THE PASSING OF CHINA'S ANCIENT SYSTEM 103 



century are the most ancient literary rewards still in use in any 

 country. In the days of the Tangs also, the examinations were placed 

 under the Board of Rites, and military examinations and medical col- 

 leges of a very primitive character were established. 



For the purposes of general government each of the nineteen prov- 

 inces of the empire is divided into ten, fifteen or twenty prefectures, 

 and, according to the system now passing away, each prefectural city, 

 or county seat, has been a headquarters for the first degree, which is 

 called Hsiu Ts'ai, or ' Flowering Talent.' Two resident examiners in 

 each prefecture have kept records of competing students and exercised 

 them from time to time. A literary chancellor in each province has 

 held office for three years and visited each prefectural city to hold 

 bi-annual examinations for the first degree. The halls in which these 

 tests have been held are elaborate sets of buildings, where the students 

 could sit in long rows and write their themes on topics taken from or 

 dealing with the string of ideas which comprise the content of Chinese 

 education. About two thousand were accommodated at once in an 

 average test. 



The trials for the second degree, Chii Jen or ' promoted scholar,' 

 have been held in the provincial capitals, and the vast halls arranged 

 for this purpose provide individual stalls sometimes, as at Nanking, 

 for thirty thousand candidates at the same time, in which the aspiring 

 scholars had to spend three sessions of three days each endeavoring to 

 compose victorious essays on themes relating to Chinese history, 

 philosophy, criticism and various branches of archeology, besides try- 

 ing their skill as writers of poetry. - Two special examiners for each 

 province, generally Hanlin, were deputed from Peking to conduct these 

 great triennial examinations which were the most elaborate and char- 

 acteristic of the whole system. In them, as also in the tests for the 

 first degree, the coveted honor was bestowed on not more than one per 

 cent, of the candidates. The unsuccessful, however, were allowed to 

 try again indefinitely, which some did. 



The third degree, denominated Chin Shih, or ' Fit for Office,' has 

 been awarded every three years in Peking, cabinet ministers presiding. 

 The fourth degree has also been awarded every three years at Peking, 

 the trial taking place in the palace and all the successful candidates be- 

 coming Hanlin, or members of the ' Forest of Pencils,' an association 

 of imperial scribes, which constitutes one of the pivots of the empire 

 and the very center of its literary activity. Membership in this Im- 

 perial or Hanlin Academy has then been the goal of literary attain- 

 ment, for this long series of contests has culminated every three years 

 in the appointment by the emperor of a member of the academy as 

 the model scholar of the realm. 



To any one of these examinations only those were eligible who held 



