唐代後提東南士人的舉業與仕宦

A Study on the Relationship between Civil Service Examinations and Official Achievements of Southeastern Literati in the Late Tang Dynasty

伴隨著東南地區在安史亂後經濟、文化地位的提升，唐代後期的東南士人日趨活躍，明顯例證之一為：東南的登第進士無論在數量或比重上都較前期大幅增長。然而，這些東南進士的組成、其後的仕宦狀況為何，目前似乎尚無較完整的認識。有鑑於此，筆者遂就現有材料重作耙梳，對登第舉子的背景及仕宦表現進行初步統計與分析。本文有兩個主要發現：第一，從出身背景來看，唐代後期的東南登第舉子來源紛雜，士族子弟、小姓士子與孤進寒士比例近似，不過隨著時間的推進，後者總數有逐漸凌駕前二者的趨勢。這顯示出東南寒素舉子的蓬勃文化力量，也反映唐代科舉制度確實為寒素階層提供了一定的晉身機會。與此同時，也需意識到東南寒素舉子的人口基數遠遠超過士族、小姓舉子，單就此三階層的登第比例來看，可知寒素士子的難度顯然最高。其次，東南登第士人的出身與宦途發展關係密切。以進士科而言，士族出身的進士有極高的機會可晉身高級文官，小姓欲攀升至中、高層級亦非難事，相較之下，寒素進士的政治前景則黯淡許多，得以升至高位者微乎其微。寒素士子既在東南進士中佔有相當比例，自然也就拉低了其整體仕宦成就。總的來說，唐代科舉雖促成一定程度的社會流動，然成效相對有限，難以扭轉顯著的階層化現象，是以即便東南地區的文化發展在唐代後期大幅躍進，仍無法順利轉換為政治成就。惟有待唐末幾波大亂徹底打破此階層化社會後，東南士人大舉出頭的時代才真正到來。

With the rise of economic conditions and cultural promotion in the southeastern region after the An Lu-shan Rebellion, literati coming from the southeastern region became more and more active in cultural field. One important phenomenon was the apparently increasing number and proportion of southeaster jinshi holders, compared to the former Tang Dynasty. However, until now, we still do not have a comprehensive understanding about the composition and background of these southeastern jinshi and their official achievements. Accordingly, this article attempt to give an elementary analysis to this question. This article has two main findings. First, the social backgrounds of the southeastern jinshi were diverse. There were similar proportions of southeastern jinshi who come from the national aristocracy, provincial aristocracy and ordinary families, according to the Mao Han-kuang's (毛漢光) social classification of Tang Dynasty. As time continued to pass, the number of this final category gradually came to exceed the sum of the former two. This phenomena reflects that the increasing cultural power of the ordinary southern literati on the one hand, and on the other hand the trend highlights that the Tang civil service examinations did indeed provide a certain opportunity of upward flow to these ordinary literati. At the same time, we also need to be aware that the total number of literati coming from ordinary families was far beyond the sum of aristocracies and provincial elites, which indicates that the ordinary literati encountered more difficulty in obtaining a jinshi degree than the others. Secondly, there was deep relationship between the social background and official attainments of the southeastern jinshi holders. For example, a jinshi coming from an aristocratic family had better opportunities to be promoted to a senior official position. It was also not a difficult task for a jinshi coming from a provincial elite family to rise to the middle or senior level. Comparatively, a jinshi coming from an ordinary family had little chance of becoming a senior official. Considering the high proportion of literati coming from ordinary families in the southeastern jinshi, the overall official attainments of these southeastern jinshi were bound to be limited. In the grand scheme, although the Tang civil service examinations did create some social mobility, the degree to which it did so was not enough to break through the solid social stratification of the Tang Dynasty. This is why the southeastern literati in the late Tang Dynasty could not successfully transform their increasing cultural capital into political achievements. It was only after the continuous outbreaks of rebellions at the end of the Tang dynasty that the medieval social order was thoroughly destroyed. This allowed for the southeastern literati to have relatively equal opportunities during the pursuit of career achievements by their cultural abilities without consideration to their backgrounds.