History
Imperial Examination
The Imperial Examination was a system in ancient China used to select candidates for the state bureaucracy based on their knowledge of Confucian classics and literary skills. It was a key institution for social mobility and political stability, as it allowed individuals from lower social classes to attain prestigious government positions through merit rather than birthright.
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eBook - ePubThe Class of 1761
Examinations, State, and Elites in Eighteenth-Century China
- Iona Man-Cheong(Author)
- 2004(Publication Date)
- Stanford University Press(Publisher)
In the imperial Chinese examination system, as in modern examination practice, examiners applied a scrutiny as diagnostic as any associated with medical practice; one that determined whether the subject had absorbed and applied the requisite knowledge and distinctions. Thus, besides literally undergoing a body search, the candidate also had his mental “luggage” searched. The most crucial effect of this system was thus the training of loyal, obedient subjects, inculcated with the behaviors, values, and principles of government deemed appropriate for servants of the state. It would, however, be a mistake to assume that this disciplinary process was unilateral in scope. Imperial Examinations occurred within and between sets of vibrant state-society relations. Interacting with the more contingent elements of court politics, intellectual fashions, and social ambitions, examinations become a site of collaboration, contestation, and conflict. It is in this context that examinations also become historically specific. When investigated within the contingencies of both imperial policy and, in the eighteenth century, a growing, multicultural, multiethnic empire ruled by a minority group, practice diverges sharply from typically static, descriptive accounts of structures and institutional functions. These sets of concerns shape the main thrust of this book.The most challenging question about the imperial Chinese examination system is not how the system worked—the several available institutional studies are excellent and provide more than adequate answers—but rather, what the system meant.3 Thirty years ago, Chang Chung-li and Ho Ping-ti both argued that examinations determined membership in the Chinese gentry—a rather anomalous concept, since, unlike in Britain, the gentry was not an exclusively land-based social class, but rather an elite for whom both cultural and other economic capital were significant and for whom, in the final analysis, cultural capital remained decisive.4 In fact, subsequent work has shown that the elite controlled a diverse number of resources that it deployed through various strategies to achieve and maintain its preeminent socio-economic position.5
- Bruce B. Frey(Author)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- SAGE Publications, Inc(Publisher)
As early as the Zhou Dynasty (1046–249 BCE), citizens were given a promotion within the bureaucratic structure of the Emperor’s court based upon demonstrated skill in archery. It was not, however, until the Sui Dynasty (581–618 CE) that a system requiring performance on a written examination, as well as martial arts and archery, emerged to sort capable citizens into leadership positions in the Imperial court. These early civil service examinations required citizens from different precincts and regions to participate in standardized written, oral, and observed examinations of one’s ability to recite important moral and philosophical arguments, recite texts the Emperor wrote, and perform martial and military arts. The use of the Imperial Examination system was a direct result of social shifts away from a feudal system of patronage as a means to gain improved social status toward a more meritorious system. Test takers from each precinct would engage in the same test, which occurred in regular cycles and contained the same questions and instructions administered by specially trained test administrators. Each test progressed in difficulty, with the highest level, the Palace Examination, often being supervised by the Emperor.During the Song Dynasty (960–1279), the school system was expanded considerably and along with it, the Imperial Examination system. In this time frame, the examinations contained standardized tests administered at the district, provincial, and metropolitan levels and were attached to the bestowing of an educational credential. Strict quotas allowed only a small number of test takers to pass each exam, and students often took the tests multiple times before passing them, often waiting three or more years before the next test cycle.Exams were a test of the candidates’ physical abilities and intellect. By 115 CE, during the Han Dynasty, the school curriculum and examinations focused on music, math, writing, Chinese traditions and ceremonies, archery, and horsemanship. The curriculum and exam would eventually evolve to also include militaristic strategy, civil law, taxation, agriculture, geography, and Confucian philosophy. Following each examination a test proctor “called the roll” and announced each test taker’s scores, a practice familiar to modern instructors. The most accomplished students were said to take on God-like qualities once passing the highest levels of exams. This was due, in large part, to the fact that each exam was a grueling, 3-day experience. Across 3 days and 2 nights, exam takers were ushered to a tiny, outdoor cubicle wherein he would replicate the exact text of an entire essay made available from the Emperor. No interruptions were allowed. Candidates had to supply their own food, water, and bedding. If bad weather was present, tests were not rescheduled. Instead, test takers would simply have to make do with the constraints given them. Occasionally, test takers died during the exams and their bodies were simply thrown over the walls of the grounds so as not to distract other test takers.
