The Rise and Fall of the Civil Service Examination with the Evolution of Confucian Classics Studies in the Early Ming Dynasty✴

Zhou Chunjian

Abstract: During Zhu Yuanzhang’s reign, the keju or civil service examination underwent a tortuous course of reinstatement, abrogation, and restoration.When keju was conducted in early 1370, the Five Classics and the Four Books were examined successively, including the ancient notes and commentaries on them.Keju conducted in this manner were similar and yet dissimilar to the keju held in the Yuan dynasty.Three years later, keju was abrogated for qualifi ed candidates and replaced by the recommendation system owing to the complicated political situation of the time.In 1382, keju was restored with a new examination procedure,in which Zhu Xi’s commentary on the Four Books was given priority.This indicated that the status of Zhu Xi’s teachings was established.The incident known as the “southern and northern list of successful candidates” happened in 1397, in which northern candidates wrote a petition accusing imperial examiners of partiality on the grounds that successful candidates were mostly chosen from the South.Zhu Yuanzhang took advantage of this incident to establish balance between the development of the South and the North and reform the study of Confucian classics in the North, which had declined during the Yuan rule and long wars associated with it.The rise and fall of keju in the early Ming dynasty refl ected a deep tension between scholarship and imperial power, illuminating the political characteristics of keju as an important national institution.

Keywords: early Ming dynasty, keju, civil service examinations, study of Confucian classics,Four Books, southern and northern lists of successful candidates

When it came to scholarship and politics in the early stages of the Ming dynasty (1368—1644),Qian Mu 钱穆 (1895—1990) drew the following conclusions,

Since the founding of the Ming dynasty, the new rulers did not want to follow what the Yuan dynasty (1206—1368) had done and even attempted to discard all Yuan practices.Even so, there was one thing that they chose to accept.It waskeju, or the civil service examination....Following the Yuan-stylekeju, they conducted an examination on the Four Books fi rst, followed by one on the Five Classics in the [early] Ming period.1Qian Mu 钱穆, The Essence of Study of Confucian Classics [经学大要] (Taipei: Lantai Press, 2000), 516.

Contrary to Qian’s assertion, which refl ected the general trend in terms of the development ofkeju科举 (a civil-service examination system in imperial China) in the Ming dynasty,the truth aboutkejuin the early Ming period (which for the purposes of this paper refers exclusively to the reign of Zhu Yuanzhang 朱元璋 [r.1368—1398], the founding emperor of Ming) was completely different.In the early days of the dynasty, thekejuunderwent a tortuous process in which it was reinstated, abrogated, and fi nally restored and its subjects of examination constantly changed as the process went on.It was through this process that we can observe the basic mode of governance and the general trend of Confucian classics studies at that time, as well as how Zhu Yuanzhang perceived the Confucian classics.In this sense,kejuwas a good lens through which we may grasp the interaction of scholarship and politics in the early Ming period.

Five Classics and Four Books: Reinstatement of the Civil Service Examination and Required Subjects [Refer to page 81 for Chinese.Similarly hereinafter]

Although Zhu Yuanzhang rose from a very humble background, he was able to rectify codes of rites and music and was respectful of orthodox Confucian scholarship.As early as when Zhu was King of Wu,2In 1364, Zhu Yuanzhang proclaimed himself the King of Wu.he issued an order that the Central Secretariat must formulate the strictest regulations regarding the selection of the best candidates.3Yao Guangxiao 姚广孝, Veritable Records of the Founding Emperor of Ming [明太祖实录], vol.19 (Taipei: Institute of History and Philology at Academia Sinica, 1963), 271.This indicated that the founding emperor of Ming did indeed attach great importance to the selection of talented people.In the third lunar month of 1367, Zhu ordered that the civil and military services examination be conducted immediately.His order was as follows,

It is recorded that in ancient times, when a great sovereign was starting his undertakings,he had the entire country stabilized by military force and then in the course of maintaining his success, he established authority by displaying military strength.As far as the perfection of governance was concerned, it depended on civil officers.Neither military strength nor civil service can be neglected.In ancient times, people began to study rites,music, archery, charioteering, calligraphy, and mathematics in their eighth year.At the age of fifteen, they began learning the way of self-cultivation, family-managing, stategoverning, and country-ruling.Therefore, theRites of Zhou[周礼] defi ned the selection of talented people as the Six Virtues, Six Conducts, or Six Arts.It was by such criteria that those who could do good military and civil services and had both ability and virtue were selected and appointed to proper posts.For this reason, we see praiseworthy good governance in the Three Dynasties.Thus, I, drawing inspiration from ancient systems,have decided to conduct the civil and military service examination nationwide, in the hope that I am able to fi nd as many able and virtuous persons as possible.4Yao, Veritable Records of the Founding Emperor of Ming, vol.22, 323.

