从唐代党争看早期科举制存在的弊端

Malpractices of the Early Imperial Examination System from the Perspective of the Parties'Conflicts in the Tang Dynasty

科举制是研究唐代历史极其重要的一个问题,此前已有一些学者将牛李党争和唐代科举结合起来考察,但极少将玄宗时期的吏治与文学之争同牛李党争结合起来探讨。将吏治与文学之争和牛李党争结合起来探讨唐代科举制存在的弊端。认为唐代作为科举制创立的早期阶段,主要以文学取士,存在诸多的问题:第一,文章写作能力不同于治国经邦之道,拥有极高文学修养的人未必能很好处理实际政治运作中的各种问题;第二,以文学取士,存在忽略道德的问题;第三,唐代科举中存在的请托行卷风气与科举中形成的座主门生及同年关系极易形成朋党。到了宋代,通过对行卷的禁止,糊名誊录和锁院制的创立,殿试制度的实行及以经义代替诗赋等措施的实行,一定程度上解决了唐代科举存在的种种问题,促使科举制朝着更加合理的方向发展,成为宋代党争性质发生变化的重要因素。

The imperial examination system is an extremely important issue in the study of the history of the Tang Dynasty.Some scholars have combined the Niu-Li party conflict with the imperial examination,but few have associated with the official governance and literary disputes in the Xuanzong period.This paper,taking the dispute between the official governance and literature,the party conflict between Niu and Li into consideration,discusses the malpractices of the imperial examination system in the Tang Dynasty.It is believed that in the early stage of the establishment of the imperial examination system in the Tang Dynasty,scholars mainly based on literature,and there existed many problems:first,the ability of composing articles was different from the way of running a country,and those with high literary accomplishment might not be able to handle the actual political operations very well;second,there is the problem of ignoring morality in selecting scholars only based on literature;and third,there is a trend of entrustment in the imperial examinations in the Tang Dynasty,the relationship between the main students,and in the same year easily forming the clique.In the Song Dynasty,various problems were solved to a certain extent through the prohibition of recommending writings before examination,the establishment of anonymous transcription and locking-yard system,and the implementation of measures such as replacing poetry and prose with scriptures and meanings,which promoted the development of the imperial examination system in a more reasonable direction,and became an important factor in the change of the nature of the party conflicts in the Song Dynasty.