The Examination System Entry to the elite ruling class (about . million till ) had been largely through an examination. This required writing an eight-legged essay [pa-ku wen] in classical Chinese in a prescribed form. The examination was held twice every three years, at different levels and of those allowed to sit only - per cent passed the first level, usually by the age of , to become what was called ‘beautiful talent’.
At any given time before there were about , civil and , military provincial ( sheng- yuan ) degree holders in the whole country. Since there were only , official positions, many lower-level degree holders did not have jobs. The examination acted as a barrier to the development of science and technology as it demanded only literary skills. In , it was abolished as it was based on skills in classical Chinese learning that had, it was felt, no relevance for the modern world.