The light released by the burning oil lamp was still carelessly directed toward Emperor Liu's face. Emperor Liu's breath in the shadow became much heavier, and Yan Tuo's heart trembled.
After observing for a long time, he tentatively said: "Please calm down the officials and take care of your body! It seems that these ungrateful and lawless people only want to be punished and set an example to others. It is really not worth worrying about..."
Yantuo's consolation seemed to have some effect. Emperor Liu glanced at him, pondered for a while, and then said: "How many people in the world are there in the world who are like Kang Baozhen?"
"I don't know." Yantuo had been trained out of his shadow by Emperor Liu, so he didn't say much even when asked directly.
"Is it because I don't know, or because I won't tell you?"
"I don't dare!" Yantuo hesitated for a moment. Seeing the old emperor's face darkening and worsening, he still hesitated and said: "From my perspective, Kang Baozhen may be just an example. After all, he is willing to spend one hundred thousand. Guan, and such a wealthy family as the Kang family directly affects the Heavenly Officials and Ministers to organize for them. There are only a few people in the world who can do this..."
Yantuo knew in his heart that if Emperor Liu listened to what he said, the fate of the Kang family and his son might be even more miserable, and even the entire Kang family might not have a good outcome. After all, one of them died just a few days ago. Hechuan Bo.
Sure enough, Emperor Liu said in a serious tone: "A small businessman, relying on some bad money, dares to reach inside the imperial court and interfere with the promotion and selection of imperial officials. How can such a person be tolerated?"
Yantuo didn't dare to answer these words. There was silence next to Yu Yu for a while, and Emperor Liu murmured softly, "Using money for personal gain has its limitations after all, but what about those who use power for personal gain?"
Obviously, Emperor Liu was more concerned about this incident than just the problem on the surface. He was very good at thinking about it. However, using power for personal gain is very common, and Emperor Liu has long been used to it, but It was also his subconscious behavior to use this excuse to launch another rectification campaign.
What Emperor Liu thought more deeply about was the current evaluation standards and promotion channels for officials. Except for the matter of Kang Baozhen, Emperor Liu could not help but think about the system itself.
Emperor Liu has always advocated meritocracy in terms of employment standards. For this reason, he constantly added patches and methods to improve the court's selection system for military and political talents.
If in the early days, I practiced this way with certain ideals and ambitions, then as I sat in the position of emperor for a long time, my understanding of the world deepened, and my understanding of the current rules for the operation of society increased. Deeply involved and even dominant, Emperor Liu's goals are constantly changing, the original intention has long been deviated, and the bottom line and lower limit are constantly being lowered.
As early as more than 20 years ago, what Emperor Liu did was no longer to take into account fairness. The fundamental purpose of all measures was to consolidate imperial power and maintain rule. The improvement of various systems for the selection and appointment of officials, assessment and promotion was just The method is to limit an overly concentrated political force and solidify class factions is the desired effect.
However, things often backfire, especially in governing the country. Either new contradictions replace old problems, or good scriptures are distorted. This has been fully reflected in Emperor Liu's decades of administrative career. Basically, it can be said that what he implemented No policy develops exactly as he expected, and no decree can achieve a perfect result.
Kang Baozhen's Eucalyptus, on a deeper level, was another slap in the face to Emperor Liu's policies and a reminder, which was specifically reflected in the way officials were selected and promoted.
In this regard, Emperor Liu has always practiced diversified selection channels and a fair promotion assessment system. After decades of development, the Han Dynasty has already formed a complete system for the selection and promotion of officials. The original intention of building this system
The purpose is to avoid class solidification as much as possible, and while satisfying the interests of the upper class elites, try to give the lower class ordinary people the needs and space for advancement.
In the early years, the effect was very good. There were many wise men and women in the Han Dynasty, and there were many talented officials from common people and even commoners. But as time went by, the situation gradually changed, and the upper class of the Han Dynasty
, including the highly mobile bureaucratic class, will inevitably become solidified.
If an ordinary person wants to become an official, the difficulty will increase exponentially, and the competitive pressure will also increase unprecedentedly. Now that I think about it, the initial surge of talents and so many gratifying examples of "carp jumping over the dragon's gate" were mainly due to the general environment.
