中华帝国后期的科举制度

科举考试是中国帝制时代,朝廷在政治、社会、经济等方面与士人生活之间互动最为频繁的交汇点之一。作为一种才学能力的测试,科举考试有利于王朝统治与士人文化的紧密结合,为官僚制度服务。科举考试反映了更为广泛的士人文化,因为这种文化已经通过基于经学的官僚选拔渗透到国家体制之中。然而,在中华帝国后期(明清两代),科举制度经历了曲折的兴衰演变,其功能也发生了很大的变化,这从政治、社会、教育以及文风等方面表现了出来。

The Imperial Civil Examination System in Late Imperial China,1400-1900

The imperial civil examinations marked one of the most traveled crossroads between pre-modern politics,society,economy,and intellectual life in imperial China.Local elites and the imperial court continually influenced the dynastic government to reexamine and adjust the classical curriculum and to entertain new ways to improve the institutional system for selecting civil officials.As a result,civil examinations,as a test of educational merit,also served to tie the dynasty and literati culture together bureaucratically.Civil examinations reflected the larger literati culture because state institutions were already penetrated by that culture through the classical curriculum for the selection of officials.