Historical Studies (Chinese Edition)

No.1, 2019

 

Tracing the Origin of the Practice of “SelfRecommendation by Submitting Papers”(Toudie Ziju) in the Imperial Examination System(Abstract)

 

Lou Jin

 

In the Northern and Southern Dynasties, it was increasingly common for local officials to examine and recommend students from outside their areas for official services and for students to seek such recommendations. This trend provided the foundation for “self-recommendation by submitting papers” (toudie ziju). In the Northern Dynasties, government school students could be recommended even if they only sat for the examinations without attending the school, which facilitated the practice of self-recommendation by submitting papers. Against the background of the local government schools’ tradition of openness and the prevalence of wandering scholars in the later Northern dynasties, the Northern Qi dynasty allowed such scholars to be tested and recommended in the same way as the teachers and students at local government schools, opening the examinations both to the learned and to persons noted for their filial piety. By this time, self-recommendation by submitting papers had become an institution. The Sui and Tang rules on regular examinations in each jurisdiction and the fact that from Wu Zetian’s reign on, most of those who followed this practice were wandering scholars developed out of this institution. The genesis and development of the selfrecommendation by submitting papers system derived from Wei and Jin trends: the broadening of the basis of the imperial examination system, the review of examination subjects, and the perfection of the examination system. Together, they constitute an unbroken panorama of the way the system of examination and recommendation evolved into the imperial examination system.