User:Yixiang Li/sandbox

Qing education system is mostly about Confucianist. It including "Four Books and Five Classics"(Chinese: 四書五經; pinyin: Sìshū wǔjīng). People usually study when they were very young and try their whole life to pass three tests. Imperial examination is really hard to pass, but whoever get pass through the highest level and get "Jinshi" degree can have a change to get into the central government. The dynastic school system was already limited to candidates socialized through schooling and family traditions to speak Mandarin(guanhua Chinese:官话, i.e., the language of officials in the capitals of the empire) and to read and write classical Chinese. Presuming the ability of their students to read and write, dynastic schools were oriented toward examination preparation. Initial stages in training a son for the civil service became the private responsibility of lineages seeking to attain or maintain elite status as gentry. Civil examination represented the focal point through which imperial interests, family strategies, and individual hopes and aspirations were redirected.

The Literati

The basic word for literatus is "wenren"(Chinese:文人),a literate or cultivated person. Parallel to "wenren" are two terms, "shi"(Chinese:士), scholar, and "shen"(Chinese:绅), often defined as gentry, or offcial. deno And also every literati need to take three test, those who achieve the lower degree in the civil service examination can get a spot in the village. We called those people "shengyuan"(Chinese:生员, lierially "born offical") And who pass the second test have a chance to take the third test, as know as the highest test, held at Beijing every three years. The people pass this final test can get a degree called "jinshi"(Chinese:进士). And this is also the highest level for a normal literati to reach.

Literati Life

Horizontal inscribed boards with the titles of the imperial exam winners: zhuangyuan 状元 (1st place)，bangyan 榜眼 (2nd)，tanhua 探花 (3rd). Qing Dynasty.

Civil examinations mediated the classical discourse of "Way learning" and literati everyday lives. Tensions, which brought a few fame and fortune but left most dealing with disappointment, were catalysts. Literati often turned to religion and the mantic arts to channel their emotional responses to the competitive examinations. And those failed civil examinations often mocked the selection process in popular novels, such as Wu Jingzi's (1701-1754) The Scholars and vernacular stories by Pu Songling (1640-1715). Such narratives framed the examination process from the angle of the failures. Because such works appealed to bo ethlites and nonelites, we should problematize the "popularelite" dichotomy by showing the fluid interaction between both. Recorded dreams and auspicious events were manifest, nonofficial accounts of the collective mental tensions of the examination candidates, which the public used to explain their individual success or failure.

Examination success usually meant career success, but what success meant in terms of careers changed dramatically from Ming to Qing. All but palace degree-holders were down classed by the late Ming, and in the Qing even palace degree-holders frequently had to wait years to gain an appointment as a magistrate or prefect if they passed in the bottom tier. We have seen that social prestige, legal privileges, and corvée labor exemptions kept most commoner families competing in the examination market. The diminishing opportunities for examination success by the nineteenth century exacerbated human frailties. No dynasty ever faced a demographic expansion of elites commensurate with the Qing, from 250 million in 1650 to 350 million by 1800.