In the early days, there was an overall lack of talent both inside and outside the imperial court. Anyone with skills could find a position within the system and be appointed. However, once the hunger for talent was resolved and the bureaucratic class system belonging to the Han Dynasty was perfected, ordinary people would no longer want to go there.
If you stay inside, you will be more likely to be shut out.
At present, in the Han Dynasty, if you want to become an official, it is much more difficult than the public examination in the previous life. The public examination is fiercely competitive and difficult to compete, but at least there is still the possibility of hard work and basic fairness. In the Han Dynasty, it is even greater.
, but after working hard to the end, I found that there were no more steps to climb.
Not to mention anything else, just one practical matter that accounts for an increasingly important part in the scientific examination questions can block 90% of the scholars in the world. After all, ordinary scholars have no opportunity to practice practical matters at all.
For most readers, there is only a blank.
In the early years, scholars could enrich their experience and hone their talents by working in local government offices while studying. At that time, for some noble people, it was simply a matter of sacrificing their ambitions.
But now, even being an official is not something you just want to do. The world is at peace, society is stable, and education has been restored. After decades of accumulation, the number of academic talents has already formed a surge. Under such circumstances, even for
As far as local government is concerned, there is no shortage of talents to serve as swordsmen and pen officials. In fact, people have to rush to become officials, and this has gradually developed into the highest threshold for an ordinary person to enter the official career.
In the past, Emperor Liu's advocacy of emphasizing practice caused a lot of criticism. For many traditional scholars, such a change was almost unacceptable. However, as time went by, more and more people began to support it.
To defend this article, the reason is still based on Emperor Liu’s practical theory.
Under this surface, the more important reason is that vested interests have discovered that the practical examination is simply tailor-made for people like them. For the powerful, their children are definitely the most important in terms of knowledge and experience.
The only way to defeat ordinary students is to take the practical test. The son of a bureaucrat is more likely to continue to become a bureaucrat...
It was precisely because Emperor Liu discovered this sign during subsequent observations that he gave ordinary officials the opportunity to be directly promoted to the official position in the subsequent promotion regulations. Every year, there is an indicator in the promotion list of the Ministry of Officials.
However, this also has a premise. You must be an official, and you must have outstanding abilities and excellent results, otherwise it is all just talk. And Kang Baozhen is taking the same path from official to official. If they can do it more delicately
, be more patient, and don’t make the appearance too ugly, even for the Imperial City, Wude, it is difficult to detect easily.
Emperor Liu's "idealistic" consideration led to the birth of a new "nine-grade Zhongzheng system" in the Han Dynasty, and this system is much smarter than the theory of family background. After all, isn't it correct to "evaluate people based on their talents"?
, isn’t it fair? This principle can be justified and justified wherever it is put.
Emperor Liu was not unaware of these, but on the one hand he was unwilling to slap himself in the face, and on the other hand he had no reason to correct them. Compared with the solidification of classes that had already occurred, he did not want the emergence of some people who would only follow the words of saints.
A bookworm is of no benefit to the country. He doesn't care about learning. As an official, you have to work hard.
For the current Shilin, their life is to a certain extent even more difficult than the three generations of troubled times. At that time, they could still look forward to the birth of the Holy Lord to bring order to the chaos. Now, as Emperor Liu has been in power longer and longer, their people have no influence on the country.
The influence is also declining.
For the wealthy gentry, it is not that difficult to enter the imperial court than for ordinary people, but first they have to correct their thoughts and make a compromise. This is also the final choice of many people. After the compromise, they taste the sweetness, that is
Deadly maintenance...
At the same time, Emperor Liu also had a mentality of breaking things, and if he wanted to solidify them, he should solidify them thoroughly. It was best to ensure that the throne of the Liu family could be passed on for a long time.
In this regard, Emperor Liu was sometimes confident. At least in his opinion, as long as the current system of the Han Dynasty could be maintained for a long time, the country of the Han Dynasty would be able to continue.
After all, after the awareness of "practice first" has been continuously strengthened and promoted, the bureaucrats of the Han Dynasty, whether they are aristocratic bureaucrats or common people bureaucrats, no matter how many deep-rooted problems they have, at least in terms of exploiting the common people, they will be smarter and more capable.