eBook - PDFChina
Understanding Its Past
- Eileen H. Tamura, Eileen Tamura, Linda K. Menton, Noren W. Lush, Francis K. S. Tsui, Warren Cohen, Francis K. C. Tsui(Authors)
- 2003(Publication Date)
- University of Hawaii Press(Publisher)
Notice the carpet laid for the emperor. Courtesy of Palace Museum, Beijing. Section 2: Sons 35 The Examination and Civil Service Systems Miyazaki, Ichisada. China’s Examination Hell: The Civil Service Examinations of Imperial China. Translated by Conrad Schirokauer. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1981 (1976). Wolfgang, Frank. The Reform and Abolition of the Traditional Chinese Examination System. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1963. Dynasties and Emperors Hucker, Charles O. China’s Imperial Past: An Introduction to Chinese History and Culture. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1975. Hucker, Charles O. China to 1850: A Short History . Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1975. Chinese Language and Writing Chang, Raymond, and Margaret Scrogin Chang. Speaking of Chinese. New York: W. W. Norton, 1978. Karlgren, Bernhard. The Chinese Language. New York: The Ronald Press Company, 1949. Demystifying the Chinese Language. Stanford, CA: Stanford University, Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education and the Bay Area Chinese Education Project, 1983. A set of engaging classroom activities that can be ordered from Stanford University. Further Reading Extension Activities 1. Research . Research the Japanese examina-tion system and compare it with the exami-nation system of imperial China. 2. Speakers. Invite a Chinese to teach the class how to pronounce Chinese words and how to read pinyin and a few simple Chinese characters. The visitor might also demon-strate the use of the four treasures: rice paper, ink brush, ink stick, and ink stone. Parents and Children 3 Section Reading: A Diligent Wife and Fine Mother T he bonds between children and their parents were strong. Parents had obligations in rais-ing their children, and children had obliga-tions to their parents. In this section you will read about ideal parents and children.
eBook - PDF- Thomas Kellaghan, Vincent Greaney(Authors)
- 2019(Publication Date)
- World Bank(Publisher)
Photo 3.1 depicts a civil service examination from the Song dynasty. During successive dynasties, district, prefectural, provincial, and central examinations were held to select individuals for a wide range of positions in government and the military, including government A BRIEF HISTORY OF WRITTEN EXAMINATIONS | 45 ministers, provincial governors, education commissioners, and magistrates. From the early Ming dynasty (probably circa 1475) until the Guangxu reform of 1898 (with some interruptions), candidates sit-ting Imperial Examinations were required to write essays based on an eight-part format (Baguwen) in response to selected quotations from the Four Books and Five Classics, the authoritative sources on Confucianism. 2 The components of the eight-part essay were (a) opening, (b) intro-ducing topic, (c) beginning discussion, (d) initial leg, (e) transition, PHOTO 3.1 Ancient Chinese Public Examination Facsimile of original Chinese scroll (colored engraving) by Chinese school. Bridgeman Images/ Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris. Reproduced with permission from Bridgeman Images; further permission required for reuse. 46 | PUBLIC EXAMINATIONS EXAMINED (f) middle section, (g) later section, (h) conclusion (Elman 2000, 394). The format was designed to test candidates’ knowledge rather than indulging in obscure rhetoric (Sven and Yu 2006). It also provided uniformity in candidates’ responses, which was helpful in marking their work, an important consideration as candidate numbers increased but the time available for scoring remained very limited (Lui 1974). Features of examinations during the Ch’ing dynasty in the nine-teenth century can be readily identified with conditions under which examinations are held today (Miyazaki 1981). The examinations were administered in a spacious hall or shed cut off from communica-tion with the outside; photo 3.2 depicts an examination hall with 7,500 cells in Guangdong (Canton).
