Page 56 - Are You Future Ready?

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/ Talent selection in ancient China /

The Chinese imperial examination system was
abolished in the late Qing Dynasty (1905). During the
1,300 years it existed, there were many revisions to
perfect the system more and more. For example, in
order to be fair, since the Song Dynasty, the space
on the exam paper for recording the candidate’s
name was covered with a paper (called "sealing"),
and a clean copy would be made by another person
to prevent the examiner from recognising the
054 handwriting of the candidate, thereby minimising
fraudulence. There is a story that when Ouyang Xiu,
the chief examiner, saw an article titled "An argument
on the most gracious penalties and rewards” which
he appreciated very much, his first thought was
to rank it as first, but he suspected it might be the
work of his student, Zeng Gong. In order to avoid
suspicion, he ranked it second place. It subsequently
turned out that the candidate was Su Shi (Su
Dongpo), who was one of the most accomplished
figures in classical Chinese literature and was highly
regarded in his time and later generations.