Chinese Empire

How the Chinese Civil Service Exam Worked

The imperial Chinese civil service examination was, in the eyes of foreign observers from Marco Polo to Voltaire, one of the most remarkable institutions of the pre-modern world. A young man — sometimes a teenager, sometimes a man in his thirties or forties — would present himself at the local examination compound, lock himself into a tiny cell, and write essays on the Confucian classics for days at a stretch. If he passed, he would receive a degree that conferred social prestige, access to office, and a place in the scholar-gentry class. If he failed, he could try again in three years — and many did, often for decades. The system ran with minor variations from the Sui and Tang dynasties to the final abolition of 1905. This article describes how it actually worked, in its later and best-known Song-Ming-Qing form.

For the broader context, see our overview of the imperial examination and our survey of Chinese government and bureaucracy. For the social question of who could rise, see our article on commoners becoming officials.

The Three Tiers of the Examination

The examination system in its mature form had three main tiers, each held in a different location, at different intervals, and producing degrees of progressively higher prestige. A candidate who passed the first tier could attempt the second; a candidate who passed the second could attempt the third.

The County and Prefectural Examinations: The Shengyuan

The lowest tier was the county-level examination (縣試) and the prefectural examination (府試), held at the county and prefecture seats under the supervision of the local magistrate and prefect. Candidates who passed received the lowest academic title, the shengyuan (生員), translated as “licentiate” or “student of the empire.” The title did not, by itself, confer eligibility for office, but it gave the holder a small stipend, exemption from corvée labour, and the right to sit for the next tier. It also made him a member of the local gentry, with all the social prestige that implied.

The candidate pool at this level was enormous. In any given year in the late Qing, perhaps a million candidates sat for the county and prefectural exams across the empire. The pass rate was very low, often less than one per cent, and the cultural pressure to succeed was intense.

The Provincial Examination: The Juren

The second tier was the provincial examination (鄉試), held every three years in the provincial capital under officials sent from the central government. Candidates who passed received the juren (舉人) degree, the first degree that opened a real path to office. The provincial examination was held in a fortified compound, the examination compound (貢院, gòngyuàn), and candidates were locked into individual cells for the duration of the multi-day exam. The cells were tiny — perhaps a metre and a half on a side — and contained only a board for sitting and writing, a lamp, and a chamber pot. Candidates were searched, their food was inspected, and they were forbidden to leave the cell until they had finished or the time had expired.

The pass rate was extremely low. In a typical year in the late Qing, perhaps 100 to 200 candidates passed in a given province, out of perhaps 5,000 to 10,000 shengyuan who sat. The juren degree was a lifetime qualification, and successful juren enjoyed the right to take the metropolitan exam in the capital.

The Metropolitan and Palace Examinations: The Jinshi

The third tier was the metropolitan examination (會試), held in the capital every three years, in the spring following the provincial exam. Candidates who passed received the jinshi (進士) degree, the highest academic title in the empire. The jinshi was the golden ticket to high office, and a successful jinshi could expect to enter the imperial service as a junior official and, if capable, to rise to senior rank within a few decades.

The metropolitan examination was held in a large compound in the capital, and candidates were locked into cells for up to nine days. The pass rate was very low: in a typical year, perhaps 200 to 400 candidates across the empire would receive the jinshi degree. The palace examination (殿試), held in the imperial palace in the presence of the emperor, was the final step. It did not reject any candidate who had passed the metropolitan exam; rather, it ranked the jinshi into top, middle, and lower classes, with the top three (the zhuangyuan, bangyan, and tanhua) receiving special honours and a place in the Hanlin Academy, the emperor’s personal staff of scholars.

The Eight-Legged Essay

The eight-legged essay (八股文, bāgǔ wén) was the literary form that dominated the Ming and Qing examinations. The essay took a passage from the Four Books of Confucianism and required the candidate to expand on it in a fixed eight-part structure: an opening statement, a brief explanation, an initial discussion, and four pairs of parallel developments, ending with a conclusion. The essay had to demonstrate mastery of the Confucian text, of classical Chinese, and of the imperial orthodoxy on the interpretation of the classics.

The eight-legged essay was the object of fierce criticism from the eighteenth century onward. Critics argued that the form was mechanical, killed creative thought, and produced candidates who could write brilliantly within the form and could not think outside it. The Qing reformers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries used the abolition of the eight-legged essay as a symbol of intellectual modernisation.

Preparation

Preparation for the examinations was long, expensive, and uncertain. A serious candidate began studying the Confucian classics in childhood, under the tutelage of a father, an uncle, or a private tutor. By adolescence, he would have memorised the Four Books and the Five Classics, read the standard commentaries, and be composing practice essays. Most candidates sat for the county and prefectural exams in their late teens or twenties; those who passed took the provincial exam in their twenties or thirties; those who passed the provincial sat for the metropolitan in their thirties or forties. The financial burden was substantial, and the famous jinshi of Chinese history are almost all the sons of gentry families with at least modest means. The system was, in this sense, a system for the gentry; it was also, as our article on commoners becoming officials shows, a system in which a brilliant young man of poor peasant origin could sometimes rise.

The Prestige of the Jinshi

The jinshi degree was, in social terms, the most prestigious academic title in imperial China. A new jinshi was the object of public celebration, was received by the emperor in the palace examination, and was assigned to a position in the imperial service. The top three in the palace examination were famous for the rest of their lives, and their names were inscribed in the records of their home provinces. The jinshi was the central institution of the imperial system, and its abolition in 1905 marked the end of the imperial Chinese political order.