Reform Of The Late Qing Dynasty System Of Selecting Officials

The Officials Selection System, i.e., the Officials Entry System, is the procedural regulations of a state power to select the officials, which is also the important composition of the superstructure of a state. Chinese ancient officials selection system originated from the Pre-Qin Dynasty; developed during the Qin Dynasty, the Han Dynasty, the Wei Dynasty, the Jin Dynasty, and the South and North Dynasties; innovated during the Sui Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty, and the Five Dynasties; perfected during the Song Dynasty and the Yuan Dynasty; matured during the Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty. The Qing Dynasty became the final successor of the whole Chinese ancient officials selection system. After the Opium War, however, the feudalism natural economy collapsed rapidly, the imperial power political system moldered, western culture of constitution politics was introduced, the traditional imperial examinations based officials selection lagged behind, worries arose in the domestic while troubles existed from the abroad. Facing all the above, the government of the late Qing Dynasty had no other choices but to make some change to the officials selection system.The changing of the officials selection system in the late Qing Dynasty was conducted with the combination of following the convention and imitating the western culture. Such changing is a transition and turning point from the system of selecting the officials by imperial examinations to the system of modern civilian employment in China. Since then, the civilians in China began to transit to new-type technical officials from the traditional Confucian officials. It is of both great academic value and realistic meaning to conduct a research on the history, evolvement, system constitution, and social effect regarding the changing of the officials selection system in the late Qing Dynasty; and to explore the reasons behind the success and failure of said officials selection system.As the product under the specific historical conditions, the officials selection system bears certain inertia, and thus its the inherent meaning will not lose immediately due to the gigantic social changing. Accordingly, the changing of the officials selection system in the late Qing Dynasty went through the following three phases: the initial experiment from 1840 to 1898; the thorough abolishment of the traditional officials selection system and the formation of the new-type officials selection system from 1899 to 1905; and the development of the new-type officials selection system from 1906 to 1911. During the close-to-revolutionary process, the imperial examinations based officials selection system was thoroughly abolished, the school based officials selection system, the student abroad based officials selection...