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- These classics were also the basic support for the school curriculum taken on all over China starting with boys' schools at a time when not many girls attended schools, yet whom were then expected to go on and take the examination and work for the...
- Women were not to be taking the test, nor to be joining government ranks at this time. The tutors for the imperial examinations were generally those scholars who tried to take the exams themselves, but failed, because they had a good understanding...
- The System Came to an End in The imperial examination system officially came to an end in , in the final years of the Qing Dynasty China's last dynasty, — The devastating decline of imperial China in the s had led to new modernization efforts throughout the country. Learn More About Imperial Examinations and Confucianism During Your Tour Beijing's Confucius Temple You can spend your tour learning more about the imperial examination system and how it has influenced education to this day, just let us know what you'd like to focus on seeing and learning when you are putting together your tour.
- Tours to the cities of Qufu, Suzhou, Quzhou, Beijing, Nanjing, and Shanghai will generally include a visit to their Confucius temple depending on time.
- All offices were given a certain rank, one being highest, and nine the lowest one. Similarly, all important families within the empire were ranked according to "moral" criteria into one of nine ranks. Sons of these were thus eligible for an official post with the same rank. Yet in fact, the system was dominated and of course also influenced by mighty families , who tried everything to have their rank raised as much as possible. Classicists were experts in one or several of the Confucian Classics , and were tested whether they knew the texts by heart. As the examination was relatively easy, they were just appointed to relatively low posts in the hierarchy of the officialdom.
- States influenced by Chinese culture, like Korea or Vietnam , imitated the examination system. Tang Period The Tang dynasty perfected the examination system continuously in the 7th century. The participation was also allowed to persons already working in an office. Of all the regular examinations, the difficult one of Presented Scholars gained more and more prominence, while the easier one for Classicists lost its importance. By the late Tang period, the title of Presented Scholar became a prerequisite for the appointment into higher offices. It did away with the ancient prerequisite of grand families to have their sons automatically appointed to respectable offices.
Influence Of China’s Imperial Examinations On Japan, Korea And Vietnam
This examination, passed when correctly answering five of ten questions, was so easy in contrast to the other ones that it was said that "with 30 sui of age, a classicist candidate is old, but a candidate for the examination of Presened Scholars is young". The examiner brought up on theme dealt with in the Classics, and the examinee had to quote literally from the original text, yet without commenting on or explaining it. This examination consisted of up to one hundred questions.Imperial Examinations (Keju) For Government Service In Ancient China
Whoever passed the middle part was spared the "lower" last one. Graduates of the judicial mingfa , the arithmetical mingsuan , or the clerical mingshu examinations were only employed in specialized agencies. The number of xiucai graduates was extremely low during the Tang period. During the examination, the names of examinees were known to the chief examiners. It was even custom that candidates sent to the chief examiner beforehand showpieces of their literary works, in order to impress him or to attract his attention. The examination of the Ministry of Rites was carried out annually, in the first lunar month see calendar. He had the right to alter the list. A common principle was that competence was more important than moral conduct.- From on the names of examinees were were masked so the examiners did not know who was tested. Unlike the civilian appointees, graduates of the military examination could be directly appointed to a post. Even if it was regularly held, the military examination had a far less prominent status in comparison to the civilian ones. The control of the influential families over careers had not ceased. Song Period The Song dynasty did away with some critical shortcomings of the examination system of the Tang period. All those wishing to become a state official had to undergo the jinshi examination. The participants in the latter were not many, and the jinshi examination became the common gateway in the pursuit of career.
- The metropolitan examination was organized by the Ministry of Rites and the Department of State Affairs. The date was not fix, but the examination took place in Spring, and also lasted three days. Graduates were then sent to participate in the palace examination. In order to prevent interference into the examination results, it was from on not allowed that examiners hailed from the prefecture where they supervised an examination. The examinees had to use stationery and paper provided by the examiners, all stamped with an official seal. They were placed in individual cells according to their number in a public list of examinees, and marked with their names.
