Download What are the strength and weakness of the civil service examination

What are the strength and weakness of the civil service
examination system in ancient Chinese history? What was its
impact on traditional Chinese Society?
By Leavis
Introduction.
The ancient Chinese civil service examination system has always been lauded
as the finest in its time. Though there were weaknesses, the ancient rulers
recognized its fundamental usefulness and they were quick to exploit it. This
essay will look at its weakness, strength and followed by its impact on the
traditional Chinese society from the Han dynasty to the Ching dynasty.
Weakness.
The Central University founded by Han Wu-ti produced two kinds of students:
the sons and nephews of the highest ranking officials and sons and nephews of
the not so high ranking, including commoners. Only those people who were
fortunate enough to be selected for official posts would be going to the above
schools and sit for Confucian Examinations. It must be emphasized that
examinations during the Han dynasty were used mainly to grade officials
already in the civil service.
One of the main weakness of the system during the Tang dynasty was that it
aimed at members of the region's political elite (the effort persisted for one
century but was highly uneven as the number was less than fifteen during Kaotsu’s reign]. Aristocratic influence was still very strong, and many officials were
able to reach office through hereditary (yin) privilege. Only in one school , the
School of the Four Gates, opened for lower status was the exclusiveness
slightly relaxed.
Moreover, China's examination system was for the masses only from Song
dynasty onwards, prior to that only Sui and Tang dynasty used it for recruiting
civil officials on a very small scale around fifteen officials per year. Thus, so it
was nearly impossible for the ordinary commoner; exceptional cases were few
and far between. Firstly, commoners rarely had the necessary resources to find
a teacher or the means to study. Only the sons of the well-to-do could find the
time and expense for examinations; the long line of civil servants sprang from
the leisured families living on the rents from the lands. Secondly, the system
had always been biased to that whose families were nobles and officials as
privileges were given for entrée and there were schools for the elite. Even in the
Song dynasty, examinations became less and less important for gaining office
during the span of three hundred years because of big families’ wealth, power
and prestige in the local scene were enough to propel their sons into official
posts.
Hong Wu, himself was so unhappy about this aspect of the system that he
abolished it in 1373 for ten years. The Ming court later reinstated examinations
but together with a selection process in 1382. Only in Yung-lo’s reign was the
selection process put aside and top examination graduates from Hanlin
Academy were assigned appointments.
As if the mistake of growing up in the wrong family was not enough to penalize
one, skin colour (race) also counted . Quotas were set for Chinese candidates
during the Yuan dynasty. The Yuan’s adaptation was a parody of the system
because most of the Mongols were uneducated. In the early years of Kanghsi’reign severe cuts in the examinations quotas for Han Chinese were
practised as the Manchus considered Han Chinese less reliable than their own
Chinese Banner men.
Therefore, efforts were made to enhance the objectivity of examinations. In 669
P’ei Hsing-chien drew up a detailed set of rules governing the examinations.
Empress Wu Tse Tian was said to have come up with the concealment of
names of candidates, so that their identity and social origins could not affect
the issue. However, there was no certainty that examinations were conducted
with scrupulous impartiality. The Song examiners too had to take precaution
against cheating by searching scholars on entrance and so forth. This reflected
the rampant corruption that was taking place by the scholars and the examiners
and the pathetic attempts to remedy it.
Strength.
Why then did the Chinese adopt the traditional examination system if there were
serious shortcomings? The reason was because the advantages that came with
it were basic and fundamental. Any founding ruler of a dynasty would always
be faced with the problems of governing the country, the lack of capable
officials and the fear of military governors in charge of distant provinces, leading
to the power of the emperor being decentralized. Thus, founding rulers found
that the traditional examination system provided them with an objective and
institutionalized method of recruiting governmental personnel that would be
loyal to them.
Han Kao-tsu realised the importance of having a court full of competent
scholars after he was lectured by Lu Chia that ‘it is not on the horseback that
you will be able to govern it...war and peace are two aspects of an eternal art.’
Thus, selection of capable people for official posts and making such officials sit
for the Confucian examination was first started in the Han dynasty.
This vehicle for recruiting civil servants was popular among emperors in China
history. With the exception of the throne itself, all offices were open this made
the struggle against the emperor for the control of the government less intense.