It is evident that Zhu Yuanzhang’s ideas on what people would study in their eighth and fi fteenth years of age were directly infl uenced by Zhu Xi’s 朱熹 (1130—1200) preface to theAnnotated Great Learning[大学章句].If true, these ideas should be categorized into the study of the Four Books.The terms Six Virtues, Six Conducts, and Six Arts were adopted from theRites of Zhou.This might demonstrate that Zhu Yuanzhang did try to absorbsomething from ancient systems in reinstatingkeju.In view of this, his effort might be regarded as an extension of the tradition of the study of the Five/Six Classics.Overall, Zhu Yuanzhang’s order unambiguously showed that the founding emperor himself placed a great emphasis on the traditional study of Confucian classics and history.

In 1370, when the Ming was just founded, Zhu Yuanzhang issued an edict that stipulated thatkejuwould be held immediately, in which candidates should set forth the meaning of the Five Classics and the Four Books.It was in this year that Liu Song 刘崧(1321—1381), who was recommended due to his mastery of Confucian classics and wellrefi ned conduct, was summoned to the presence of the emperor at Fengtian Palace (or the Palace of Following Heaven).5Chen Menglei 陈梦雷 et al., eds., “The Canon of Classics” [经籍典], in “Collected Works in Learning of Principle” [理学汇编], in Complete Collection of Books of Old and Modern Times [古今图书集成], vol.6, the copper-movable-type edition printed in Emperor Yongzheng of Qing reign (1723—1735).This marked the commencement ofkejuin the Ming dynasty.

It is noteworthy that this was the fi rst time that there were specifi c regulations regarding the subjects of examination, as a historical record said,

The procedure of textual examination of the provincial examination(xiangshi乡试) and the national examination(huishi会试): The fi rst round of examination is setting forth the meaning of the Five Classics.[In this round] candidates can freely set forth the meaning of one piece of quotation taken from the Five Classics respectively.[Examiners] limit candidates to 500 characters for their exposition.The reference interpretations of theBook of Changesare confi ned to Cheng Yi 程颐 (1033—1107) and Cheng Hao’s 程颢 (1032—1085), Zhu Xi’s and ancient ones; theBook of History, to Cai Shen’s 蔡沈 (1167—1230)and ancient ones; theBook of Poetry, to Zhu Xi’s and ancient ones; Zuo’s, Gongyang’s, and Guliang’sCommentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals, to Hu Anguo’s 胡安国 (1074—1138) and Zhang Qia’s 张洽 (1161—1237); and theBook of Rites, to ancient ones.Then, a question about the meaning of the Four Books should be answered by candidates within 300 characters.6Peng Sunyi 彭孙贻, Supplement to Topically-Arranged History of Ming [明史纪事本末补编], vol.2, in Gu Yingtai 谷应泰,Topically-Arranged History of Ming [明史纪事本末], eds.Department of History at Hebei Normal University (Beijing:Zhonghua Book Company, 2015), 1523—1524.

According to the above-cited procedure, the examination of the Five Classics should be conducted fi rst and be followed by an examination of the Four Books in the fi rst rounds of both provincial and national examinations.Obviously, what Qian Mu asserts contradicts this record.Thus, this raises the question whether or not this regulation was totally irrelevant to the Yuan dynasty.

According to a regulation promulgated by Emperor Renzong of Yuan (r.1312—1320)in 1313,jingyi经疑 (querying the meaning of the classics) andjingyi经义 (the meaning of the classics) would be examined successively in the first round of examination for the inhabitants of north China and those of the south.7Song Lian 宋濂 et al., “Part One of Treatise on the Selection of Talented People” [选举志一], in vol.81 of History of Yuan [元史] (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1976), 2019.Questions on 经疑 should be mainly answered based on Zhu Xi’sCollected Commentaries on the Four Books[四书章句集注],whereas questions on 经义 should be answered mainly from the annotations of the Five Classics by the Cheng brothers and Zhu Xi.Such an arrangement should be related to the fact that principal promoters of thekejuin the Yuan dynasty, such as Xu Heng 许衡 (1209—1281) and Wang Yun 王恽 (1227—1304), were all scholars of the Four Books.8Zhou Chunjian 周春健, An Academic Inquiry into Study of the Four Books in Yuan [元代四书学研究] (Shanghai:East China Normal University Press, 2008), 60—65.

Over two decades after the reinstatement ofkejuin the Yuan dynasty, it was suspended for six years, and the two subjects of examination were canceled, due to strong opposition from some people in power.It was by the twelfth lunar month of 1340 thatkejuwasreinstated again.The imperial court adjusted the procedure of examination, into whic hbenjingyi本经义 (the original meaning of the classics) andbenjingyi本经疑 (querying the original meaning of the classics) were added, both were based on the Five Classics.With these alterations, the proportion taken up by the Five Classics grew and the difficulty ofkejuwas enhanced accordingly.

A key point of contention was which should be more important in the practice ofkeju, the Four Books or the Five Classics? Some opponents of the old practice ofkejunoted that questions based on the Four Books had been exhausted, therefore it would be better to incorporate the Five Classics into the question bank.9Xu Youren 许有壬, “Farewell to Feng Zhaomo” [送冯照磨序], in vol.32 of Writings Finished in Zhizheng Reign [至正集],in Wenyuan Pavilion Edition of Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature [文渊阁四库全书].This might be the direct reason whykejuwas reinstated, the procedure of examination was revised, and the proportion of the Five Classics was increased in Zhiyuan reign (1264—1294).It also explained why the examination of the Five Classics preceded the Four Books in thekejuheld in the early Ming period.In this sense, the Ming did not attempt to overthrow the Yuan-stylekejuat all.

