A Cultural History of Civil Examinations in Late Imperial China

Benjamin A. Elman

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Hardback

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English

University of California Press
22 March 2000

History; Asian history; Civil service & public sector

In this multidimensional analysis, Benjamin A. Elman uses over a thousand newly available examination records from the Yuan, Ming, and Ch'ing dynasties, 1315-1904, to explore the social, political, and cultural dimensions of the civil examination system, one of the most important institutions in Chinese history. For over five hundred years, the most important positions within the dynastic government were usually filled through these difficult examinations, and every other year some one to two million people from all levels of society attempted them.

Covering the late imperial system from its inception to its demise, Elman revises our previous understanding of how the system actually worked, including its political and cultural machinery, the unforeseen consequences when it was unceremoniously scrapped by modernist reformers, and its long-term historical legacy. He argues that the Ming-Ch'ing civil examinations from 1370 to 1904 represented a substantial break with T'ang-Sung dynasty literary examinations from 650 to 1250. Late imperial examinations also made ""Tao Learning,"" Neo-Confucian learning, the dynastic orthodoxy in official life and in literati culture. The intersections between elite social life, popular culture, and religion that are also considered reveal the full scope of the examination process throughout the late empire.

By: Benjamin A. Elman
Imprint: University of California Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 56mm
Weight: 1.361kg
ISBN: 9780520215092
ISBN 10: 0520215095
Pages: 889
Publication Date: 22 March 2000
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Benjamin A. Elman is Professor of Chinese History and Director of the Center for Chinese Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles; from 1999 to 2001 he will be a Visiting Professor at the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study. He is author of Classicism, Politics, and Kinship: The Ch'ang-chou School of New Text Confucianism in Late Imperial China (California, 1990; Chinese edition, 1998) and coeditor of Education and Society in Late Imperial China, 1600-1900 (California, 1994).

Reviews for A Cultural History of Civil Examinations in Late Imperial China

""Monumental. A nuanced revision of the intellectual, political and social partnerships that a core institution of Chinese history signified over many centuries. Many readers of Elman's study will be the field's insiders, but non-specialists will gain immeasurably from the author's lucid prose in a text that is comprehensively supported by translations of all Chinese and Japanese sources.""--T""imes Higher Education Supplement