明清科举制的社会整合功能:以社会流动为视角

以社会流动为视角，本文首先在既有数据研究的基础上，从传统小群社会2 和庞大的应考群体两个路径入手，检验明清时期中国科举制覆盖实际生活的广度和深度。以此为基础，剖析在具体生活世界中人们对科举制的忠诚、信任、热情以及社会压力的消解，并由此说明传统社会以士为中心、以农工商为外围的结构特征。文章还从两个方面分析社会流动的两个后果：社会结构以士绅为中心、社会价值以功名为中心，这两个中心耦合成传统社会整合的重心。最后本文认为将由国家政治向社会生活领域的视角转换，不仅能深化与完整对科

On the Social Integrative Function of the Chinese Imperial Examination System in Ming-Ch'ing Period: From the Perspective of Social Mobility

From the perspective of social mobility and with the existing data， this paper takes the small group based traditional society and the large group of scholars who took the Chinese Imperial Examination System to investigate the breadth and depth of the real life covered by such examinations in Ming Ch’ing period. From there， the paper analyzes people’s loyalty to， trust in， and passion for this testing system in their real life world， as well as the dissolving of social pressure， to illustrate traditional society’s structural characteristic of having the officialdom at its center， surrounded by agriculture， industry， and commerce. The paper discusses further in two aspects the consequences of social mobility： a societal structure with officialdom in the center and a social value with official ranks in the center. These two centers incorporated each other to form the very core of traditional society’s integration. Finally， the paper proposes to shift the angel from the state politics to the social life. Such a shift will not only enable us to exhibit the functions of the Chinese Imperial Examination System in an in depth and comprehensive way， but also enable us to better understand traditional society’s way of integration.