Presentation Title
Searching in the Dark - Han Learning and the Controversy of 1799 Metropolitan Exam
Location
Council Chambers
Start Date
12-10-2013 9:00 AM
End Date
12-10-2013 10:45 AM
Abstract
This paper investigates the introduction of Han Learning (hanxue 漢學) in Qing civil examinations from an institutional perspective. Focusing on the controversy over the 1799 metropolitan examination, I argue that hanxue was resisted not only by the intellectual orthodoxy Cheng-Zhu learning, but also a concept of “proper advancement” (zhengtu 正途) from examination.
The 1799 metropolitan examination was often seen as a triumph of Han Learning because the chief examiners Zhu Gui (朱珪1731-1806) and Ruan Yuan (阮元1764-1849), who were famous patrons of Han scholarship, awarded degrees to a number of established Han scholars. Contemporaries attributed this high rate of success to the unorthodox way Zhu and Ruan graded the papers. In contrast to the conventional practice, they did not began with the Four Books eight-legged essays, the first part of the answers which usually determined the pool of prospective passers, but the “discourses” (ce 策) from the third part. As the knowledge involved in the “discourses” was not confined to standard commentaries of Classics, critics suspected that Han Learning candidates revealed their identities to Zhu and Ruan by citing their own research. Unlike the “proper” degree holders who conformed to the principle of anonymity, these Han scholars were seen as passing through an institutional loophole, if not by personal favoritism. In this sense, the camp of Han Learning won a battle in the 1799 exam at the price of undermining their legitimacy in Qing institutional culture.
Searching in the Dark - Han Learning and the Controversy of 1799 Metropolitan Exam
Council Chambers
This paper investigates the introduction of Han Learning (hanxue 漢學) in Qing civil examinations from an institutional perspective. Focusing on the controversy over the 1799 metropolitan examination, I argue that hanxue was resisted not only by the intellectual orthodoxy Cheng-Zhu learning, but also a concept of “proper advancement” (zhengtu 正途) from examination.
The 1799 metropolitan examination was often seen as a triumph of Han Learning because the chief examiners Zhu Gui (朱珪1731-1806) and Ruan Yuan (阮元1764-1849), who were famous patrons of Han scholarship, awarded degrees to a number of established Han scholars. Contemporaries attributed this high rate of success to the unorthodox way Zhu and Ruan graded the papers. In contrast to the conventional practice, they did not began with the Four Books eight-legged essays, the first part of the answers which usually determined the pool of prospective passers, but the “discourses” (ce 策) from the third part. As the knowledge involved in the “discourses” was not confined to standard commentaries of Classics, critics suspected that Han Learning candidates revealed their identities to Zhu and Ruan by citing their own research. Unlike the “proper” degree holders who conformed to the principle of anonymity, these Han scholars were seen as passing through an institutional loophole, if not by personal favoritism. In this sense, the camp of Han Learning won a battle in the 1799 exam at the price of undermining their legitimacy in Qing institutional culture.
Comments
Presentation is included in Panel 11: Performance, Literature, and Education in late Imperial China