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Throw the Deceased Over the Wall


If you get nervous thinking about next week's history test,
be glad that you don't have to take the exams the Chinese
took during the Tang dynasty [618-907 C.E.] and continued
to take until the early twentieth century. They were worse
than finals, worse than the Scholastic Achievement Tests
(SATs). They were more difficult than just about anything
the modern world has to offer. But if you wanted to become
an official--which was the best way to money and power in
imperial China--you had to pass the tests.

A young Chinese boy [no girls] started learning to memorize
and take exams from the minute he began his schooling at the
age of six or seven. All together that meant
committing to memory a total of more than 400,000 words.

If he was smart and worked hard, he might be ready for the
imperial exams by the time he was in his late twenties or
early thirties....

At dawn on the day of the exam thousands of men lined
up at the front gate of the test compound. They had to bring
their own food, bedding, writing materials, and a curtain to
hang across the doorway to their room....

Once all [the scholars] were in [the compound], the gates
were sealed. Neither the candidates nor the officials judging
them could leave. If someone had the misfortune to die while
the test was still in progress, the officials had no choice but
to wrap the deceased in straw matting and throw the body
over the wall.

The test consisted of three sets of essay questions.
Students could write out rough drafts of their answers, but
once they started working in their official answer books,
they could not make any corrections or cross out any
characters. It took almost a week to finish.

The pressure was intense. After studying for years it
all came down to the student and his answer book, alone
in an uncomfortable room, perhaps wet and cold, away
from the support of teachers and family. One mistaken
character, one slip of the brush, and the answer would be
disqualified. He would have to wait another three years
to try again. Under such harsh conditions it was common for men to get sick or even to go insane.



— Heather Millar
China's Tang Dynasty

1996
*China\'s Tang Dynasty,* Benchmark Books

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