学生读历史,最实际的目的是为了考试。讲到考试,就会联想到科举,想到这个起于隋代,盛于唐代以降,废于清朝末年,却多少还影响到今天的制度。这个制度,虽说起于隋代,却不是隋代哪位人物制定,而是有其渊源。就像任何重要的制度,都有其渊源所自,都不是突然出现的。我们看到,南北朝时取用孝廉和秀才的办法,大致 The most practical purpose for students to read history is for examinations. When it comes to exams, they are associated with the imperial examinations. They think that this began in the Sui Dynasty, flourished in the Tang Dynasty, and was abandoned in the last years of the Qing Dynasty, but it also affected the system of today. Although this system was described as being from the Sui Dynasty, it was not the establishment of a character of the Sui Dynasty, but its origin. Just as any important system has its origins, it does not appear suddenly. We have seen that in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, we used methods of Xiaolian and Xiucai, roughly