1057: One Roll, Four Currents, Four Layers | Great Four 嘉祐二年:一榜、四脉、四层 – 北宋士人的理想与离散

嘉祐二年:一榜、四脉、四层 – 北宋士人的理想与离散
1057: One Roll, Four Currents, Four Layers — The Ideals and Dispersal of Northern Song Scholars

English

This is a record, not a verdict. In the spring of 1057, 388 men received the jinshi degree in Bianjing. Over the next forty years, some became masters of prose, some founders of Neo-Confucian schools, some the backbone of state reform — and three were entered in the “Biographies of Treacherous Ministers” of the Song History. In a single register, aspiration and dispersal lie side by side, neither ranked above the other.

I. The Examination of 1057

In 1057 Ouyang Xiu presided over the metropolitan examination, assisted by Mei Yaochen. Examinees were then writing in the “Taixue style,” prized for its strained and obscure diction. Ouyang Xiu suppressed it outright; anyone writing in that manner was failed. When the results appeared, the rejected candidates surrounded his horse and shouted abuse, and someone threw a mock funeral oration into his house. The Song History records merely the outcome: “the habits of the examination hall changed from then on.”

The numbers are worth setting down: some 6,500 candidates sat the departmental examination; about 400 were recommended to the throne; on the fifth day of the third month the emperor examined them in person, and on the eleventh the roll was published — 388 degrees, fifteen of them courtesy placements. It was also with this cohort that the Song established the rule that whoever reached the palace examination would not be failed. The final stage stopped eliminating and began only to rank. Previously, the palace examination had weeded out as many as half — sometimes nearly nine-tenths — of those who reached it.

The spread of ages is equally telling: Su Zhe was nineteen, Su Shi twenty-one, Cheng Hao twenty-six, Zhang Zai thirty-eight, Zeng Gong thirty-nine. The same question was answered in the same spring by men twenty years apart. Ouyang Xiu was fifty-one.


中文

此文为一次记录,不作评判。1057年春,汴京贡院放榜,三百八十八人获进士出身。此后四十年,他们中的一些人成为文章宗主,一些人成为理学开山,一些人成为变法中坚,也有三人被写进《宋史·奸臣传》。同一份名录里,理想与离散并排躺着,不分上下。

一·一榜:嘉祐二年的那场贡举

嘉祐二年(1057),欧阳修以翰林学士权知贡举,梅尧臣为副。当时士子为文「务为险怪之语,号太学体」,欧阳修痛排抑之,凡如是者辄黜。落第者不服,聚噪于马首,街逻不能制;有人甚至写了《祭欧阳修文》扔进他家。但《宋史》记下了结果:「场屋之习,从是遂变。」

这一科的规模值得一记:参加省试者约六千五百人,礼部奏名约四百人,三月初五殿试,三月十一放榜,得章衡以下三百八十八人,其中十五人为特奏名。也是从这一届起,宋朝确立了「凡进士与殿试者,始免黜落」的原则——殿试不再淘汰,只定名次。此前殿试的黜落率曾高达百分之五十乃至八十九。

榜中年龄的跨度同样值得一提:苏辙十九岁,苏轼二十一岁,程颢二十六岁,张载三十八岁,曾巩三十九岁。同一道题,被十九岁的人和三十九岁的人在同一个春天里作答。欧阳修那年五十一岁。


English

II. Four Currents in One Register

Later ages called this the “Dragon-and-Tiger Roll,” largely because it produced four distinct kinds of talent at once — four ways of putting learning to work in the world.

Letters

Of the six Song prose masters among the Eight Masters of Tang and Song, this single roll supplied three. Zeng Gong was joined on the same list by his half-brother Zeng Bu, his brother Zeng Mou and a cousin. Of the three, Zeng Gong arrived latest: he was thirty-nine, after two decades of obscurity.

