On The Research Of Hong Wen Institute And Chong Wen Institute In Tang Dynasty

Hong Wen Institute and Chong Wen Institute, being the superlative Aristocrat’s school, were the important part of central official institute in Tang Dynasty. The two Institutes with lofty social position were located in the center of the palace, and students here had double rights of being educated and participating politics, so their functions were more special than those of the Imperial College.AD620, the forth year’s ruling of WuDe, the Emperor Tang Gao Zu, had been regarded as the beginning of repairing the Institutes, and thereafter the name of Hong Wen Institute had had been changed frequently. In particular, the time when the name of Hong Wen Institute was changed into Zhao Wen Institute should be the second year of Shang Yuan, AD675, and the reason for that was to evade the name of the prince, Li Hong, which was closely related to the political prophecy, so the time of the First Year of Shen Long, Zhong Zong, being recorded in the book of history was wrong. The fact is that Zhong Zong imitated his father, using the old trick again, and changed the name of Hong Wen Institute to Xiu Wen Institute for evading the name of Li Hong, which lead to the misunderstanding of time. The purpose for frequently changing the name of Hong Wen Institute had something with the political reforming. Usually the academic circle believe that Chong Wen Institute was constructed during the thirteenth year of Zhong Guan, while through the research of this thesis, Chong Wen Institute had been constructed in the sixth year of Zhen Guan, which was the product of the political environment of that time.Hong Wen Institute and Chong Wen Institute were the products of the political environment, so their social position was special. Hong Wen Institute was subordinate to the Men Xia Ministry, while Chong Wen was the Eastern Palace Institute, which determined that the students of the two different institutes had different influences on the politics. The students of the two institutes played a distinguished role in imperial power and Tai zi’s power, influencing the politics of Tang Dynasty profoundly and lastingly. Tang Gao Zu put the students of the institutes in important positions, from then on, the students of Hong Wen Institute had the power of drafting the imperial edict. To the period of Xuan Zong, the functions of Hong Wen were carried off by Ji Xian Institute and HanLin Institute, and then the opportunities of participating the politics and drafting the imperial edict were gradually lost, leading to the decline of Hong Wen Institute. Due to their lofty social position, Hong Wen and ChongWen Institute had a very standard of enrolling with a few enrollments. Though they were subordinate to different ministry, the standard of "noble birth" was the same. Based on this standard, the students were elected from descendents of high officials in the capital. In early Tang Dynasty, the students had some privileges in politics and economics, such as being free from ke Yi(课役),being provided with food and boarding, paying respects to the Emperor, becoming officials, being specially treated in the Imperial Examination and so on. The two Institutes enrolled and cultivated the noble descents so as to give special treatment to the high officials and strength the stability of the ruling group.After An Lushan Rebellion broke up, the treatment of the students of two institutes became instable under the background of the depression of the central authority. In middle and late Tang dynasty, the standard of enrolling had a slight change:the enrollment showed a decreasing tendency. As the central authority can not maintain the advantage of the aristocracy’s becoming officials, they had to decrease the number of the students. Though the standard didn’t show much alteration, this can do nothing to the decline of the institutes. The main learning contents of the two institutes were Confucian classics and history which were almost the same with other students. The only difference was the low difficulty in the graduation examination. The two institutes’students learning Confucian classics and history showed rich Confucian ideas in official education in Tang dynasty.As for the phenomenon "the imperial originated from the two institutes" (弘文崇文生举),the book of history had recorded:Ming Jing of Hong Wen institute and Chong Wen institute. However, the institutes were only the source of candidates sitting the Imperial Examination, instead of the place where the students passed the examination, just as the Ming Jing and Jin Shi of the Imperial College. There were no independent Ming Jing subject in Hong Wen institute and Chong Wen institute.The phenomenon "the imperial originated from the two institutes" revealed the special standard for the students to sit the Imperial Examination. In early Tang Dynasty, initially, the students became officials mainly depending on their background and they also enjoyed the privileges of being assigned essay topic separately and "brief test" during the Imperial Examination, but later these privileges had some changes. In middle and late Tang Dynasty, under the social background of becoming official through the Imperial Examination, the students of the institutes finally were accepted to become officials through the Imperial Examination.In early Tang Dynasty, the students of the two institutes had a promising political life. For example, they could become officials through the two institutes directly and had a glorious prospect, some of whom even take up the chief minister or other officials. After An Lushan Rebellion, the situation of the students of the two institutes got worse and worse with the decline of politics of royalty and noble. And nothing could ameliorate the situation. Under the social background where the Imperial Examination had attracted people’s attention, the descendents of the aristocracy also had to take the Imperial Examination to keep the social position of the family unflaggingly. The imperial examination system of Sui and Tang Dynasty became the requiem of the Aristocracy.