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Motion and Knowledge in the Changing Early Modern WorldLate Traditional Chinese Civilization in Motion, 1400–1900

Motion and Knowledge in the Changing Early Modern World: Late Traditional Chinese Civilization in... [Scholars often contend that civil examinations were an important part of what made imperial China a political meritocracy. They point to the examination system to show that the selection process served more as a common training program for literati than as a gate-keeper to keep non-elites out. Despite the symbiotic relations between the court and its literati, the emperor played the final card in the selection process. The asymmetrical relations between the throne and its elites nevertheless empowered elites to seek upward mobility as scholar-officials through the system. But true social mobility, peasants becoming officials, was never the goal of state policy in late imperial China; a modest level of social circulation was an unexpected consequence of the meritocratic civil service. Moreover, the merit-based bureaucracy never broke free of its dependence on an authoritarian imperial system. A modern political system might be more compatible with meritocracy, however.] http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png

Motion and Knowledge in the Changing Early Modern WorldLate Traditional Chinese Civilization in Motion, 1400–1900

Part of the Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Book Series (volume 30)
Editors: Gal, Ofer; Zheng, Yi
Elman, Benjamin A.
Motion and Knowledge in the Changing Early Modern World — Sep 30, 2013
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References (20)

Publisher
Springer Netherlands
Copyright
© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014
ISBN
978-94-007-7382-0
Pages
169 –188
DOI
10.1007/978-94-007-7383-7_9
Publisher site
See Chapter on Publisher Site

Abstract

[Scholars often contend that civil examinations were an important part of what made imperial China a political meritocracy. They point to the examination system to show that the selection process served more as a common training program for literati than as a gate-keeper to keep non-elites out. Despite the symbiotic relations between the court and its literati, the emperor played the final card in the selection process. The asymmetrical relations between the throne and its elites nevertheless empowered elites to seek upward mobility as scholar-officials through the system. But true social mobility, peasants becoming officials, was never the goal of state policy in late imperial China; a modest level of social circulation was an unexpected consequence of the meritocratic civil service. Moreover, the merit-based bureaucracy never broke free of its dependence on an authoritarian imperial system. A modern political system might be more compatible with meritocracy, however.]

Published: Sep 30, 2013

Keywords: Civil Service; Classical Education; Song Dynasty; Ming Dynasty; Classical Learning

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