With three stages, each potentially lasting several days, and examinees locked into cubicles for the duration, China's Imperial Examination was an ordeal that rewarded the successful with huge status

Zhang Hui, an editor for a media company in Jiangsu province, sits waiting anxiously for China's 2013 national civil service admissions examination. With 1.4 million people competing for just 20,000 vacancies, the test comes with a huge amount of pressure.

"Even though I've taken so many exams in the past 25 years, this must be the most difficult," she says with a nervous smile.

Chinese students are fierce competitors when it comes to examinations and the civil service examination, driven perhaps by the weight of history, is among the fiercest of them all.

The original civil service examination dates back to AD 605. From then until 1905, China implemented a system called the imperial examination, or keju, which played an integral part in political, social and intellectual life.

For the first time in world history, the imperial examination recruited government officials based on merit rather than family or political connections, although someone still had to be highly educated to take it.

Prior to its enactment, intellectuals were given civil service positions based solely on recommendations or for hereditary reasons. This made it impossible for people without noble connections to get a civil service job.

So successful was the keju, that other Asian countries, including Japan, Vietnam and South Korea, followed China's lead and implemented similar systems.

"Keju opened the gate for literate people to self-recommend," says Chen Wenxin, a professor at Wuhan University.

"It was also an olive branch from the empire to scholars (because only scholars could pass the exam). To master such as large country, empires need capable officials to share some rights at some levels."

Keju was also a way to balance the power and influence of aristocratic families that might threaten the emperor. "When crucial positions were filled by recommendation only, this allowed some powerful families to monopolize crucial positions, and this could threaten the emperor's rule," Chen says.

"Keju cut the relationship between powerful families and officials, theoretically, and allowed a more diffuse and populous class to replace aristocratic families."

Keju began during the Sui Dynasty (AD 581-618) and lasted for 1,300 years before it was abolished in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

While its function remained the same across history, its format altered. During the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907), for example, it included an oral test.

The keju was not widely accepted until the Song Dynasty (960-1279) and included several stages starting at the local level, progressing to provincial and ending at the capital level. Each examination would take from one to three days to complete, during which time candidates were locked in a small cubicle and received cold meals.

The examinations were based on classical literature and philosophy.

"Writing was essential. Early on, poetry was very important; later, essay writing mattered a great deal more," says Benjamin Elman, professor of East Asian Studies and History at Princeton University.

"During the last two dynasties (Ming and Qing) one of the most famous exercises was something called the eight-legged essay - an essay composed of eight sections. It was a little bit like the new five-paragraph essay used in the SAT," he adds.

"The exams also asked about more practical matters, such as policy questions on taxation and statecraft."

From the Tang Dynasty a second exam called the martial imperial examination was introduced in some areas, although it was never as widespread as the imperial examination. It was designed to select military officials.

To be selected for a government official position at any level following the imperial examination was considered a great honor, both for the individual and their family.

Different titles were awarded to people at various levels of the exam with special titles for those who performed particularly well. People who passed the county level examination were called xiucai (as well as shengyuan), and the county level examinee who performed best was called anshou.

Capital level examinees were called jinshi, and the top-ranked individual among them was the zhuangyuan, meaning exemplar of the state.

The imperial examination was a tough test, and even getting to take it was difficult.

"Because the examinations were based on classical Chinese, a written language that was not the vernacular. They excluded about 90 percent of the male population, not to mention all women," Elman says.

"A young man who could read classical Chinese was most likely from a well-off family who could afford to educate him; suppose the SAT was written in Latin.

"The imperial exams by themselves were not an avenue for considerable social mobility. That is, they were not an opportunity for the vast majority of peasants and artisans to move from the lower classes into elite circles."

Competition between imperial examination candidates was extremely tough, adds Elman. In some periods two to three million people were tested biennially at the local level. Of them, about 150,000 would progress to the provincial level examination.

Finally, about 6,000 would take the capital level examination.

Over time the keju came under fire, accused of being a means for the ruling classes to control intellectuals by constricting and controlling their thinking. It was also called a barrier to modernization, because of its concentration on classical literature.

"The Chinese imperial examinations were too focused on literature, and neglected the science and technology needed to aid China's development," Chen says.

While the imperial examination eventually faded, it had a lasting effect on China. For a long time it determined who became the country's powerful officials and it left a legacy that can still be felt today.

Civil service positions continue to be held in high esteem in China. A study by consultancy firm Horizon China Group in March found 59.3 percent of interviewees thought that civil servants were the happiest people in China.

"From the time of Confucius (551-479 BC), education was tailored to political activities, because only those with political connections needed the services of educated people," Chen says.

"Intellectuals chased political power and became officials as a means of feeding themselves."

Many also believed they were working for the good of the country, he adds.

The old values attached to being a civil servant - doing good and high status - engrained by the imperial examination system, persist today.

suzhou@chinadaily.com.cn