Bureaucracy in Imperial China

To enrich your family, no need to buy good land;

Books hold a thousand measures of grain.

For an easy life, no need to build a mansion:

In books are found houses of gold…

A boy who wants to become somebody

Devotes himself to the classics, faces the window, and reads.

Mandate of Heaven

The Han Dynasty202 BC - AD 220

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressorare needed to see this picture.

Bureaucracy

• Bureaucratic government is characterized by a specialization of functions and a hierarchy of authority.

• The Emperor is at the top.

• Appointed officials, inspectors, tax collectors and other administrators travel throughout the country to carry out imperial rule.

The Han Bureaucracy

• The Han ruled their empire with a vast bureaucracy.

• They had departments of agriculture, crime and justice, public works, finance, and the military, among others.

• Each department had a chief minister and numerous minor officials.

Nepotism

• A government in which power is bestowed on the basis of family relationships is called nepotistic.

• For example, during the early Chou Dynasty, emperors put their relatives in charge of provinces largely to ensure a loyal bureaucracy.

Aristocracy

• An aristocracy is a government in which power is vested in a small, privileged class.

Meritocracy

• A system in which the talented are chosen to help rule through a civil service examination.

• The body of workers chosen under this system is called the civil service.

• The Chinese civil service system was the first in the world.

Why take an Exam?

• To become a government official was the most lucrative and honorable thing to do in imperial China. Enabled people to rise in Chinese society.

• A few years in office would allow the scholar to make enough money to repay costs incurred in studying and to invest in land for his children’s education.

Exam Preparation

• Only a few families could afford the time and money spent on studying for the exam.

• Kept the elitist system.• Mothers used prenatal

conditioning.• Boys began to learn Chinese

characters at home at age 3, began to study classics in school at age 8, and by age 15 they had memorized the Confucian classics.

The Exams

• There were four levels of examination, local, provincial, metropolitan, and palace.

• The passage rate was extremely low.

• Candidates had to memorize the Five Classics of Confucius and use use Confucian philosophy to interpret the Classics and give political advice.

• Exams could last as long as 72 hours.

Success Rates

Level of Exam Degree Success Rate

Local shengyuanvaried regionally; 1

to 10 out of 10

Provincial juren1 in 100 shengyuan

('licentiates')

Metropolitan gongshi1 in 30 juren

('selected men')

Palace jinshimost gongshi; 1 in 3,000 licentiates