and the Qin dynasty as the beginner of great unification politics showed the risk of abuse of power clearly. Qin provided a cautionary tale for the subsequent dynasties. This sword of Damocles hanging above the head of kingship made the rulers of Han turn from positive politics to negative politics, from ruling by force to ruling by morale, from tyranny to benevolent government, from depending on the monarch to depending on the people. And therefore the great unification kingship forged indissoluble bond-with the Confucian governance principles. The Han Confucianists represented by Dong Zhongshu developed Confucianism to emphasize its role of restrain power. Thus the "symbiotic relationship" between Confucianism and the great unification kingship made the highly concentrated power can control its risk while playing its competitive advantage. So they both eventually survived in the screening of history.3. The Confucianising of power needed a process, and the imperial examination system was a result of the integrity of them and was also a sign which showed their relationship was refined. The Confucianising of great unification kingship meant that Confucian and Confucianists entered into the state system. The Confucian classics studies and "adjudication according to Confucian thoughts" showed that the operation of power had interacted with the interpretation of Confucian classics. And the operation of power had been surrounded by Confucian world of meaning, Confucian discourse, Confucian governance principles, and Confucian normative system. However, it needed some institutional strengthening to deepen the degree of Confucian penetration. In the matter of selection of elites, cultivation of talents, reserve of talents, and social civilizing, the Chinese civilization went through from the appointment system to the imperial examination system. The formation, improvement and sizing of the imperial examination system integrated Confucian, society and the great unification state tightly eventually.4. As an organic chimera in great unification society, the imperial examination system played an important role in every aspects of the society. The imperial examination system strengthened the great unification, promoted the vertical social mobility, ensured the quality of the elites, deepened the Confucianising process, promoted the formation of Confucian civilian group made up by scholars, and made Confucian principles penetrate into the collective unconsciousness of the rulers, thereby played an irreplaceable role in domesticating power. The deep influence of the imperial examination system not only limited to the top layer of governance, but also cultivated and selected lots of gentries in local society. Those gentries became pillars of local governance, played a role in connecting officers and the people, in inheriting tradition, and had decisive influence in constructing social-cultural networks which made it possible to govern with lower cost. Besides, the imperial examination system became a central hub which combined the great unification kingship, Confucian, scholar-bureaucrat, and gentries in later Chinese civilization. The imperial examination system also became a conveyor belt to complete the reproduction of politics, society and culture. Many necessary functions to maintain the balance and stability of a society converged at this system. Although many arrangements were different from modern western society, but there were also many common aspects of successful civilization behind this system.5. Of course the imperial examination system had obvious limits, so we can understand why it was the first to be reformed under the pressure in the late Qing dynasty. But abolishing the imperial examination system prematurely brought devastating and profound harm to the Chinese civilization. The harm was structural and functional, and the frustration encountered in the modern transformation of Chinese civilization was in relation to that. It should be said that the imperial examination system had its limitations even in traditional sight. For example, the eight-legged essay went rigid, the examination deviate the aim of selecting talents, the waste of intellects, the monopoly relationship between education and Confucianism, the narrow way out before the candidates, and so on. So in order to deal with the serious challenges and move towards plural society, it was necessary to make great adjustments to the imperial examination system, but this didn’t mean that we should start all over again immediately. The results caused by the abolition of the imperial examination system prematurely were not only the following aspects:the schools constructed in harry could not ensure the quality of education, the traditional spirit of education lost, the civil service system collapsed, lots of scholars used to live in rural areas went away from their homeland and became marginal man who could not find their place in society, more importantly than all of that, the abolition of the imperial examination system destabilized the cultural foundation of Chinese civilization, destroyed our own universe of meaning and the spiritual home, which further more caused the elites fractured loyalty, the social and cultural networks collapsed, and the whole society was dominated by force. All of that made our motives heading to achieve modernization into a painful realty which completely deviated modernization. Liang Shuming said that our self-harm was much more than the harm caused by the West when he looked back our painful modern history, indeed so.6. There were some conceptual reasons why the reformers abolished the imperial examination system prematurely except pressures from the West. First of all, people at that time did not realize the nonlinear and organic features of civilization, and they also did not realize the great difference between the East and the West civilizations. Been influenced by the enlightenment thoughts and dominated by linear way of thinking, they adopted the method that we should copy the western systems directly and start all over again. People thought that we could get rapid evolution, but the result was the collapse of the Chinese civilization. The second, people at that time did not realize that we should be careful when dealing with the matters of society which was "large-scale complex system", that we should take trial and error method. They thought that we can solve all problems by change quickly and completely, but the result was the destruction of our civilization. Finally, people at that time had blind faith in copying western institutions, and did not realize that the important role that the imperial examination system played in supporting the spiritual home and social-cultural network. They also did not realize that any successful reformation and social transformation needed the universe of meaning, the spiritual home and the bottom line order ensured by civilization. If we destroyed all of that, then the systems we transplanted in could not survive. After all, no civilization can build a beautiful building in the desolate desert of culture.The three problems we talk above came from our ignorance of "the great wisdom of history", from the unconscious opinion that ration and intention action were the only power in the evolution of society and institutions. Therefore people took the way of "constructionist rationalism" called by Hayek unconsciously. They could not see the openness of society which is "large-scale complex system" in evolution was based on the particular structure which was formed in its long history. They could not see that the evolution of "large-scale complex system" should base on local cultural resources, path dependence was inevitable here. They could not see the reformation to "large-scale complex system" should take the method of trial and error which is based on the interpretation of the clues showed by the "large-scale complex system"The lessons from history and methodological thoughts summarized above can be used for reference. After thirty years’reform, today China’s reform has gone in the deep water area, and the government has blown the horn of whole and deep reform. We come up with the idea of combining "top-level design" and "wading across the stream by feeling the way". At this historical moment, summarizing the previous lessons seriously and lining out an example to take warning from has obviously theoretical and practical significance.