乡村社会、士子生业与科举之废

科举制度集文化、教育、政治、社会等多方面功能为一体,型塑了传统社会的方方面面,是传统得以维系的制度性基础,是建构传统社会重心的重要制度。当它一朝废止时,作为传统中国社会基层单位的乡村,其政治、文化、信仰、经济等权威重心均接连丧失,经历了颠覆性的结构变迁。乡村士人中存在一批因种种原因处于弱势的群体,他们的生存境遇和精神状态,在时代的剧烈变动下大为可叹,他们的处境不能以所谓＂变革＂、＂进步＂的代价而视为当然,对强势群体主导的话语叙述有必要进行伦理反思。

The Change of Rural Society and the Life of Scholars in the Countryside after the Abolition of Imperial Examination

The Imperial Examination system in ancient China has integrated a number of elements such as culture,education,politics,and society,and modeled different parts of the society.We can say that this system was the constitutional foundation for the sustaining of the tradition,and an important part for the construction of the core of the traditional society.Once when this system was abolished,the politics,culture,worship,and economy and the like in the rural area,which was the grass-roots unit of the ancient China,would suffer from great losses and experience a box-up change.The traditional elites in the rural areas,many of whom were weak because of various reasons,would lose their advantages,and their life and mood would not be optimistic with the dramatic change of the time.Such changes could not be considered as the result of social ＂reform＂ and ＂progress＂.There is a need to rethink of the words as the guideline by the people in power.