Imperial examination in Chinese mythology
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The
imperial examination The imperial examination (; lit. "subject recommendation") refers to 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 ...
was a
civil service The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...
examination system in
Imperial China The earliest known written records of the history of China date from as early as 1250 BC, from the Shang dynasty (c. 1600–1046 BC), during the reign of king Wu Ding. Ancient historical texts such as the '' Book of Documents'' (early chapt ...
designed to select the best potential candidates to serve as administrative officials, for the purpose of recruiting them for the state's bureaucracy. With the avowed purpose of testing and selecting candidates for merit, the examination system markedly influenced various aspects of society and culture in Imperial China, including
Chinese mythology Chinese mythology () is mythology that has been passed down in oral form or recorded in literature in the geographic area now known as Greater China. Chinese mythology includes many varied myths from regional and cultural traditions. Much of ...
. The imperial civil service examinations were designed as objective measures to evaluate the educational attainment and merit of the examinees, as part of the process by which to make selections and appointments to various offices within the structure of the government of the Chinese empire, or, sometimes, during periods of Chinese national disunion, of offices within the various states. During more recent historical times, successful candidates could receive the
jinshi ''Jinshi'' () was the highest and final degree in the imperial examination in Imperial China. The examination was usually taken in the imperial capital in the palace, and was also called the Metropolitan Exam. Recipients are sometimes refer ...
(chin-shih), and other degrees, generally followed by assignment to specific offices, with higher level degrees and competitive ranking within the degrees tending to lead to higher ranking placements in the imperial government service. The examination system developed largely in response to religious and philosophical ideas about ideal social order. Also, traditional Chinese religion and philosophy responded to concerns about the examination system. Both processes were intimately bound together with a literary system and other traditions which had a relative continuity of several thousand years. The actual examination process developed together with various related philosophical, religious, and narrative concepts to produce a distinct mythological motif.


Sacred origins

A common mythological motif provides a religious type of sacredness to later social institutions by projecting their origins back to a time when deities and
culture hero A culture hero is a mythological hero specific to some group ( cultural, ethnic, religious, etc.) who changes the world through invention or discovery. Although many culture heroes help with the creation of the world, most culture heroes are impo ...
es were credited with having divinely or miraculously created them, thus giving them an aura of greater-than-human qualities, and a justification for their existence and structural qualities with an implication that these are things which mere mortals should not question (as well as avoiding giving credit for their institution to a preceding rival dynasty). This applies particularly to the Chinese system of examinations to recruit government officials and to the related institutions of governmentally sponsored and controlled education.


