<Tr> <Th> Manchu script </Th> <Td> ᡤᡳᡡ ᡰ ᠊ ᡳᠨ ᠰᡳᠮᠨᡝᡵᡝ </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Möllendorff </Th> <Td> giū žin simnere </Td> </Tr> <P> The Chinese imperial examinations were a civil service examination system in Imperial China to select candidates for the state bureaucracy . Although there were imperial exams as early as the Han dynasty, the system became widely utilized as the major path to office only in the mid-Tang dynasty, and remained so until its abolition in 1905 . Since the exams were based on knowledge of the classics and literary style, not technical expertise, successful candidates were generalists who shared a common language and culture, one shared even by those who failed . This common culture helped to unify the empire and the ideal of achievement by merit gave legitimacy to imperial rule, while leaving clear problems resulting from a systemic lack of technical and practical expertise . </P> <P> The examination helped to shape China's intellectual, cultural, political, shopping, arts and crafts, and religious life . The increased reliance on the exam system was in part responsible for Tang dynasty shifting from a military aristocracy to a gentry class of scholar - bureaucrats . Starting with the Song dynasty, the system was regularized and developed into a roughly three - tiered ladder from local to provincial to court exams . The content was narrowed and fixed on texts of Neo-Confucian orthodoxy . By the Ming dynasty, the highest degree, the jinshi (Chinese: 進士), became essential for highest office, while there was a vast oversupply of holders of the initial degree, shengyuan (生 員), who could not hope for office, though these were granted social privilege . Critics charged that the system stifled creativity and created officials who dared not defy authority, yet the system also continued to promote cultural unity . Wealthy families, especially from the merchant class, could opt into the system by educating their sons or purchasing degrees . In the 19th century, critics blamed the imperial system, and in the process its examinations, for China's lack of technical knowledge and its defeat by foreign powers . </P>

What were the civil service exams in china