Principle

Zhang Zai founded the Guan school; Cheng Hao and his brother Cheng Yi founded the Luo school. Zhang Zai was the cousins’ elder kinsman; he lectured on the Book of Changes at the Xiangguo Temple in Bianjing and recommended the two Chengs, saying modestly that in the study of the Changes he could not match them. Cheng Yi never took the degree and is absent from this roll — yet he later became a principal in the quarrel with Su Shi.

Statecraft

These men formed the core of the Xining reforms. Nine from this roll eventually reached the council of state: Wang Shao, Lü Huiqing, Su Zhe, Zeng Bu, Zhang Zao, Zhang Dun, Zheng Yong, Liang Tao and Luo Kai (some accounts add Lin Xi and Jiang Zhiqi). Three of them were later placed in the “Biographies of Treacherous Ministers.”

Frontier

In 1068 Wang Shao submitted his three-part Memorial on Pacifying the Rong, proposing to secure the Huangshui and Tao river valleys and thereby cut off Xia’s right arm. The Xihe campaign extended the frontier by some two thousand li and recovered six prefectures — Xi, He, Tao, Min, Die and Dang — capturing the Tibetan leader Muzheng. It was the largest military success of the Northern Song after the end of the Ten Kingdoms.

The first-placed candidate, Zhang Heng of Pucheng, is the quietest name on the roll. He sat the examination alongside his elder kinsman Zhang Dun and took the top place; Zhang Dun, ashamed to rank below his own nephew, threw down his certificate and left. He sat again two years later and placed fifth in the first class and first in the Kaifeng prefectural examination — a piece of stubbornness probably unmatched in a thousand years of examinations.

III. Four Layers: Heaven, Earth, Humanity, Heart

The writings left by this cohort can be read in four layers. Heaven is the cosmic coordinate: where a person places himself. Earth is moral order: how a community lives together. Humanity is inner cultivation: what work that placement demands. Heart is spirit made visible: how inner conviction becomes a visible bearing. These four are not a ladder; no layer is higher than another. They turn together, and if one is missing, the other three will distort.

Heaven · Cosmic Coordinates: The Western Inscription

Heaven is my father and Earth is my mother, and even such a small creature as I finds an intimate place in their midst. Therefore that which fills the universe I regard as my body and that which directs the universe I consider as my nature. All people are my brothers and sisters, and all things are my companions.

Its original title was Correcting Folly. Around 1070, having resigned and returned to Hengqu, Zhang Zai inscribed it – together with a companion piece – on the east and west windows of his study, as a motto. Cheng Yi, on seeing them, renamed them the Eastern and Western Inscriptions; Zhang Zai later placed the latter at the head of the “Qian cheng” chapter of his Correcting Ignorance. The question it answers is: what place does a human being occupy in the universe? The answer: not above things, not outside them, but among them.

Earth · Moral Order: On the Utmost Loyalty and Generosity in Punishment and Reward

In the examination hall of 1057, Su Shi — aged twenty-one — wrote: “The Book of Documents says: when there is doubt about guilt, treat it lightly; when there is doubt about merit, reward it generously. Better to err by failing to punish than to put an innocent man to death.” He went on: “Where one might reward or not reward, to reward is to err on the side of benevolence; where one might punish or not punish, to punish is to err on the side of justice. To err toward benevolence one remains a gentleman; to err toward punishment one drifts into cruelty. Benevolence may be excessive; justice must not be.” The question it answers: by what measure should a community reward and punish?

Two footnotes are worth adding. First, the anecdote of “Gao Yao said thrice, ‘Put him to death’; Yao said thrice, ‘Spare him'” has no source. Asked about it directly, Su Shi replied, “I took it to be so — must there be a source for everything?” The phrase echoes Kong Rong’s answer to Cao Cao: “judging the past by the present, I took it to be so.” Second, Ouyang Xiu had wanted to place this paper first; suspecting it was the work of his disciple Zeng Gong and wishing to avoid the appearance of favouritism, he placed it second. Learning afterwards who had written it, he wrote to Mei Yaochen: “This old man should step aside and let him have the road to himself.”