Origin myth: Shun's succession

The first instance tantamount to an idea of imperial examination is mentioned in the '' Shang shu'' ("Yao dian" 堯典), long before a whole bureaucracy of testing was developed. The text describes
Emperor Yao Emperor Yao (; traditionally c. 2356 – 2255 BCE) was a legendary Chinese ruler, according to various sources, one of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors. Ancestry and early life Yao's ancestral name is Yi Qi () or Qi (), clan name i ...
's intent of examining abilities of his successor. Yao, one of the
Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors The Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors were two groups of mythological rulers in ancient north China. The Three Sovereigns supposedly lived long before The Five Emperors, who have been assigned dates in a period from 3162 BC to 2070 BC. Today t ...
(traditional dates of rule approximately 2852-2070 BC), saw commencement of the
Great Flood A flood myth or a deluge myth is a myth in which a great flood, usually sent by a deity or deities, destroys civilization, often in an act of divine retribution. Parallels are often drawn between the flood waters of these myths and the primaeval ...
. As he grew old in age, the Emperor Yao perceived that he would not live long enough to see the end of the flood. Therefore, he began to seek a successor, someone worthy enough and capable enough to rescue the people from this great calamity. Yao did not turn to the patriarchal system of choosing one of his sons. Yao wished to find the most talented and worthy person in the kingdom. Yao offered his throne to Four Mountains, but Four Mountains declined. Instead, they recommended
Shun Shun may refer to one of the following: *To shun, which means avoiding association with an individual or group * Shun (given name), a masculine Japanese given name *Seasonality in Japanese cuisine (''shun'', 旬) Emperor Shun * Emperor Shun (舜 ...
. At the time, Shun is said to have been at home displaying
filial piety In Confucianism, Chinese Buddhism, and Daoist ethics, filial piety (, ''xiào'') (Latin: pietas) is a virtue of respect for one's parents, elders, and ancestors. The Confucian '' Classic of Filial Piety'', thought to be written around the lat ...
. Despite this evidence of his virtue, and the recommendation of Four Mountains, Yao decided that in order to recruit a replacement for the highest of the civil service offices, that of emperor himself, it would only be prudent to instigate a series of tests. The tests included marrying Shun to his two daughters, Fairy Radiance (Ehuang) and Maiden Bloom (Nüying), to see whether Shun could maintain family harmony at home, and ended by sending him down from the mountains to the plains below where Shun had to face fierce winds, thunder, and rain during the course of some test of unexplained mystery. Candidate Shun successfully passed this series of imperial examinations and was recruited as emperor, serving, it is said, as co-emperor, until the death of Yao. Shun and Yao both became mythological cultural heroes, due, in part, to their fight against the flood, and helping the people to lead better lives. The story of how Yao chose Shun by seeking and testing for the most virtuous and meritorious person in the whole empire became a mainstay of
Confucian Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China. Variously described as tradition, a philosophy, a religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, a way of governing, or ...
discourse, with Yao and Shun being glorified as epitomes of virtue. A likewise pattern, glorifying merit on the expense of the family ties, is described in succession of Shun by
Yu the Great Yu the Great (大禹) was a legendary king in ancient China who was famed for his introduction of flood control, his establishment of the Xia dynasty which inaugurated dynastic rule in China, and his upright moral character. He figures promine ...
. Also, in later mythology and folk religion, the stories of the examinations of the dead in Heaven or Hell show certain parallels, in the way
Chinese folk religion Chinese folk religion, also known as Chinese popular religion comprehends a range of traditional religious practices of Han Chinese, including the Chinese diaspora. Vivienne Wee described it as "an empty bowl, which can variously be filled ...
typically depicts the non-mundane world and the world of humans to mirror each other.


Triennial examination tradition

Shun is also credited with a universal gathering of his nobles and subjecting them to imperial examination every 3 years, in order to decide about promotions, demotions, or retaining of the current status in the governance structure.Wu, 99.


Music Bureau

During the later dynastic history of China, there existed a government
Music Bureau The Music Bureau (Traditional Chinese: 樂府; Simplified Chinese: 乐府; Hanyu Pinyin: ''yuèfǔ'', and sometimes known as the "Imperial Music Bureau") served in the capacity of an organ of various imperial government bureaucracies of China: di ...
(most notably during a certain part of the Han dynasty, during the Tang dynasty, and perhaps similarly in the Qin dynasty): this was an institution involving the setting of standards and competitive evaluations thereby. In mythology, this involves one of the motifs which provide a religious-type of sacrality to the institution. The Music Bureau or Ministry of Music was actually not a music academy in the modern sense: its function included the collection and composition of music and poetry for royal court functions of entertainment and religious rites, but its functionality was much more. The tradition behind the ''
Shijing The ''Classic of Poetry'', also ''Shijing'' or ''Shih-ching'', translated variously as the ''Book of Songs'', ''Book of Odes'', or simply known as the ''Odes'' or ''Poetry'' (; ''Shī''), is the oldest existing collection of Chinese poetry, co ...
'' poetry anthology was that the reason that poems (and presumably accompanying musical scores and choreography, now lost) were collected, polished, and brought to court for presentation to the emperor, was to inform him of the thoughts, feelings, and conditions of the various peoples in different parts of the empire. That tradition that
Confucius Confucius ( ; zh, s=, p=Kǒng Fūzǐ, "Master Kǒng"; or commonly zh, s=, p=Kǒngzǐ, labels=no; – ) was a Chinese philosopher and politician of the Spring and Autumn period who is traditionally considered the paragon of Chinese sages. C ...
himself served as the editor-in-chief of the ''Shijing'' provided great prestige to this concept, together with several explicit comments commending the results in the Confucian classics. The Han dynasty Music Bureau was also explicitly avowed to serve a similar function. This was not the only educational function attributed to the Music Bureau: even going back to the early mythological tradition, the original Ministry of Music was founded by the demi-god Emperor Shun, in order to teach propriety and harmony to his heirs apparent. Thus, a certain moral function was built into the tradition from its origins. In mythology, the original Ministry of Music was founded by the demi-god Emperor Shun, in order to teach propriety and harmony to his heirs apparent. Thus, the mythological foundation (sometimes considered to be the legendary historical foundation) of the Chinese educational system) and the original archetype later cited by scholar-officials responsible in historical times for public administration institutional design was told in the story of Shun, and how he arranged his government, including a Music Ministry (Wu, 255-256). The work of the Music Bureau was eventually incorporated into the testing curriculum of the imperial examination system.


