The Imperial Civil Service Exams

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The Imperial Civil Service Exams The civil service system grew into a mature form and most government officials had to take exams in order to get into the civil service. To avoid the problems the Tang government faced, the Northern Sung made the military subordinate to the civil government. Every aspect of government and society was dominated by the civil government. The civil service test was expanded so that the government would attract many young talents to work for the government. The origins of the exam system lie in the Han period, but the early scholarly examinations were consolidated during the Sui period, and began to be truly effective under the Tang Dynasty. However, the Civil Service Examination System of Imperial China served as a qualification system for scholars who wanted to become officials in the Chinese government. Between the Tang period and the late Qing, the civil service examinations dropped out of use for short periods and underwent occasional reform. But the content remained remarkably constant. The core texts consisted of the Four Books and the Five Classics so many young men were spending their entire lives to study these for so they could pass the examinations. These four books and the Five Classics in works attributed to Confucius and certain of his disciples, along with a number of approved commentaries and memorizing Chinese characters. Until the Guanxu Reforms of 1898, the notorious eight-legged essay, a rigid traditional format, was the mainstay of the exam papers. Rote learning of the Confucian classics was fundamental to success in the exams, and the scholar who obtained the highest degree, the jinshi, would have his memory trained to a tremendous degree. Texts of a total of over 400,000 characters had to be thoroughly memorized if a candidate was to have any hope of progressing to a civil service position, and even at the
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