The Study About Legal System Of Civil Service Examination During Modern China (1911-1949)

As an important carrier of theory and practice of Modern Public Law, modern civil service examination legal system was very huge. With the explanation of the abolition of imperial examination system, five-power constitution and other original constitutional theory, the legal system, which had both theoretical and practical significance, can be described as one of the fundamental legal systems from the past, which are more poor and unavoidable problems in the study of modern legal history. Therefore, I selected the legal system of civil service examination in1911--1949years for the inspection object and made the five-power constitution as the starting point to discuss the implementation of the text.The discussion will be placed under the background of society at that time. Through researching the examination thinking, legal texts, system implementation and other clues, I will explanation in-depth the germination, formation, development and characteristics in modern Chinese civil service examination legal system.The article is divided into five chapters, expanding in proper order.The motivation for writing this article, the scope, status and methods of study were explained in cited part. The article researches the definition of some concepts, such as "civil","civil servants","Special Examination","test","Civil Service" and other words; the scope of the study are delineated based on the clear concept in order to discuss more precisely. In addition, the form of the literature review is the results of sorting out the existing research. The results that history results of the civil service examination are more than conclusions of law are obtained; not only we know that the research results of civil service examination gave more attention to macro-construction research than the micro-historical facts, but also it mainly focused on the introduction of content of the examination system and was lack of in-depth discussion to the implementation of the system and timely evaluation.The first chapter discusses the five-power constitution under the civil service exam thinking. Imperial examination system made a significant contribution to the bureaucracy and at the same time it was gradually ossified and stagnant. Especially after entering the modern era and in the impact of western learning, the times demand for talent changes lead to the abolition of imperial examination system. Toward the intersection of history, what purpose the election was to be attributed to? What theory can the successor elect the wise and able by? How to absorb much and be self-contained to adapt to China’s national conditions? Problems placed in front of people, which meant that the county must be looking for another way to take care and select talents. The ultimate question was solved by the civil service examinations under the elucidation of the five-power constitution which was proposed by Sun zhong-shan. With such successors as Dai Ji-tao putting Into its full, modern civil service examination thoughts gradually improved thorough. Public opinion gradually began to accept such a new ideas which was not only distinct from western countries examinations but also different from the imperial examinations. The future of the civil service examination system was also increasingly certain. This chapter focuses on the exam thoughts of Sun zhong-shan, Dai Ji-tao and other politicians and describs the spreading situation of civil service examination ideas and theories.The second chapter is researching the composition and change of the system of civil service examination from the perspective of the constitutional text. To study the examination requirements in the constitution text in different periods is the best way to clarify the development of civil service examination in modern times. Examination thought of political figures such as Sun zhong-shan was formed around the five-power constitution, and its ideology dominated the development direction of the civil service examination legal system and was gradually institutionalized and standardized in the practice of the founding of China after the success of the Revolution. The legislation and practice of civil service examination was unique in the world at that time. China was the only country in which the right of test and the relevant provisions were written in the documents of the constitution while the western countries just regarded it as general legal norms of test and election. By regarding national civil service examination as one of the basic systems on which constitutionalism can be achieved by relying, the legal system of civil service examination was raised to an unprecedented height and played a huge role in the community governance.The third chapter discusses the legislative intent of the modern civil service examinations. After taking overview of the modern legislative history of civil service examination we know that some of its legislation always followed the same criteria, which can be expressed as four points. First, fairness and justice. To carry out civil service examination had followed the principle of justice. Second, the education standard. Except the function of selecting the talents from examination, republican legislative yet took into account the relationship with education. The outstanding performance was that they emphasized the mutual adaptation and promotion between the legislature of the civil service examination system and school education system. In novermber1934, the first "Declaration of the National Examination for the meeting" once made clear the relationship between education and the civil service examination.It said that:"National waving will ask the school. The test subjects should be convergence with the degree of school. Subsequently the subjects and extent of general test and Entrance Examination should seek the curriculum with the standards or close to course syllabus by the education department. In the possible extent, examination institution should selecte several major reference books for each subject according to the nature of examination species as the scope of propositions in a number of years. This will not only make the examination have objective standards to follow but also may direct the youth the way to study."Third, elitism. Modern civil service exam legislation insisted elitist trend. Of course, this kind of elitism reflected the moral elitist characteristics advocated from ancient, so it emphasized greatly on the moral qualities of candidates. After passing the test method was also designed to maintain the quality of passes. This elitism was also reflected in the difficult examination questions and the low acceptance rate. Fourth, the Chinese and Western integration. The legislative activities of civil service examination followed the development path of Chinese and Western integration, Because the civil service examination occupied the strong accumulation of imperial tradition, it was precisely revealing more distinct local characteristics.The fourth chapter still takes the constitutional perspective to discuss the changes of the implementation of civil service examination test in modern times. Five-power constitution is a system in which the powers are interlocking and the power of examination is one of the links. So, how about the actual operation of the civil service exam? Through examining the process of its operation conclusion can be drawn that the civil service examination was not the operation of test in general sense but a conclusion of the practice in constitutional level. Its operation and changes carried all the thoughtful meaning of achieving constitutionalism. The changes of county magistrate examination, test administration organization, dissemination and appointment were selected to explain the view in this chapter.The fifth chapter makes historical evaluation for the civil service examination. The construction of modern civil service examination system was not only the practical needs for ruling class to maintain ruling order, but also the key link towards the modernization for China. The historical evaluation for the civil service examination need to focus on how the the civil service examination can obtain the development power in the turbulent social environment, what kind of resistance it encountered in the development course and its unique constitutional significance.The last part mainly interprets that the difficulties in carrying out civil service examination were actually a frustration in constitutional sense.