fixed standard for the recommendation of public service
candidates, and, as a result, tended to create an aristocratic
class from which alone were to be found eligible men.
Consequently, the Sung Emperors (960-1277 A.D.) abolished the
elections, set aside the Imperial Academy, and inaugurated the
competitive examination system in their place. The examinations
were to supply both scholars and practical statesmen, and they
were periodically held throughout the later dynasties until the
introduction of the modern educational regime. Useless and
stereotyped as they were in later days, they once served some
useful purpose. Besides, the ethical background of Chinese
education had already been so firmly established, that, in spite
of the emphasis laid by these examinations on pure literary
attainments, moral teachings have survived till this day in
family education and in private schools.

Although the system of awarding Government posts for proficiency in
examinations is much better than most other systems that have prevailed,
such as nepotism, bribery, threats of insurrection, etc., yet the
Chinese system, at any rate after it assumed its final form, was harmful
through the fact that it was based solely on the classics, that it was
purely literary, and that it allowed no scope whatever for originality.
The system was established in its final form by the Emperor Hung Wu
(1368-1398), and remained unchanged until 1905. One of the first objects
of modern Chinese reformers was to get it swept away. Li Ung Bing[23]
says:

In spite of the many good things that may be said to the credit
of Hung Wu, he will ever be remembered in connection with a form
of evil which has eaten into the very heart of the nation. This