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China's Examination Hell: The Civil Service Examinations of Imperial China Paperback – September 10, 1981

by Ichisada Miyazaki (Author), Conrad Schirokauer (Translator)

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Written by one of the foremost historians of Chinese institutions, this book focuses on China’s civil service examination system in its final and most elaborate phase during the Ch’ing dynasty. All aspects of this labyrinthine system are explored: the types of questions, the style and form in which they were to be answered, the problem of cheating, and the psychological and financial burdens of the candidates, the rewards of the successful and the plight of those who failed. Drawing on a wide range of sources, including Chinese novels, short stories, and plays, this thought provoking and entertaining book brings to vivid life the testing structure that supplied China’s government bureaucracy for almost fourteen hundred years.

Print length

146 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Yale University Press
Publication date

September 10, 1981
Dimensions

6.25 x 0.5 x 9.25 inches
ISBN-10

0300026390
ISBN-13

978-0300026399
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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Yale University Press; Reprint edition (September 10, 1981)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 146 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0300026390
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0300026399
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 7.2 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.25 x 0.5 x 9.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,713,247 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #966 in Public Affairs & Administration (Books)
- #2,327 in Asian Politics
- #3,114 in Chinese History (Books)

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Basil D. Davis

Crucial to relating to the Chinese worldview. There was no parallel in Western Aristocracy.

Reviewed in the United States on January 20, 2024

Read this in college, and jumped at the chance to get it again in hardcover, a must read if you want to understand how their government works.

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C. Hardman

Terrific Explanation of a real Examination Hell

Reviewed in the United States on August 13, 2007

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For years I've read about China's Civil examination system, how difficult it was, how stressful. This book provides the first in depth explanation of how the exams were conducted, what students needed to know, how they were judged by their work, and where their efforts could lead. This translation of Ichisada Miyasaki's book by Conrad Schirokauer definately answers all of these questions succinctly.

In mentioning the purpose and benefit of having such an examintaion system, the author conveys the ideals of a system built, ideally, to judge candidates (on the most part) on their merits and learning rather than appearence, connections, etc. Initially set in place as a way of weakening the influence and power of the aristocracy (an effective one at that), the examination system helped standardize learning for the civil service in China. Miyasaki points out the faults in this system as well, detailing some rather complicated methods of cheating as well as the scandals and ensuing banishments or executions which followed them.

Although these exams didn't include anything concerning mathematics of science learning, they often demanded specific and exacting word-for-word answers from the writings of Confucious, the commentaries of Confucian scholars, the ancient poets, etc. Questions were often obscure...imagine having studied for years only to be unable to answer an obscurely worded question, all of that time wasted! Miyazaki also presents the reality of many students of the era--while the examination system was supposed to select based upon merit, it still cost money to travel to the exams, and to pay the chief examiner, to whom a passed student was likened a disciple of, the usual "gratuity" upon passing. Miyazaki offers a convincing arguements and evidence that it was still virtually impossible for some people to gain standing and position in spite of their true merit. Nor was the stress and wory done after one test! After passing the district exam, the candidate could look forward to taking the prefectural exam, another qualifying exam, Provincial exam, Metropolitan exam, and then for the very cream of the crop the Palace exam and court review. Whew! Oh, and then retests every few years to demonstrate continued competence.

Interesting explanations of how papers were graded, disqualifiers, the amazingly spartan conditions available for students (you got to bring your own container to relieve yourself, not to mention your own food, bedding, etc--imagine coming from the other end of the empire!), and odd instances such as reports of hallucinations and at the local level at least, visitations by ghosts. Supernatural events seem to lessen as the competence level goes up, although in the cramped stalls these men occupied, often for several days it isn't hard to see how an individual with claustrophbia, schizophrenia, or simple homesickness might have broken down.

I was pleased to see that in addition to the many levels of civil exams described, Miyazaki also offered an interesting view of China's Miltary Examination system, which graded candidates based upon the ability to hit targets with arrows, then a 3-portion test concerning strenth where the candidate would bend a bow of three possible strenths, then showing skill with wielding a halberd of 80, 100, or 120 catty weight by "brandishing it in front of one's face, swinging it around one's back and returning it to the front, and finally spinning it like a water wheel, all without toucing the ground" (pg 103), and lastly demonstrate ability to lift stones by weight. Lastly an indoor session where the works of Sun Tzu, Wu Tzu, and Ssu-ma Fa were used for a written exam--the Classics of battle strategy. According to Miyazaki, cheating was rampant here, but more likely to be overlooked as the disciples of martial pursuits were often viewed as little more than "semisavage military men" (pg 104)-- putting into place the importance of academics first, and then the martial.

