經典釋傳與明清經義

Classical Reasoning in Late Imperial Chinese Civil Examination Essays

本文旨在敘述明清時代文官體系如何將具科舉功名的文人們塑造成一個文化集團。他們擁有1.共同的典雅語文；2相同的儒家經典；3.以及大家都熟悉的八股文。科舉考試的內容界定了知識份子的思想範圍，但也將文人們的見解反映於國政上。一個典型的文人必須會讀文言文、精通理學，和寫出精準典雅的制義文字。除了政治和社會功能外，科舉制度也成功的將來自仕紳、軍人、商人等各種家庭背景的有功名之人，塑造成同一個文化階層。科舉考試將學習經典變成文筆競賽，主考者透過考試篩選不同主張的應考者。從西元1371至1756期間，當時風行的經文詮釋形式窄化了文言文的使用、純化了特定的思考模式，同時也限制了文體表達方式，不受科舉時尚垂青的文體如詩歌，便遭到忽視。科舉文化內化的結果，終影響到知識份子的道德人格和社會良心。因為士子們長期為考試教材所限，故他們視將三代理想和程朱學說付諸實施為最重之事。來自各行各業背景的士子們在對儒家理想的崇敬方面是一致的，且他們共享相同的文字、文學表達方式，及對儒家學說的瞭解和詮釋。相對於士大夫階層的一致性文化，被他們治理的下層社會則仍被束縛於通俗文化、民間信仰、方言等地方色彩濃厚的生活裡。

This paper describes how the imperial Chinese civil service created a culturally defined status group of degree-holders that hermeneutically shared: 1) a common classical language; 2) memorization of a shared canon of Classics; and 3) a literary style of writing known as the 8-legged essay. Internalization of elite literary culture was in part defined by the civil examination curriculum, but that curriculum also showed the impact of literati opinion on imperial interests. Classical iteracy, the mastery of Tao-hsueh 道學 (Tao Learning, i.e., Neo-Confucianism), and the ability to write terse but elegant examination essays together publicly marked the educated literatus. In addition to its political and social functions, the civil service competition successfully consolidated gentry, military, and merchant families empire-wide into a culturally defined status group of degree-holders, who shared a common mental grid for classical reasoning and textual hermeneutics. The grammar, rhetoric, and balanced phraseology of the examination essay contained rules of prosody that turned classical learning into a literary contest. Both the orthodox interpretation of Tao Learning and the prescribed chain-argument for moral rhetoric were screened through the classical style favored by examiners, who were not only representatives of the court and its bureaucracy but also were participants in literati culture and in tune with its classical vicissitudes. The interpretive style then in effect often narrowed the classical language, filtered the prescribed conceptualization, and constricted the stylistic genres that were favored and left some like poetry out altogether from 1371 to 1756. The internalization of literary culture, which was in part defined by the civil examination curriculum, also influenced the literatus' public and private definition of his moral character and social conscience. A view of government, society, and the individual's role as an elite servant of the dynasty was continually reinforced in the memorization process leading up to the examinations themselves. For the literatus, it was important that the dynasty conformed to classical ideals and upheld the Ch'eng-Chu 程朱 orthodoxy that literati themselves had formulated. Reproduction of classical values and historical mind-sets among candidates for public office meant that gentry, military, and merchant families from all over the empire had more in common culturally, hermeneutially, and linguisticaJly with each other than did lower social groups in their native areas, who remained tied to local traditions, temples, and dialects that did not transcend local life.