进士“浮薄”词义流变与中晚唐士人的科举认知

The Change of the Concept of Jinshi“Fubo”and the Scholars’Cognition of the Imperial Examination in the Middle and Late Tang Dynasty

唐代“浮薄”一词常与“进士”相关联,但该词最早并非运用在科举领域。安史之乱以后,其惯用语境发生迁移,从六朝品评之用转入科举视域,并在中晚唐时期关于科举改革的多次讨论中得到频繁使用,从品评人物声名到评价考生之德行与政治实践能力,以及作为空疏之学的代名词来唤起朝堂上下对“实学”的重视。在此过程中,“浮薄”逐渐成为“进士”的典型标签,其词语内涵也不断被注入新的要素,呈现出一种逐渐堆叠、累积并最终糅合的状态。通过梳理该词内涵逐步丰富化的情况,可以揭示中晚唐时期科举文化的两点事实:其一是考生长期所受的教育、备考模式与唐王朝后期真正的人才需求之间存在巨大矛盾;其二是中晚唐士人曾力图从改革科举入手重振国势,虽未能成功,但这种努力仍可反映出唐人对科举的认识存在反思与深入的过程。

The term“Fubo”in the Tang Dynasty was often associated with“Jinshi”,but it was not first used in the field of the Imperial Examinations.Since the establishment of Tang Dynasty,the use of the word“Fu Bo”was used in the same way as the Six Dynasties at first,describing social atmosphere or judging people’s reputation.After An-shi Rebellion,“Fu Bo”gradually entered the context of the imperial examinations and was frequently used in many discussions on the reform of the imperial examinations in the middle and late Tang Dynasty,from judging people’s reputation to evaluating the candidates’virtue and political practice ability,and as a synonym for shallow knowledge to arouse the court’s attention to“practical knowledge”.During this process,the connotation of“Fu Bo”has been constantly added new elements,showing a kind of gradually piling,accumulating and blending state.Fundamentally,such a phenomenon of the connotation of the word reveals two facts:one is the huge contradiction between the candidates’long-term education and test-preparation mode and the real needs of the Late Tang Dynasty;the other is the truth that the officials of the middle and late Tang Dynasties did strive to revitalize the nation through the imperial examination,behind which was the Tang people’s introspection and zigzag understanding of the Imperial Examinations.