- Benjamin A. Elman(Author)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Harvard University Press(Publisher)
In this and the next chapter, I will describe the sociopolitical consequences of the Ming expansion as it pertained principally to the civil service. Later chapters will describe the interaction between the examination marketplace and elite cultural history. The nitty-gritty aspects of the examination process and its institutional evolution produced unforeseen social, political, economic, and cultural consequences that a functional or teleological analysis of its institutional parts cannot explain. The historical consequences of the examination regime and its original intended functions are analytically distinct.Except for the pioneering work of Ping-ti Ho, studies of late imperial civil examinations have dismissed them as an institutional obstacle to modernization. A more comprehensive view reveals that there were no a priori reasons that the gentry-official managerial elite reproduced by the examination regime before 1850 were by definition inefficient as political and social managers in a preindustrial society.2 If we evaluate literati education solely in light of modern goals of academic specialization and economic productivity, then the social and political interactions between elite culture and imperial institutions are misrepresented historically. Where developments are comparable for both the Ming and Qing dynasties, I will describe events and processes that tell us about both while at the same time highlighting notable differences. Where the Qing significantly altered the Ming civil examinations or its practice after 1644 significantly changed, I will save that analysis for later chapters, which focus on the last stages of its development up to 1850, before the final demise of the civil examinations in 1905.Political Reproduction of Officials
The Ming dynasty bureaucracy reproduced itself through a selection and appointment system that according to the official Ming History (Mingshi) had four major components: dynastic schools, civil and military examinations, recommendation, and appointment. The Song selection and appointment process had six aspects: examinations, schools, appointment, protection privilege, sponsored appointment, and evaluation. Although the Ming and Qing maintained a merit-rating review process comparable to the Song, other aspects, such as the protection policy and sponsored appointment to enhance family continuity, were curtailed in the late empire to keep the system’s circulation of elites healthy and vibrant.3
eBook - PDFMarginalization in China
Recasting Minority Politics
- Joseph Tse-Hei Lee, Lida V. Nedilsky, S. Cheung(Authors)
- 2009(Publication Date)
- Palgrave Macmillan(Publisher)
This is why, for all its fairness and openness, the civil examination system could become extremely hostile to “outsiders.” Those who had the misfortune to be perceived as outside the hierarchy could also be considered “alien” or “base,” and denied access to the civil examination entirely. To see how this occurred, we will take a brief look at how the examination worked. The Imperial Civil Examination and Household Registration Throughout the Ming and Qing dynasties, the imperial civil examina- tion operated in more or less the same way, with three tiers of examina- tions that ran parallel with the government’s administrative structure. The first step was for a boy to enroll in a local government school (girls were denied access to both the examination and to formal schooling) , and then to pass the Annual Examination (suishi ) and the Qualification Examination (keshi ). This qualified a student to take the tri-annual Provincial Examination (xiangshi ), which was held in various provincial capitals. If he passed this examination, he received the juren degree and was allowed to sit for the tri-annual Metropolitan Examination (huishi ) in Beijing, the capital. If he passed this last examination, he received the highest degree ( jinshi ) and became a government official. An extremely lucky and capable boy could go from being nobody to becoming a jinshi in four years, with a government appointment, and the attendant honor. But if he failed in either the Provincial or the Metropolitan Examination, he had a three-year wait, since these examinations were held only once every three years. It was extremely common for a student to spend more than “ten years under a cold win- dow,” as the Chinese saying goes, preparing for the imperial examina- tion, and even then, very few students passed it. The difficulty of the examination was one matter, access to it was another.
eBook - PDFTransforming History 中國歷史
The Making of a Modern Academic Discipline in Twentieth-Century China
- MOLOUGHNEY, Brian and ZARROW, Peter (eds.)(Authors)
- 2012(Publication Date)
- The Chinese University of Hong Kong(Publisher)
The most important transformation brought about by the celun examination was the addition of two new sections, titled Discourses on Chinese History and Politics ( Zhongguo zhengzhi shishi lun 中國政治史事論 ) and Policy Questions on World Politics and Technology ( Geguo zhengzhi yixue ce 各國政治藝學策 ). These now came before what had previously 76 · Liu Long-hsin been the most important part of the examination, the section devoted to the Four Books and Five Classics , thereby reducing their significance. From the perspective of institutional history, the 1902 reform of the examination system can be interpreted as the result of the calls for reform that had been persistently raised by late Qing scholars. From the perspec-tive of history of knowledge, it can also be seen as a reflection of modern knowledge patterns and changes in the perception of knowledge. Gener-ally speaking, examinations are merely a means of evaluating learning, and their content and structure scarcely represent the entirety of modern knowledge in all its complex relationships; however, the cultural signifi-cance of the Chinese examination system meant that the reform signifi-cantly altered the way candidates understood the world. The inclusion of new branches of knowledge into the examinations, still virtually the sole means of selecting candidates for government service, reflected changing official valuations of that knowledge at the time, as well as its importance within social networks. When the civil service examinations began to include subjects like history, dynastic historical records, agricultural and industrial administration, military affairs, acoustics, optics, chemistry, and electrical engineering in the first and second sessions of the exam, it indicated that late Qing academic circles considered these fields of knowledge to be central.