He Huaihong 何怀宏 draws his conclusions on a fragment of a record in volume sixtynine ofCollection of Statutes and Regulations of the Great Qing[大清会典则例] compiled in Qianlong reign (1736—1795), which said that the most important area for the national selection of talented people by means ofkejuwas the writings of the Four Books on the grounds that all of the profundity and subtlety of the Six Classics was to be found in the Four Books.He believes that “it was not only an imperial order but also a general, enduring consensus reached by scholar-officials.”10He Huaihong 何怀宏, The Society of Selection and Its End: A Sociological Explanation of History Extending from Qin-Han to Late Qing [选举社会及其终结：秦汉至晚清历史的一种社会学阐释] (Beijing: SDX Joint Publishing Company, 1998), 175.He also noted that the Four Books played a pivotal role in the examination ofjingyiduring the Yuan, Ming, and Qing (1644—1911) dynasties.11Ibid., 172.He’s judgment is not far from the truth, considering the history ofkejufrom the mid-Ming to Qing dynasties.However, in the Yuan and early Ming dynasties, the Four Books and the Five Classics were in a constant ebb and fl ow of their position inkeju.

In short, there was a continuous alternation between prioritizing either the meaning of the Four Books or the Five Classics.This essentially demonstrated that, at least in the Yuan and early Ming dynasties, the Four Books annotated by Zhu Xi had not been as solidly prominent inkejuas they were in later generations.In comparison with the standardized examination procedure adopted by the Huangqing reign (1312—1313) of Yuan and the mid- and late Ming, which explicitly stipulated that the questions must be based on the Four Books (namely, theGreat Learning, theAnalects, theMencius, and theDoctrine of the Mean, and interpretations must be taken from Zhu Xi’sCollected Commentaries on the Four Books)12Song et al., “Part One of Treatise on the Selection of Talented People,” 2019.or that questions should be entirely derived from the Four Books annotated by Zhu Xi,13Zhang Tingyu 张廷玉 et al., “Part Two of Treatise on the Selection of Talented People” [选举志二], in vol.70 of History of Ming [明史] (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1972), 1694.the procedure formulated by the 1370 edict merely required that the meaning of the Four Books be examined in addition to the meaning of the Five Classics, although the edict did mention the signifi cance of the Four Books.This, to a certain extent, indicated that in the early Ming, the scholarship of Zhu Xi was not held in the same great esteem as it was in the mid-Yuan and the mid- and late Ming periods.

The Civil Service Examination or the Recommendation System:Why the Civil Service Examination Was Abrogated in the Early Ming Period [83]

It was with great hopes that the founding emperor of Ming and his new government ensured that thekejuwould be conducted smoothly, and their efforts did lead to excellent results.According to the “Treatise on the Selection of Talented People” [选举志] in theHistory of Ming[明史], in this period of examination, the quota of candidates, proportion of admission,simplifi cation of procedure, quality and degree of recognition of successful candidates were all worth commending.Kejuin the early Ming period met the needs of a new dynasty that was in desperate need of talented officials to maintain the country’s stability.14Zhang et al., “Part Two of Treatise on the Selection of Talented People,” 1696.

Unfortunately, after a mere three years had passed, the founding emperor issued an order abrogatingkeju.In the presence of members of his Secretariat, the emperor said:

I reinstatekejuin the hope that I can find talents nationwide and appoint worthy persons, who have a good command of Confucian classics and good characters as well as being gentle and refined in manner, to appropriate posts.However, in most cases, what the authorities recruit are young people who have successfully passed the examination.At fi rst sight, their writings look fairly good and they themselves might be suitable for administrative posts.During their probation period, few of them are able to effectively apply what they have studied to practical affairs.I, the sovereign of the country, earnestly and sincerely seek able, virtuous talents.Contrary to my expectation,what alleged worthies show me is nothing but empty words.This is absolutely not what I want.In view of this, I order thatkejuis immediately suspended nationwide and the authorities concerned are commissioned to select and recommend talents for the central government.The selection and recommendation of talents must prioritize morality and conducts over literary skills.I do hope that, by doing so, scholars all over the country will know the correct direction of their academic endeavors, and well-educated young people aspiring to enter politics will return to the fundamental needs of the country.15Yao, Veritable Records of the Founding Emperor of Ming, vol.79, 1443—1444.

Obviously, the founding emperor felt very unsatisfi ed by the result of the reinstatedkeju.The reason was that most successful candidates were too young and too inexperienced to put into practice what they had studied, and therefore the founding emperor’s original intention of picking down-to-earth talents could not be realized.The founding emperor’s pragmatic ideas that candidates should know what was fundamental, and that their morality and conduct should outweigh their literary skills were understandable from the perspective of a sovereign.In practice, however,kejuwas not entirely without its virtues in the early Ming period.The criticism that young successful candidates were too inexperienced to make practical contributions does not seem to be adequate cause for the abrogation ofkeju.

