Abstract：The imperial examination reform in the Southern Song Dynasty was not as dramatic as that of the Northern Song Dynasty. Nevertheless, it was a period of learning the lessons of reform and implementing the policies formulated in the Northern Song Dynasty. As the main channel to select candidates for state bureaucracy, the imperial examination brought up an imperial examination society, which tended to be highly developed during the Southern Song Dynasty. Given the growing numbers of exam candidates and the increasing difficulties of administrative management, policy designers had to set up a set of consistent and operable criteria to guarantee fairness and openness of the examination, while also maintaining the efficiency of the system under such pressure. The policy makers formulated relevant policies in three aspects: exam subjects, exam essays, and official school education, considering the real situation on the one hand and making some compromises on the other. Meanwhile, detailed examination implementation rules were refined to further regulate and guide the examinations. Firstly, they downplayed the debate on whether Shifu (诗赋, poem and prose) or Confucian classics was the solely justifiable exam subject for talent selection, a debate which had started in the early Song period, and grown heated in the Xining period. They realized that the Shifu was irreplaceable for ensuring fairness of the primary exams and recognized that the Confucian classics added a practical emphasis to the exam contents. Hence, the government kept both subjects, while offering higher admission ratio to exam candidates who took the Confucian classics subject. Secondly, the government kept a balance between the two exam essay forms, namely Shifu and Celun (策论, policy essay). Following the early Northern Song’s example, the government increased the proportion of Shifu in exam essay contents. On the other hand, while continuing the trend established in the middle Northern Song, they emphasized Celun in the primary level examinations, especially in exam topic setting and paper grading. Lastly, with the use and control of official school education, the government built up an official school system as a supplementary channel for civil servant selection. Aiming at encouraging literati to enter the Imperial College where they would get bureaucracy preparatory education, the government offered preferential treatments for Imperial College students, such as internal promotion incentives, awarding official positions directly to outstanding students, and more admission chances for students capable of taking the preliminary examination. Meanwhile, the government improved related institutions to train and assess the Imperial College students as preparatory officials even before they passed the Imperial Examination. The Southern Song Dynasty developed a complete, consistent, and well-operated model of Imperial Examination system, both ideologically and institutionally. However, with the continuous refinement of the policy, the negative effects of the imperial examination system, such as consolidation and rigidity, were gradually strengthened. This was the institutional paradox that the original design of the imperial examination policy turned to its opposite in actuality. During the Southern Song Dynasty, the imperial examination policy inherited, discarded, and reconciled the legacy of previous generations, and further refined the rules based on the principles of balance, openness, and incentive. The positive and negative effects of all these practices had a large impact on the imperial examination policy of the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
汪潇晨. 南宋科举政策变化研究[J]. 浙江大学学报(人文社会科学版), 2021, 51(6): 29-41.
Wang Xiaochen. The Imperial Examination Policy Adjustments of the Southern Song Dynasty: Focusing on Exam Subjects, Exam Essays and Official School Education. JOURNAL OF ZHEJIANG UNIVERSITY, 2021, 51(6): 29-41.
2021, Vol. 51 