- They erased any information about the candidate that was written on the paper, and instead gave the set a registrated number. In this way, the examiners would impossibly find out who had written what text, and could not give an edge to any candidate. Participants in the examinations were called candidates or examinees juren. Once listed as successful graduates, they lost this title and were called jinshi, or with that of their office. The names of graduates of the metropolitan examination were recorded and belonged to the archival documents of the dynasty. Of course, they also had an important place in the family registers of the graduates. The only requirement for participation was education. The number of participants in the palace examination had increased ten times in comparison with the Tang period, not least because the officialdom had also become much larger since.
- Theoretically, social rise was possible for everyone, and not just members of eminent families. The social status of graduates was at least as high as that of uneducated magnates and rich merchants. The Song court also tried everything to prevent the emergence of court factions consisting of examiners and fellow graduates. The tendency to ensure objectivity in a system selecting the best was clearly charted during the Song period. It was an excellent tool to test the abilities of candidates to respond to practical matters of administration and policy. Yet because the range of questions was quite limited, the cewen examination fell into oblivion during the Song period even if it was then and when revived. The examination in poetry was thus given up after the Southern Song period. In the early years of the dynasty, there were but a dozen of participants, but later on, more than a hundred candidates underwent the metropolitan examination, which took place every three years. It was not allowed for Kitans to participate in an examination, but from about on there were also cases of Kitans choosing this way for career.
- From on the annual quota of examinees was more than persons, in some years even more than The Mongols deliberated for a long time on the introduction of an examination system, but the first one was carried out as late as , with a cycle of three years. The metropolitan examination was held one year later then the provincial ones to allow the candidates to prepare. The quota was persons, with 25 per social group. The palace examination followed one month after the metropolitan one. The candidates for it were enrolled on two lists, with Mongols and Semuren on the "left", and the two classes of Chinese on the "right" one. All graduates were eligible for official posts.
- This was quite novel in contrast to the Song period. Mongols and Semuren were obliged to read and write Chinese, but their questions were easier than those for Chinese. The social status of jinshi graduates was, nevertheless, not as high as before. A year later, the frequency was fixed at once every three years, but in the system was again abolished because the emperor preferred a system of recommendation.
- The examinations were revived ten years later, and in the final shape was fixed. This became custom, leading to the fact that the largest number of careers began in the Hanlin Academy. Ninety per cent of all Counsellors-in-chief had passed the Academy. Like before, the examination was organized in the three-step mode, beginning with the provincial examinations xiangshi , proceeding to the metropolitan examination huishi and ending with the palace examination tingshi.
- The provincial examinations were held in the capital of each province. In the early Ming period, only the examiners of the two capital cities were dispatched from the Hanlin Academy. The quota of the provincial examinations was only fixed in , but later changed over time. In the two metropolitan provinces, for instance, it was about persons, in other provinces less than The metropolitan examination was held always a year later than the provincial ones. In case of an extraordinary exam, the metropolitan step was also taken "by grace", a year later.
Imperial Examinations (Keju) For Government Service In Ancient China – Brewminate
From on there was also an addenda list for participants. The common examiners were in the beginning 8 persons, later 17, and finally Twelve of them hailed from the Hanlin Academy, and 4 from various sections in the Ministry of Rites. The quota of graduates was fixed at in not including those of exams by grace. The participants were arranged according to their place of origin. The southern gate had a quota of graduates, the northern one of , and the central one of The palace examination was held on the 1st day later the 15th of the the third lunar month, just after the spring examination. All those who had passed the metropolitan examination, were allowed to participate in the palace exam. Second- and third-rank graduates were then evaluated and the best were appointed bachelors in the Hanlin Academy. The palace examination was presided by the emperor in person, supported by high officials from the Academy, or from the court, who were good in literature.Chinese Civil Service Exam System And The Rise Of The Meritocracy By Conner Ellinghuysen
They formulated the questions and evaluated the performance of the examinees. Again three days later, the third session was held, in which five essays were to be compiled on the Classics, historiography, and contemporary affairs. It was regulated which commentaries on the Classics would have to be consulted and quoted. The length of the essay ranged between and characters, and was fixed from time to time. They consisted but of provincial and metropolitan examinations before only held all six years , but in a military palace examination was introduced. From on the following regulations were issued: In the first session, an archer had to shoot from horseback at a distance of 35 paces. The provincial military exam was held in the same years as the civilian one. The exact dates of the sessions of the provincial and metropolitan examinations were the 9th, the 12th, and the 15th day of the respective month.- In , the quota of the metropolitan military exam was fixed at graduates. The first event took place in Yet in practice, candidates studied for themselves, and did not attend classes any more. Schools thus became just an annex to the examination system, instead of providing widespread education. Qing Period Immediately after their conquest of Beijing, the Qing dynasty introduced the examination system. It was based on the pattern used during the Ming period, with minor changes. The quota for graduates was 10 persons in prefectures of larger provinces, and 5 for smaller ones.