Zhou selection of the worthy and the capable

The existence of the
Zhou dynasty The Zhou dynasty ( ; Old Chinese ( B&S): *''tiw'') was a royal dynasty of China that followed the Shang dynasty. Having lasted 789 years, the Zhou dynasty was the longest dynastic regime in Chinese history. The military control of China by th ...
is a historically-proven fact, as are the literary phenomena associated with this dynasty. However, much of the material about it is also known to be mythological, and some remains indeterminate. The rites and records known from the Zhou era do include a prototypical imperial examination system.


Myth versus history

Traditional Chinese-source scholarship regarding ancient China typically involves a dual tradition: a historicizing tradition that results in scholarship such as K. C. Wu's, which removes the unicorns from the writings of
Confucius Confucius ( ; zh, s=, p=Kǒng Fūzǐ, "Master Kǒng"; or commonly zh, s=, p=Kǒngzǐ, labels=no; – ) was a Chinese philosopher and politician of the Spring and Autumn period who is traditionally considered the paragon of Chinese sages. C ...
by implying that this was merely an artifact of his final senile descent towards death, saying that when this prime example of a mythological beast appeared in the works of Confucius, it caused him to "lay down his pen and write no more" and that " died two years later" (Wu, 6); and to go on to similarly strip other mythological elements out of the ancient writings in order to provide a history of the rise of the Zhou dynasty which lacks much from the preserved accounts (that is, it preserves the historical—especially that confirmed by the
oracle bones Oracle bones () are pieces of ox scapula and turtle plastron, which were used for pyromancy – a form of divination – in ancient China, mainly during the late Shang dynasty. ''Scapulimancy'' is the correct term if ox scapulae were used for th ...
and other archeology—and rejects the embedded mythology); and, also there is the mythologizing and popular culture versions such as that the Ji family that founded the Zhou dynasty was the result of Jiang Yuan's supernatural conception of Houji or the '' Fengshen Yanyi'' version that allows the rise of Zhou to revolve around the interactions of the goddess
Nüwa Nüwa, also read Nügua, is the mother goddess of Chinese mythology. She is credited with creating humanity and repairing the Pillar of Heaven. As creator of mankind, she molded humans individually by hand with yellow clay. In the Huaina ...
, a
fox spirit Huli jing () are Chinese mythological creatures usually capable of shapeshifting, who may either be benevolent or malevolent spirits. In Chinese mythology and folklore, the fox spirit takes variant forms with different meanings, powers, charac ...
with nine tails that is a thousand years old, a nine-headed pheasant, a jade pipa (a musical instrument capable of assuming human form), and so on.
King Wen of Zhou King Wen of Zhou (; 1152–1050 BC, the Cultured King) was Count of Zhou during the late Shang dynasty in ancient China. Although frequently confused with his fourth son Duke of Zhou, also known as "Lord Zhou", they are different historical perso ...
(the name and title "king", ''wang'', were posthumously conferred) was also known as the Literate Duke of Zhou, and he is credited in the dual tradition as the founder of many Chinese institutions, including the ''Biyong'' academy with a teaching staff of 3 elders plus 5 various others and a system of universal recruitment into service based upon merit which involved examinations, posthumously regarded as "imperial" (Wu, 256).


