A Study On The Examiner System Of Imperial Examination In Song Dynasty

During the history of the Song Dynasty, the Imperial Pharmacy played a role of regulatory agency, the examiner of the palace examination are mainly examiner——the emperor, ChuKao officer, FuKao officer, XiangDing officer, BianPai officer, FengMi officer, TengLu officer and JianMen officer and so on. The provincial exam organization is mainly the GongYuan of the Ministry of Rites, and the examiner of the provincial exam was divided as Neilian officer and WaiLian officer. The NeiLian officers are mainly ZhiGong Ju, TongZhiGongJu, CanXiang officer, DianJianShiJuan officer, JianShi officer and so on, while the WaiLian officers are mainly FengMi officer, Teng Lu officer, BianPai officer, DuiDu officer, JianMen officer and XunPu officer and so on. The Preliminary examiner are mainly JianShi officer and examiner and so on.The examiner of the imperial examination was generally required to have the same background in Song dynasty, with a high level in literary attainments. The palace examination examiner was nominated by LiangZhi officer, GuanGe officer and TaiJian officer generally. The QuanZhiGongJu of provincial examination was mainly appointed by the Hanlin Academician, QuanTongZhigong Ju was mainly appointed by ZhiZhiGao. From the emperor Song-zhe to the Southern Song dynasty, ZhiGongJu, TongZhiGongJu was mainly appointed by LiuBuZhangEr. The Jian Shi officer in provincial exam was always appointed by TaiJian officer, FengMi officer was appointed by the officer belonging to TaiJian, SanGuan, SanSi who was in high positions in northern Song dynasty, while it was appointed by the officer who was high above the LiuBuZhuSiLangZhong,YuanWaiLang, Si,Jian officer in southern Song dynasty. CanXiang officer was mainly appointed by the Si,Jian officer, LiuBuZhuSiLangZhong,YuanWaiLang, the DianJianShiJuan officer was appointed by the SanGuanMiGe officer, teacher. The little provincial examiner was mainly appointed by SanGuanGuan and Mi GeGuan in Northern Song dynasty, the JianShi officer was appointed by the JianChaYuShi in Southern Song dynasty. The examiner was appointed by Jian Shi officer and examiner in SiChuan province, the JianShi officer was appointed by the ZhuanYunFuShi, ZhuanYunPanGuan, ZhiZhou, TiDianXingYuGuan, and the examiner was appointed by the ZhiZhou, ZhuanYunPanGuan, TiDianXingYuGuan. The Preliminary JianShi officer was mainly appointed by TongPan in every states. The Examination of KaiFengFu and GuoZiJian was nominated by the royal court. It is mostly confirmed that the officer of Examination of KaiFengFu and GuoZiJian was nominated by SanGuanGuan and MiGeGuan in Northern Song dynasty. The number of the GuoZiJian Examination examiner appointed by MiShuShengGuan fell sharply compared to the Northern Song dynasty, and it became a feature that choosing the JianChaYuShi as the JianShi officer of GuoZiJiain Examination.The proposition of the Palace Exam was drawn up by the examiner and confirmed by the Emperor. During the Examination, the examiner was in charge of explaining the question. The arrangement of seating was edited before the examinee enter the court and the seating chart was showed to them. The Marking system of the Palace Exam has three-level, and was divided into three stages including preliminary test, re-examine and final judgement. The marking examiner of the palace examination was strict in the rhyme of poetry, taboo, words and writing style. After the marking and rating, the grade and position was redefined by the Emperor according to circumstances. The Zhi GongJu of provincial exam was in charge of investigating the JiaZhuang, BaoZhuang and native place of the examinee. The officials was also responsible for the proposition, they had to consult the whole paper and previous paper before they set a question, and was responsible to explain the test question. The arrangement of seating was edited before the examinee enter the court and the seating chart was showed to them. The official of gatekeeper took charge of the access control work, the inspector officer took charge of the supervision and keep order. The Preliminary Examination officer should not butter up to the bigwigs and concern the frontier secrets and interpret out of context. The Preliminary examiner should write down “coherent”, “not coherent” and the main reason.The main supervision of the imperial examiner in Song dynasty are the emperor supervision, proctor supervision in provincial Examination, similar-provincial Exam and Preliminary Examination. On the basis of the BieTou Exam system, the Song dynasty gradually formed a type of system that avoiding the examiner, it is mainly for the examinee to avoid the examiner, and with the examiner to avoid the examinee secondly. At the beginning of the BieTou Exam system implemented in Song dynasty, those examinee who should avoid the examiner are confined to the relatives of ZhiJuGuan, while the rang was covered up from the relatives and follower examinee of the Nei Lian officer to that of the WaiLian officer at the time of Emperor Song-xiao. The relative examinee of the examiner of Examination of the KaiFengFu, GuoZiJian should attend the BieTou Exam. Those relatives and follower examinee of the states should attend the BieTou Exam of the Transport Department. The relatives and follower examinee of the NeiLian Officer and Wai Lian Officer of the similar-provincial Exam in SiChuan province should attend the BieTou Exam. The examiner avoid the relatives and native place show mainly. For the problem existed like cheating, taking bribes and proofreading unfairly, the Song royal court concentrate its efforts dealing with the imperial examination case which has major impact, those related examiner was punished with due severity and the laws for punishment was gradually established, the examiner system was also improved.There are mainly four characteristics of the system of imperial examination in Song Dynasty:the examiner kinds and people increased gradually, designate of the examiner is being ordered, the function division of the examiner became more detailed, the management of the examiner are more strict. There are mainly four drawbacks of the system of the imperial examination in Song Dynasty: in terms of thesis, the statement was interpret out of context and make nonsense, and was leaked. In terms of invigilation, the examiner was ineffective, and has malpractices, in terms of seal and copy, the examiner changed the title page and the paper, transcribe the paper with error and even annul the paper;in terms of read and check, the examiner was not serious and cheat. The rigorous examiner management system of Song Dynasty, to some degree, suppressed the partisan politics, ensured the fairness of the exam, and was beneficial to the selection of talented people. The imperial examiner system of Song Dynasty produced a far-reaching impact on the development and mature of the imperial examiner system of Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasty, the four aspects are as follows: using the NeiLian and WaiLian system in setup of examiner; the selected examiner should have imperial examination origin; using the FengMiTengLu system and multistage assessment system to prevent the examiner from playing favouritism.