HIST 4618 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Imperial Examination
5 Mar 2019
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The new elites (shidafu) would dominate government for the next century. Shidafu combines the two words gentlemen and scholar. If you want to be a government official, you have to pass the civil service exam. This exam tested the candidate"s knowledge of the. This exam was likely instituted to protect against liao from infiltrating the song government. Any chinese male could take the exam and if they passed, they could serve in the government. Women were not allowed to take it but women were very smart in china. The civil service exam was held once every three years. There are three levels: shengyuan, juren and jinshu. If you pass all 3 exams, you get an interview with the emperor, who determines the candidates. Every male despite their background could participate in this exam, it was considered to be fair but competitive. However, only 1% of all people actually pass the exam because i guess it was that hard.