Mao Peiqi 毛佩琦 contends that the root cause of the abrogation ofkejuin the early Ming period was the founding emperor’s attitude towardkejuand scholar-officials in general.He says that, “The founding emperor actually had an aversion tokejuand the Confucians advocating the reinstatement of this system....[That is to say], true Confucians were not trusted by the emperor and therefore were not appointed to important posts.”16Mao Peiqi 毛佩琦, “The Political Transformation and Reinstatement of Civil Service Examination in Early Ming”[明初政治转型和科举制度的确立], The Chinese Culture [中国文化], no.2 (2016): 182—190.See also: Xiao Huazhong 肖华忠, “A Preliminary Discussion of Reasons Why the Civil Service Examination Was Reinstated in Hongwu Reign of Early Ming” [明初洪武年间科举间行原因初探], Journal of Jiangxi Normal University(Philosophy and Social Sciences Edition) [江西师范大学学报（哲学社会科学版）], no.3 (1993): 15—21, 81.On this point, the founding emperor’s abrogation ofkejuand his cancellation of the positionof prime minister might corroborate each other.Qian Mu said, “The founding emperor pioneered the bad treatment of scholar-officials in the Ming dynasty.”17Qian Mu, An Historical Sketch of China [国史大纲], rev.ed.(Beijing: Commercial Press, 1996), 666.

The question that ensued from the abrogation ofkejuwas one of how to select talents for the new dynasty then? The founding emperor’s decision was that the authorities concerned would do their best to find and recommend the best candidates for the central government.It was the same system of recommendation that he had adopted before, as mentioned above, when he was King of Wu and had repeatedly issued orders for the recommendation of talents.18Gu Yingtai, “The Rise of Founding Emperor of Ming” [太祖起兵], in vol.1 of Topically-Arranged History of Ming, 11.Undoubtedly, beforekejuwas held in 1370, a recommendation was the most important and most effective method by which the founding emperor could fi nd talented people.Under the circumstances that the country was not fully stable nor couldkejube conducted nationwide and uniformly, a recommendation was of incomparable importance.In fact, many able, virtuous senior officials did enter politics through such recommendations.

Withkejufailing to bring the desired result, the founding emperor abrogated it in 1373, and at the same time, he issued an edict, saying:

A sovereign is only able to realize good governance when he can fi nd worthy persons and appoint them to be his able assistants.The authorities should recommend those who live in the society at the grassroots level to me, as long as these candidates have good morality,refi ned conduct, and literary skills.The authorities should prepare gifts for them and send them to the capital city, where I will appoint them to appropriate posts in the hope that they can contribute to the realization of good governance.19Zhang et al., “Part Three of Treatise on the Selection of Talented People” [选举志三], in vol.71 of History of Ming, 1712.

The above quotation indicated that the founding emperor had a strong desire for fi nding out strong political talents.Moreover, it clearly showed that the main method for the selection of talents was the well-known recommendation process, through which the authorities concerned could fi nd talented people.Subjects related to the practice of recommendation were stipulated in great detail.20Ibid.

Kejuwas suspended for one decade (1373—1382).During this period, recommendation played a predominant role in the selection of talents.In 1382,kejuwas restored.In 1384,kejuwas officially standardized and continued to be held until the end of the Ming dynasty.In the meantime, the process of selection through recommendation also continued.According to Zhan Long’s 展龙 statistics, in the founding emperor’s reign, there were over seventy rounds of recommendation in one decade (1373—1382).Especially in the last three years (1380—1382) of this decade, the frequency and size of recommendations increased sharply and relevant institutions were signifi cantly improved.21Zhan Long 展龙, A Study of Political Ecology of Scholar-Officials Living in Yuan-Ming Transition [元明之际士大夫政治生态研究] (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 2013), 404—411.

It should be noted that no matter what process the founding emperor of Ming adopted,kejuor recommendation, his basic requirement was that truly talented candidates should grasp what was fundamental for the country in their study and practice.This requirement was embodied not only in the founding emperor’s adoption ofkejuor recommendation but also in his attitude toward Confucian sages.In the second lunar month of 1368, the founding emperor ordered thattailao(offerings consisting of a whole bull, a whole ram,and a whole boar) should be sacrifi ced to Confucius in the imperial college, and at the same time, a special envoy should be sent to Qufu, the birthplace of Confucius, where he wouldmake sacrifices to the sage.22Zhang et al., “Part Four of Treatise on Rites” [礼志四], in vol.50 of History of Ming, 1296.However, in the next year, he issued another edict, which banned the nationwide sacrifice dedicated to Confucius with the exception of the spring and autumn sacrifices to Confucius in the Qufu Confucian Temple.23Zhang et al., “The Life of Qian Tang” [钱唐传], in vol.139 of History of Ming, 3981.Ritually speaking,this was an act of some disrespect to Confucius.The emperor’s treatment of Mencius, who had been venerated as the Second Sage in 1330, was particularly rude.In 1372, the emperor prohibited people from sacrifi cing to Mencius, the second Confucian Sage after Confucius.24Zhang et al., “Part Four of Treatise on Rites,” 1296.Although one year later this ban was lifted, in 1394, the emperor resumed the ban again and ordered Confucian scholars to prepare an abridged edition of theMencius.25Zhang et al., “The Life of Qian Tang,” 3982.

