晚清时期科举宾兴的变迁

On the Changes of Binxing in the Imperial Examination in the Late Qing Dynasty

宾兴是清代地方社会捐资襄助士子参加科举考试的公益组织及专项经费。晚清时期,为应对时代变局与救亡图存,清廷对科举制度进行了若干改革,以选拔出匡时济世之人才。作为清代科举制度的伴生物,宾兴也因国内外时局变化而发生由缓趋急的变迁。在废科举前,南北各省宾兴首先受到太平天国运动等战事的冲击。有些宾兴损毁严重,被迫停顿解散;也有些因参与或承担地方公共事务,成为地方社会的权力机构。战后,宾兴得到较快恢复与发展,但也因日久弊生而遭诘责,晚清义赈兴起后遂出现移宾兴助赈之议。自维新运动改书院为学堂,宾兴逐渐移作他用,被提充学堂经费或购买书籍等。停废科举后,宾兴发生了急剧而显著的变迁,或改设新式学堂学校,或改为津贴、奖学金继续资助学生,或为学务公所、劝学会或教育会等地方教育行政机构团体接管,或被挪用侵吞,最终彻底消亡。晚清科举宾兴的变迁及其多舛命运,折射出近代中国复杂的时局变动与地方社会权势的转移。

The binxing was a kind public welfare organization or a special fund donated by the local community in the Qing Dynasty to help scholars participate in imperial examinations.In the late Qing Dynasty,the government carried out a number of reforms of the imperial examination system in order to select excellent and capable talents.As a companion to the imperial examination system in the Qing Dynasty,binxings also changed at an increasing speed due to the changes of the situation at home and abroad.Before abolishing the imperial examination,binxings in many provinces were first affected by wars such as the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement.Some were badly sabotaged and forced to stop and dissolve,and some became local social power institutions because they participated in or undertook local public affairs.After the war,binxings recovered and developed rapidly,but they were also criticized for their long-standing shortcomings.After the rise of charity relief in the late Qing Dynasty,there was a discussion of using the funds of binxings for relief.Since the academies converted into schools in the Reform Movement,binxings were gradually adapted to serve other purposes,such as financing the schools or purchasing books.After the abolition of the imperial examination,binxings changed sharply and significantly.They either set up new type of schools,or continued to subsidize students with fees and scholarships,or were taken over by local educational administrative organizations such as academic affairs offices,learning-encouraging societies or education associations,or were misappropriated and embezzled.As a result,binxings completely vanished.Their changes and ill fate in the imperial examination in the late Qing Dynasty reflected the complex changes of the situation and the transfer of local social power in modern China.