The Imperial Examination Systems In Mid And Late Tang Dynasty And The Rise Of The Intellectuals In The South

The rise of exam graduates from the south in the Mid and Late Tang periods is not only a noteworthy phenomenon within the history of the imperial examination system and the history of Tang dynasty literature,but has also been regarded by many scholars as being a manifestation of the Tang-Song transition.This dissertation takes this rise as its object,and attempts to explore the influence that the examinations exerted upon southerners' lives,upon their literary production,and upon their thinking.At the same time,we will observe a number of changes that the "rise of southern scholars" brought to the society of the south.What changes were the imperial examination system bring to the south scholars?Or,through the imperial examination,what happened to the rise of Southern literati class in the middle and late Tang Dynasty?These will be the main problems to be discussed in the book.This paper intends to answer the above questions through three chapters.The first chapter,"The Quietly Rising South:Regional Perspective and Statistical Analysis," attempts to reveal the rise of southern scholars and the societal background that included this phenomenon upon the basis of a well-established regional perspective and through statistics.Through an analysis of the governance,economy,and culture of the south,we can roughly divide the Tang south into "middle" and "marginal" types.This dissertation's main analysis will take this as its perspective and unfold from there.The second chapter,"The germination of Imperial Examination Society:the social influence of the rising of southern examination graduates" mainly examines the social influence of the rising of southern examination graduates by the examination system.examines the influence that the rise of southern scholars.The first section will focus on the rise of the south graduates class and their demands on economy and culture.The second section exerted upon society from the perspective of changes in place names.The phenomenon of "changing place names through examination fame"that appeared in southern society to a certain extent manifested the governing strategies of local officials,namely that through consolidating local memory of examination success,they were able to spread Confucian culture throughout the society of the south,and attempted thereby to complete the reorganization of the south's cultural system.The third chapter,"Leaving the Shadow of the 'Barbarian Wilderness':The Examination System and Cultural Recognition," explores the cultural influence of the"Rise of the South." For a long period,the southern marginal areas(including Fujian)were seen as a "land of barbarians." Some scholars resolutely refused to countenance this attitude,while others used the fame gained through the exams to win cultural recognition.Fujianese scholars were representative of the second attitude.Success in the examinations from the Mid Tang onwards allowed Fujianese scholars to obtain self-confidence,and through the help provided by the Fujianese scholarly community's success in ascending the national stage,Fujianese people at large not only shed the label of being "yuanren" but also dispelled the shadow of Fujian's being "outside the realm of cultural transformation"."The official experience of Fujian scholar in Tang Dynasty" try to compare the official experience records of Fujian scholar in local literature,so as to provides a kind of thinking in reading Fujian local literature.In addition,this paper also includes three appendices.The Appendix ?"southern candidates for the imperial examinations recorded in Dengkejikao buzheng"based on Meng Erdong's Dengkejikao buzheng.Referring to the related historical literature and academic research,this appendix tries to sort out a more complete and reliable list of southern Dengke scholars basing on geographical unit.In the process of making this list,we found that many local literature records of scholars in academia has not yet admitted to the attention.However,because of possible error,which may exist in these texts through copying,and the lack of relevant historical proof,we cannot conclude that the credibility of these records.So this information is aggregated in Appendix ? " southern candidates for the imperial examinations recorded in some local literature ".Appendix ?"list of administrative divisions in Southern Tang Dynasty is to let readers know more clearly about the geographical standard which based on the basis of Yuanhe Junxian Zhi.In all,in the late Tang Dynasty imperial examination system promote the growth of Southern intellectuals and the southern regional identity formation in the southern region of social stability.With the continuous development of politics and economy in the late Tang and Five Dynasties,South Chinese historical role in the process of Chinses history become more and more important.These laid a solid social foundation of "Changes of the Tang and Song Dynasties".