As a consequence, eighty-fi ve pieces of text were removed from theMenciusin work completed by Liu Sanwu 刘三吾 (1313—1400), a Confucian scholar-official.This was an extremely arbitrary modifi cation of theMencius, which had been elevated to the post of classic in the Northern Song (960—1127).A researcher argues,

The key reason why Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of Ming, dared to, politically and arbitrarily, modify theMenciuseven though Mencius had been venerated as a sage and his work been elevated to be recognized as a classic, was that the traditional Confucian idea of check and balance, where a morally upright prime minister could act as counterweight to the political sovereign, went against the emperor’s plan of enhancing the centralization of power by abolishing the position of prime minister altogether.26Yang Haiwen 杨海文, “A Cultural Refl ection on the Abridged Mencius” [《孟子节文》的文化省思], History of Chinese Philosophy [中国哲学史], no.2 (2002): 112—118.

In view of this, the present author holds the opinion that the founding emperor of Ming did not hold either Confucius, who played a decisive role in the emergence of the Six Classics, or theAnalectsor theMencius, two key components of the Four Books, as particularly exalted.In actuality, the emperor made use of so-called sages and classics very pragmatically.Considering this, it might be easy to understand whykejuwas repeatedly suspended and resumed in early Ming.

Ancient Annotations or New Interpretations: The Early Ming Dynasty Reinstatement of the Civil Service Examination and the Borderline between Knowledge and Thought [85]

One decade after the suspension ofkeju, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered that on the day ofdingchou丁丑 of the eighth lunar month in 1382,kejuwould be resumed, and it would be held every three years.27Zhang et al., “Part Three of Basic Annals of the Founding Emperor” [太祖本纪三], in vol.3 of History of Ming, 40.Kejuwas thus formally established in the Ming dynasty.In the third lunar month of 1384, the Ministry of Rites promulgated the standardized procedure ofkeju,which was as follows:

Kejuis held nationwide every three years.The provincial examination is conducted in the years ofzi子,wu午,mao卯,you酉; and the national examination, in the years ofchen辰,xu戌,chou丑, andwei未.There is no limitation on the number ofjuren举人 (successful candidates inthe provincial examination) and alljurenare eligible to study further in the Imperial Academy.The first round of provincial examinations will be held on the ninth day of the eighth lunar month.In the examination, candidates must answer each of the three questions about the meaning of the Four Books in no less than two hundred characters and must answer each of the four questions about the meaning of Confucian classics in no less than three hundred characters.For candidates unable to complete,they are permitted to omit one question per topic area.The standard interpretations of the Four Books are mainly based on Zhu Xi’sCollected Commentaries on the Four Books.In the case of Confucian classics, the standard interpretations of theBook of Poetryare mainly based on Zhu Xi’sCommentaries on the Book of Poetry[诗集传]; theBook of Changes, on annotations made by Cheng Yi, Cheng Hao, and Zhu Xi; theBook of History,on annotations made by Cai Shen and ancient annotators; theSpring and Autumn Annals, on Zuo’s, Gongyang’s, and Guliang’scommentaries and Hu Anguo’s and Zhang Qia’s furthered annotations; and theBook of Rites, on ancient annotations.28Yao, Veritable Records of the Founding Emperor of Ming, vol.160, 2467.

From then on,kejubecame the most important method of selecting talents in Ming and was never suspended again.In the meantime, the process of recommendation became increasingly less signifi cant and was fi nally abandoned.29Zhang et al., “Part Two of Treatise on the Selection of Talented People,” 1696.

The founding emperor’s restoration ofkejuafter the ten-year suspension was of course,related to actual social changes taking place in that decade.The most direct reason for revivingkejuwas that the recommendation-based selection of talents had to be reformed due to its increasingly evident disadvantages.As we know, the founding emperor decided to abrogate thekejuinitially, being dissatisfied with the results.After that, however, the emperor became angry and disappointed with the recommendation process that replaced it, which resulted in a large number of mediocre persons entering into politics.30Yao, Veritable Records of the Founding Emperor of Ming, vol.134, 2122.Although some senior officials, such as Kai Ji 开济 (d.1383), the Minister of Justice, had made seven suggestions for the reform of the recommendation process31Yao, Veritable Records of the Founding Emperor of Ming, vol.147, 2322—2324.and in doing so adopted some of the positive aspects ofkeju, by this time the fact that the system of recommendation was impractical could no longer be ignored.After the resistance in the early years of the dynasty,as time went on, increasing intellectuals chose to cooperate with the new dynasty and the founding emperor became increasingly tolerant of the establishedkeju.

