The Imperial Examination And The Novel Of High Qing

With a short history, historical notes of the Qing Dynasty have been preserved more completely. Therefore, large numbers of the notes contain a wealth of content, and are very worthy of study. However, the notes were not taken seriously by traditionalists. Even today, there are many studies on the notes, but most of them are satisfied with a smattering of a subject.Based on the historical notes of the Qing Dynasty, this thesis aims to make a research on a necessary relationship between the imperial examination and the novel of High Qing.High Qing generally includes Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong, which almost covered the whole eighteenth century. During this period, there were many changes in every area. The imperial examination is just one of the typical. In 1663, the eight-part essay was abolished by Kangxi Emperor. Then, the status of the imperial examination became lower, directly due to Yongzheng Emperor's policy. And in the Qianlong period, there was a debate about the implementation of the imperial examination. But, all changes failed. The rulers of High Qing could not find the right way to change the imperial examination.Thus, the imperial examination remained. As a result, various deficiencies of the imperial examination were exposed increasingly. For example, malpractice methods in imperial examination emerged in an endless stream. The political laws and regulations for anti-malpractice must be more numerous and more stringent. In this way, the imperial examination system deviated from its initial purpose irrevocably. Finally, the alienation of the examination led to intellectuals'bigotry. The superstition of the imperial examination could be able to relieve the intellectuals'emotion, and also led to intellectuals'disordered behavior.Meanwhile, all of the above constituted an important part of the novel. Not only the intellectuals were portrayed as characters of the novel, but also their stories were described as the content of the novel.Consequently, lots of famous scholars have done the research on the relationship between the imperial examination and the novel. And most scholars believed that it was true of the description of the novel. But, the premise reversed cause and effect.Accordingly, based on the historical notes of the Qing Dynasty, this thesis discuss the question of how truth of the description of the imperial examination in the novel.