Confucian rationalism

From a certain viewpoint, the examination system represented the most rationalistic aspect of the
Confucian Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China. Variously described as tradition, a philosophy, a religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, a way of governing, or ...
system. The system of testing was designed according to the principle of a society ruled by men of merit, and to achieve this by objectively measuring various candidates knowledge and intelligence. However, in actual operation, the system also aspects of religious and irrational beliefs more complex than this (Yang, C. K., 265–266). The idea of Fate is a mythological motif which had a significant role in the cultural context of the examination system involving cosmic forces which predestine certain results of human affairs: particularly that individual success or failure is subject to the will of
Heaven Heaven or the heavens, is a common religious cosmological or transcendent supernatural place where beings such as deities, angels, souls, saints, or venerated ancestors are said to originate, be enthroned, or reside. According to the belie ...
, and that the results of taking the imperial examinations could be influenced by the intervention of various deities (Yang C. K., 265–268).


Zhong Kui

Zhong Kui, also spelled Chung-kuei, was a deity associated with the examination system, who achieved a major posthumous promotion during the
Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an Zhou dynasty (690–705), interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dyn ...
. The story is that a certain scholar took the tests, and, despite his most excellent performance, which should have won him first place, he was unfairly deprived of the first place prize by a corrupt official: in response, the scholar killed himself, the act of suicide condemning him to be a
ghost A ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that is believed to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to re ...
. The Yanluo Wang was impressed of his strong character, and he became a powerful
Deity A deity or god is a supernatural being who is considered divine or sacred. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines deity as a god or goddess, or anything revered as divine. C. Scott Littleton defines a deity as "a being with powers greate ...
who vanquished evil spirits. Many people afraid of traveling on roads and paths that may be haunted by evil spirits have worshiped Zhong Kui as an efficacious protective deity (Christie, 60, and picture, 58).


Naming taboo

Some individuals were discriminated against because of their names, due to a naming taboo. For example, because the Tang dynasty poet Li He's father's name sounded like the ''jin'', in ''jinshi'', he was discouraged from taking the tests (Hinton, 286). The claim was that if Li He was called a ''jinshi'', it would be against the rule of etiquette that a son not be called by his father's name.


Symbology

The symbology of the imperial examinations and that of imperial appointment to high office are much the same, as would be expected from the close relationship which they share with each other, especially in late imperial times.
Wolfram Eberhard Wolfram Eberhard (March 17, 1909 – August 15, 1989) was a professor of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley focused on Western, Central and Eastern Asian societies. Biography Born in Potsdam, German Empire, he had a strong ...
(article under title "Official", 214-216) lists a number in his ''Dictionary of Chinese Symbols'', including eggplant (or aubergine) (茄子, qiézi), because the fruit together with its calyx looks like a man wearing a type of cap (冠, ''guān'', which is homonymous with ''guān'', meaning "an official") -- the caps or hats were awarded to promoted officials and so symbolic of official office (Eberhard, under "Aubergine"). Also, beans, or dried bean curd ("bean curd" referring to
tofu Tofu (), also known as bean curd in English, is a food prepared by coagulating soy milk and then pressing the resulting curds into solid white blocks of varying softness; it can be ''silken'', ''soft'', ''firm'', ''extra firm'' or ''super f ...
) also were used in illustrations and other symbology to represent officialdom due to the similarity in sound between ''dòu gān'' (豆乾, dried bean curd) and ''dà guān'' (大官, high official, as Eberhard discusses under "Bean"). Also, Eberhard defines the combined images of the maple (楓, ''fēng'') and a
monkey Monkey is a common name that may refer to most mammals of the infraorder Simiiformes, also known as the simians. Traditionally, all animals in the group now known as simians are counted as monkeys except the apes, which constitutes an incomple ...
(猴, ''hóu''), or a monkey and a horse (馬, ''mǎ'') as related to official government service. Also, there is the scholar (士, shì).