eBook - PDFThe Age of Confucian Rule
The Song Transformation of China
- Dieter Kuhn, Timothy Brook(Authors)
- 2011(Publication Date)
- Belknap Press(Publisher)
For individuals, the civil service examination system functioned as the door-opener for such a career, and for the Song state the examination system constituted the only methodologically sound way to recruit officials for all levels and fields of the bureaucracy. An edict of 989 confirms the exclusiveness of the exami-nations for the shi class: “The establishing of the examinations serves the class of scholars.” 5 Tang emperors first promoted the examination system in the seventh century in order to curb the political power of the military aristocracy. Holders of the highest degree, the jinshi, who made up only 7 percent of chief councilors serving under Emperor Gaozu in the first half of the sev-enth century, rose to 40 percent during the rule of Empress Wu Zetian half a century later. Yet over 90 percent of Tang officials did not enter the civil service via examinations but got their positions through the tradi-tional and well-developed recommendation system. 6 In Song times, candidates sitting for the civil service exams numbered not in the hundreds as in the Tang but in the hundreds of thousands. The education and examination 121 first of these tests was the prefectural examination, which was conducted by local officials in early autumn. Graduates who passed this test were qualified for employment as teachers in local or family schools, as admin-istrators of granaries or temples, and as subofficial local administrators. By the middle of the twelfth century, roughly 100,000 candidates regis-tered for the prefectural examination each year, and in the middle of the thirteenth century it reached 400,000 or more. Those sitting for the pre-fectural degree for the first time had not only to present a declaration of surety issued by the county administration but were also required to study for at least 300 days in a school. If a candidate had previously failed the exam, he was allowed to try again after 100 days of additional preparation.
eBook - PDFPeking University
Chinese Scholarship and Intellectuals, 1898-1937
- Xiaoqing Diana Lin(Author)
- 2012(Publication Date)
- SUNY Press(Publisher)
Another reason for this absence of formal primary and secondary education was the imperial gov- ernments’ lack of financial resources for starting a comprehensive educational 25 system. Historically, the Chinese state preferred alternative educational practices such as the Imperial Examination system to achieve its desired political goals. The content of education was bent to the state’s political needs and therefore reflected not so much pure scholarly pursuit as changing political, social, or cultural concerns. For instance, in the early Ming, the emperor Zhu Yuanzhang forbade in the examinations the inclusion of certain Mencian pas- sages on the value of the people in a kingdom, for fear that participants would compare his high-handed control with Mencius’s ideals. 1 The modern Chinese schools being established in the late Qing contin- ued the tradition of having politics as the predominant consideration. Just as the School of Languages was the product of the Second Opium War, so the Imperial Peking University was the product of the Sino-Japanese War, although it was not formally approved until 1898. 2 In both cases, government officials in charge of these new schools realized that the examination system would not suf- fice to produce government personnel capable of dealing with China’s new environment. The modern educational system created by the Chinese state was more than ever charged with carrying out the state’s goals, only now the goal was reform of Chinese politics and society. The Imperial Peking University had a precarious beginning, suggesting an ambivalent relationship between the state and a modern, Western-style educa- tional system. On the one hand, the state deemed it necessary to bring about greater prosperity; on the other hand, when it was actually founded, it was given a more conservative bent than its reform-minded planners had envisioned so that it would be more pliant to the dictates of the state.
eBook - ePubThe Middle Kingdom, Volume 1 (of 2)
A Survey of the Geography, Government, Literature, Social Life, Arts, and History of the Chinese Empire and its Inhabitants
- S. Wells (Samuel Wells) Williams(Author)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- Perlego(Publisher)
[285] Manchus and Mongols compete at these trials with the Chinese, but many facts show that the former are generally favored at the expense of the latter; the large proportion of men belonging to these races filling high offices indicates who are the rulers of the land. The candidates are all examined at Peking; one instance is recorded of a Chinese who passed himself off for a Manchu, but afterward confessed the dissimulation; the head of the division was tried in consequence of his oversight. It is the professed policy of the government to discourage literary pursuits among them, in order to maintain the ancient energy of the race; but where the real power is lodged in the hands of civilians, it is impossible to prevent so powerful a component of the population from competing with the others for its possession.COMPETITIVE EXAMINATIONS OF THE MILITARY.The present dynasty introduced examinations and gradations among the troops on the same principles as obtain in the civil service; nothing more strikingly proves the power of literary pursuits in China, than this vain attempt to harmonize the profession of arms in all its branches with them. Their enemies were, however, no better disciplined and equipped than they themselves were. Candidates for the first degree present themselves before the district magistrate, with proper testimonials