清代石仓阙氏的科举参与和文武之道

Civil and Military Examination Participation of the Que Lineage in Shicang Village in Qing Dynasty

学轨制是教育不平等的重要来源。清代科举考生们同样面临学轨的选择:除了正途考试和异途捐纳外,还有文科举和武科举之分。前人研究多关注文科举中的乡试和会试,鲜有人研究学轨选择的起点——童生试者。本文利用浙南石仓的科举账簿,考察清代中后期阙氏的科举参与。通过炼铁积累财富后,阙氏先是捐纳监生,后逐步参与科举。太平天国战争后,人口减少、武科举中式率提高,阙氏实现了"文武并举"。通过进一步比较"保身家"与"向上流动"这两类科举动机的表现及其结果,本文发现,向上流动的期望可能是个陷阱。因此,基层民众参与科举最终给人以"保身家"为主的印象,是民众自我调适的结果。

The literature on social stratification and mobility reveals that tracking is an important source of educational inequality.The imperial examination system in Ming and Qing China was structured with two tracks of civil(wen)and military(wu)exams.Most of the existing studies focused on the provincial and metropolitan levels of the system and little attention is paid to the lowest county level of shengyuan exam,-the starting point of the wen and wu tracking.This study looks into the accounts of the imperial participation in Shicang village in Songyang county,Zhejiang during Qing,specifically the examination records of the Que lineage.With a fortune made from iron business,the Ques purchased a studentship in imperial academy(jiansheng),and later married into local gentry families and began to participate in imperial exams.The Taiping rebellion brought high mortality to the region and thus increased the chance of success in the imperial wu tracking military exam.The Ques made the use of the opportunity and participated in both civil and military exams.This paper compares the two common motivations of examination takers:either for protecting family wealth and status or for pursuing the highest degree.It is shown that the two motivations resulted in quite different outcomes.Those who only interested in safeguarding and enhancing family wealth were able to keep a balance between degree pursue and family business,while those who aiming at the highest degree often fell into a trap of repeated attempts and an eventual bankruptcy.The dominance of the first motivation among ordinary Chinese demonstrates the self-adjustment of local society to the imperial examination tracking system.