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320
EAST ASIA.
when in opposition to a member of their own class, and were, moreover, at that time,
as now, doing all they could to regain the power over the people, which they had
lost through the weakness displayed during the wars with the English. The
consequence was that, for these various reasons, the death of the unfortunate man
was determined on. He was accordingly
beaten and otherwise tortured till he
confessed himself guilty of the charge brought against him, and soon after executed,
with several other equally innocent people who had been implicated in the same
manner by the Whampoa mandarin. The graduate Fung had his degree taken
from him for having interested himself in behalf of a robber.*
EDUCATION PUBLIC EXAMINATIONS.
There is no special board of education, because the whole machinery of the
administration is assumed to have no other object except the instruction of the
people. Students able to read the five King and the other classics may already look
forward to a brilliant career, one of the fundamental principles of government being
that place is the reward of merit attested by the public competitive examinations.
" Here is taught the art of government," says an inscription over the gate of the
Peking Academy. Promotion to higher posts is still obtained by fresh examinations,
so that the whole administration may be regarded as a vast scholastic hierarchy.
When the coffers are empty, the Government no doubt often departs from the rule,
conferring honours for "presents," or bribes; but the people do not forget the
origin of these functionaries, and will even taunt them with having obtained promotion
by money instead of merit. Many of the Manchu military mandarins also
owe their appointment to their nationality, and they are consequently held in less
esteem than the civil functionaries. At the annual feasts- the learned mandarins
take the east side, which is the post of honour, while in the temples of Confucius
the military officers are excluded altogether from the ceremonies in honour of
heaven and earth.
In all the large cities one of the chief buildings is the public examination hall,
which consists of a multitude of rooms and courts, surrounded by cells for the
candidates, who are supplied with nothing but white paper, pencils, and inkstand,
and guarded by sentinels from all communication with each other. Sometimes as
many as 10,000 or 12,000 present themselves, remaining for several days
imprisoned, writing moral and political essays, commenting on selected texts of the
sacred books, composing sentences and maxims in prose and verse. Ca?itlidates
have been known to die of exhaustion in their cells, in which case the outer wall is
pierced, and the body secretly removed. Except certain despised classes, police
agents, actors, barbers, palanquin bearers, boatmen, mendicants, descendants of
rebels, all are allowed to compete, and the examiners will even shut their eyes to
the status of the candidates, provided they have a fixed domicile. There is no
limit as to age, old men and precocious youths often
presenting themselves;
but such is the severity of the tests, that, on an average, less than a tenth of the
* " Chinese Notes," p. 170.