The Meaning of a National Examination System

Abstract

The history of competitive examination not only for discovering experts of government but also for recognizing talent or merit for its own sake is a very long one. Before recorded history began, those who had and held the rein of the political organization did so either by virtue of military strength or by that of birth. In other words, once installed in a place, they and their descendants tended there to remain until some other and stronger force dislodged them. But this was presumably in the very early period. As soon as it was recognized that talent or virtue was not in the sole possession of the ruling class, and this probably happened with the beginning of recorded history, ways and means were devised so that individuals of more humble status might come up the social and political ladder. Thus, we read in “The Ceremony of Archery” one of the many books of Li Ki, the following, the translation here being at best a rough approximation:

(Originally published in The China Critic, Vol. I, No. 26, November 22, 1928, by the name of: Quentin Pan)