THE 



POPULAR SCIENCE 

 MONTHLY. 



EEBEUAEY. 1906. 



THE PASSING OF CHINA'S ANCIENT SYSTEM OF 

 LITERARY" EXAMINATIONS. 



BY CHARLES KEYSER EDMUNDS, Ph.D., 

 CANTON CHRISTIAN COLLEGE. 



IN a previous paper we reviewed the subject matter of Chinese edu- 

 cation and recalled the fact that there is not, and practically never 

 was, a school system in China, though a characteristic method of in- 

 struction has prevailed for ages, which by reason of its imitative and 

 servile nature has repressed originality and drilled the nation into a 

 slavish adherence to venerated usage and dictation without supplying 

 real or useful knowledge. 



Without doubt, the heart of China's nationhood thus far has been 

 her system of literary examinations, and the place given to scholars in 

 all phases of the nation's life combined with the inefficient character 

 of the learning they possessed has been the primary cause of the na- 

 tion's peculiar course and its present weak condition, from which 

 happily it is awakening through the adjustment of education to the real 

 needs of life. 



The darkest days of the west, when Europe was wrapped in the 

 ignorance and degradation of the middle ages, were the brightest days 

 in the east. China was then probably the most civilized country on 

 earth and exercised a humanizing influence on all surrounding states. 

 Had she kept the lead she then held, instead of presenting to the world 

 as she now does the most remarkable case of arrested development 

 within historic time, China would be in fact what for so many cen- 

 turies she has so fondly but mistakenly considered herself to be, the 

 mightiest of the mighty powers. 



It is indeed striking in a country which can count back to schools 

 more ancient than those of any other living race that the scholars of 



