(Lucy) The civil service examinations taken by the bureaucrats and administrators of imperial China were not merely academic. They also served as social rites of passage. Moreover, they were designed to test the moral aptitudes of test-takers for a lifetime of upholding Confucian ideals. Naturally, they were a source of individual stress, as well as a key part of imperial power and authority for centuries, outlasting several dynasties. This episode looks at the roles civil service examinations played in premodern China, and the mythos that grew around them.
Maria Merian’s Metamorphosis
Listener Q&A
Godiva’s Not-So-Naked Ride
Anna May Wong: International Star, Forgotten Icon
The Gold Cure
The Brothers York, Part II
The Brothers York, Part I
Sarojini Naidu: Beyond the Golden Threshold
Blue Jeans and the American Dream: The Story of Levi Strauss
The History of Valentine’s Day
The Origins of the Salem Witch Trials
Winnie-the-Pooh
History for the Holidays
Uncle Remus, Joel Chandler Harris, and the South, Part II
Uncle Remus, Joel Chandler Harris, and the South, Part I
History for Halloween VIII
Ivanhoe and the Modern Middle Ages
Ivanhoe and the Invention of Merry England
Sicilian Vespers, Part II: The Massacre and the War of the Vespers
Sicilian Vespers, Part I: The Uprising
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Irish Songs with Ken Murray
History Obscura
Historycal: Words that Shaped the World
The Rest Is History
Lore