Examination System. The recovery of Chinese rule over the country during the Ming period (1368-1644) led to the reinstitution of the civil service examination system, which used three levels of examinations. Preliminary examinations were held at the county level to select and grant qualified scholars a degree called xiucai (flowering talent). This degree honored a scholar's intellectual achievements and included him in the privileged class of the gentry, who were exempted from labor service and corporal punishments. Xiucai holders could further enter the second level of examinations, held at the provincial capitals every three years. During the several-day-long tests the candidates were confined in rows of tiny cells at the examination field to write essays on Confucian classics. Less than 1 percent of the candidates passed the examination, earned a degree called ju ren (recommended men), and were...