Humanity · Inner Cultivation: Work Done Outside the Hall

This layer appears in no examination essay. It appears in what these men did afterwards. Cheng Hao proposed that “Heaven is principle.” Zhang Zai taught his students to “know the rites and complete the nature, transform the material endowment,” and set down “Six Possessions” and “Ten Prohibitions” as household rules. Zeng Gong came to the degree at thirty-nine after twenty years of steady work. The hall tests one day’s writing; a life is made of a lifetime’s work. That nine from this roll later reached the council of state was not due to the brilliance of that single day.

Heart · Spirit Made Visible: The Four Maxims of Hengqu

To set the heart for heaven and earth; to secure the livelihood of the people; to carry forward the interrupted learning of the sages; to open lasting peace for ten thousand generations.

The four lines appear in Correcting Ignorance. Zhang Zai completed that book in the autumn of 1076, at fifty-seven — nineteen years after the examination of 1057. The following December, summoned to court, he died at Lintong on the road, aged fifty-eight. His family had no means to bury him; his students raised the funds to bring him home to Mei county.

The four lines and the four layers read against one another neatly. To set the heart is to fix a coordinate of value for the cosmos. To secure livelihood is to give the common life a footing. To continue the learning is to keep working on oneself. To open peace is to make all of it visible as a bearing. It offers no consolation and promises no outcome; it is simply a sentence one can recite, hang on a wall, and measure oneself against.

Heaven without humanity is abstraction; earth without heaven is harsh law; humanity without heart is private salvation; heart without earth is empty wishing. This roll contained all four temperaments: Zhang Zai leaning to heaven, Su Shi to earth, Cheng Hao to humanity — and it was Zhang Zai again who said all four aloud.


中文

二·四脉:一份名录里的四种才具

后世称这一榜为「龙虎榜」,多半是因为它同时产出了四种不同类型的人才。四种才具,恰好对应四种把学问用于世间的方式。

其一·文辞

苏轼、苏辙、曾巩。唐宋八大家中的宋六家,这一榜占了三席。曾巩与弟曾布、曾牟及堂兄曾阜一门四人同科及第。三人中,曾巩最晚达,三十九岁登第,此前已沉潜二十年。

其二·义理

张载、程颢。张载开关学,程颢与其弟程颐开洛学。张载是二程的表叔,曾在汴京相国寺讲《易》,并推荐二程,自谦「易学之道,吾不如二程」。程颐终身未登进士第,不在这一榜上,却在此后与苏轼的争执中成为主角之一。

其三·经世

吕惠卿、曾布、章惇。熙宁变法的核心班底。此榜先后有九人官至宰执:王韶、吕惠卿、苏辙、曾布、张璪、章惇、郑雍、梁焘、罗恺(一说含林希、蒋之奇)。其中三人后来被列入《宋史·奸臣传》。

其四·边功

王韶。熙宁元年上《平戎策》三篇,提出经营河湟以断西夏右臂。熙河之役拓边二千余里,收复熙、河、洮、岷、叠、宕六州,生擒吐蕃首领木征,是北宋结束十国割据后最大的一次军事胜利。

状元章衡是这一榜最安静的一个。浦城人,与族叔章惇同场应试而夺魁。章惇耻居侄下,弃敕不受,两年后再考,中甲科第五名、开封府试第一——这种任性,千年科举里恐怕无人能及。

三·四层:天·地·人·心

读这一榜留下的文字,可以用四层来分:天是宇宙坐标——人把自己放在哪里;地是道德秩序——一群人如何共处;人是内在修养——为此要下什么功夫;心是精神显形——内在的东西如何变成可见的承担。这四层不是阶梯,没有哪一层更高。它们同时转动,缺一层,其余三层都会变形。

