(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.
Jane Manning James
The Male Witch
Maya, Spain, and the Historical Record
Revolutionary Movies, Part II: Dr. Zhivago and The Last Emperor
Revolutionary Movies, Part I: The Patriot and Les Miserables
Slavery and the Colony of Georgia
The Parnell Affair
The Other Anne Boleyn
Prester John
Footnoting Disney: Mulan
Footnoting Disney: The Little Mermaid
Footnoting Disney: Pocahontas
Footnoting Disney: Aladdin
Footnoting Disney: The Hunchback of Notre Dame
The Forbidden Holiday
Haitian Revolution, Part II: 1794-1804
Haitian Revolution, Part I: 1791-1793
The Unquiet Afterlife of Elizabeth Siddal
History for Halloween VI
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It is Free
Irish Songs with Ken Murray
History Obscura
Historycal: Words that Shaped the World
The Rest Is History
Everything Everywhere Daily