The Civil Service Examination System of Imperial China served as a qualification system for scholars who wanted to become officials in the Chinese government. Many young men spent their entire lives studying the Four Books, the Five Classics, and memorizing Chinese characters in order to attempt to pass these examinations. The book, China’s Examination Hell, written by Ichisada Miyazaki and translated by Conrad Schirokauer, describes the lengthy, and often rigorous process of taking Civil Service Examinations.
The book begins by giving an account of how a young boy prepares for the examinations, learning his first Chinese characters at the age of three. Girls could not take the Civil Service Examinations, and from birth were treated in a way such that they would learn to be submissive. Boys began their formal education at age seven. From that point on, they spent every moment memorizing the Four Books, which included the Analects, Mencius, the Great Learning, and the Doctrine of the Mean, and the Five Classics, which included the Book of Changes, the Book of Documents, the Book of Poetry, the Book of Rites, and the Tso Chuan. Young men had the opportunity to take their first Civil Service Examination around the age of fourteen or fifteen, and particularly bright males would most likely continue taking different levels of examinations for the rest of their lives.
Also described in the book are the hardships endured by both the candidates for examination and the examiners themselves. The test-taking compounds were not very conductive to rational thinking, as each man was assigned a small, door-less cubicle in which he had to spend three days and two nights at a time. The examiners, by the end of an examination session, had thousands of papers needing to be graded. As a result, even the smallest mistake, such as a stain on the paper or a misprinted character would lead to failure of the examination. The book describes in detail how the Chinese believed in, and in some cases relied on, supernatural intervention in passing the examinations. There are many accounts throughout the book telling about candidates and examiners alike being visited by ghosts, and dreaming about the King of the Dead and the King of Heaven. It was believed that if a candidate was virtuous and performed good deeds, he would be rewarded by passing the Civil Service Examinations. Conversely, if a candidate did not have a good moral character, he would fail the examinations, regardless of the quality of his work.
The author travels to China as an English teacher for the Hunan Medical School. There he stayed for two years picking up many anecdotes along the way. The author already had spent a large amount of his life studying Chinese language and the martial arts. However, when he arrives in China he meets teachers who have dedicated their entire lives to perfecting a particular art or skill, whether it be martial arts or calligraphy.
In the book The Examination by Malcolm Bosse two brothers travel across China in their journey to pass the Imperial Exam. The brother’s names are Chen and Hong. Chen is very intelligent and is taking the Civil Service Exams hoping to pass. Hong on the other hand, is a known cricket fighter and joins the White Lotus Society along with the army. The Examination takes place in Song Era and is very accurate about what Chinese life and society was like in that time. This book depicts ideas and technologies and religious structure of ancient China. In the book The Examination by Malcolm Bosse, the author depicts ideas and technologies such as the civil service exam, junk ships, and porcelain as well as the religious structure of
The American Dream is referred to by many people as the reason to come to America. It is, or so they say, the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness. Unfortunately they are incorrect, there truly is no American Dream, it is all an illusion given to us by our founding fathers as a reason for the inequality in which people are treated. I have lived in this country for 16 years now and have all the patriotic bullshit about how we give everyone equal opportunity and how everyone is equal in the eyes of the law. I just laugh when I read this. Throughout our country’s 300-year history, it is all about raising one person over the other. It started with the movement of the Native Americans. They were here before anyone else, and they were moved because they did not live with all the violence our ancestors did. The founding fathers continued to push them further and further away because it was beneficial to them at the time. They said if you stay here we will not bother you anymore, then when they decided that area was nice and they needed it for the white man. Then we began to take the black man out of Africa and use them on our plantations so the white man could get more money. The President ended slavery, but there were ways around it and everyone knew it. No one ever said any persecution of the black man is wrong for years and why not, because it was more convenient for us to ignore it. Now the people from Latin American countries have come in homes of freedom, and better lives. We tell them they have to speak English, since they are in America, but I do not recall being taught the language of the Native Americans. Since they were here first should you not have to learn that language?
examination system. Thus, China was still thriving in what what was known as the Golden Age.
Jonathan Spence tells his readers of how Mao Zedong was a remarkable man to say the very least. He grew up a poor farm boy from a small rural town in Shaoshan, China. Mao was originally fated to be a farmer just as his father was. It was by chance that his young wife passed away and he was permitted to continue his education which he valued so greatly. Mao matured in a China that was undergoing a threat from foreign businesses and an unruly class of young people who wanted modernization. Throughout his school years and beyond Mao watched as the nation he lived in continued to change with the immense number of youth who began to westernize. Yet in classes he learned classical Chinese literature, poems, and history. Mao also attained a thorough knowledge of the modern and Western world. This great struggle between modern and classical Chinese is what can be attributed to most of the unrest in China during this time period. His education, determination and infectious personalit...
...hey knew nothing about. Therefore, civil service examinations were created in order to hire skilled professionals. These examinations were a needed stipulation for hiring during a time when more technical skills were needed. It also displaced unskilled workers, a number of which were put into place by the political machine. Civil service examinations hurt the machine in many ways. It released workers who were put in by the machine, and then taken out due to being unqualified, from voting in their favor. They created an atmosphere which made it difficult for the machine to use their patronage in order to place unskilled workers in a job. More importantly, it aided in the public realization that with the arrival of a more representative government for everyone, which didn’t ask for individual favors, political machines no longer appealed to them and were not needed.
