论宋代的特奏名制度

宋代科举中的特奏名制度,是中国古代科举制度中一项特殊的制度,值得注意。自太祖后期到真宗朝后期,是特奏名制度逐渐形成的时期。随着特奏名人数的大幅增加,也显露了它的某些弊端,因而在士大夫中要求废除特奏名制度的呼声不断高涨。但终宋之世,特奏名制度仍存而不废,其主要原因,除了最高统治者为贯彻重文抑武、牢笼士人的祖宗家法以外,特奏名本身所作出的某些贡献也是重要原因。

Discussion on the Especially Submitted Name System

The Especially Submitted Name,a civil service examination of Song Dynasty,is a special form of the institution of early Chinese civil service examinations deserving great valuable note.It is from the later period of taizu to the later times of zhenzong during which Especially Submitted Name was molded and formed.A steep increase in the Especially Submitted Name exposed several troublesome practices.This consequently led to continuous outcries among the scholar that persisted to abolish the Especially Submitted Name.However,the Especially Submitted Name continued to hold out,never abolished until the fall of Song Dynasty.The main reasons for the lasting endurance of the Especially Submitted Name are that the administrators at the highest government positions kept a general tendency upholding the practice of "respecting the pen while suppressing the sword" and maintained policies of conciliating the scholars.Additional important reasons were attributed to the contributions that the Especially Submitted Name produced.Most of those admitted into the Civil Service through Especially Submitted Name were offered low-ranking official positions,of which only a small fraction could be promoted to the levels of Capital officials or central government officials.Due to the application of the system of Especially Submitted Name,low-ranking official positions were thus occupied by those who passed the Civil Service Examination and hence,their proportion in the bureaucracy was greatly increased.The central government used this system to attract those scholars who were interested in the Civil Service Examination,especially.Those in the middle or low social classes who were subject to a greater influence by external factors,so that they would not lose their self-consciousness of being scholars.This would help integrating them into the society and being absorbed into and utilized by the establishment of Song Dynasty.As a consequence,this led to the over-expansion of the civil service.