天·宇宙坐标:《西铭》

乾称父,坤称母;予兹藐焉,乃混然中处。故天地之塞,吾其体;天地之帅,吾其性。民吾同胞,物吾与也。

这篇原名《订顽》。熙宁三年(1070)前后,张载辞官归横渠,把它与《砭愚》分书于书房东西两牖,作为座右铭。程颐见后,改称《东铭》《西铭》;后来张载将其收入《正蒙·乾称篇》作为首章。它回答的问题是:人在宇宙里占什么位置。答案是:不在万物之上,也不在万物之外,而在万物之中。

地·道德秩序:《刑赏忠厚之至论》

嘉祐二年的考场上,二十一岁的苏轼写下:「《书》曰:罪疑惟轻,功疑惟重。与其杀不辜,宁失不经。」又说:「可以赏,可以无赏,赏之过乎仁;可以罚,可以无罚,罚之过乎义。过乎仁,不失为君子;过乎义,则流而入于忍人。故仁可过也,义不可过也。」它回答的问题是:一群人要共处,赏罚的分寸在哪里。

两件小事值得附记。其一,文中「皋陶曰杀之三,尧曰宥之三」并无出处。梅尧臣当面问起,苏轼答:「想当然耳,何必须要有出处?」——典出孔融答曹操「以今度之,想当然耳」。其二,欧阳修本欲置此卷第一,疑为门人曾巩所作,为避嫌改置第二;放榜后得知作者,写信给梅尧臣说:「老夫当避路,放他出一头地也。」

人·内在修养:考场之外的功夫

这一层不在任何一篇应试文章里,而在他们此后做的事里。程颢提出「天者,理也」;张载教弟子「知礼成性,变化气质」,又立「六有」「十戒」为家规;曾巩三十九岁登第,此前二十年不躁不辍。考场所测是一日之文,人所修的是一生之功。此榜后来能做到九人位至宰执,靠的不是那一日的文采。

心·精神显形:横渠四句

为天地立心,为生民立命,为往圣继绝学,为万世开太平。

这四句见于《正蒙》。熙宁九年(1076)秋,五十七岁的张载完成此书,距嘉祐二年那场考试已有十九年。次年十二月,他应召赴京途中病逝于临潼,年五十八;家中无余财,门人筹资方得归葬眉县。

四句与四层,恰好可以互读:立心,是给宇宙定一个价值坐标;立命,是给众人的共处一个安顿;继绝学,是给自己下持续的功夫;开太平,是把这一切变成可见的承担。它不做安慰,也不许诺结果,只是一句可诵、可挂、可自检的话。

四层如何转动:只讲天而不讲人,是空谈;只讲地而不讲天,是苛法;只讲人而不讲心,是自了;只讲心而不讲地,是空愿。一榜之中,这四种人都在:张载偏天,苏轼偏地,程颢偏人,而把四者合起来说出口的,还是张载。


English

IV. Forty Years: From Classmates to Opponents

Men gathered by one examination were separated by four decades of politics. What follows is a timeline that can be checked item by item.

