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A Ming Dynasty (1368–1644) portrait of the Chinese official Jiang Shunfu (1453–1504), now in the Nanjing Museum. The decoration of two cranes on his chest are a "rank badge" that indicate he was a civil official of the first rank.
Scholar-bureaucrats or scholar-officials were civil servants appointed by the emperor of China to perform day-to-day governance during the Song Dynasty through the Qing Dynasty. These officials mostly came from the well-educated men known as the scholar-gentry. These men had earned academic degrees (such as xiucai, juren, or jinshi) by passing rigorous civil service examinations. The scholar-bureaucrats were schooled in calligraphy and Confucian texts. They dominated the politics of China at the time.
As a small fraction of them could become officials, the majority of the scholar-gentry stayed in local villages or cities as social leaders. The scholar-gentry carried out social welfare measures, taught in private schools, helped decide minor legal disputes, supervised community projects, maintained local law and order, conducted Confucian ceremonies, assisted in the government\'s collection of taxes, and preached Confucian moral teachings. As a class, these scholars represented morality and virtue. Although they received no official salary and were not government officials, their contributions and cooperation were much needed by the district magistrate in governing local areas, and received contributions from the imperial dynasty as well.
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The examinations consisted of a battery of tests administered at the district, provincial, and metropolitan levels. Tight quotas restricted the number of successful candidates in each test — for example, only three-hundred students could pass the metropolitan examinations. Students often took the examinations several times before earning a degree.
Each student taking the exam arrived at an examination compound with only a few amenities: a water pitcher, a chamber pot, bedding, food, an inkstone, ink, and brushes. Guards would verify the students\' identities and search them for hidden printed materials. Each exam taker spent three days and two nights writing "eight-legged essays" — literary compositions with eight distinct sections — in a tiny room with a makeshift bed, desk, and bench. There were no interruptions in those three days, nor were candidates allowed any communication. If someone died during an exam, officials wrapped his body in a straw mat and tossed it over the high walls that ringed the compound.
Civil service exams remained intensely competitive, yet a degree at any level did not ensure government service. Those who only passed the district level exam had a much poorer chance of being a part of the imperial bureaucracy than those who passed the metropolitan level exam. During the Qing dynasty, the empire\'s one million degree holders competed for only 20,000 official civil service positions. Those who did not get to serve the government spent their careers "plowing with the writing brush" by becoming local teachers or tutors.
This system created a meritocracy with best students running the country. The examinations gave many people the opportunity to pursue political power and honor — and thus encouraged serious pursuit of formal education. And since the system did not formally discriminate based on social status, it provided an avenue for upward social mobility. The exams themselves were open to all males regardless of age or social class. However, since years of education and travel to exam sites were expensive, wealthy families enjoyed advantages over others.
Also, since the examinations focused on Confucian classics and neo-Confucian commentaries, the exams guaranteed that Confucianism would be at the heart of Chinese education and that Confucians would govern the state.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Wikipedia
