Page 55 - Are You Future Ready?
P. 55
Chapter One - To Know the Present
Through the Past
Sideline
/ A splendid job in ancient China /
In ancient China, to be a government official was
the most popular and admired profession, it was the
best job at the time.
How can one be a government official? There
is an old saying "the top grade does not have
impoverishment; the low grade does not have
aristocracy". Before the Sui and Tang Dynasties,
officials mainly held positions through family
succession, that is, if the grandfather was an official, 053
their descendants could also assume the same
position. It was not until the Sui Dynasty (AD 587)
that officials were selected by imperial examinations.
The new system enabled anyone to take the
examinations regardless of their family background,
wealth, and age. It broadened the talent pool for
the government to select talent and increased the
upward mobility of scholars from the lower and
middle classes.
The scholars who achieved high results in the
imperial examinations, namely, “Zhuangyuan” (first
place), “Bangyan” (second place) and “Tanhua” (third
place) were honoured directly by the emperor.