1057: In the third month, 388 men headed by Zhang Heng received the jinshi degree. Su Shi was 21, Su Zhe 19.
1062: Su Shi and Zhang Dun both served in Shaanxi circuit. The military commissioner Liu Chang treated them both as scholars of national stature, and the two were on the best of terms. Touring the Xianyou Pool together, Su Shi patted Zhang Dun on the back and said, “Zihou, you will surely kill a man one day.” Zhang Dun asked why. Su replied, “One who can stake his own life can take another’s.”
1069: The second year of Xining; the New Policies begin. Twelve years after the roll was published. Zeng Bu and Lü Huiqing enter the Finance Commission; Zhang Zai resigns and returns west to Hengqu.
C. 1070: Zhang Zai writes Correcting Folly and Piercing Folly on the east and west windows of his Hengqu study.
1076: Autumn of the ninth year of Xining. Correcting Ignorance is completed, and the Four Maxims are in it.
1077: Twelfth month, the tenth year of Xining. Zhang Zai dies at Lintong, aged 58. His family had no means to bury him; his students raised the funds to bring him home.
1079: The Wutai Poetry Case. Scholar-officials avoided Su Shi as much as they could; “even flesh and blood kin would not exchange a single word with him.” Zhang Dun submitted a memorial to rescue him and wrote to comfort him.
1085: The eighth year of Yuanfeng. Cheng Hao dies aged 54. The Yuanyou Restoration begins and the old party returns to court. During the Yuanyou era, the Shu-Luo factional strife: Cheng Yi and Su Shi attack each other and their followers form separate schools. Cheng Hao did not live to see it.
1094: The Shaosheng era continues the New Policies; Zhang Dun serves as sole chancellor. Su Shi is banished to Huizhou, then further to Danzhou; Su Zhe is banished to Yunzhou; Zeng Bu rises again.
1100: The third year of Yuanfu; Emperor Huizong ascends. Zeng Bu advocates “Establishing the Mean and Pacifying the State,” and serves as chancellor alongside Han Zhongyan — contemporaries called them the “Turtle and Crane Chancellors.”
1105: The fourth year of Chongning. Zhang Dun dies in exile, aged 70.
1107: The first year of Daguan. Zeng Bu dies at Runzhou, aged 72. He is posthumously granted the title of Grand Academician of the Hall of Observing Culture, with the posthumous name “Wensu” (Cultured and Solemn).
1111: Lü Huiqing dies aged 80. He had previously retired as Military Commissioner of the Baoning and Wusheng armies and Academician of the Hall of Observing Culture.

The verdict on three men of this roll has been contested ever since. The “Biographies of Treacherous Ministers” in the Song History runs to four chapters and twenty-one men, among them Lü Huiqing, Zhang Dun and Zeng Bu. Reading Zeng Bu’s biography, Liang Qichao wrote: “Zeng Zixuan was a man of unyielding bone through the ages,” adding that while “the wrong done to Wang Anshi has been redressed by dozens of writers over centuries, the wrong done to Zeng Bu remains a night without dawn.” Both verdicts are placed here side by side; no ruling is offered.

V. After the Four Lines

The young men who filled in their papers at Bianjing a thousand years ago and those at their desks today read the same books and attempt the same thing: to put what they have learned to use in the world. What this history leaves behind is not “how to pass brilliantly,” but four questions one can ask oneself year by year.

Heaven · Do you know how small your place is — and that this place is not the whole?
Earth · In the community you belong to, can the rules be discussed and revised?
Humanity · Are you still doing the slow, unglamorous work, rather than managing appearances?
Heart · Is there a part of what you do that is not for yourself?

The examination of 1057 ended long ago. What remains is not the ranking but four questions.

Appendix I: Key Figures

Ouyang Xiu (1007–1072): Chief examiner, not a degree holder of this roll. Literary leader and champion of the Classical Prose Movement. Presided over the 1057 examination at age 51.
Zhang Heng (1025–1098): Top candidate of this roll. From Pucheng. A pragmatic official rarely involved in factional strife; sat the exam alongside his elder kinsman Zhang Dun.
Su Shi (1037–1101): Letters. Passed at 21 with “On the Utmost Loyalty and Generosity in Punishment and Reward.” Repeatedly banished, eventually to Danzhou.
Su Zhe (1039–1112): Letters and Statecraft. Passed at 19; later served as Vice Minister of the Right.
Zeng Gong (1019–1083): Letters. Passed at 39; four members of the Zeng family passed in the same cohort.
Zhang Zai (1020–1077): Principle and the Guan school. Passed at 38. Author of the Western Inscription and Correcting Ignorance; originator of the Four Maxims of Hengqu.
Cheng Hao (1032–1085): Principle and the Luo school. Passed at 26; advocated that “Heaven is principle.” Died in 1085.
Cheng Yi (1033–1107): Principle and the Luo school. Did not pass the jinshi. Renamed Correcting Folly as the Western Inscription; clashed with Su Shi during the Yuanyou era.
Lü Huiqing (1032–1111): Statecraft. The second most important figure of the New Policies; rose and fell twice, finally retiring as military commissioner of two circuits.
Zeng Bu (1036–1107): Statecraft and Chancellor. Half-brother of Zeng Gong; advocated “Establishing the Mean and Pacifying the State.” Died at Runzhou, posthumous name Wensu.
Zhang Dun (1035–1105): Statecraft and Chancellor. Passed in 1057 but threw down his certificate; passed again in 1059. Served as sole chancellor during the Shaosheng era.

