n6 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



Just now we are passing through a crisis fraught with difficulties, and the 

 country is most urgently in need of men of talents and abilities (of the modern 

 sort ) . Owing to the fact that of late modern methods of education have been 

 daily on the increase among us, we issued repeated commands to all our vice- 

 roys and governors of provinces to lose no time in establishing modern schools 

 of learning in such number that every member of this empire may have the 

 means of going there to study and learn something substantial in order to pre- 

 pare himself to be of use to his country. We have indeed thought deeply on 

 this subject. 



The decree then states that the ministers of education have sug- 

 gested the gradual abolition of the examinations, but Yuan Shih-kai, 

 whose experience and knowledge are admitted, ' asserts that unless 

 these old-style examinations are abolished once for all, the people of 

 this empire will continue to show apathy and hesitate to join the 

 modern schools of learning.' Yet it would seem that the demand for 

 the change had really come from the people. 



Hence if we desire to see the spread of modern education by the establish- 

 ment of a number of schools, we must first abolish the old style of studying for 

 the examinations. . . . We therefore hereby command that, beginning from the 

 Ping-wu, Cycle (1906), all competitive examinations for the literary degrees of 

 Chii Jen and Chin Shih (Master of Arts and Doctor) after the old style shall 

 be henceforth abolished, while the annual competitions in the cities of the vari- 

 ous provinces for the Hsiu Ts'ai (Bachelor of Arts) or licentiate degree are also 

 to be abolished at once. Those possessors of literary grades of the old-style 

 Chii Jen and Hsiu Ts'ai who obtained their degrees prior to the issuance of 

 this decree shall be given opportunities to take up official rank according to 

 their respective grades and abilities. 



So that literati who already hold Chinese degrees are not entirely 

 neglected, but will have to buy text-books and attain a smattering at 

 least of western knowledge if they wish to keep up. The rest of the 

 decree urges all officials from viceroys to district magistrates to see 

 that schools of all the necessary grades are established, and the min- 

 isters of education to distribute text-books at once to all the prov- 

 inces, ' so that we may have a uniform system of teaching in all our 

 schools.' A word of encouragement is added to soothe the country 

 and induce it to meet freely the expense of these radical changes: 

 ' The government being thus enabled to obtain men of talents and 

 abilities, it follows that the cities and towns producing such bright 

 lights of learning will also enjoy a reflected honor therefrom.' 



Subsequent decrees (September 4 and 7) give the literary chan- 

 cellors of the various provinces the duty of holding examinations and 

 inspecting the schools of modern learning in the province to which each 

 had been appointed in the old regime, and command each to act in con- 

 junction with the viceroy or governor of his province, the control of 

 the whole being removed from the Board of Eites into the hands of 

 the ministers of education. The establishment of a special board for 



