A Study On The Role Of Calligraphy In The Selection Of Officials During Kangxi’s Reign

Calligraphy in Ming and Qing dynasties played an important role in the selection of officials,especially in kangxi period.During the 61 years of Kangxi’s reign,calligraphy played an important role in the whole career of official admission,award and promotion,which can be proved by a large number of examples recorded in various documents.Based on the Kangxi period,this paper sorted out the relevant historical facts and studied the effect of calligraphy on the election of officials,in order to have a deeper understanding of the relationship between calligraphy and politics,society and culture.The introduction part reviews the research status of this subject.The previous research focuses on the imperial examination system and several typical officials,which is not comprehensive and systematic.In view of the shortcomings of the existing research,this paper starts with the whole process of the selection of officials and investigates the role of calligraphy in it.The first chapter first introduces the reasons why calligraphy can play an important role in calligraphy during Kangxi period,one is because of the writing demand of the imperial court,and the other is the aesthetic demand of the ruling class represented by the emperor.Then it summarizes the election system of Kangxi period,including the way of obtaining the official qualification and the way of election,which lays a foundation for better understanding the main content of the following.The second chapter presents the role of calligraphy in the way of obtaining the official qualification,which refers to the different ways for scholars to obtain official qualifications,mainly including imperial examination,system,The Imperial College and so on.The role of calligraphy in the imperial examination system was concentrated in the part of the Palace Examination.Calligraphy was the second most important factor in the process of determining the rank of the Palace Examination.It was an important event that calligraphy played an important role in the selection during kangxi period.The Imperial College,which provided low-level officials for central departments,also attached great importance to calligraphy in its subjects and examination standards.The third chapter introduces the role of calligraphy in the way of selection.The imperial examination was used to select officials such as Shujishi,Zhongshu,And Kedao.Like the imperial examination system,calligraphy was the most important thing in addition to writing.Other selection methods required the Emperor Kangxi to make the final decision,and his calligraphy aesthetic preference often influenced the results of official selection.The fourth chapter analyzes several characteristics of calligraphy’s function in the election system.The first is that there are many types of officials involved,which is targeted at a certain official,which means that calligraphy will be an influential factor in every link from entry to retirement.Second,influenced by the emperor,calligraphy plays a role in all kinds of election methods are mostly imposed by the emperor.A third is limited to the Kaishu,especially in the Xiaokai,because the virtues of officials calligraphy,is actually the value officials of the administrative ability and personality,in the absence of ancient type equipment,the Xiaokai this style of practical writing levels is the administrative ability of the important performance,to some extent,also reflects the personality,so the Kaishu level play an important role in the key elected officials.Fourth,calligraphy is just icing on the cake in the selection of officials.If they are only good at calligraphy,they will have a low upper limit on official career and it is difficult to go further.