Appendix II: Principal Sources

1. Songshi (History of the Song): Biographies of Ouyang Xiu, Su Shi, Zhang Zai, and the School of Principle; vol. 471, “Biographies of Treacherous Ministers.”
2. Song Huiyao (Song Administrative Statutes): “Examinations” — on the number of candidates at the 1057 palace examination and the rule that candidates reaching it would no longer be failed.
3. Shen Kuo, Mengxi Bitan (Brush Talks from Dream Brook) — on the Taixue style and Liu Ji (later renamed Liu Hui).
4. Zhang Zai, Zhengmeng, “Qian cheng” chapter — the Western Inscription and the Four Maxims.
5. Yang Wanli, Chengzhai Ji; Gong Yizheng, Jieyin Biji; Ye Mengde, Shilin Yan yu; Lu You, Laoxue’an Biji — variant accounts of Su Shi’s “I took it to be so” and “must there be a source?”
6. Ouyang Xiu, Letter to Mei Sheng yu — “This old man should step aside and let him have the road to himself.”
7. Wang Anshi, Reply to Lü Jifu and commentary — on Lü Huiqing’s official career.
8. Liang Qichao on Zeng Bu — later dissent from the “Biographies of Treacherous Ministers.”

Appendix III: The Fours in This Essay

– One Roll: 388 men in 1057.
– Four Currents: Letters, Principle, Statecraft, Frontier.
– Four Layers: Heaven, Earth, Humanity, Heart.
– Forty Years: 1057–1105, from classmates to opponents.
– Four Lines: To set the heart for heaven and earth; to secure the livelihood of the people; to carry forward the interrupted learning of the sages; to open lasting peace for ten thousand generations.


中文

四·四十年:从同窗到对立

同一场考试聚拢的人,被此后四十年的政局分开。以下是一条可以逐条核对的时间线。

1057:嘉祐二年三月,章衡以下三百八十八人及第。苏轼二十一岁,苏辙十九岁。
1062:苏轼与章惇同在陕西路与闻试务,帅臣刘敞「皆以国士遇之」,二人相得欢甚。同游仙游潭,苏轼拍章惇背曰:「子厚必能杀人。」章惇问何故,答:「能自拼命者,能杀人也。」
1069:熙宁二年,新法起。距放榜十二年。曾布、吕惠卿入制置三司条例司;张载辞官西归横渠。
约1070:张载书《订顽》《砭愚》于横渠书院东西两牖。
1076:熙宁九年秋,《正蒙》成书,横渠四句在焉。
1077:熙宁十年十二月,张载病卒于临潼,年五十八。家无余财,门人筹资归葬。
1079:乌台诗案。士大夫避之唯恐不及,苏轼「虽骨肉至亲,未肯有一字往来」;章惇上书营救,并致书抚慰。
1085:元丰八年,程颢卒,年五十四。元祐更化起,旧党还朝。元祐间蜀洛之争:程颐与苏轼互相攻讦,门人各立门户。程颢已不及见。
1094:绍圣绍述,章惇独相。苏轼贬惠州,再贬儋州;苏辙贬筠州;曾布再起。
1100:元符三年,徽宗即位。曾布主「建中靖国」,与韩忠彦并为宰相,时称「龟鹤宰相」。
1105:崇宁四年,章惇卒于贬所,年七十。
1107:大观元年,曾布卒于润州,年七十二,赠观文殿大学士,谥「文肃」。
1111:吕惠卿卒,年八十。此前以保宁、武胜两军节度使、观文殿学士致仕。