A little further investigation of the 1384 standardized procedure ofkejuis required.

In comparison with the 1370 process, we see two important changes.One was the sequence of examination, changing from the Five Classics first to the Four Books first.This indicated that the status of the Four Books had become superior to that of the Five Classics.The other change was that it was clearly stipulated that the interpretations of the Four Books must be mainly based on Zhu Xi’s annotations and the original text of the Four Books should be in line with Zhu Xi’sCollected Commentaries on the Four Books.All in all, the 1370 procedure was closer to that promoted in the Huangqing reign of the Yuan dynasty.Both changes demonstrated that the status of the Four Books and Zhu Xi improved signifi cantly in the Ming dynasty.

Although thekejusystem was established from 1382 onward, the process of the examinations in 1384 was not a fi xed formula.In 1414, Emperor Yongle of Ming (r.1402—1424) ordered Hu Guang 胡广 (1370—1418), a Hanlin Academician, and Expositorsin-waiting such as Yang Rong 杨荣 (1371—1440) and Jin Youzi 金幼孜 (1368—1432) to thoroughly amend the Five Classics and the Four Books and collect all the discourses on human nature and principle in the writings of leading Confucian thinkers such as Zhou Dunyi 周敦颐 (1017—1073), Cheng Yi, Cheng Hao, and Zhu Xi.In the following year, they produced three collected works, namely,Complete Collection of the Five Classics[五经大全],Complete Collection of the Four Books[四书大全], andComplete Collection of Discourses on Human Nature and Principle[性理大全].Then, Emperor Yongle demanded that not only must the three collected works be taught in schools at all levels, but alsokejumust bebased on these three collections.As a result, there was a textual difference between Emperor Yongle’skejuand that of the founding emperor.

In 1384, the standardized text for thekejuwas based on Zhu Xi’sCollected Commentaries on the Four Booksand on annotations and interpretations made by the Confucian school represented by the Cheng brothers and Zhu Xi for the Five Classics with ancient annotations also remaining relevant.However, since the mid-Yongle period, the examination grew to be entirely based on the above-mentioned three Complete Collections, and all other interpretations and annotations were abandoned.Hence Zhang Qia’s annotatedSpring and Autumn Annalsand Chen Hao’s 陈澔 (1261—1341)Collected Annotations of the Book of Rites[礼记集说] were no longer used.As regards the process of examination, candidates were to write an analytical essay, pass judgment on fi ve statements, and pen one piece of practical writing in the second round of examination and then answer fi ve questions about classics, history, and current affairs in the third round of examination.32Zhang et al., “Part Two of Treatise on the Selection of Talented People,” 1694.This meant that by then, the examination had been academically confined to the teachings of the Neo-Confucianist school that had been current from the Song to Ming dynasties.

Digging into the literary sources of the three Complete Collections, the present author contends that, compared with what their counterparts did in the Yuan and early Ming dynasties, the focus of study for candidates in the Yongle period had undergone considerable changes.33See Zhou Chunjian, “An Investigation of ‘Adoption of Ancient Annotations of Confucian Books’ in Yuan’s Civil Service Examination” [元代科考程式“兼用古注疏”考论], Journal of Anhui University (Philosophy and Social Sciences Edition) [安徽大学学报（哲学社会科学版）], no.4 (2018): 106—114.There were two consequences of having the examination texts entirely based on the three Complete Collections texts.On the one hand, the academic vision of candidates was seriously limited when ancient annotations made in the Han (206 BCE—220 CE) and Tang (618—907) dynasties were dismissed as resources to draw from.It became difficult for them to avoid accusations such as violating established scholarly rules and making arbitrary judgments.34Cheng Duanli 程端礼, Annual Study Schedule of the Cheng’s Family School [程氏家塾读书分年日程] (Hefei:Huangshan Publishing House, 1992), 54.The academic character of candidates would eventually be greatly diminished in such a situation.On the other hand, with the regularization and standardization ofkeju,candidates spent much more time and energy polishing their writing skills and imitating model essays.The original texts of the Four Books and the Five Classics were gradually ignored, and the profound meaning of the combined annotations and interpretations made by great thinkers such as the Cheng brothers and Zhu Xi were no longer a focus of attention.Evidently, this seriously deviates from the original aims ofkeju.

The compilation and promulgation of the three Complete Collections consolidated the sole predominance of Zhu Xi’s scholarship, but it also marked an increasingly narrow and intolerant attitude in scholarship.Gu Yanwu 顾炎武 (1613—1682), a Qing dynasty scholar,exclaimed with some emotion, “Alas! The vitality of the Confucian classics studies started to wither from that point on!”35Gu Yanwu 顾炎武, Collected Annotations of Knowledge Accumulated on a Daily Basis [日知录集释], vol.18, eds.Huang Rucheng 黄汝成 and Luan Baoqun 栾保群 (Hangzhou: Zhejiang Ancient Books Publishing House, 2013), 1055.The present author, looking back at the Yonglekeju, argues that, although it was generally regarded as the beginning of the writing of “eight-legged essays”,kejuat that time did have an academic quality yet.Despite this, from the perspective of intellectual history, the founding emperor’s reinstatement, abrogation, and restoration ofkejuwere not only an embodiment of the intervention of imperial power into scholarly matters, but also indicated thatkejuas a state institution effectively marked out the border of knowledge and thought for the entire country by politically standardizing the procedureof examination and relevant texts.It should be noted that, from the Yuan to Ming dynasties and especially from early Ming to the mid- and late Ming, the space of knowledge and thought was increasingly narrowed, whilst the institutionalization and secularization of knowledge and thought were greatly strengthened.

