Advertisement
Published: February 26th 2007
Edit Blog Post
Confucius
Here he stands outside the Nanjing Art Museum. I've been asked questions about the civil service examinations, because I showed you photos of the examination rooms, in my last blog. This tradition is really the basis for Chinese education today. Although the first examinations were in the Qin dynasty, the examinations fully based on the Classics began in the Tang Dynasty (618-896AD) and continued until 1905, and for that thousand years, was the scope and breadth of Chinese education.
All officials were recruited through the examinations. Men could aspire to a position regardless of class position by studying the Classics to prepare for the Imperial Civil Service Examinations. The classics pertain to the so-called Four Books and the Five Classics (四書五經 Sì-shū Wǔ-jīng), which were the mandatory texts for the exam. (C.f. Michael Nylan. The Five “Confucian” Classics. New Haven: Yale University Press. 2001.)
The Four Books (四書 Sì shū) are:
1. Great Learning, (大學 Dà Xué), the name of a chapter in the Classic of Rites ,
2. Doctrine of the Golden Mean (中庸 Zhōng Yóng), the name of another chapter in the Classic of Rites,
3. Analects (論語 Lùn Yǔ), a book of concise sayings attributed to Confucius and recorded by his disciples, and
4. Mencius (孟子 Mèng Zǐ), a book of conversations between Mencius and some kings of his time.
The Five Classics (五經 Wǔ jīng) includes:
1. Classic of Changes or I Ching (易經 Yì Jīng),
2. Classic of Poetry or The Book of Odes (詩經 Shī Jīng),
3. Classic of Rites (禮記 Lǐ Jì), social forms and ceremonies describing ancient rites and court ceremonies,
4. Classic of History (書經 Shū Jīng), a collection of documents and speeches written by rulers and officials of the Zhou Dynasty and before, and
5. Spring and Autumn Annals (春秋 Chūn Qiū, a historical record written by Confucius from 722 B.C. to 479 B.C.
Four Books were the works of Confucius’ days, while Five Classics were the works that predated Confucius (551-479 BC). By Biblical comparison, Four Books are similar to New Testament and Five Classics are like Old Testament. Everyday communications and political discussions among the scholar-officials in the pre-modern days was full of references to this background of knowledge and one couldn’t be regarded as a literati without knowing and quoting from these texts adequately. (This info and the next bit are from Mr. Chi-hou CHAN, M.A., PhD candidate and Lecturer, Sinological Institute, Leiden University.)
There were three levels of examination: county, provincial and national. They were equivalent to B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. At least a thousand men took the exam at one time, each in a separate cubicle. The test lasted several days and most people failed at least once. Families would sacrifice to provide for the applicant's education, because with success, the whole family's status was raised. For many it was very difficult and apparently several failed applicants committed suicide.
Here is a description from the website http://historymedren.about.com/library/text/bltxtchina3.htm, which has a short history of China.
"The Tang period was the golden age of literature and art. A government system supported by a large class of Confucian literati selected through civil service examinations was perfected under Tang rule. This competitive procedure was designed to draw the best talents into government. But perhaps an even greater consideration for the Tang rulers, aware that imperial dependence on powerful aristocratic families and warlords would have destabilizing consequences, was to create a body of career officials having no autonomous territorial or functional power base. As it turned out, these scholar-officials acquired status in their local communities, family ties, and shared values that connected them to the imperial court. From Tang times until the closing days of the Qing empire in 1911, scholarofficials functioned often as intermediaries between the grassroots level and the government."
Check the website. The conclusion is interesting; it's about becoming dogmatic later in the Song and later dynasties, and the examinations contributing to locking in certain Confucian concepts and thus preventing societal growth and development--the burgeoning bureaucracy.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.323s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 13; qc: 73; dbt: 0.1995s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
John miller
non-member comment
FCAT
And, in Florida we have Jeb Bush's FCAT for Junior and Senior High School students. Most everyone, especially the teachers, hates this system for evaluating the performance of schools.