史书对这一榜中三人的评价,历代有争议。《宋史》卷四七一《奸臣传》共四卷二十一人,吕惠卿、章惇、曾布均在其列。梁启超谈曾布传后写道:「曾子宣者,千古骨鲠之士」;又说「荆公之冤,数百年来为之昭雪者,尚有数十人。而子宣之冤,乃万古如长夜」。此处只并列两种说法,不作裁断。

五·四句之后

千年前在汴京答卷的青年,与今天在书桌前的人,读的是同一部书,做的是同一件事:把学到的东西用于世间。这段历史留下的问题不是「如何考出惊世之才」,而是四个可以逐年自问的问题。

天:你是否知道自己的位置之小,也知道这位置并不是全部?
地:你所处的共同体里,规则是否可以被讨论、被修正?
人:你是否还在下笨功夫,而不是只经营姿态?
心:你所做的事里,有没有一部分不是为了自己?

嘉祐二年那场考试早就结束了。留下来的不是名次,是四个问句。

附录一·核心人物简表

欧阳修(1007—1072):主考官,非进士。文坛宗主、古文运动领袖,嘉祐二年知贡举,时年五十一。
章衡(1025—1098):本科状元。浦城人,实务官员,少涉党争;族叔章惇同场应试。
苏轼(1037—1101):文辞。二十一岁登第,《刑赏忠厚之至论》;累贬至儋州。
苏辙(1039—1112):文辞·宰执。十九岁登第,后官至尚书右丞。
曾巩(1019—1083):文辞。三十九岁登第;与曾布、曾牟、曾阜一门四人同科。
张载(1020—1077):义理·关学。三十八岁登第;《西铭》《正蒙》;横渠四句。
程颢(1032—1085):义理·洛学。二十六岁登第,倡「天者理也」;元丰八年卒。
程颐(1033—1107):义理·洛学。未登进士第;改《订顽》为《西铭》;元祐间与苏轼相争。
吕惠卿(1032—1111):经世。变法二号人物;两起两落,终以两镇节度使致仕。
曾布(1036—1107):经世·宰执。曾巩异母弟;主「建中靖国」;卒于润州,谥文肃。
章惇(1035—1105):经世·宰执。嘉祐二年及第而弃敕,嘉祐四年再登第;绍圣间独相。

附录二·主要史料

1. 《宋史·欧阳修传》《宋史·苏轼传》《宋史·张载传》《宋史·道学传》、卷四七一《奸臣传》。
2. 《宋会要·选举》- 嘉祐二年殿试人数与「始免黜落」之制。
3. 沈括《梦溪笔谈》- 太学体、刘几(后改名刘辉)事。
4. 张载《正蒙·乾称篇》- 《西铭》及横渠四句。
5. 杨万里《诚斋集·诗话》、龚颐正《芥隐笔记》、叶梦得《石林燕语》、陆游《老学庵笔记》——苏轼「想当然耳」「何须出处」诸说异同。
6. 欧阳修《与梅圣俞书》- 「老夫当避路,放他出一头地」。
7. 王安石《答吕吉甫书》及注 – 吕惠卿仕履。
8. 梁启超论曾布语 – 后世对《奸臣传》评价的异议。

附录三·本文用到的「四」

– 一榜:嘉祐二年三百八十八人。
– 四脉:文辞·义理·经世·边功。
– 四层:天·地·人·心(宇宙坐标/道德秩序/内在修养/精神显形)。
– 四十年:1057—1105,从同窗到对立。
– 四句:为天地立心,为生民立命,为往圣继绝学,为万世开太平。


Related Reading / 相关阅读


Editor’s Note

编者按

What follows is the editor’s, not the historian’s: neither fact nor verdict. It is appended because the questions that examination left behind have outlasted the rankings it produced. It may be skipped entirely; the closing questions above stand on their own.

