Civil Service Examination in Imperial China: Cultural Governance and Social Mobility Glance through history and one can see China’s military power was never enough to manage the vast territorial land in its possession. Yet, unlike Europe, China seems to maintain its unity despite dynastic turmoils and military conflicts. The sense of “Chineseness” and Chinese culture went through changes, but remained structurally intact from the imperial period to even today. It is clear that imperial governments relied heavily upon a cultural form of governance, embedding and establishing political authorities within every aspect of life, to rule China. The civil service examination system was a critical part of Imperial China’s cultural governance. As a …show more content…
The prestige of officialdom was first initiated by the state, in which all civil service graduates were guaranteed employment and remuneration. It caused a ripple effect on the public. Entry into officialdom became the Chinese man’s foremost aspiration, and hence heightened the status for those who did pass the exam. Men with Confucian values who possessed command of the literary skills were admired by the public. Success in the civil examination became one of the defining characteristics of the Chinese gentry class, and Shi (scholar-officials) became the highest ranked social class in China’s hierarchical structure. It successfully perpetuated and reinforced the state’s dominance through an “educational gyroscope” centered on the civil examination, surrounded by the imperial state, gentry society, and Neo-Confucian culture (Elman 8). The cultural pressure of the exams consequentially reinforced state government’s legitimacy and authority in the territory. In fact, the exams became so popular that it transcended state powers. Although the examination system was first established for the emperor to limit the development of regional military powers and political aristocratic elites, it grew to a point when even the emperors had to learn Confucian values, from teachers selected by the exams, for their own imperial legitimacy (Elman …show more content…
It successfully embedded political authorities, within not only political but social and religious aspect of life as well, through the elevated power of literati, language of lineage, and imperial metaphors in religion. However, the lucrative remuneration, extreme social prestige, and political power that comes with officialdom made the civil examination extremely difficult. In 1850, two million candidates entered the county examination, and only three hundred passed the metropolitan exam. The odds of success in all stages of the examination process was one in six thousand or 0.01% (Elman 14). This level of competitiveness contributed to the imagined notions of social hierarchy and mobility since only wealthy families had the resources to educate their sons in Mandarin and classical literary, and were able to take advantage of the exam quotas. Successful candidates from humble backgrounds were extremely rare, which made them the content of legends, a false advertisement of the examination as a vehicle of social
3. Evidence – (China) These people were elite members of society. To become involved in politics or to be any leader, a person had to take a test of intelligence, based off Confucian teachings and beliefs. (India) In society, Brahmins (priests) were held in the highest regard. Whatever caste a person was born into, that is where the person stayed, and that’s what determined the person’s importance.
China has changed in certain ways and remained the same in others from the early Golden Ages to the late 1900s. China has experienced a series of cultural and political transformations, shaping the lives of many Chinese citizens. Culturally, the country’s art and literature hardly changed for almost eight hundred years. Along with their culture, China remained politically the same from the beginning of the Golden Ages all the way until the 1800s. On the other hand, China’s government and society were restructured after new leaders took over. From a monarch to total communism, China’s society had a multitude of new ideas and policies they had to adapt to.
Within china it went the emperor, then local gentry “a term that refers to individuals who have at the rank and status of government officials, but who reside at home and may not have any specific political responsibilities”(course reader 119), then scholars, citizens who were preparing for the exams, next were Peasants, Craftsmen, merchants, and then just people in general. The Feudal japan ranking system went Shoguns at the top, then Daimyo, the landholding military lords, next were samurai, and at the bottom were peasant. Being a peasant one would not usually be able to afford elite education for themselves or for their children. Naturally the more privileged people in the empire’s would get a better education then the peasants children would have. This alone made climbing the social ladder a clear struggle for the people at the bottom.
From 600 BCE to 600 CE, China experienced changes in its political system in terms of the dissimilar ruling styles of different leaders, the rule under Legalism, and the influence of philosophical thinking like Daoism. These changes, influenced by aspects of the world and its own region, shaped China into its Classical state. In contrast, the concept of the Mandate of Heaven, the civil service system, and the significance of unity through a strong central government remained constant throughout China’s Classical period. These continuities followed through, staying essentially the same as an important part of China’s identity.
The Qing empire ruled China with Confucianism as the main imperial system used until the very end. However, the beginning of Qing downfall result of the exam system became corrupted and filled with bribery. Instead of the fair examination on the knowledge of Confucianism, the wealthy use their power to get their ways, result in not the most qualified politicians. Additionally, it shows the lack of Confucius value in the Qing system. On the other hand, bureaucracy meant to improve the lives of the wealthy not the poor. Also, the money was given to the people with power and wealth, not to infrastructure.
