Research On The Imperial Examination System Of The Choson Dynasty

Keju,also known as the imperial examination system which originated in China,not only educated people but also selected candidates for official positions.This system played a very important role in ancient eastern Asia.During the Goryeo Dynasty,Korea,as a tributary of China,was deeply affected by China’s Confucianism.With an influx of Confucian ideas into Korea,it modelled itself after China’s imperial examination system and founded one of its own in 958.However,that system remained basically unchanged until the end of the 14^thcentury when the Goryeo Dynasty was replaced by the Choson Dynasty which witnessed significant improvements in the system.This dissertation focuses on the history of the imperial examination system in Korea during the Choson Dynasty.Specifically,this paper includes how the system came into existence and grew,what subjects it covered and how these subjects were categorized,how examinations were held at different levels,what defects it had,what proposals were made to eradicate these defects,what was special about it,etc.Moreover,this thesis probes into how the Choson Dynasty scholars think of China’s examination system and how Chinese scholars think of Korea’s.Rulers of the Choson Dynasty,on the one hand,adopted good practices that either had been used by the Goryeo Dynasty or prevailed in China,and on the other hand,reformed the system to make it better fit into the conditions of Korea at that time.This dissertation looks into the Choson Dynasty’s examination system both horizontally and vertically.The horizontal viewpoint leads to a close observation of the two main types of exams,the“regular exam”and the“special exam”as well as a detailed introduction of how the four exams,Xiaoke,literary exams,military exams,miscellaneous examinations were held,including rules and procedures examinees were required to follow.From the vertical point of view,this thesis provides an overview of the system’s503-year-long history throughout the Choson Dynasty.Specifically,all these years from the end of the 14^thcentury to the mid-16^thcentury saw how the system was born,grew and became fixed.Years around the Imjin war witnessed how it was affected by the war and was adjusted.The two centuries from 17^thto18^thcentury was the time when the system underwent reform.The 19^thcentury witnessed how it was threatened with new external crises and was abolished as the campaign of the Reform in 1894was rolled out and progressing in full swing.The imperial examination system of the Choson Dynasty functioned not only as a selection mechanism for candidates for official positions but also a tool for disseminating Confucianism and moralizing the masses.Therefore,the system helped consolidate the rule of the Choson Dynasty.But just as a law becomes ill-grounded with time passing by,this examination system,after having been put into use for so long,also had come out of it multiple ills.For instance,the system covered too many types and subjects,recruited so many examinees that even incompetent examinees were selected,and paid attention not to how well examinees mastered Confucian classics but to how skilled they were at writing different types of articles.Even worse was that examiners and examinees conspired and cheated in the exams.These malpractices made the system much less authoritative and fair than it should have been as a national and official examination system.In order to get rid of those ills,rulers as well as scholars and local officials throughout the Choson Dynasty put forward various proposals for reform.Those made during the 18^thand 19^thcenturies were most notable.The King Jungjo held that he was not only the emperor but also the teacher of all examinees and he also decreed the imperial examination system must be reformed.Ding Ruoyong proposed an all-round reform of the system with China’s system during the Ming and Qing Dynasties as a model.Yin Qi provided three solutions to eliminate these defects,the best one,the second best one,and the worst one.Some scholars also suggested a careful selection of examiners,a reduction of the number of examinees that would pass the exams,an addition of interviews,an increase of the time for paper-reading,and an implementation of stricter exam rules.Sound as these proposals were,they failed to play a role.Some never got a chance to be put into practice and some failed to live up to the objectives of the reform.That was due to the two-faction political system in the Choson Dynasty.At that time,civil officials and military officers opposed each other,so the examination system came to become the tool for these two factions to seek their own interests.During the Choson Dynasty,the examination system,on the one hand,was plagued by multiple problems such as cheating,and on the other hand,was adjusted and reformed so that it would be free from these evils.Although efforts was made,the system played an increasingly less positive role.Instead,it produced more and more negative results.Finally these ills became so stubborn that they were unlikely to be removed.Plus,at the end of the 19^thcentury,the Choson Dynasty suffered both from domestic turmoil and external aggression.All these factors led to the abolishment of the system.It is of some historical value to frame the imperial examination system within the Choson Dynasty but it carries much more value to broaden our vision to in the whole region of the eastern Asia,to find out how diverse the exam system were here in eastern Asia and to explore how differently and similarly China,Korea,and Vietnam rolled out and implemented their own examination systems.Compared with the imperial examination system in ancient China and Vietnam,the Choson Dynasty’s system fell into much more types,held more special exams than regular exams,and attached more importance to literary exams than military exams.Besides,the Choson Dynasty’s system was special in that it had its own terms,such as“Jinshi”（examinees who passed exams at provincial level）and“Zhuangyuan”（the examinee who came first in the examination）.It also granted successful candidate certificates,including crimson certificate and white certificate.The Choson Dynasty’s Keju system was self-contradictory.It was both open and closed.For one thing,it allowed officials in their tenure take part in exams.But for another,it shut the door against sons and grandsons of the concubines.It was both fair and unfair.It rolled out direct interviews and special exams so that competent students could be singled out.However,it also bowed to aristocrats by allowing them bypass regular exams.Paradoxical as it was,the system was consistent with realities of the Choson Dynasty.In this paradox,the exam system in Korea looked flexible and resilient.Since Korea was a tributary of China,scholars in both of the two countries,through governmental and nongovernmental channels,got to obtain materials about and thus formed a deeper understanding of examination system of each other’s country.Apart from this one-way approach,scholars in China and Korea also managed two-way communication.In 1766,Hong Darong,a Korean scholar,and Yan Cheng,Pan Tingyun,two scholars from China,conducted comprehensive and deep exchanges about the two country’s examination systems.They asked and answered each other about how the exam system was doing in each other’s country.Chinese scholars,when they tried to learn more about Korea’s Keju system and compared it with China’s,showed more of curiosity about and resonance for the Korean system and less of reflection on the system that was operating in their own country.This was at best a simple comparison coming out of subconsciousness.Korean scholars also showed curiosity and resonance for China’s examination system.But they went further.They dug into China’s system,traced to the source of Confucianism and Chinese civilization,mirrored system of their own country in that of China,and got an all-dimensional and thus much clearer picture of their own system.