清康乾时期琼州科举探析

广东本土童生冒充琼州籍学子,在琼州参加童试,录取概率大幅度提升。此举使琼州本籍学子官学录取概率直线下降。琼州籍学子在乡试、会试中亦要与江浙强省和粤省内广潮等文教重地学子竞争,皆处劣势。此外,琼州籍学子若不通晓官话,则无缘科举。广东本土学子的作弊行为亦对琼州籍学子造成严重不公。乾隆二十一年(1756)诗律成为科举考试的必考内容,成为广东科举考试的分水岭。在广东科举呈现低迷状态时,诸多的不确定性或偶然性因素交织在一起,催生了乾隆二十年初至乾隆五十年初琼州科举的中兴。

An Analysis of the Imperial Examinations in Qiongzhou Prefecture during the Kangxi-Qianlong Period of Qing Dynasty

Guangdong native pupils pretended to be from Qiongzhou Prefecture,to take the preliminary imperial examination in Qiongzhou and enhance their probability of admission to official schools.This practice caused a sharp drop in the acceptance rate of Qiongzhou pupils.Qiongzhou native students also had to suffer a disadvantage in provincial and metropolitan examinations,competing against students from educationally advantageous Jiangzhe Province and Guangzhou and Chaozhou districts within Guangdong Province.Moreover,Qiongzhou students would have no access to imperial examinations if they did not command mandarin.Fraudulent practices of Guangdong native pupils caused serious inequality problems for Qiongzhou pupils.In the twenty-first year of Emperor Qianlong(1756),strict tonal pattern and rhyme scheme for poetry became compulsory contents of imperial examinations,constituting the watershed in the examinations of Guangdong Province.When a dismal state occurred in Guangdong s imperial examinations,the entanglement of various uncertainties and fortuities gave rise to the revival of Qiongzhou s imperial examinations from the beginning of the twentieth year to the beginning of the fiftieth year of Emperor Qianlong.