The Modern Enlightment Of Talent Selection Through Imperial Examination And Administration Of Officials

Imperial examination system (IES) is a talent-selecting system through examinations in ancient China. It is characteristic of lawfulness, openness, impartiality and anticorruption. However, feudal autocratic monarchy, since it focuses too much on talents' loyalty to autocracy, limits the content of examinations into "Sishu" and "Wujing", and the form into "eight-part" essay, in addition to its failure to effect a radical cure of corruption in examinations, resulting in that the selected talents are not used by the country, which, unavoidably sees itself dying out, for it loses its essential function of selecting talents for the country.As an important administrative system in Chinese feudal society, IES not only is related to talents' selection and appointment, but also has direct connection with the feudal government's administration of local officials and disorder to make the whole country more prosperous. The particularity of the examinations' content enforces the psychological dominance on the scholar and the ideological permeation among the people. Objectively it is beneficial to promote the cultural quality of the officials, strengthen the administration of local officials and consolidate the government's political power. The form of the examinations of selecting officials, its strong legal guarantee and efficient competition mechanism have great enlightenment on the informs and development of cadre-selecting system in nowadays China.