1859.] Memorandum on Education in China. 51 



Such as persevere, and there are instances of men doing so sixty 

 years, become gradually perfect in the art of writing essays, and 

 take their next degree, which renders them eligible for office, and, 

 unless they prefer giving up their ambition for a tutorship, enrols 

 them in the large band of expectants, as they are called, who, in 

 the hopes of gaining a post at some future day, give their services 

 gratis until that time. 



There is a higher degree than this, which, if you wish it, gives 

 you office the moment you obtain it, but the examination for it is 

 so strict and so severe, that comparatively few pass it; for this, you 

 are not only required to paraphrase or write essays on texts taken 

 from the four books, or the five classics, and to be well read in 

 the history of China, but, the Ex-Commissioner says, must be 

 able to write essays on subjects like the following : — " The dews 

 fall in Autumn" shewing the connection between this extract from 

 the Book of Odes and the system of taxation, in short to shew 

 how every act of Government is, or rather might be, based on 

 the classics. 



This, as the degree of Master in Masonry, is the highest generally 

 taken, but there is one still higher conferred by the Emperor 

 himself, assisted by the greatest scholars in the Empire, this consti- 

 tutes the successful candidate, a Member of the Imperial College of 

 the Hanlin, where he is employed writing state papers until the 

 Emperor has need of his services as an administrative Mandarin, 

 or despatches him on some special mission, the diplomatists of 

 China being generally selected from this body. 



Thus, from the commencement of their education to its termina- 

 tion, Moral Philosophy is their only study, having mastered that 

 they are then, says Confucius, wise, and as the wise man, he adds, 

 is not a kettle, meaning thereby that he is nfc for all purposes, not 

 for one only, he is qualified to act as Judge and put his fellowmen 

 to death, although, like Teh, he has never opened a law book, as a 

 revenue Officer, although ignorant of Arithmetic, or as an Engineer, 

 although he has never heard of Geometry. 



The explanation Yeh gives of this is, that the Chinese Officials 

 always keep clerks to look up the law of a case, while they elicit the 

 tacts, or to make any calculations that may become necessary, a 



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