本文以下一段为编者所加,非史实,亦非定论。附在这里,是因为那场考试留下的问题,比它给出的名次更耐用。读者可以直接跳过它 – 正文末尾的那四个问句,并不依赖这段文字。


To Students Today: The Tradition Endures; We Need Not Repeat Old Ruins

写给今日的学子:文脉不绝,不必重蹈旧辙

The young scholars of Bianjing a millennium ago and students at desks today belong to one continuous intellectual tradition. They studied hard, reasoned deeply, and hoped their learning might serve the world. That quiet aspiration has not faded across centuries. Yet the most vital lesson from this history is not “strive for extraordinary examination success”, but how to place your talent and ideals wisely.

Do not worship rankings alone, nor stake all your gifts on factional alignment, partisan games and interpersonal contest. Su Shi’s benevolence and Zhang Zai’s sense of duty shine not because they defeated rivals, but because they preserved the foundation of their thinking amid overwhelming currents. Writing skill can be trained, knowledge can be memorised, yet the spirit behind “setting the moral heart for heaven and earth” grows from steady empathy, constant self-examination, and commitment to common sense and conscience.

There are three layers in learning: first, mastering skills to sustain oneself; second, understanding the world and distinguishing right from prejudice; third, caring for the larger community and committing oneself to long-term good for people and civilisation. Most may never reach the third layer, yet anyone can hold fast to the second: resist being swept up by narrow camps, do not turn cleverness into tools for attrition, and do not let hardship erase compassion.

The Four Maxims of Hengqu do not demand that every person build everlasting peace for ten thousand generations. They work better as a quiet checklist: whatever path you take, do you remain attentive to the lives of others? Will you keep seeking truth? Will you refuse to burn your life away in pointless friction?

Many gifted minds in that era wasted themselves in court strife; their ideals fractured, their gifts worn thin. That is the trap we ought to watch for most carefully today. True inheritance does not mean repeating ancient tragedy. It means carrying forward their questions, and living with greater clarity and composure in our own time.

May you possess talent and steady resolve, ambition and clear boundaries. May you perceive the grand sweep of the age, while accepting your own limits. Amid noise, hold fast to the quiet weight within you.

History offers no single answer. Glory and fracture, ideal and reality, remain questions for us to revisit.

千年前汴京春闱里的少年,和今天书桌前的学子,共享同一条文脉。他们苦读、思辨、期待以所学改善世间,这份初心跨越千年没有变化。但这段历史留给我们最重要的提醒,从来不是「要考出惊世之才」,而是如何安放自己的才华与理想。

不必迷信一纸名次,更不必把才华全部押进派系、立场与人情博弈之中。苏轼的仁厚、张载的担当,可贵之处不在于他们赢过对手,而在于他们在洪流之中守住了自己思考的根基。文采可以练习,知识点可以背诵,但「为天地立心」的底色,是清醒的共情、持续的自省,以及对常识与良知的坚守。

读书有三层境界:第一层,习得技艺,谋求安身;第二层,通达事理,明辨是非;第三层,心怀更广的共同体,愿意为生民、文脉做长久的事。大多数人终其一生未必抵达第三层,但至少可以守住第二层:不被狭隘立场裹挟,不把聪明用在倾轧消耗,不因现实困顿丢掉悲悯。

横渠四句不是要求每个人都去开万世太平。它更像一道自检标尺:无论未来从事哪一行,你是否保有对他人命运的体察?是否愿意守住求真的习惯?是否拒绝把全部生命耗在无意义的内耗里?

历史上,一众天纵英才,最后耗在朝堂纷争,理想被撕裂,才情被磨损。这是我们今天最值得警惕的陷阱。真正的传承,不是复刻古人的悲剧,而是接过他们的发问,在自己的时代,以更从容、更清醒的方式立身行事。

愿你有才情,亦有定力;有抱负,亦有边界。能看见时代宏大,也接纳个体有限;在喧嚣之中,守住自己心里那一点安定的重量。

历史没有唯一答案。高光与破碎,理想与现实,至今仍是我们需要反复思考的命题。

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