Chinese+Examination+System

The **Imperial examination** was an examination system in Imperial China designed to select the best administrative officials for the state's bureaucracy. This system had a huge influence on both society and culture in Imperial China and was directly responsible for the creation of a class of scholar-bureaucrats irrespective of their family pedigree. Neighboring Asian countries such as Japan, Vietnam and Korea also implemented similar systems to draw in their top national talent.Established in AD 605 during the Sui Dynasty, the imperial examinations developed and matured during theTang Dynasty, continuing until their 1905 abolition under the Qing Dynasty, a history (with brief interruptions, //e.g.// at the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty of 1,300 years. The modern examination system for selecting civil service staff also indirectly evolved from the imperial one. From the time of the Han Dynasty (206 BC to AD 220) until the implementation of the imperial examination system, most appointments in the imperial bureaucracy were based on recommendations from prominent aristocrats and local officials whilst recommended individuals were predominantly of aristocratic rank.l Emperor Wu of Han started an early form of the imperial examinations, in which local officials would select caqndidates to talke part in an examination of the Confucian classics, from shich he would select officals to serve by his side. Beginning in the Three Kingdoms period (with the nine-rank system in the Kingdom of Wei), imperial officials were responsible for assesssing the quality of the talents recommended by local elites. This system continued until Emperor Yang of Sui established a new category of recommended candidates for the mandarinate in AD 605. For the first time, an examination system was explicityly instituted for a category of local talents. This is generally accepted as the beginnning of the imperial examination system. []