Also, the syllabus learnt by the scholars was Confucian in nature which
stressed state loyalty this ensured the support of officials for the emperor and
his dynasty. The urgency to have loyal officials became apparent after the
Seven States Rebellion (154 B.C.). Han Wu-di then saw education as a way to
strengthen his new upper class against the older aristocratic families, and he
accepted Confucianism as the ideology in which the state officials should be
trained.
Empress Wu Tze-tian used the examination system as a political weapon aimed
at removing from power the representatives of the North Western aristocracy
and further the formation of a new class of administrators recruited by
competition the formation of the ‘Scholars of the Northern Gate’ was a
forerunner of Empress Wu’s ambition to take over the powers of chief ministers.
The Sung emperors promulgated civil service examinations as they feared the
centrifugal power of regional clans and military leaders after the reunification of
China in 960. They used civil service examinations to limit the development of
alternative military and aristocratic power centers and to draw into their
government the sons of elities from newly emerging regions in South China.
Even foreigners found the system useful when they conquered China. The
Manchus were clever enough to win tacit endorsement and general
acquiescence during their rule by adopting the examination system. The
Manchus managed to channelled the literati's talents and their inexhaustible
erudition towards examinations, thus disarming the very circles which in the 17 th
century had produced the most resolute opponents of the Manchu domination.
The Mongols never realised the importance of having Chinese officials whom
had more intimate familiarity with the bedrock on which Chinese civilization
rested , until too late. Khubilai Khan refused to institute civil service
examinations to recruit officials. The failure to make the link between
examinations and public service was one of the many reasons for the absence
of prolonged rule by the Mongols as compared to the Manchus.
Theoretically, examinations were opened to almost all Chinese regardless of
social background during. Power and wealth supposedly made no difference
and only the level of education as measured by the examinations mattered.
Much has been said of its unreliability but one cannot deny that it was better
than judging personal attributes of a person.
Impact on the traditional Chinese society.
Social mobility was the major impact of examinations from Song dynasty
onwards. Even the humblest could become a member of the ruling class by
acquiring an education and passing the examinations. As early as the Han
dynasty, local administrators were required to select the talented or the
virtuous for examinations. Prime Minister Wang An-shih during the song
dynasty was a key example of court officials who gained power through
examinations. This breakthrough must , however, be taken with a pinch of salt
as it took place mainly within the strata of Chinese who had the cultural and
linguistic resources to prepare their sons for the rigors of an examination. As
mentioned earlier such cultural advantages came from social advantages,
while wealth and power provided the resources for adequate linguistic and
cultural training that would, in turn, legitimate and add to the wealth and power
of a successful candidate in the examination cycle.
Thus, from the Tang began the transition from rule by aristocratic families to the
rule by a trained bureaucracy, selected by merit partly through examinations.
Those officials also represented the hereditary transmission of cultural
resources replacing the medieval hereditary transmission of official status.
The acquisition of a classical education and the taking of examination
became a certification of social status. This was aided by a revision of the
national genealogy in 659 AD and everything now depended upon the official
rank of the person listed, not his family origins during the Tang dynasty. By
Ching times scholar status became social necessity ,perhaps similar in this
aspect to college graduation in today's context. The elite had broaden out to
include local magnates, family heads, and informal public servants as well as
ex-officials. The prerequisite for all was a classical education that qualified one
culturally as a member of the class as Shi shii.s
The examination syllabus was largely Confucian in nature. Therefore, as
examinations gradually become a determining factor in one's social status the
profound influence on traditional Chinese cultural bedrock is far reaching. Chia-I,
in as early as 176 B.C. concluded that an adequate education program was
important for the Han emperors. This set the precedent for Confucian educated
emperors. During Tang dynasty, examinations enhanced the interest in
classical works and it was also the golden age of poetry as many candidates
were practising the art as part of their for examinations. This growing activity led
to the emergence of many conflicting interpretations of the classics. Tang T’aitsung’s commissioned the Wu-ching cheng-i, a compilation of commentaries
and sub-commentaries on canonical books, which became the foundation for
classical Confucian education throughout the Tang.. This type of imperial
patronage, continued by rulers such as Empress Wu, Emperor Kangxi of the
Manchus, came about as a by product of the examination system leading to this
culturally ingrained reverence for education.
Conclusion.
Therefore, the traditional examination system despite its numerous weaknesses,
strengthened and prolonged absolute monarchy and it played many roles
connected with thought, society, administration and politics in traditional China.
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