See also

*''
Book of Documents The ''Book of Documents'' (''Shūjīng'', earlier ''Shu King'') or ''Classic of History'', also known as the ''Shangshu'' (“Venerated Documents”), is one of the Five Classics of ancient Chinese literature. It is a collection of rhetoric ...
'', especially regarding the "Canon of Yao" *
Chinese classic texts Chinese classic texts or canonical texts () or simply dianji (典籍) refers to the Chinese texts which originated before the imperial unification by the Qin dynasty in 221 BC, particularly the "Four Books and Five Classics" of the Neo-Confucia ...
*
Civil Service of the People's Republic of China The Civil Service of the People's Republic of China is the administrative system of the traditional Chinese government which consists of all levels who run the day-to-day affairs in China. The members of the civil service are selected through co ...
* Eight-legged essay *
Hanlin Academy The Hanlin Academy was an academic and administrative institution of higher learning founded in the 8th century Tang China by Emperor Xuanzong in Chang'an. Membership in the academy was confined to an elite group of scholars, who performed se ...
*
History of China The earliest known written records of the history of China date from as early as 1250 BC, from the Shang dynasty (c. 1600–1046 BC), during the reign of king Wu Ding. Ancient historical texts such as the ''Book of Documents'' (early chapter ...
*
Imperial examination The imperial examination (; lit. "subject recommendation") refers to 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 ...
* Kui Xing *
Nine-rank system The nine-rank system, also known as the nine-grade controller system, was used to categorize and classify government officials in Imperial China. Created in the state of Cao Wei during the Three Kingdoms, it was used until the Song dynasty, and ...
* Scholar-bureaucrats * Wenchang Wang


References


Citations


Sources

* Christie, Anthony (1968). ''Chinese Mythology''. Feltham: Hamlyn Publishing. . * Eberhard, Wolfram (2003
986 (German version 1983) Year 986 ( CMLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * August 17 – Battle of the Gates of Trajan: Emperor Basil II leads a Byza ...
, ''A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols: Hidden Symbols in Chinese Life and Thought''. * Fairbank, John King (1992), ''China: A New History''. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press/
Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the retir ...
. * Hinton, David (2008). ''Classical Chinese Poetry: An Anthology''. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. / * Murck, Alfreda (2000). ''Poetry and Painting in Song China: The Subtle Art of Dissent''. Cambridge (Massachusetts) and London:
Harvard University Asia Center The Harvard University Asia Center is an interdisciplinary research and education unit of Harvard University, established on July 1, 1997, with the goal of "driving varied programs focusing on international relations in Asia and comparative studi ...
for the Harvard-Yenching Institute. . * Paludan, Ann (1998). ''Chronicle of the Chinese Emperors: The Reign-by-Reign Record of the Rulers of Imperial China''. New York, New York: Thames and Hudson. * Wu, K. C. (1982). ''The Chinese Heritage''. New York: Crown Publishers. . * Yang, C. K. ( Yang Ch'ing-k'un). ''Religion in Chinese Society : A Study of Contemporary Social Functions of Religion and Some of Their Historical Factors'' (1967
961 Year 961 (Roman numerals, CMLXI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * March 6 – Siege of Chandax: Byzantine forces under Nikephoro ...
. Berkeley and Los Angeles:
University of California Press The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by facul ...
. * Yang, Lihui, ''et al.'' (2005). ''Handbook of Chinese Mythology''. New York: Oxford University Press. * Yu, Pauline (2002). "Chinese Poetry and Its Institutions", in ''Hsiang Lectures on Chinese Poetry, Volume 2'', Grace S. Fong, editor. (Montreal: Center for East Asian Research, McGill University). {{Chinese mythology Chinese mythology Confucian education Imperial examination in fiction