During the Ming dynasty, Chinese literati were educated officials and scholars (Ching 1987, 24). Many were involved with painting and calligraphy. Some were officials in the Ming government. In order to obtain a position as an official or cabinet member, a student must pass the “imperial exam.” An imperial exam is exam paper used to find the best potential for an administrative position. The government designed these exams with three levels. After the student has completed the third level, they will have an opportunity to meet the emperor in person. If the emperor were to approve the student, then the student may obtain an admintrative position in the government. Most people who took imperial exams came from a rich family (Murphey 2009, 136-137). The rich were able to afford private tutors for there children who needed to take the exam. Peasants would have little to no chance at achieving an administrative position. Painting and calligraphy was another characteristic of the Chinese literati. Chinese artist ...
...able like relationships with friends and family. The American Dream can be considered ironic because people in pursuit of the American Dream are looking for financial success and the comfortable lifestyle that is associated with success, but even when the think they have achieved the Dream, they are still unsatisfied with what they have and are always looking for more. This paradox of the American Dream could be resolved by having a balanced perspective between their aspirational goals and what truly makes them happy beyond financial gain. The satisfaction that one receives from the hard work he or she puts into achieving his or her goals is often more rewarding than the goal itself. The American Dream does not have a definite definition, it is dream that everyone interprets differently with the belief that it will bring them success, happiness, and satisfaction.
The main objective of this paper is to understand how Chinese teaching style is different compared to the teaching style in western countries. To explore this matter, I will present key differences that were brought up in the BBC documentary titled “Are Our Kids Tough Enough? “and will discuss some aspects of the book “The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother” by Amy Chua.
According to the Museum of Learning (2010), “the National Higher Education Entrance Examination, or commonly known as “Gao Kao”, is an academic examination held annually in the mainland of the People’s Republic of China, and this examination is a prerequisite for entrance into almost all higher education institutions at the undergraduate level” (“Museum of Learning,” 2010). It is also an exam famous for its difficulty and the large number of participants. Just because of the large number of participants and the vast territory, we have the regional protection policy to protect the students from some areas. As showed in the Chronicle of Higher Education (2010), people who are the residents of the four municipalities directly under the Central Government, including Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Chongqing or the special area such like Tibet and Xinjiang can enter a good university with a lower score (“Chronicle of Higher Edu...
In “Père du Halde: The Chinese Educational System”, (Document 3), Pere du Halde talks about the Chinese Education system. In the document, he says, “That boys should not learn is an improper thing; for if they do not learn in youth, what will they do when old?” This shows that the educational system in China was very hard and strict and the students learned a lot. Since the boys that were going to school were one day going to be men, those men were going to have to make many decisions for China. In order to make sure China was on the right path to great rulers and government workers, the schooling system was very prestigious and difficult. This is an example that China needed a good educational system so they would have strong, future rulers. In my opinion, the Chinese learning system was hard because everyone wanted to have great leaders and they knew that the students who were going to school were going to be future leaders. As it says in “Matteo Ricci: On Chinese Government”, (Document 5), “It may be said in praise of the Chinese that ordinarily they would prefer to die an honorable death rather than swear allegiance to a usurping monarch.” This is an example that the people of China wanted a strong ruler/rulers and would rather die than be ruled by a weak leader. The statement shows that all of China, not just government officers,...
?Sheet after sheet, article after article, each da-zi-bao was a bitter accusation. One was titled, ?Teacher Li, Abuser of the Young.? The student had failed to hand in her homework on time, and Teacher Li had told her to copy the assignment over five times as punishment. Another student said his teacher had deliberately ruined his students? eyesight by making them read a lot, so they could not join the Liberation Army. Still another accused Teacher Wang of attempting to corrupt a young revolutionary by buying her some bread when he learned that she had not eaten lunch.? (42)
The United States has an ongoing conversion in the economy that has caused many lives to turn upside down. Many people can testify to the changes including the fact that the richer have been getting richer and the average working Americans have gotten significant hardships. Some of the economic issues that the U.S. has are wage reductions, long-term unemployment, economic insecurity, families getting behind on payments, and no medical or dental insurance. Unlike the Individualistic theory the problem is not the people themselves they do not lack skills or have disable to work the real problem is the political economy. Most people need a job to make a living but we have no control on what jobs are actually available or how much they pay. In reality our lives are in the hands of external forces when it comes to the labor market. In the economic perspective poverty rates are determined by the amount of jobs and their wages. When jobs are low and wages are low the income of Americans goes down and poverty rates goes up. The recession of 2008 could be used to explain this. On the other hand when there is a great amount of jobs and wages are high, the poverty rate goes down and the income of Americans goes
The Cultural Revolution destroyed countless lives; while some died during reeducation, the Revolution drove others to suicide, madness, or depression by the shame, humiliation, and isolation they faced. The government of China, however, often denies that such suffering occurred. Instead, it promotes a positive, romanticized image of the Cultural Revolution in sanctioned fiction and in official history. Therefore, one of the few ways we can see the true effects of the Communist regime is through the fiction that the disillusioned Chinese citizens wrote about the actual experience and impact of the era. Through these writings, we can see clearly who were the victims and who were the oppressors
From covering Japan’s perilous imperial rule to analyzing Korea’s ambivalent adoption of democratic governance, Modern East Asia explored a broad range of subjects important for one who aspires to understand Asia holistically. Much time was even spent examining China’s horrid history at the hands of foreign meddling, giving insight into a nation feared as the future #1 economic power of the world. Although we covered a broad range of topics, each was given particular attention, never skipping major events or characters which shaped Asia’s history over the last several hundred years. Essentially, this class provided an open atmosphere for students to learn the intricate history of major Asian countries in addition to sharing ideas on the effectiveness of their pre-modern governance.