古代想实现阶层跃升的难度非常
《明朝那些事儿》（十八）
一、贫民出身的朱元璋，取得天下后设定了富人的门槛，硬性规定什么样的人算是富人：但凡超过百姓日常生活必须，居家和乐的最基本条件的，都算富人。
1. Born into poverty, Zhu Yuanzhang, after seizing the empire, established a threshold for defining the wealthy. He mandated that anyone whose possessions exceeded the basic necessities required for daily life and the minimal conditions for household comfort would be considered rich.
二、他对富人的要求大略如下：1．不得欺压佃户；2．不得趁荒灾圈地；3．不得往来官府……中国几千年，唯洪武年间富户最少，天下富户要么尽散家财求个平安，要么就是因官员获罪而遭株连。
2. His demands on the wealthy were roughly as follows: 1. They must not oppress tenant farmers; 2. They must not enclose land during famines; 3. They must not associate with officials... In thousands of years of Chinese history, the Hongwu era saw the fewest wealthy households. The rich across the land either dispersed their wealth to seek safety or were implicated and punished due to officials' crimes.
三、唐宋时虽有科举，但录取名额十分之少，一科往往只取几十人。明朝自洪武三年起开科举，实行扩招，这下子想做官的人就挤破了头，纷纷以读书为业。这些人就是后来明朝文官势力的基础。
3. Although the imperial examination existed during the Tang and Song dynasties, the number of successful candidates was extremely small, often only a few dozen per session. Starting from the third year of Hongwu, the Ming Dynasty held examinations and expanded enrollment. Consequently, those aspiring to become officials fiercely competed, and many took up scholarly pursuits. These individuals later formed the foundation of the Ming Dynasty's civil official class.
四、如果在明朝去参加某位官员的追悼会，看到某些人在门口探头探脑，面露喜色，要不是和这家有仇，那一般就都是举人。因为有官位空出来举人才能去补缺做官。
4. If you attended a memorial service for an official in the Ming Dynasty and saw certain people peeking in at the door with joyful expressions, unless they held a grudge against the family, they were usually provincial graduates (juren). This was because only when an official position became vacant could a juren fill the opening and become an official.
五、明代考试的考场叫做贡院，贡院里有上万间房间，而朝廷一般只挑选三百人（大家可以估计一下录取率）。
5. The examination hall in the Ming Dynasty was called the Gongyuan (Examination Compound). It contained tens of thousands of rooms, yet the court typically selected only about three hundred candidates (you can estimate the acceptance rate).
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