士人政治：科举制度下的权力与文化
Politics of Literati-officials: Political Power and Culture of Imperial Examination System
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摘要: 隋唐以来，科举制度在一千三百多年里维持了一种稳定的文官制度。由于“怀牒自投”的个体自主，而后有科举选官广及天下所有的读书人；由于“以试为选”用考试平等消解了个体之间的不平等，而后有科举选官的普遍平等和实际平等。与此前的察举相比，这个过程把取士的重心由地方官手里移到了朝廷手里，又夷平了曾经存在的势家和巨族，因此这个过程已直接地促成了士大夫与君权以前所未有的深度相为依傍。于是而有比较完全意义上的士大夫与帝王共治天下，以及文化主体和政治主体合一的士大夫政治。由于这种合一，一面是道统所在的文化证明了政治权力的合理和正当；一面又是政治权力不能不受文化的制约而长在道统的规范之下。显见得在历史中国，是文化比政治更稳定和更本质。所以，相比于个体帝王因才识情性的不同而有贤智与黯昧之别，制度化了的文官群体则更加恒定和守常，并因其恒定和守常，实际上更直接地维系了天下的恒定和守常。通观而论一千三百多年里，“以试为选”产出了质地相同的官僚；而明清五百多年里，“以试为选”又以大批成不了进士的举人和成不了举人的秀才，在同一个过程产出了质地相同的地方绅士，而后是东西南北之间，科举制度以文化的统一助成了历史中国的政治统一。Abstract: Ever since Sui and Tang Dynasties, the imperial examination system had sustained a stable civil service institution for more than 1,300 years. Owing to individual decision, there could be a system of selection of officials for all students. Owing to the examination for selection, there could be a common and real equality in examination and selection for all. As compared to the previous recommendation system, the right of employment transferred from local officials to the central court and, thereby, the influential families were eliminated, resulting in a mutual reliance between literati-officialdom and monarch in an unprecedented way. For a comparatively wholesome significance, it brought forth a literati-official politics in which literati-officialdom and the monarch held the political power together, making a unity of the cultural subject and the political subject. This unity, on one side, proved reason and ration of political legitimacy, and, on the other side, the political power should be restricted by the culture under the regulation of Confucian orthodoxy. Obviously, culture was more stable and more essential than politics in the history of China. Therefore, the institutional civil officialdom was more constant and more opposed to change than relying on the monarch’s talent, which directly maintained the whole country’s stabilization. During a time of more than 1,300 years, the examination-selection system produced a like-nature bureaucratic class. In Ming and Qing Dynasties of more than 500 years, this system produced a great number of examination-losers who constituted a local gentry of like-nature. Within the whole country, the imperial examination system helped to complete a political unity by the way of cultural unity in historical China.
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