Study Of The Qing Imperial Legal Culture

The bureaucratic system is a critical media for a nation to operate itself in termsof politics. In ancient China, many ways were ever invented to draw those qualifedpersons into a desired bureaucracy. When the original way of inheritting a title fromgeneration to generation in the slavery society and the following way ofrecommending and proposing a good man to the bureaucracy, a way of imperialexamination was invented at the time of Sui and Tang Dynasties, which represented anew era of bureaucratic system. The way of imperial examination is a natural result ofthe development of the feudal economics and society. It represented a fair competitionand enrolled the personnel on the basis of competitive selection, hence enjoyed a quiteeverlasting vitality.As a horse-back race, and though setting up its empire by military forces, Mannationality understood the arts of civilian rules. Even before its entrance into the pass,Man nationality had began a kind of examination which was different from that ofMing Dynasty. Shortly after the entrance, Qing Dynasty began its imperialexamination, which was adopted from Ming, in order to get the support the learnedpersons of Han nationality. And it reached its anticipated goal. In the meantime, in thelight of the fact that the enlarged empire encompasses so many nationalities, the rulersmade laws to regulate the issues of imperial examination. As a result, such particularacts concerning imperial examination as The Imperial Examination Acts, The AddedImperial Examination Acts, The Military Department Examination Acts, The ImperialCollection of Scholar Administration were introduced into being. In addition, somearticles out of The Qing Imperial Canon and Cases, Qing Records, Election records ofQing Shi Gao, and Da Qing Statute were concerned to those issues as well. So allmatters of Literal Discipline, Military Discipline, Baqi Discipline, Zong Discipline,Translation Discipline and Zhi discipline were regulated by certain rules. Comparedwith those laws of precedent dynasty, the laws of Qing made their break-through inmany aspects.The rulers of Qing regarded the imperial examination as a Talent SelectionCeremony, which represented its emphasis on imperial examination reached a brandnew historical level. It was natural that any fraudulence occurring in the imperialexamination was hated so much that it would lead to very ruthless lawsuits and blows.Due to the judicial principle that any crime must be decided by certain regulations, DaQing Statute and The Imperial Examination Acts were always referred to. Yet in casethat no relevant rules were available, analogy would be used as a way to decide thecases. That meant that the feudal term of rule-by-law could not be fulfilled.At the beginning of Qing Dynasty, Pan (lawsuit decision) was ever treated as apart of the imperial examination. It might cover quite a lot of issues. Yet it wasabrogated in the year of Qianlong 21 (1756 AD.), which greatly influenced theenthusiasm of the young scholars on law-studying. As a result, the bureaucrats werenot qualified very well with the learning of laws after they passed the imperialexamination. And they had to ask for the help of lawsuit consultants to decide acriminal case, which meant a chance for such consultants to manipulate the operationthe laws, and might attribute to the judicial darkness.The implements and ceremonies of imperial examination in Qing Dynasty stoodfor the spirits and values of imperial examination. They represented the importance,seriousness and authority attached to the imperial examination by the government.And similarly signified the glory of the winners.Based on the absolutist economical foundation, the imperial examination in QingDynasty was naturally marked with the features of absolutism. The laws of imperialexamination in Qing Dynasty were introduced in the background of absolutism andwould in return reinforce the feudal absolutism. As to the term of absolutism in QingDynasty, the king was the highest authority for the imperial examination regulation,whose edict being a significant source of imperial examination regulation. The kinghimself was in charge of the enactment of imperial examination regulation. On theother hand, the education and the imperial examination were both focused onConfucius ethics and all the relevant imperial examination regulations were pursuantto Confucianism.In light of the broad domain and the multinational situation, the imperialexamination regulations were designed to balance, in a certain ration, the interestsbetween the nationalities including Han, Man and Meng, the interests between everyprovince and every region and the interests between the members in the royal clan andBaqi. That was meaningful as to the unity of the country and the opportunity ofselecting the genuine talents. It was an agreeable feature of harmony out of thebackground of the feudal absolutism and was an original one compared with those ofthe previous dynasties. In addition, the imperial examination regulations in QingDynasty also embodied a principle of powers check and balance to some extent whilepursuing the administration efficiency. That conformed to the fairness and efficiencyvalues of the civil official systems. On the other hand, the enforcement of the acts wasvery strict as well, which led to criminal, administrative or economic punishment tothe imperial examination fraudulence, and which jointly operated the principles ofdifferentiating between willfulness and unwillfulness, involvement duty,differentiating between public offence and private one, combining a couple of crimes,just punishing a more serious crime and so on. That rendered the imperialexamination regulations to be referred to in various ways.Pragmatism is a feature of Chinese traditional cultures. The so-called Bagu, astereotyped writing, was utilized in the imperial examination since Ming Dynasty, andwas criticized sharply almost at the same time. The enlightenment scholars at the turnof Ming and Qing dynasties, Gu Yanwu, Huang Zongxi and the likes, had argued toreform the imperial examination. At the beginning of Qing, an argument occurredconcerning whether to annul Bagu or not. The end was that Bagu continued. Theinternal revolt and foreign invasion at the late China drew a trend of pragmatism, inwhich all the political groups such as landlord reformers, foreign business introducers,the early refiners, and even the ecclesiastics to China, sharply criticized Bagu onaccount of its conservativeness and nonsense. Many proposals were given thereby.After the opium war, the Bagu in the imperial examination system was at last tried tobe reformed and annulled in the real end. That road was inevitable to some extent,while the pragmatism was the ideological cause for it. The annulment of imperialexamination and the set up of new education systems represented a cultural revolution.While the new set-up of the education system needed to be guarded by new rules, theimperial examination cultures experienced a sublimation.The selective examination system maintained a value of fair competition. Such avalue was also the kernel spirit of the imperial examination in Qing Dynasty, and itmay enjoy a beyond-ages life. In terms of the articles of certain acts and its actualpractice, the imperial examination culture maintained objectivity and fairness even tothe very end of Qing Dynasty. Such fairness of competition guaranteed the rulers toenrolled the best talents into the bureaucracy to the most extent. Besides, due to thelimited number of the learned persons to be admitted, with the national populationincreasing abruptly, a more progressive situation was maintained all the way, andconsequently the quality of the bureaucracy was maintained.Though the imperial examination of Qing Dynasty has been abrogated for acentury, yet the rational spirit and value of it shall be cherished greatly as Chinesetraditional cultural inheritance. It is also a valuable contribution to the worldcivilization. It shall be referred to for a good lesson by the current public officialsexamination rules.