and securities. On certain days they are collected on the parade-grounds, and exhibit their skill in archery (on foot and in the saddle), in wielding swords and lifting weights, graduated to test their muscle. The successful men are assembled afterward before the prefect; and again at a third trial before the literary chancellor, who at the last tripos tests them on their literary attainments, before giving them their degrees of siu-tsai. The number of successful military siu-tsai is the same as the literary. They are triennially called together by the governor at the provincial capital to undergo further examination for kü-jin in four successive trials of the same nature. These occasions are usually great gala days, and three or four scores of young warriors who carry off prizes at these tournaments receive honors and degrees in much the same style as their literary compeers. The trials for the highest degree are held at Peking; and the long-continued efforts in this service generally obtain for the young men posts in the body-guard of the governors or staff appointments. The forty-nine successful candidates out of several thousands at the triennial examination for kü-jin in Canton, November, 1832, all hit the target on foot six times successively, and on horseback six times; once with the arrow they hit a ball lying on the ground as they passed it at a gallop; and all were of the first class in wielding the iron-handled battle-axe, and lifting the stone-loaded beam. The candidates are all persons of property, who find their own horses, dresses, arms, etc., and are handsomely dressed, the horses, trimmings, and accoutrements in good order—the arrows being without barbs, to prevent accidents. One observer says, “the marks at which they fired, covered with white paper, were about the height of a man and somewhat wider, placed at intervals of fifty yards; the object was to strike these marks successively with their three arrows, the horses being kept at full speed. Although the bull’s-eye was not always hit, the target was never missed: the distance did not exceed fifteen or twenty feet.”[286]
eBook - PDF- Kangmin Zeng(Author)
- 1999(Publication Date)
- Continuum(Publisher)
(1993: 131) Shiratori Kurakichi, the historian mentioned earlier, predicted that the 1890 Imperial Rescript on Education was a moral canon of Confucianism that would control Japanese and their children (Tanaka, 1993: 150). While this turned into a fact in prewar Japan, there is perhaps still a grain of truth in that prediction even today. Second, re-Confucianization consolidated the merit system that bound the link between education and the centralized system of government. The merit principle is, in Confucianism, a principle of virtues, such as a strong work ethic, a strong drive to learn, etc. The 1890 Imperial Rescript, for instance, stressed the fusion of 'intellectual faculties and perfect moral powers', and the pursuit of learning and cultivating arts (in Beauchamp and Vardaman, 1994: 37). In the Rescripts, moral and intellectual values were not the antithesis of each other, unlike the self-contradiction found in the 'Red-or-Expert' dilemma in Communist China in the 1950s and 1960s. The reason for that harmony lies in the nature of moral value in the Rescript: it was centred on filiality, a natural embodiment of humanity. The crux of it is 24 DRAGON GATE 'modesty and moderation' rather than certain demand of extreme behaviour (ibid.). The significance of the selection system of exams in the Confucian order is stated in the following words: Entrance exams play a central role in the Confucian tradition. They channel career aspirations, produce a meritocratic elite that can be further shaped through the sponsorship of the existing elite, lead to the dissemination of the national culture to local elites, set the standard for discipline and motivation, and bolster an ethic of fair competition. ... Despite its own weak examination tradition, in the 1880s Japan quickly grasped the merits of rigorous entrance examinations and made this the cornerstone of its recruitment of officials and reshaping of sponsored social mobility.
- Robert M. Spaulding Jr., Robert M. Spaulding, Jr.(Authors)
- 2015(Publication Date)
- Princeton University Press(Publisher)
4 In Japan, the "Exceptional Talent" examination required two essays on "government programs." Candidates had to complete both in a single day, beginning at six a.m., and compositions were graded both on style and on reasoning. A similar but much longer "Exceptional Talent" examination had been given in China from 618 to 651. The Japanese version appears to have become steadily less rigorous, but even so, only 65 men passed it in the course of more than two centuries (704-938). 5 The second highest examina- tion, which drew the great majority of candidates, was the "Learned in Classics." All candidates were examined on the Hsiao ching (Classic of Filial Piety) and the Lun-yu (Analects of Confucius), with a total of three questions on the two. In addition, they had to 3 Cf. Robert Des Rotours, Le Traite des Examens, Traduit de la Nouvelle Histoire des Tang, Paris: Leroux, 1932, pp. 26-41, 146-47, 151-53, 163. 4 The names of examinations were also used as names for curricula in the college, and as titles for students either during college or after passing the examinations. Confusion is further compounded by later use of some in still other senses. One of the most orderly compilations of the conflicting evidence concerning terminology and content of the examination system is Iwahashi Koyata, Jodai kanri seido no kenkyu, Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kobunkan, 1964, esp. Chap. 1 ("Training of Officials") and Chap. 2 ("Appointment of Offi- cials"), pp. 1-67. 6 Koji ruien: bungaku bu, III, p. 42. 12
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