Explore The Impact Of The Imperial Examination Tang Scholars From The Chinese Novel

The Tang Dynasty is the greatest period for poetry. When we talk about Tang Dynasty literature, the first thing that comes to mind is definitely poetry. Short stories are only smaller works of literature. However, from the perspective of the development of short stories, short stories of the Tang Dynasty are the peak of classical short stories following Zhiguai (ghost and mysteries) Short Stories of Wei-Jin North and South Dynasties.Since the introduction of the Imperial Examination System during the Sui-Tang Dynasty, the Chinese society had undergone a great change. The Imperial Examination System broke the monopoly of political power held by aristocratic families. It gave scholars the chance for a fair advancement and consequently cast a huge influence to the society. In order to understand the influence of Tang Dynasty's Imperial Examination towards scholars, this paper will further research and analyze the related works found in the Tang Dynasty short stories.This paper has four sections in total. The first section is the literature review. It briefly introduces the beginning and development of Tang Dynasty short stories. The outcome of existing academic researches regarding Tang Dynasty and the Imperial Examination will be discussed here as well. The second section is about the influence of Tang Dynasty Imperial Examination towards the lives of scholars. From the short stories, study will be done on how the Imperial Examination System affects scholars'journey of life. The Imperial Examination System in Tang Dynasty had opened up a new political path for poor scholars. Obtaining a political position through the examination became a goal that scholars chased after. Their lives revolved around the Imperial Examination and every depended on the exam. The third section mainly concentrates on the idea of love and marriage based on the Tang Dynasty Imperial Examination and scholars. Love and marriage of the Tang Dynasty scholars were not only affected by traditional ideas, but immense changes had also occurred under the influence of the Imperial Examination. It has a great impact on how scholars looked forward to having the freedom to love and marry, as well as the idea of marrying ladies of the five surnames. The fourth section looks at the relationship of religious ideas between the Imperial examination and scholars. This section mainly discusses influence among the idea of determinism, birth and the Imperial Examination. Through message between the lines of literary short stories, the author of this paper shows the hope and disappointment of scholars towards the Imperial Examination, and their spiritual and mental dependence on religion.