Southern and Northern Scholarship: Abrogation of the Civil Service Examination and Regional Differences in the Early Ming Dynasty Study of Confucian Classics [87]

Zhen Hongyong 甄洪永 contends,

On the surface, the reason that thekejuwas suspended in 1373 was the examination’s failure to seek really able, virtuous talents.However, the deeper reason was that the founding emperor of Ming attempted to make use of this opportunity to signifi cantly increase the number of northerners entering into politics and make his new government more open to northern candidates.In doing so, the emperor could consolidate his governance.36Zhen Hongyong 甄洪永 and Kong Deling 孔德凌, Annals of Study of Confucian Classics in Ming [明代经学学术编年](Nanjing: Phoenix Publishing House, 2015), 139.

The above quotation reminds us of the north—south divide, an important aspect of both the politics and scholarship of the Ming dynasty.

Actually, the discrepancy between the South and the North had become prominent since the founding of the Yuan dynasty.In terms of Confucian scholarship, at fi rst, southern and northern scholars were broadly separate.37Song et al., “The Biography of Zhao Fu” [赵复传], in vol.189 of History of Yuan, 4314.Thanks to southern Confucians such as Zhao Fu赵复 (fl.1235—1245), who disseminated Neo-Confucianism in the North, a northern Neo-Confucian scholarship was established.The north—south divide in the early Ming dynasty was simultaneously related to and yet different to that in the Yuan.The present paper’s discussion of this issue begins with the regional nature of Zhu Yuanzhang’s new government.

In 1352, Zhu Yuanzhang started to revolt against the Yuan in Haozhou (present-day Fengyang of Anhui).In 1356, he captured Jiqing (present-day Nanjing of Jiangsu) and renamed it Yingtianfu, and turned it into his base.In 1368, Zhu founded the Ming dynasty in Nanjing.By then, his basis of governance was exclusively in the region south of the Yellow River.For this reason, the Ming at that time could not yet be considered a unifi ed dynasty.The main reason for such a division was that Yuan, which was still centered in Dadu (present-day Beijing), tried its best to recapture lost lands, and thus war continued to be fought in the North.

The prolonged instability caused by wars in the North since the twilight years of Yuan contributed to the decline of Northern culture.In addition, Qian Mu, who regarded the An Lushan Rebellion (755—763) as the turning point of Chinese history, contended that since the mid-Tang, the strong points of Chinese economy and culture had shifted to the South.38Qian, An Historical Sketch of China, 704.Of course, the chaos brought about by wars in the North did seriously impinge on the development and dissemination of Confucian scholarship in the region.At that time,the foundation of the northern study of Confucian classics was very unstable.Although Zhu and his new government was predominantly made up of southerners and his ministers generally cared only about the interests of the South, Zhu, as the paramount sovereign,knew well that he himself must take into consideration the entire country in dealing with the various affairs of government.For Zhu, both the economic development and selectionof talents must be applied equally across the North and South.It was on the basis of such an idea of regional balance that the founding emperor issued the edict requiring that among senior officials, southern officers should take office in the North and vice versa.

As the foregoing discussions have shown, the reinstatement ofkejuin 1370 did not work very well.Only three years later, it was suspended once again.However, from the perspective of the North—South divide in politics and scholarship, the founding emperor might have had a more long-term plan in mind.

The actual quota of admission inkejuindicated that southern candidates far outnumbered the northern ones; this was not conducive to the politico-economic development of the North.Therefore, the emperor concluded thatkejuwas unable to select talents in a balanced way and was not contributing toward the desired political stability.When he eventually decided to suspendkeju, the overtly given reason that the selected talents were too young and too inexperienced to do the practical work of politics was actually not the primary cause.In other words, achieving a better North—South balance by restraining the influence of southerners was the true reason the founding emperor suspendedkeju.Of course, in addition to the suspension ofkeju, the emperor tried his best to give support to the northern study of Confucian classics.For example, in 1381, the emperor ordered that the Five Classics and the Four Books be distributed in northern schools.Ten years later, the Ministry of Rites gave northern schools standardized Confucian books in accordance with the imperial edict.39See Zhen and Kong, Annals of Study of Confucian Classics in Ming, 226, 308.To some extent, these efforts promoted the dissemination of the study of Confucian classics in the North and improved northern culture and education.