The best and easiest overview of this complex system, I ejoyed reading about the travails of this now-extinct system. Translator Conrad Schirokauer also includes a list of more recent readings on China's exam system in English.

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jcom

Great Book

Reviewed in the United States on July 20, 2013

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If you enjoy Chinese history, I recommend this book. It contains a lot of valuable information. Great for research and for fun!

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Bdgold

Makes the GRE look sane

Reviewed in the United States on October 14, 2014

Book does a wonderful job outlining the course of examinations from the local level to the imperial palace. Also touches on popular culture surrounding the exam system (ghost stories and hunks of fiction concerning the process). One drawback is that the author needs to go where the evidence is, which is heavily weighted towards the Ching Dynasty (17th to 20th centuries), and light on the Song (10th to 13th centuries).
Still it is easily the best work on the subject out there.

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Ordinary Song

This is a very good book for beginners

Reviewed in the United States on March 24, 2018

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This is a very good book for beginners. Although mainly drawing on materials in Qing dynasty, its historical survey and thoughtful evaluation on the Chinese civil examination makes its content well-rounded. The only issue I have is that the book quoted lots of folklore speaking to normal people's pathos about the civil examination system; it also makes Daoist and Buddhist references here and there while telling these folklore. One, the author has not yet given a detailed quote to differentiate folklore from more official accounts, which makes fictions sound like realities in certain cases. Two, it didn't specify a Ruist (Confucian) attitude towards these folklore, which makes the presentation a bit partial. Overall, the book is great, and I recommend for lower level college-course readings.

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John Richard Schrock

The 1500-year Predecessor to Today's Gao Kao Exam

Reviewed in the United States on October 12, 2018

Schirokauer’s excellent translation preserves the flavor of the Chinese history behind this scholarly description of the world’s first meritorious system for training and selecting government officials. In an era where teaching-to-the-external state or national tests has become a heated topic in the United States, and an ongoing problem in other countries that adopted the GCSE or other high stakes exams long ago---and now want Nobel Prizes through creative thinking rather than high scores through rote memorization---this examination of the first local-to-provincial-to-national examination system reveals the many lessons that were learned as this Chinese system evolved.
In his introduction, Schirokauer likewise notes how the lessons learned in this great 1500-year experiment merit greater attention today. This selection of public officials based on academic merit rather than birth was picked up by the West, first in the British civil service exams and then latter by most other Western countries. But the Western experience with meritocracy is but ten percent of the Chinese history laid out here.

Over the last 1500 years, these examinations became THE focus of modern Chinese society and set a societal value for academics (classical nevertheless) that permeated the population and persisted through many changes in dynasties. Much Chinese literature, from Wu Ching-Tzu’s The Scholars to Lu Shun’s K’ung I-chi, incorporates these exams in story lines and societal values. It is hard to understand nearly any aspect of Chinese culture without having some understanding of the driving force of their “examination hell.”

Being a 1976 book, the references given in Chinese use the old Wade-Giles Romanization; if written tosay, it would have been in than pin yin.

Chapter 1. Preparing for the Examinations starts before birth. If an affluent American parent plays “Baby Einstein” to her fetus before birth, it is not strange to understand how the affluent Chinese mother also had protocols to follow before childbirth in order to encourage the birth of an academically-talented boy. Alas, girls are not included throughout this examination system. Math was left to merchants and primitive science and technology were the domain of workers and artisans. Thus, the child began his studies of the classics as early as he could hold an ink brush, as early as age three. Down through the examinations, the core of the exam was taken from the Four Books, the Five Classics, and assorted Confucian works and neo-Confucian interpretations.

The student must compose poems, write essays and have a superior calligraphy. The Primer of One Thousand Characters was his first textbook, a collection of 250 lines with four characters each, and with none ever repeated. This was followed by The Beginner’s Search, a history book. For those who could survive memorizing massive amounts, this led directly to the Four Books and Five Classics that became the staple of schoolwork. Today, modern high school teachers in China still sometimes have teaching come to a halt a month before the gao kao, and instruct their students to repeat and recite into their minds what they have learned, a process no different from 1500 years ago. Miyazaki counts up the number of characters from the classics that the student must learn by heart: 431,286 or nearly half a million!