- The origin of the modern meritocratic civil service can be traced back to Imperial examination founded in Imperial China. In the areas of administration, especially the military, appointments were based solely on merit. This was an early form of the imperial examinations, transitioning from inheritance and patronage to merit, in which local officials would select candidates to take part in an examination of the Confucian classics. This system was reversed during the short-lived Sui dynasty — , which initiated a civil service bureaucracy recruited through written examinations and recommendation. The first civil service examination system was established by Emperor Wen of Sui. Emperor Yang of Sui established a new category of recommended candidates for the mandarinate in AD The following Tang dynasty — adopted the same measures for drafting officials, and decreasingly relied on aristocratic recommendations and more and more on promotion based on the results of written examinations.
- The structure of the examination system was extensively expanded during the reign of Wu Zetian. It was ideally suited to literary candidates. Thus, toward the end of the Ming Dynasty, the system attracted the candidature of Tang Xianzu Tang at 14 passed the imperial examination at the county level; and at 21, he did so at the provincial level; but not until he was 34 did he pass at the national level. However, he had already become a well-known poet at age 12, and among other things he went on to such distinction as a profound literati and dramatist that it would not be far-fetched to regard him as China's answer to William Shakespeare: Wang Rongpei and Zhang Ling eds , The Complete Works of Tang Xianzu In the late 19th century, however, the system increasingly engendered internal dissatisfaction, and was criticized as not reflecting candidates' ability to govern well, and for giving undue weight to style over content and originality of thought.
- Indeed, long before its abandonment, the notion of the imperial system as a route to social mobility was somewhat mythical. In Tang's magnum opus, The Peony Pavilion, sc 13, Leaving Home, the male lead, Liu Mengmei, laments: 'After twenty years of studies, I still have no hope of getting into office', and on this point Tang may be speaking through Liu as his alter ego. The system was finally abolished by the Qing government in as part of the New Policies reform package. The Chinese system was often admired by European commentators from the 16th century onward.
- In a debate in the unelected chamber of the UK parliament on March 13, , John Browne 'pointed out [clearly with some disdain ] that the only precedent for appointing civil servants by literary exams was that of the Chinese government': Coolican , ch. Modern civil service[ edit ] In the 18th century, in response to economic changes and the growth of the British Empire , the bureaucracy of institutions such as the Office of Works and the Navy Board greatly expanded. Each had its own system, but in general, staff were appointed through patronage or outright purchase. By the 19th century, it became increasingly clear that these arrangements were falling short. During the eighteenth century a number of Englishmen wrote in praise of the Chinese examination system, some of them going so far as to urge the adoption for England of something similar.
Influence Of China’s Imperial Examinations On Japan, Korea And Vietnam | SpringerLink
The first concrete step in this direction was taken by the British East India Company in Thomas Taylor Meadows, Britain's consul in Guangzhou , China argued in his Desultory Notes on the Government and People of China, published in , that "the long duration of the Chinese empire is solely and altogether owing to the good government which consists in the advancement of men of talent and merit only," and that the British must reform their civil service by making the institution meritocratic. Charles Trevelyan , an architect of Her Majesty's Civil Service , established in on his recommendations. Influenced by the Chinese imperial examinations, the Northcote—Trevelyan Report of made four principal recommendations: that recruitment should be on the basis of merit determined through competitive examination, that candidates should have a solid general education to enable inter-departmental transfers, that recruits should be graded into a hierarchy and that promotion should be through achievement, rather than "preferment, patronage or purchase".
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