However, the suspension ofkejuwas ultimately not the fundamental solution to the North-South imbalance in the selection of talents.Even in 1397, there was the most complicated case of this, namely the case of the southern and northern lists of successful candidates, in the history of the Mingkeju.40See Zhang et al., “The Biography of Liu Sanwu” [刘三吾传], in vol.137 of History of Ming, 3942.It was generally held that this incident was a reaction to an injustice on the grounds that the South indeed academically far outperformed the North in terms of the study of Confucian classics.The reason why a majority of successful candidates were southerners should not be simplistically attributed to the partiality of examiners such as Liu Sanwu.41See Wu Han 吴晗, The Biography of Zhu Yuanzhang [朱元璋传] (Tianjin: Baihua Literature and Art Press, 2000), 296.Some have noted that the real reason why Liu Sanwu and others were punished was that they might be connected to the faction of Lan Yu蓝玉 (d.1393).42Frederick W.Mote and Denis Twitchett, eds., The Ming Dynasty, 1368-1644, Part 1, vol.7 of The Cambridge History of China.Translated by Zhang Shusheng 张书生 et al.as [ 剑桥中国明代史] (Beijing: China Social Sciences Press,1992), 175.

One point should not be neglected.That is to say, even in the founding emperor’s twilight years, when the Ming dynasty had been established for three decades, there were still many unstable factors besetting the North.

At that time, there were still anti-Ming military clashes instigated by the remaining Yuan forces that had fled to the region beyond the Great Wall.Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang desperately needed to win over northern intellectuals, which would make a great contribution to the North’s social stability.At this moment, the case of the southern and northern lists of successful candidates was a good opportunity for the emperor to realize his goal.43Liu Haifeng 刘海峰 and Li Bing 李兵, History of Civil Service Examination in China [中国科举史] (Shanghai: Orient Publishing Center, 2004), 297.

To put it another way, Liu Sanwu was nothing but a scapegoat in Zhu Yuanzhang’s effort to balance development between the North and the South.

Concluding Remarks [89]

The rise and fall ofkejuduring the reign of Hongwu shed light on the general trend of study of the Confucian classics and basic features of scholarship and politics in the early Ming period.

First, for the founding emperor of Ming, the rise and fall ofkeju, the adoption ofkejuor of the recommendation process, the ebb and fl ow of the signifi cance of the Five Classics and the Four Books, and the ups and downs of southern and northern scholarship had to meet the pragmatic needs of the new dynasty.Herein lay the most prominent feature of Zhu Yuanzhang as a statesman rather than as an academician.The founding emperor, who fully considered the complicated and only recently stabilized situation in making his choices,showcased his assertive character as a ruler.

Second, the tortuous course consisting of the reinstatement, abrogation, and restoration ofkejuin the early Ming was actually an embodiment of the obvious tension existing between Confucian scholarship and imperial power.These imperial endeavors, such as the founding emperor personally formulating the penal code known as theGrand Announcement[大诰], Liu Sanwu’s abridging theMenciusin accordance with an imperial edict, and the administrative order declaring the suspension ofkejuafter their only having been instated for three years,all refl ected the imperial court’s powerful interventions in scholarship.Although these were necessary political methods of governance, they did indicate that the study of Confucian classics in this period of time was, to some extent, distorted.

Third, the present paper pays particular attention to Zhu Yuanzhang’s effort to balance the development of northern and southern studies of Confucian classics.Moreover, it tries to understand the emperor’s long-term plan in handling the cases of Liu Sanwu and the southern and northern lists of successful candidates from the perspective of national governance.Just like his great northward migration program, the emperor’s plans of distributing Confucian classics and books in the North and increasing the quota of admission of northern candidates were all very significant events in the history of Ming.These plans and programs were of crucial importance in politically stabilizing and balancing the new dynasty and solving longstanding problems leftby the rulers of the Yuan.

Fourth, as far as the standard procedure ofkejuin early Ming was concerned, it did not accord entirely with either the examination process of the Yuan dynasty or the Yongle reign.At the very beginning, the examination of the Five Classics preceded the examination of the Four Books.Such an arrangement indicated that the founding emperor did pay great attention to the study of the Five Classics, which could be corroborated by the fact that the founding emperor tried to implement policies in accordance with the Five Classics and especially with theBook of History.To some extent, early Mingkejufollowed the Yuan-stylekeju, which stipulated that the ancient annotations and interpretations were indispensable to the Five Classics.This contradicted the later predominance of the three Complete Collection texts and the abandonment of ancient annotation from the Han and Tang dynasties since the mid-Yongle reign.In view of this, the present author contends that early Mingkejustill signifi cantly outperformed the academic achievements of the post-Yongle ones in which ossifi ed, empty sermons became prevalent.

To sum up, it is well worth our while to observe the subtle, signifi cant evolution ofkeju(throughout reinstatement—abrogation—restoration) in the early Ming period for the wider studies of the history of the Ming dynasty andkejuin general.After all,kejuserved as an important political institution, embodying a distinctive political feature.

Bibliography of Cited Translations

Hucker, Charles O., ed.A Dictionary of Official Titles in Imperial China.California: Stanford University Press, 1985.