科举制度与地方学校的等级制度

The Keju System and the Local School Hierarchy

传统的以科举制度为基础的教育体系是中国人生活的重要组成部分,其符合千百万人利益,并成为促成国家和社会统一稳定的一种力量。笔者分析了晚清时期中国地方学校的等级制度,通过研究各地以考试为基础的私立学堂与书院,探讨年轻学子在考试阶梯上不断上升的道路,同时考察科举文化是如何渗透到普通百姓生活之中的。文章认为,这种金字塔式的教育体系将精英文化的价值从社会上层的城市纵向植入中国社会基础的自然村,以从顶到底的形式满足了各个社会阶层对知识的要求。而科举考试的重大作用之一在于通过等级教育体系,吸引中国最优秀的年轻人参加考试,为政府提供了选拔忠心为朝廷与封建帝制服务的官员的制度。

The traditional keju-based education system was an integral feature of Chinese life that served the interests of millions of people and was viewed as a force for coherence and stability.This paper examines the system of private examination-based schools at the local level in order to illuminate the pathways a young student might take to maneuver his way up the examination ladder,and observes the mechanisms by which keju culture penetrated the lives of common people.The author holds that the traditional Chinese school system took the shape of a pyramid,and the system was also one that penetrated vertically from the urban centers of elite culture to the bedrock of Chinese society,the natural village.It reached from the top to the bottom of China＇s social structure,satisfying the requirements of many villagers for basic literacy.And the keju examinations exerted such powerful influence was through the operation of a private school hierarchy that channeled the best and brightest of China＇s youth into examination preparation.