Study On The Expenditure And Its Influence In Imperial Examination Of Ming Dynasty

The official imperial examination expenditure in Ming Dynasty mainly included expenses such as the subsidy for examinees' road fee and examination paper fee,the construction and maintenance of the Examination Compound,Examination Affairs,Court Banquet and Reward,the publication of record of information on scholars who passed the imperial examination,the construction of Jin-shi Stelae and so on.The source of expenditure mainly included financial appropriation,the levy on silver,school-owned lands,apportion,social Contribution and other ways.The government managed the imperial examination expenditure mainly through strict budget,transporting and turning over,storage to use,record for archiving,supervision and inspection system,which was generally characterized by quota tax system and flexible levy complement each other,the mutual unification of storing in Fuxian and turning over,the combination of a variety of ways to buy,timely reformed and so on.At the same time,the examinees would also produce costs such as hiring tutor,Books,Stationery,Transportation,Diet,Accommodation,returning,rewarding those transmitted the news of victory,visiting"Zuozhu"(chief examiner)when they were preparing for the examination,taking the examination and after the examination.Except for official support,all the above expense was mainly through family support,self raising and families,society and other ways to solve.The consumption expenditure of the officials and examinees used in the imperial examination had an important impact on the Politics,Society,and Economy at that time.Politically,on the one hand,the imperial examination expenditure not only ensured the normal conduct of the imperial examinations,thus selecting a large number of talents for the Imperial Court and maintaining the vitality of the bureaucracy.The official support also strengthened the cohesiveness of the Imperial Court and maintained the rule of the Ming Dynasty;on the other hand,faced with increasing cost pressures before and after the imperial examination,many examinees had to borrow or lend money to solve the problem in the middle and the late Ming Dynasty.For payment of a debt,some scholars who passed the imperial examination began to embezzling,extorting,and plundering with all their efforts as soon as they entered the official career.They tried to transfer their burden to the Common People,which became one of the important reasons that the Administration of Officials moved toward corruption,the Political Atmosphere was becoming worser,and eventually to extinction in the middle and the late Ming Dynasty.For society,on the one hand,through the imperial examinations,the imperial examination expenditure had promoted social mobility,stability and the social atmosphere of active learning;on the other hand,it also boosted the emergence and spread of social harm or bad atmosphere that mainly included the transmission of news of victory,building memorial archways,visiting prostitutes.The imperial examination expenditure was apportioned to the Grass-roots Society in the form of Taxes and Corvee,which brought heavy burden to the society.Economically,it not only supported the existence and development of these industries such as Tutors of Imperial Examination,Books of Imperial Examination,Cheating,the Transmission of News of Victory and so on,but also promoted the development of these traditional industries such as Transportation,Hotels,Restaurants,Entertainment,Papermaking,Construction so on.