明清科舉考生數與錄取人數失衡問題的因應對策之分析   全文下載

On the Unbalance Between the Participants And Successors of the Civil Service Examination in Ming And Ch’ing China and Governments’ Solving Policies

本文旨在探討明清面對科舉考生數日增，但錄取人數無法相應提升，而出現考用供需失衡、「少取，黜落多；多取，冗官多」兩難時，朝廷所採因應對策。全文先分析明清兩朝鄉會試名額、報考與錄取情形。發現鄉會試，宋以州郡為準訂名額，明改以省為準，各省准許報考鄉試士子數，是依所核定鄉試額倍數計算，以管制人數。當採定額制，如報考數增但錄取名額固定，勢必將造成多人落榜，連帶產生社會及政治問題。因官學生日增，潛在考生也增，而鄉試額增幅無法相應，以致實際錄取率下降。而會試階段，明起雖落第者可免解逕赴下科會試，但名額固定且分卷取人，清則改分省固定配額，管控人數，以致舉人通過會試比率大幅下降，鄉試遂成為瓶頸所在。明清面對上述問題，所採因應對策有數次全國性增、小幅局部增鄉試額、固定考試週期、增加考試層級與次數，以及提供鄉、會試落第舉人疏散管道等。而將原本3關，增為童試、科考及鄉、會、殿試7關是關鍵，但此舉未必針對失衡而發，且都僅治標不治本。面對結構性兩難，朝廷迫於形勢只能兩害相權取其輕，既容許大量考生報考，給其機會與希望以籠絡之；卻又用拉長考試週期，增加考試層級與次數及其他疏散措施，逐批淘汰差者，以舒緩落榜者不滿。

When the numbers of participants of the civil service examination increased gradually since the Sung dynasty, and those of successors were increased by the emperors intentionally, the problem of the unbalance between the participants and successors became serious gradually. If the government increased the numbers of successors, then the officials would be oversupplied; if it decreased those, then there would be many fails, and the chaos of society would happen. So how the Ming and Ch'ing governments to cope with this dilemma, it was the purpose of this paper. The Ming and Ch'ing governments tried to fix the quotas of successors of prefecture and metropolitan examinations for controlling the trends of participants increasing. However, those did not work. So, other policies were taken, such as increasing few numbers of successors (national-wide and regional), fixing the cycle of examinations held (once for every three years), increasing the number of levels of examination from 3 to 7 (pupil examination and qualification examination), and opening the other channels for the fails of prefecture and metropolitan examinations. Facing the structural dilemma, there was no better solution once for all, and those policies only solved the problem temporarily, which were similar to those done by the Sung government.