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The imperial examination was a civil service examination system in Imperial China administered for the purpose of selecting candidates for the state bureaucracy.The concept of choosing bureaucrats by merit rather than by birth started early in Chinese history, but using written examinations as a tool of selection started in earnest during the Sui dynasty [1] (581–618), then into the Tang ...
Although civil service examinations had existed since the Sui dynasty, they became much more prominent in the Song period. Officials gaining power through imperial examination led to a shift from a military-aristocratic elite to a scholar-bureaucratic elite.
The numbers of jinshi degrees given out were increased in the Song dynasty, and the examinations were given every three years. Most senior officials of the Song dynasty were jinshi holders. [4] The Ming dynasty resumed the civil-service exam after its occurrence became more irregular in the Yuan dynasty.
Song emperors expanded the civil service examination system and government school system in order to avoid the earlier scenario of domination by military strongmen over the civil order. [43] At the beginning of the Northern Song, Chinese officials regarded sedan chairs as inhumane for using human labour in place of animals.
[13] [14] Song was the only dynasty in Chinese history that provided scholar-officials judicial privilege. Due to the influence of the founding emperor of Song Zhao Kuangyin, almost all Song emperors showed great respect to intellectuals. If a scholar-official from the Song dynasty committed a crime, he couldn't be held accountable directly.
During the Song dynasty, a national examination system (Civil Service Exam) managed by scholar-bureaucrats was used to recruit officials; those who passed the palace examination – the highest-level examination in the empire – were appointed directly by the emperor to the highest central government positions. [16]
During the Song dynasty, there was a clear division in social structure which was enforced by law. ... The civil service exams were almost ended in the Hundred Days ...
The Tang and Song dynasties expanded the civil service exam to replace the nine-rank system which favored hereditary and largely military aristocrats. [1] As a social class they included retired mandarins or their families and descendants. Owning land was often their way of preserving wealth. [2]