These reforms were not amateurish. They were based on a good knowledge
of the principles and practices of the Chinese system. Yet in their
pure Chinese form they worked against certain ingrained Japanese ideas,
most of all the hereditary principle. So, from the beginning, the
Japanese changed the Chinese system as they took it over. The changes
may not have seemed great at the time, but they were really basic.
Within a few centuries, the new institutions had produced an entirely
different result in Japan. Only in form did they bear any resemblance
to the institutions of China.
The clearest example of such changes is the way Japan’s statesmen
treated the Chinese examination system. In China, at its best, this
was a real civil service system. For centuries the path to public
office lay through success in the examinations. Sons of great families
undoubtedly had a better chance of succeeding, and bribery and
favoritism were rife in decadent periods. But the “success story” of
the Horatio Alger type fills Chinese literature. In not a few cases,
the poor but brilliant Chinese youth passes the examinations with
honors, and becomes a powerful and wealthy official.