First, the Han Dynasty was more important to the development of China because it created the idea of a Civil Service Exam. The Han Dynasty readopted the idea of having families rulers after the Qin Dynasty strayed from the tradition; however, they kept the idea of bureaucrats from the Qin Dynasty. They used appointed government officials to oversee the day-to-day work of their government. This lead them to implement the Civil Service Exam. The exam was meant to help chose the bureaucrats for the government. It was a test centered around the ideas of Confucius and how to apply them to everyday life. By making this a normal part of Chinese society, the Han Dynasty was able to extend government official job opportunities to people of all social classes. In addition, because the exam gave these opportunities to all people, all people put more emphasis on
Qin Shi Huangdi, the first Qin emperor, was a proactive and ambitious emperor who implemented a central bureaucratic system that oversaw the evolution and unification of China at the cost of public sentiment. The Qin Dynasty is considered among the most influential dynasties as it laid the foundation for the massive cultural and economic development of China that took place during the Han Dynasty, but it also failed to achieve many of its pro-commoner ideological goals. In fact, socioeconomic disparity was not alleviated and despite the notion of enriching the lives of the common people, it was under Qin rule in which public resentment of the authoritarian government peaked as there were countless peasant revolts against the iron-handed bureaucratic rule of China. Because a paranoid emperor alone wielded political clout and influence, the tumultuous few years of Qin reign was rife with paranoia and suspicion among the masses. Although the Qin Dynasty is seldom thought as possessing the same glaring discrepancy between ideology and state that the Communist regime in post-World War II China had despite the similarities, the failure of the flawless egalitarian state models in socioeconomic and political aspects during the Qin Dynasty mirrored the developments in early Communist China.
The Cultural Revolution, which affected China from 1965 to 1968, is the name given to Mao's endeavor to proclaim his convictions in China. Mao Zedong was a Chinese Communist progressive and the establishing father of the People's Republic of China. He had a Marxist-Leninist hypothesis, military procedures, and political approaches which were known as the Mao Zedong Thought. Mao was worried about the traits of post 1959 China. He commented that the unrest had supplanted the old respectability with over again one and expected that these individuals taking in a main part would debilitate Mao's energy inside the gathering and nation. Mao trusted that with the begin of the Cultural Revolution, it would disrupt the decision class and get China to a more equivalent condition of being. August 1966 at a meeting of the Plenum of the Central Committee was the initiation of the Cultural Revolution development.
Han China and Imperial Rome used ideologies to shape their society. In Han China, Confucianism was used as a basis to control its bureaucrats and citizens. This ideology, created by Confucius, encouraged moral and cultural unity. It encouraged respect towards authority, and set guidelines for how an individual should act towards people above their social class and people below their social class. Han rulers created one of the first civil service tests, requiring applicants to have an understanding of Confucianism and other early writings to become a bureaucrat. This resulted in a
Political integration was a key in the development of both Imperial Rome and Han China. The organization of government within each empire was similar in that both empires administered its centralized power structure through the establishment of a bureaucracy. The bureaucratic system implemented by Han China was an alliance between the ruling imperial family and a new class, the scholar-gentry. To perpetrate its bureaucracy, the Han established a number of schools to educate the students in the principles necessary for political and social order. Upon graduation, the new
The upper-levels of the government were staffed by highly educated scholar-officials who were selected by undergoing grueling writing examinations. Culturally, the Chinese started practicing a new philosophy called Confucianism ,which kind of served
Although the both view have supporting evidence, the most convincing evidence suggests that the Chinese Examination System was not a good way to select government officials. The brief history of Chinese and Japanese civilization revealed the exams, was not a good way to choose public officials. The test consists of creating poetry, reading and writing, and tests of memory.
Abstract: Imperial examination in ancient China was developing based on the nine-rank system. From Sui and Tang dynasties to Guangxu year, Qing dynasty, it took more than 1300 years to evolve. The Imperial Examination is officially called Keju Examination in China, which was an important part of education system of feudal society in ancient China. In the mean time, it was a kind of officer-selecting system as well. It played a significant role in cultivating, selecting, and making use of talents. Modern examination system also takes example by the imperial examinations in ancient China. So we should attach importance to researching and studying it due to its enlightenment to the innovation
Confucianism has easily been influential in the development of the Chinese state through history. In fact, the core ideals of Confucianism have evolved. Despite the harsh repression of Confucianism by Marxist revolutionaries during the second half of the twentieth century, Confucian values continues to be influential in Chinese society and recently, Confucian political philosophy has resurfaced again. In addition, the political ideas and social ethics of Confucianism can provide the basis for a new, functional form of government in China. Confucianism can be a viable political philosophy for China in the twenty first century because many intellectuals have turned to Confucianism to make sense of such social
According to Traditions and Encounters, the first nationwide examinations were developed during the Han dynasty, in the early third century BCE. Emperor Han Wudi developed the Confucian educational system with the civil service exams- standardized tests- in order to select candidates for a nationwide bureaucracy (Bentley). Students could take these exams and based on their scores, they would be accepted or denied a position in the Chinese government, the most prestigious job in China. Throughout the rest of China's history, civil service examinations have been the basis for occupation and college acceptance. Today, China continues to place enormous emphasis on the examination. A Chinese student in Guanzhou, Jodie Wong, says that with China's huge population it is has been easier for college or career recruiters to assess candidates based on a single platform. Her classmate, Kevin, adds that "[the Gaokao] is almost the only way to judge your application."