Imperial Examination System
2 min readThe Imperial Examination System
The imperial examination system(also called Keju examination system) is commonly regarded as having started around the year 606 and was officially ended in 1905, for about 1,300 years. During this time, the exams became the central focus of a state-orchestrated system of high-stakes employment tests and test-driven education. Through these exams, Chinese emperors identified individuals who would initially serve as scholars in the imperial secretariat known as the Hanlin Academy. From these positions, the scholars might be promoted to serve as district magistrates, prefectural governors, provincial governors, national departmental ministers or even prime ministers or grand councilors. These exams were used to select individuals for high-level, high-power positions; along with all the prestige, legal privileges and advantages, power and financial rewards for the candidate and the entire extended family, and ancestry that came with such positions.
In its most common and stable form, the exams, which included Confucianism, poetry, official documents and national politics, consisted of three progressive levels: local district exam, provincial exam, and palace exam. First,a candidate took the local district exams known as the Tongshi. These exams were given once every two years. Next level was the provincial exams called Xiangshi, which was given once every three years at the provincial capital. The third set of exams took place in the national capital and was given the spring after the provincial exams. The third level consisted of two steps: The “joint”exams called Huishi, to be followed by the palace exams, Dianshi. One can take these exams as many times as desired. The system was open to all males. However, in the early years during the Sui and Tang dynasties, to be eligible to take the exams, each examinee was required to identify an official who had agreed to serve as his mentor. This requirement was removed starting from the Song Dynasty.
Both the earliest district exams and the final palace exams were one-day long. The provincial exams and the joint exams in between, however, were very harsh experiences. Each of these 2 sets of exams was nine days and nine nights long.
Baguwen(Eight-Part Essay)
During the Ming and Qing dynasties, candidates sitting at imperial examinations were required to write essays in accordance with baguwen,a rigid eight-part form.
The eight-part essay was the form adopted for the explication of the Confucian classics, which formed the basis for the imperial examination system. Thus, the eight-part essay and imitations of the classical literary language of the earlier eras of Chinese cultural greatness became the major written genres of the time. There were no further breakthroughs in literary writing, except for a style of artistically heightened descriptions of everyday life experiences, called xiaopinwen(familiar essays), which emerged in the 1 5th and 16th centuries.
