Associations Between The Imperial Examination And The Historiography In Northern Song Dynasty

Northern Song Dynasty is a period when both the Imperial Examination System becomes mature, and the ancient Chinese academy and culture especially the historiography gains great prosperity and developments. Chen Yin-ke, a famous historian in modern China, says that, "the best time of ancient Chinese historiography is the Song Dynasty." So are there some associations between the Imperial Examination and the historiography in the Song Dynasty? If the answer is yes, then what’s the manifestation of the associations? And how do the evolutions of the Imperial Examination mainly in the aspects of the form and contents, influence the historiography in microcosm? This assay is trying to solve the questions above. This assay consists of four parts, including the introduction.Part one is the introduction.Part two is mainly the analysis about the internal relations between the changes of the form and contents of the Imperial Examination and historiography during Northern Song Dynasty. Firstly, it investigates the changes of the form and contents of the Imperial Examination. Secondly, it studies the Historical Knowledge and ideas in different subjects especially the Highest Imperial Examination, in order to survey the internal relations between the Imperial Examination and the historiography from the perspectives of the system structure and evolution.The third part discusses the history education in the official schools (including Guozijian,Tai Xue and county schools), academies and primary schools in Northern Song Dynasty. It will observe and analysis the influences on history education produced by the changes of the Imperial Examination, basing on the study on different types of schools, in order to discuss the influences on historiography produced by the Imperial Examination in another view. A summarization about the ideas of the assay and about the relevance between the Imperial Examination and the historiography during the North Song Dynasty is given in the last part.