The Class of 1761: Examinations, State, and Elites in Eighteenth-Century ChinaThe Class of 1761 reveals the workings of China's imperial examination system from the unique perspective of a single graduating class. The author follows the students' struggles in negotiating the examination system along with bureaucratic intrigue and intellectual conflict, as well as their careers across the Empire—to the battlefields of imperial expansion in Annam and Tibet, the archives where the glories of the empire were compiled, and back to the chambers where they in turn became examiners for the next generation of aspirants. The book explores the rigors and flexibilities of the examination system as it disciplined men for political life and shows how the system legitimated both the Manchu throne and the majority non-Manchu elite. In the system's intricately articulated networks, we discern the stability of the Qing empire and the fault lines that would grow to destabilize it. |
Contents
1 | |
2 Regulating Aspirations | 25 |
3 Spring Rites | 57 |
4 Fair Fraud and Fraudulent Fairness | 107 |
5 Paths to Glory | 144 |
Definitions of Failure | 197 |
Appendix 1 Grades for the Annual Examination | 207 |
Appendix 2 Provincial Examination Quotas | 209 |
Appendix 4 Price of Imperial College Studentships | 211 |
Appendix 5 1761 Class List | 212 |
Character List | 221 |
Reference Matter | 231 |
Notes | 233 |
275 | |
293 | |
Appendix 3 Number of Attempts for the Metropolitan Degree | 210 |
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The Class of 1761: Examinations, State, and Elites in Eighteenth-Century China Iona Man-Cheong No preview available - 2004 |