# Why did so many Chinese writers fail the civil service examinations? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 5, 2004, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-so-many-chinese-writers-fail-the-civil-service-examinations/267589 "2004-10-05T01:35:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Gamaliel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b487fb/32.png) [@Gamaliel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gamaliel)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-so-many-chinese-writers-fail-the-civil-service-examinations/267589/1 "2004-10-05T01:35:08Z")
Li Po, Du Fu, Wu Cheng’en (Journey to the West), Li Ruzhen (Flowers in the Mirror), etc., etc. It seems that every important Chinese author I’ve read about mucked up the exams. Why is that? These guys were no dummies, certainly. Yes, the exams were hard and required study and extensive knowledge of the Confucian classics and they were biased towards entrenched, traditional ways of thinking. But was it really that hard to parrot the official line and pass the test? Why did these guys fail when thousands of mundane thinkers managed it? ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-so-many-chinese-writers-fail-the-civil-service-examinations/267589/2 "2004-10-05T02:38:22Z")
Umm…just guessing here, but maybe because the sort of person who will grow up to become an important and influential writer is the sort of person who has trouble parroting the official line just to obtain a civil service job? Hemingway probably would have failed, too… ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-so-many-chinese-writers-fail-the-civil-service-examinations/267589/3 "2004-10-05T02:42:03Z")
Perhaps it was because there was only a limited number of “passing” grades – i.e., slots in the civil service – available. From the Wikipedia, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil\_service\_examination:](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_service_examination:) > [@](#): > > In late imperial China the status of local-level elites was ratified by contact with the central government, which maintained a monopoly on society’s most prestigious titles. The examination system and associated methods of recruitment to the central bureaucracy were major mechanisms by which the central government captured and held the loyalty of local-level elites. Their loyalty, in turn, ensured the integration of the Chinese state and countered tendencies toward regional autonomy and the breakup of the centralized system. **The examination system distributed its prizes according to provincial and prefectural quotas,** which meant that imperial officials were recruited from the whole country, in numbers roughly proportional to a province’s population. Elites all over China, even in the disadvantaged peripheral regions, had a chance at succeeding in the examinations and achieving the rewards of holding office. > > The examination system also served to maintain cultural unity and consensus on basic values. The uniformity of the content of the examinations meant that the local elite and ambitious would-be elite all across China were being indoctrinated with the same values. **Even though only a small fraction (about 5 percent) of those who attempted the examinations passed them and received titles,** the study, self-indoctrination, and hope of eventual success on a subsequent examination served to sustain the interest of those who took them. Those who failed to pass (most of the candidates at any single examination) did not lose wealth or local social standing; as dedicated believers in Confucian orthodoxy, they served, without the benefit of state appointments, as teachers, patrons of the arts, and managers of local projects, such as irrigation works, schools, or charitable foundations. > > In late traditional China, then, education was valued in part because of its possible payoff in the examination system. The overall result of the examination system and its associated study was cultural uniformity - identification of the educated with national rather than regional goals and values. This self-conscious national identity underlies the nationalism so important in China’s politics in the 20th century. See also the articles on Confucianism ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confucianism](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confucianism)) and the Chinese Classic Texts ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese\_classic\_texts](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_classic_texts). This stuff was complicated. ---
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-so-many-chinese-writers-fail-the-civil-service-examinations/267589/4 "2004-10-05T02:50:12Z")
I think you basically answered your own question. The Chinese civil servant exams weren’t just garden-variety spelling-and-typing tests like we have today. They were quite difficult and often required _years_ of study. Parroting the party line wasn’t sufficient. One basically had to master all of Confucian philosophy. Think of it as an American having to read and study _The Federalist_ in order to take the American civil-service exams. Robin