Chapter 2. The District and Prefectural Examination changed across the 1500 years. Miyazaki focuses on its structure during the final Qing (Ch’ing) Dynasty (1644--1911). By this time, there were governmental schools ranging from a national university in the capitol (now Beijing), to prefectural, departmental and district (county) schools in the provinces. Those who had passed tests to gain entry to these schools were “licentiates.” There were certain “base” occupations (such as operating a brothel) that were considered beneath the status of an official and therefore disqualified any candidacy to persons for three generations. But otherwise, any young boy could aspire to the examination system and just being from rich aristocracy was no advantage. Of course, the rich were in the position to hire the best tutors for their children, while the poorest could not. Tutors were oftentimes the unsuccessful candidates who had stood for the examinations but had failed to score high enough for a government position.

Upon entering the test hall, candidates had to have guarantors of their identity. After the guarantors left, the hall was sealed for the examination. Today, with the modern gao kao, the school where the tests are given is extensively cleared and the room’s windows and doors sealed with tape until the students are admitted.

This chapter also describes the examination procedures and the exceptional measures taken to hide the identity of the students from the examiners when they were grading the papers. The required seclusion of the magistrate or the other examiners during the grading period is a practice continued today with modern professors who are chosen to grade the essays on the gao kao. After grading the five sets of exam papers, a public posting of scores was made, again much as today. The district (county) exams were difficult, but passing them only granted the student permission to take the prefectural exams in the capitol.

Chapter 3. The Qualifying Examination followed the prefectural exams. A “Director of Studies” was an official appointed by the Emperor to spend three years in a province and attend the exams, although the exams were handled by the prefects and magistrates. But while this Director was subordinate to the Governor and Governor General of the province, he reported to the Emperor at the end of his term and commented on any and all irregularities he witnessed in the Province. Miyazaki explains how, on the qualifying examination, there are ten seals that could be stamped on a paper if a clerk saw a candidate perform any irregularity from leaving his seat to humming to having an incomplete paper at the end of the time allotted. Papers were graded by seat number and announced by seat number, with the student’s identity being re-associated with their seat afterwards. Those who passed the exam had a dramatic official announcement sent to their local household back home, for this also reflected well on the family and clan.

Chapter 4. The “Annual” and Special Preliminary Examinations explains the evolution of schools that were originally separate from the examination system, but how these schools became caught up in the test-prep. Thus the school entrance exam just became a prelude to the examination system and exams for academics only were disregarded. As more folks became affluent and desired their sons to join this entry-to-government system, the number of aspiring candidates swelled. Unable to staff this growth in students with competent teachers, the faculty neglected their teaching and candidates pretty much studied for the exams on their own. Thus “…once a man joined a school staff, he had to be satisfied with a miserable salary for the rest of his life.” Students stood for the annual examinations and were divided into six grades by scoring: those in the top two ranks were promoted and the top ranked students got a stipend, those in the middle two levels remained students, and the two lowest ranks were demoted and if they scored in the lowest rank in the next exam, were deprived of student status. After 10 years, those still in the top stipend rank were promoted to the central university. However, if no government positions opened up, even students in the highest rank made the exam a waste of time, and some just malingered as licentiates. In response, the government ruled that if they missed taking the next three consecutive exams, they lost their licentiate status. With exams every three years, some from wealthier families only took the exam every 9th year, an early way to be a “professional student.”

With a serious surplus of officials and candidates-in-waiting, there was no incentive for the government at any level to maintain schools and education became a private burden. Scholars-in-waiting also had to make a living, and many gave up advancement. Still, about a hundred candidates competed in examinations for each position that became available for that time and region.

