China's examination system started during the Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE) and continued until it was abolished by the dowager empress Cixi (1835–1908) in 1905. By the Qing dynasty (1644–1912), the civilservice examination...

The Imperial examinations (traditional Chinese: 科舉; pinyin: kējǔ) in Imperial China determined who among the population would be permitted to enter the state's bureaucracy. The Imperial Examination System in China lasted for 1300 years, from its...

Benjamin A. Elman, A Cultural History of Civil Examinations in Late Imperial China. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000, pp. 889. Cloth $75.00. The Chinese scholar-bureaucrat holds a unique position in world history. In no other civilization or political entity have the...

At a time when conferences and panels are commemorating the one hundredth anniversary of the abolition of the imperial Chinese civil service examinations, we should be reminded that criticisms of the examinations are nearly as old as the examinations themselves. Critical evaluations of...