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PROFESSOR:Confucius a man known around the world for his philosophies and teachings may also be credited with how countries around the world operate. The Confucian attitude towards education was that there were no class distinctions - education was for all. This fundamental belief of fairness for all paved the way for the revolutionary idea of meritocracy. In Ancient China, following periods of war, the need for governance was crucial. 需要成千上万的官员完成行政事务。
PROFESSOR:It was at this point that the Imperial Exam was set up, to identify those who could read and write and carry out administrative duties and best suited to a life in the civil service. At its peak, the highest level Imperial Exam was a nine day and night ordeal, examining candidates on their understanding of the Chinese Classics, Confucian values and strict writing styles. Because of the demands of the exam, those who sat it were held in high regard and were awarded with a certain degree of power. In the reign of Emperor Kang Xi, candidates questioned the examiners" marking methods and how impartial the examiners had been. The Emperor became dissatisfied with the Chief Examiner"s methods and assigned Prince Yong Zheng to assist with re-marking.
PROFESSOR:This led to the reinstatement of a rigorous method insuring against favoritism. Once completed, a bureaucrat was assigned to write an ID number on the exam paper. Another was attributed with the task of sticking paper over the name. Once copied word for word in red ink, another bureaucrat had to check to see that the two exam papers were identical. Once it was certain that the papers were identical, the original copy was filed and the red ink version was passed to one of two examiners.
PROFESSOR:That"s quite a lot of work. The effect of the exam on Chinese society was huge, encouraging cultural conformity at many levels of society. In some cases, people re-sat the exam right up into their 70"s and 80"s. Various countries, including Korea, Japan, England, France and the United States, adopted this system in different forms. The paperwork involved would have been inordinate.
PROFESSOR:From 1646 until 1904 more than 26700 candidates sat the very highest level exam and some records show that around a million people sat the different level exams held every three years. If you multiply these numbers by the people required to administer the exam, as well as the paper work involved, the number of man hours needed for the selection of civil servants really begins to escalate. It"s a matter of debate as to how beneficial bureaucratic processes are. However, under the masses of paperwork in the example of the Imperial Exam, it can be easy to forget that there was an honorable intent behind it all - one of fairness. Would Confucius agree?
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