Chapter 5. The Provincial Examination and Reexamination addresses the every-three-years provincial examinations. The higher the exam, the more high ranking the officials and examiners. The huge honeycomb of examination cells is described. Candidates flow in from afar. Miyazaki details the detailed security, the sparse facilities, and procedures that are hard for Westerners to appreciate. But there will be a major pay-off for the few top-ranked scholars. It is here that Miyazaki also relates the many supernatural stories of deeds in a good life resulting in good scoring by examiners who hear voices to reconsider a low scorer, or inversely, ghosts appearing to remind a candidate of their evil past and the resultant test disaster that will befall them (probably from their guilty conscience). These stories are legitimate because they were the banter of those times, promoting students to maintain a good, clean living if they wished to succeed and suggesting failure could be caused by a wicked life in spite of study. It is also in the state’s interest to have future administrators who have good behavior regardless of the motivation. But there can be a thin line between success and failure, and Miyazaki also describes those cases.

As for misconduct by officials overseeing the examinations, a case is described where the examiner, associate examiner, candidate, official sponsoring the candidate and the son of the associate examiner had colluded---all were sentenced to death!

Finally, the collection of the best essays of the top candidates were often published. Candidates who continued studies and did not pass until they were very old, were too old to receive a post, and received what amounted to an honorary degree.

Chapter 6. The Metropolitan Examination and Reexamination similar to the provincial exams, consisted of three sessions. These questions were again sent by the emperor, although in most cases written by high ministers and approved by the emperor. The minister of rites took the sealed questions to the chief examiner who in turn unlocked them and had them printed for the candidates. (Keep in mind that printing was invented in early China.) The first round involved 3 questions and a poem. The second round of testing had five questions on the Five Classics, but selected by the chief examiner, not the emperor. The final session was five more questions set by the chief examiner. The number who passed was determined by the need for officials, and if few officials were needed, only a few with the highest scores passed. During a shortage in the early Qing dynasty, more were allowed to sit for the test and many more passed. In the late Qing under a particularly wise emperor K’ang-hsi, provincial quotas were set in order to give a chance to candidates from distant area, probably the earliest form of affirmative action.

Passing the provincial exam meant that passing the palace exam was nearly automatic. But before moving forward, candidates had to write up their life history, and the calligraphy then had to match their essay answer handwriting. Those who passed had their answers printed up and copies were distributed to family and friends. And a sponsor, an official from their local home town, had to be present when the candidates for the palace exam entered the hall---it was another identity check.

Chapter 7. The Palace Examination and the Court Review were not originally part of the test system and prior exams at this level were merely to establish that the person had the stature and speaking ability of an administrator. However, due to the accumulation of personal relationships among administrators that undermined the rule of the emperor, the first Sung emperor changed the highest test to one he personally administered, making those who passed thereby loyal to him as their examiner. While the questions came from the emperor, he used “high court officials of outstanding literary ability” to provide questions and read the papers; these ministers helped in judging the papers. The selection of questions, the taking of the exams, and the grading occurred under close scrutiny we would consider military lock-down. The questions were posed in a format asking for the candidates sincere answer to problems, and the candidate’s answers were written in a strict form of a memorial. Miyazaki observes that “Inasmuch as the papers were literary exercises, the grading could not be completely just.” Today, we would say that the grading was subjective, but the emperor was indeed looking for more than just right answers. One of the most delightful aspects of this work is Miyazaki’s ability to incorporate stories of exceptional cases, as in an illiterate general who was appointed examiner, or a scholar who was superior but lost to another for wise but unfair political reasons. The author also carefully and precisely explains the implications of Taoism for both the general public and for those aspiring to the exams. From the Ming dynasty onward, the highest scoring candidates became ranking compilers in the Hanlin Academy that served as writers of history and editors of academic documents. They could then ascend to higher ranking national positions as their talents allowed.

Chapter 8. The Military Examination System explains the system for moving up the military ranks as officers also consisted of three exam levels. The first level test included shooting three arrows from running horseback into a man-shaped target. The second test involved shooting 5 arrows at a target at 50 paces and drawing-a-bow of heavier forces, using-a-sword, and lifting weights. The third test involved writing out several hundred characters from one of three military classics, and readers will probably recognize Sun Tzu’s “Art of War” which was one of them. Additional test levels included the prefectural exam that was same, but harder. At the provincial level, the tests were similar again but there was a quota assigned, equal to vacancies, to limit how many could pass. Military licentiates could move ahead to take the palace military exam and involved advanced forms of arrow-shooting, etc. as before. Successful graduates were assigned assignments according to their ranking scores, but were not much respected in an army where scholarship has little to do with fighting. Miyazaki concludes that its advantages accrued when you were stationed in a peaceful place and could retire in peace.

