清代会试中额与登科进士人数之关系

The Relationship Between the Enrollment of Provincial Examinations and the Enrollment in Civil Palace Examinations in the Qing Dynasty

清代的会试中额,就是准备取中进士的数额。从会试中额到最终登科进士数额之间,先后有四个数字出现,即会试中额、会试实际取中贡士的人数、参加殿试的人数、登科进士的人数。在正常情况下,这四个数字之间应该是一致的。但由于士子本身的原因,以及清代科举制度中的一些特殊规定,往往会使每两个相邻数字之间发生一些变化,或增或减,最终使登科进士的人数与原定中额不一。从制度层面研究这一现象,或许有助于我们在考证、统计进士人数时做出更准确的判断。

The enrollment in civil palace examinations in the Qing Dynasty is the number of candidates who are going to be admitted as Jinshi. There exist in fact, from provincial examinations to civil palace examinations, four announcements of numbers, i.e. , the enrollment of provincial examinations, the real number of exam-takers being admitted as Gongshi in provincial examinations, the number of candidates taking palace examinations and the number of exam-takers being enrolled as Jinshi. Under normal circumstances, there is consistency between these four numbers, but the reality is that changes may occur between two adjoining sets of numbers for the reasons in and of candidate themselves, or special regulations, which eventually lead to inconformity between the final enrollment of Jinshi and the initial quota. This paper argues that loo- king into this phenomenon from an institutional perspective may help us make more accurate conclusions about the statistics of Jinshi in IE.