The Transformation And Reconstruction Of The Examination System During The Period Of The Republic Of China

Chinese history ever since 1840 has seen the difficult process of modernization for the long-standing examination culture along with the traditional culture. The establishment of modern schools as well as the examination system from 1862 onwards marked the beginning of the transformation from traditional examinations under the framework of the Imperial Examination System (Ke Ju) into the modern examination system. Besides, the abolition of the Imperial Examination System in 1905 and the declaration of the founding of the Republic of China in 1912 created an essential political, economic and social environment for that transformation. However, due to factors such as the turbulent times and the strong impact of the traditional examination culture, the examination system of this period did not transform thoroughly despite its completion of self-reconstruction on the road to modernization.The present dissertation firstly explores the historical origins and ideological basis for the transformation of the examination system during the Republic of China. Through selecting civil officials and rewarding talents, the Imperial Examination System objectively played a part in the facilitation of the dialogue between upper circles and grassroots, excising control over education, bringing about the institutionalization of Confucianism and thus helping to form a tradition that excellent intellectuals were encouraged to follow an official career and those who became officials were greatly honored in society, yet this kind of tradition not only strangled a person's individuality and creativity, but also planted a complex of the yearning for examinations into the Chinese minds generation after generation. On one hand the rich heritage of traditional examination culture provided cultural resources for the transformation mentioned above, on the other hand it became a big obstacle for modernization. Dr. Sun Yat-sen, who got a particular interest in traditional examination culture of China, critically and scientifically made use of our own culture as well as western experience for civil-service examinations, and proposed a unique theory on the independence of examination power. Furthermore, he afforded an ideological basis for the transformation and a blueprint of the new examination system to make an all-round plan towards implementing the civil-service examination system when he was elected temporary president in Nanjing in 1912 and when he led revolutionary activities in Guangzhou since 1923. The further elaboration and development of Dr. Sun's ideas by Mr. Dai Jitao, President of the Examinations Authority subordinated to the KMT government, and other statesmen directly guided the construction and development of the examination system, especially the civil-service examination system.An important sign of the transformation of examination system during the period of the Republic of China was the separation of the educational examination system from the civil-service examination system. Therefore, after exploring the historical origins and ideological basis, this dissertation will mainly focus on the construction of the examination system in this period, specifically will make a comprehensive investigation into how the civil-service examination system and educational examination system evolved and how they were put into effect. As far as the former is concerned, the most complete exam legislation system and regulation system in Chinese history was established through unremitting efforts during several historical periods such as Beijing Nationalist Government period and Nanjing Nationalist Government period. Also the specialized testing and personnel management agency was set up at that time, which was in human history the first one to independently exercise the powers like selection, appointment, work assessment, rewarding and punishment of civil officials without the interference by administrative powers. The agency therefore constituted a whole set of systems for the civil-service examinations. China's traditional examination culture thus didn't break up with the past and developed well. After the examinations, a batch of talents were selected and appointed respectively for the purpose of infusing new blood into the team of civil officials. However, because of the war-ridden political situations, lack of influential leadership in KMT government, reckless damage to the examination system by various factions, as well as the great impact of the tradition on personnel placement, the civil-service examination system was far from being properly maintained. The total number of civil officials selected through examinations was very limited, not to mention they were given full play to their professional skills. Comparatively speaking, the transformation of the educational examination system was conducted more thoroughly. Thanks to the establishment of the modern educational system, which loosened up on the rules of school controlling and transferred the examination power to schools themselves. What's more, the relative incompetent government was unable to restrain the free development of schools of thought, as a result, the educational undertaking, especially the one before Anti-Japanese War, developed quickly, followed by the educational examination system, which included a variety of testing types and was equipped with a whole set of strict rules, made rapid progress in testing theory and technology. With the implementation of a series of unitary examination systems such as the general examination for middle school students and the competitive examination on courses for university students, the examination culture during the period of the Republic of China progressed creatively.The transformation of the examination system of the Republic of China is in line with the fundamental requirement of the social development, and is also subject to the internal law of testing itself. The dissertation tries to analyze four external factors contributed to the transformation. They are:1) the requirement for new type of talents owning to economic and social transformation at that time;2) the call for restoring civil-service because of the "national crisis" at the founding of the Republic of China;3) the need for occupational classification and social stratification due to the changing of cities and the scope broadening of occupations;4) the desire of intellectuals who were gradually taking shape for a channel towards self-realization. As for the internal transformation of the examination culture, there are also four aspects: 1) the national psychology of yearning for examinations laid a solid cultural foundation for transformation;2) the updating of the testing theory pioneered in the spurring of transformation;3) that the testing managerial system kept on reforming and creating became one of the key factors in promoting transformation;4) the change of testing content was mainly responsible for the transformation. Under the influence of those social and internal factors, the examination system of the Republic of China developed its own cultural characteristics, that is brazing new trails on the basis of sticking to the tradition, having laws and regulations to go by when performing examinations, and ruling by law mingled with ruling by men.There is a long way to go to the contemporary transformation of the examination system of China, yet we can find out some regularity on the relationship between testing and social development: testing is an essential mechanism for accelerating social and individual development;it can promote the optimization of the political, economic and cultural environment. All these advantages are on the condition that the rulers would go with the tide of social development. If they would not, testing would exert negative influences on the political, economic and cultural development. From this we can see whether an examination will be a success or a failure is not only interrelated with how it is designed and carried out, but also depends on whether it is in a favorable cultural environment or not. As to the relationship between testing and education, the moderate use of testing could scientifically guide the orientation of educational value, but the over-emphasis on its role of supervision would conversely harm education. Testing is a science, and it has its own developing law, so we must strengthen the scientific construction of testing rather than magnify one of its functions so as to guarantee a high degree of uniformity between means and ends. Whatever experience or lessons drawn from the transformation of examination system of the Republic of China, there's much we can make use of in establishing a truly civil-service examination system in contemporary China, in straightening out the relationship between education and testing, and in realizing the creative transformation of the traditional examination culture in the present age.