Chapter 9. The Special Examinations describes how, amazingly, in this tight system that controlled cheating, the system recognized that there were very gifted individuals who avoided the test system. In order to recruit “well-known private scholars” and counter the obsessive “office seeking,” the emperor could call forth such individuals for a special exam, only occasionally used during the Sui, Tang and Sung dynasties. And when the Ming dynasty fell to the Qing Manchus, the “Examination for great scholars of extensive learning” was a special examination that sought to recruit Ming scholars who had missed out on their chance to take exams during the warfare. K’ang-hsi, one of the greatest of the Qing emperors saw the need in 1678 and recruited distinguished scholars, who in turn also provided a propaganda advantage, lessening he hatred toward the Qing. These exams were rare; this chapter is short.
Chapter 10. An Evaluation of the Examination System begins by explaining how this system, established by the Sui dynasty over 1400 years ago, began in order to “…strike a blow against government by the hereditary aristocracy” who ruled before then. Miyazaki wrote this book in Japanese and takes time to make comparisons with similar ruling aristocracies in Japan, but most readers can easily “get the picture.” There is also a Chinese saying, not mentioned by Miyazaki, about a person who rises to power by knowledge or wealth seeing that power and status fade away 3 generations later, indicating that the great work and study ethic of a grandparent does not trickle down past the grandchildren. However, it took through the T’ang dynasty for the aristocracy to be replaced by a bureaucracy that is a meritocracy. Miyazaki cites the T’ang emperor proclaiming that “The heroes of the empire are all in my pocket!” Miyazaki does not point out that the T’ang was a Buddhist dynasty, so this system did not derive from Confucian world-view despite the subject of the exams being heavily Confucian. Nor is mention that the Sung dynasty also so the rise of neo-Confucians which backs up the improvements that the Sung made over the T’ang system. Despite considerable modern criticism of the exam system, Miyazaki points out that it lasted for more than 1300 years. While it is true that economics did not allow the doors to the examination to be open to all, nor that all candidates used honest methods to pass, the system did essentially eliminate opposition to dynastic rule from within insofar as it co-opted all of the intelligentsia. There was no critical mass of intelligent revolutionaries to follow to engineer a coup.

The demise of the system Miyazaki attributes to newer educational system arising, especially in Japan, as well as to the humiliation of the Boxer rebellion and the weakness of China itself. The last exams were held in May of 1904, leaving a generation who had studied in hopes of becoming licentiates with no hope. But Miyazaki does consider the exam system to be a great achievement, especially in subjugating the military to the civilian intelligentsia.

Unmentioned by Miyazaki is the fact that it was also to become the ongoing basis for Chinese supreme regard for intellectualism. Scholars were one of the classic social classes, even a poor scholar in a blue scholar’s robe was respected above a merchant. That would persist through Liberation where the peasant was moved to the top of the class list, and through the Cultural Revolution where intellectuals were sent to the countryside for a decade. Today’s Chinese student lives under a family pressure where education remains Job One and the gao kao test remains a fiercely important sorting device for ascending economically via access to higher education. In a very real way, China’s examination hell lives on.

At the time this book was written, Mao was still alive and China had yet to advance out of third world status. The Cultural Revolution was winding down and the schools across China had essentially been closed for a decade, aside from some exceptions such as schools for military families. No one could have foreseen the massive growth that has occurred after the opening up and reforms of Deng Xiao-ping to a time where now, there is a huge middle class and there is now a “fu er dai” or second generation rich. This growth is most attributable to China’s investment in education and the necessary selection of the best high school graduates for the best Chinese universities, that elevates the economically poor student who is a scholar from the lazy rich student who is not.

Some of these second generation rich children can afford to by-pass the gao kao and pursue an education in schools that prepare them to attend college in the Western countries. Nevertheless, while they grow up in China, it is hard for any Chinese student to not “feel” the importance of the study ethic in the society at large. It is this legacy of the Imperial exam system that still lingers on today, and it forms the basis for the model minority image Chinese students carry overseas.

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isabel Pina

Book delivered in unacceptable condition

Reviewed in France on February 28, 2022

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After some months of waiting, the book arrived on 25 February. However, the most annoying was being delivered wet and falling apart. In other words, it is completely unusable and, therefore, in an unacceptable condition. Thus, I request a refund (including the shipping fees) or another copy in proper conditions.

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