OBSERVATIONS UPON THE SYSTEM.
Such is the outline of the system of examinations through which the civil and military services of the Chinese government are supplied, and the only part of their system not to be paralleled in one or other of the great monarchies of past or present times; though the counterpart of this may have also existed in ancient Egypt. “It is the only one of their inventions,” as has been remarked, “which is perhaps worth preserving, and has not been adopted by other countries, and carried to greater perfection than they were equal to.” But such a system would be unnecessary in an enlightened Christian country, where the people, pursuing study for its own sake, are able and willing to become as learned as their rulers desire without any such inducement. Nor would they submit to the trammels and trickery attendant on competition for office; the ablest politicians are by no means found among the most learned scholars. The honor and power of official position have proved to be ample stimulus and reward for years of patient study. Not one in a score of graduates ever obtains an office, not one in a hundred of competitors ever gets a degree; but they all belong to the literary class, and share in its influence, dignity, and privileges. Moreover, these books render not only those who get the prizes well acquainted with the true principles on which power should be exercised, but the whole nation—gentry and commoners—know them also. These unemployed literati form a powerful middle class, whose members advise the work-people, who have no time to study, and aid their rulers in the management of local affairs. Their intelligence fits them to control most of the property, while few acquire such wealth as gives them the power to oppress. They make the public opinion of the country, now controlling it, then cramping it; alternately adopting or resisting new influences, and sometimes successfully thwarting the acts of officials, when the rights of the people are in danger of encroachment; or at other times combining with the authorities to repress anarchy or relieve suffering.
This class has no badge of rank, and is open to every man’s highest talent and efforts, but its complete neutralization of hereditary rights, which would have sooner or later made a privileged oligarchy and a landed or feudal aristocracy, proves its vitalizing, democratic influence. It has saved the Chinese people from a second disintegration into numerous kingdoms, by the sheer force of instruction in the political rights and duties taught in the classics and their commentaries. While this system put all on equality, human nature, as we know, has no such equality. At its inception it probably met general support from all classes, because of its fitness for the times, and soon the resistance of multitudes of hopeful students against its abrogation and their consequent disappointment in their life-work aided its continuance. As it is now, talent, wealth, learning, influence, paternal rank, and intrigue, each and all have full scope for their greatest efforts in securing the prizes. If these prizes had been held by a tenure as slippery as they are at present in the American Republic, or obtainable only by canvassing popular votes, the system would surely have failed, for “the game would not have been worth the candle.” But in China the throne gives a character of permanency to the government, which opposes all disorganizing tendencies, and makes it for the interest of every one in office to strengthen the power which gave it to him. This loyalty was remarkably shown in the recent rebellion, in which, during the eighteen years of that terrible carnage and ruin, not one imperial official voluntarily joined the Tai-pings, while hundreds died resisting them.
There is no space here for further extracts from the classics which will adequately show their character. They would prove that Chinese youth, as well as those in Christian lands, are taught a higher standard of conduct than they follow. The former are, however, drilled in the very best moral books the language affords; if the Proverbs of Solomon and the New Testament were studied as thoroughly in our schools as the Four Books are in China, our young men would be better fitted to act their part as good and useful citizens.
In this way literary pursuits have taken precedence of warlike, and no unscrupulous Cæsar or Napoleon has been able to use the army for his own aggrandizement. The army of China is contemptible, certainly, if compared with those of Western nations, and its use is rather like a police, whose powers of protection or oppression are exhibited according to the tempers of those who employ them. But in China the army has not been employed, as it was by those great captains, to destroy the institutions on which it rests; though its weakness and want of discipline often make it a greater evil than good to the people. But had the military waxed strong and efficient, it would certainly have become a terror in the hands of ambitious monarchs, a drain on the resources of the land, perhaps a menace to other nations, or finally a destroyer of its own. The officials were taught, when young, what to honor in their rulers; and, now that they hold those stations, they learn that discreet, upright magistrates do receive reward and promotion, and experience has shown them that peace and thrift are the ends and evidence of good government, and the best tests of their own fitness for office.
VARIOUS RESULTS TO THE LAND AND PEOPLE.
Another observable result of this republican method of getting the best-educated men into office is the absence of any class of slaves or serfs among the population. Slavery exists in a modified form of corporeal mortgage for debt, and thousands remain in this serfdom for life through one reason or another. But the destruction of a feudal baronage involved the extinction of its correlative, a villein class, and the oppression of poor debtors, as was the case in Rome under the consuls. Only freemen are eligible to enter the concours, but the percentage of slaves is too small to influence the total. To this cause, too, may, perhaps, to a large degree, be ascribed the absence of anything like caste, which has had such bad effects in India.
The system could not be transplanted; it is fitted for the genius of the Chinese, and they have become well satisfied with its workings. Its purification would do great good, doubtless, if the mass of the people are to be left in their present state of ignorance, but their elevation in knowledge would, ere long, revolutionize the whole. There can be no doubt as to the important and beneficial results it has accomplished, with all its defects, in perpetuating and strengthening the system of government, and securing to the people a more equitable and vigorous body of magistrates than they could get in any other way. It offers an honorable career to the most ambitious, talented, or turbulent spirits in the country, which demands all their powers; and by the time they enter upon office, those aspirations and powers have been drilled and molded into useful service, and are ever after devoted to the maintenance of the system they might otherwise have wrecked. Most of the real benefits of Chinese education and this system of examinations are reached before the conferment of the degree of kü-jin. These consist in diffusing a general respect and taste for letters among the people; in calling out the true talent of the country to the notice of the rulers in an honorable path of effort; in making all persons so thoroughly acquainted with the best moral books in the language that they cannot fail to exercise some salutary restraint; in elevating the general standard of education so much that every man is almost compelled to give his son a little learning in order that he may get along in life; and finally, through all these influences, powerfully contributing to uphold the existing institutions of the Empire.
From the intimate knowledge thus obtained of the writings of their best minds, Chinese youth learn the principles of democratic rule as opposed to personal authority; and from this instruction it has resulted that no monarch has ever been able to use a standing army to enslave the people, or seize the proceeds of their industry for his own selfish ends. Nothing in Chinese politics is more worthy of notice than the unbounded reverence for the Emperor, while each man resists unjust taxation, and joins in killing or driving away oppressive officials. Educated men form the only aristocracy in the land; and the attainment of the first degree, by introducing its owner into the class of gentry, is considered ample compensation for all the expense and study spent in getting it. On the whole, it may safely be asserted that these examinations have done more to maintain the stability, and explain the continuance, of the Chinese government than any other single cause.
ITS PRACTICAL DEFECTS AND CORRUPTION.