One is in each of the eighteen provincial cities of China. Though
familiar by description, perhaps, to the reader, I venture to repeat
that it is a large open ground,--the one in Canton measuring 689,250
square feet. On one hand, there are seventy-five lanes containing 4,767
cells; on the other, sixty-eight lanes with 3,886 cells, making a total
of 8,653 cells. Once in three years men of every age, from the youth
to the aged, assemble to write prize essays for a literary degree. A
candidate is fastened into each cell for three days and nights, with
rice and water, planks being fixed in grooves in the sides of the
cell, serving for a sleeping place, and for a writing-table by day.
The strictest search is made to see that no book or paper is secreted
in any dress. The essays are received by three officers, who seal up
the outside page of each essay on which is written the name, age,
residence, ancestors, &c., of the writer. They are passed to another
officer who sees that they are copied in red ink, the object of the
copying being that the original handwriting may not be recognized by
the judges. Nearly two thousand writers are employed in copying. They
have rooms fitted up for them in the “Hall of Perfect Honesty.” The
governor of the province is ex-officio chief superintendent. Imperial
commissioners from Pekin assist in the examinations. They meet in the
“Hall of Auspicious Stars.” This hall is looked upon with feelings
of awe. Success in these examinations is followed by fame, wealth,
and honor; and failure, by years of toil and possibly of repeated
disappointment. Messengers wait to carry the names of the successful
candidates to every part of the province. The governor gives them a
feast; after which they go in state dress to worship the tablets of
their ancestors. Odes as well as essays are presented. The following
are specimens of the themes at the last examination previous to 1870:--
“If the will be set on virtue, there will be no practice of wickedness.”
“It is only the individual possessed of the most entire sincerity that
can exist under heaven, who can adjust the great, invariable interests
of mankind.”
“There are ministers who seek the tranquillity of the state, and find
their pleasure in securing that tranquillity.”
What can be more abstruse? Few among us would attempt to be original on
such themes.
This system of competitive literary examinations here described
has been maintained more than a thousand years. There are records
proving this. On the first day three essays and one piece of poetry
are required; each essay must have seven hundred words, the poetry
must consist of seven hundred and sixteen lines, with five words in
each. The pieces required on the other two days vary from this. The
successful competitors are immortalized in fame; their triumph goes
down to posterity on the family tablets, is noted on their tombs,
secures honor to their children.
Though I visited this “Hall” with Archdeacon Gray, and received minute
information from him, I am since indebted for helps to my memory to a
paper read before a literary society in Canton, by Dr. J. G. Ker.