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I will assume this is a bad English translation of a Chinese article. Nevertheless [1] appears to claim that ending the civil service test caused the fall of t

I will assume this is a bad English translation of a Chinese article. Nevertheless [1] appears to claim that ending the civil service test caused the fall of the Qing dynasty which is complete nonsense. I assume this is just an inept translation. [2] The claim (in English) is incomprehensible; I assume the author's intention is that when more civil service jobs were awarded more Chinese studied in an attempt to pass the exam. Overall, I believe the English text of the article is poor. I believe he is arguing the civil service test was all pervasive because over a million people took the test annually in an effort to get a very small number of civil jobs. The test itself could be considered an intelligence test because it required intelligence to memorize and elegantly recite the orthodox answers based on Confucian classics. If we want to argue what is deficient about Chinese government or culture during the Ming/Qing period, there are an infinite number of other topics. I would argue overall the Civil Service exam is a net positive for China, not a negative. As an aside, I watch some modern Chinese melodramas. These TV shows seem to argue China's past was marked by corruption, infighting among officials, and poison poison poison. According to these TV shows, ancient Chinese politics consists of everyone trying to poison everyone else. There are TV plots that involve multi-factor poisons. By itself the poisons are benign, but when they are mixed via food & incense & medical prescriptions, they are deadly. That is they blame endless in-fighting for China's predicament. The TV shows often feature characters spouting Confucian euphemisms but have no qualms poisoning or killing women/children for political gain. In short, modern Chinese people think past Chinese politicians were unethical and downright evil.

d0mine 3y ago
> politicians were unethical and downright evil Are there any other kind? any place/any time
- tgv 3y ago
  Yes. Please cut the cynicism. There are quite a few that went into politics because of self-interest, but certainly not all of them. And they are human, too. They have their flaws. And if their ideological and pragmatical stances don't overlap with yours, that doesn't mean they're unethical or evil. Be glad there are at least some who try.
  - d0mine 3y ago
    It might look like cynicism but it was not my intention. The statement about politicians is testable. No faith, specific political views are required, just facts: who voted for what and how it correlates with actual voters--actually, somebody did something along the lines and the conclusions were that politicians do not represent their constituents, at best they represent the very very rich part (it hit a nerve, I saw clumsy attempts to discredit the study in the google results).

d0mine 3y ago

> politicians were unethical and downright evil Are there any other kind? any place/any time

tgv 3y ago
Yes. Please cut the cynicism. There are quite a few that went into politics because of self-interest, but certainly not all of them. And they are human, too. They have their flaws. And if their ideological and pragmatical stances don't overlap with yours, that doesn't mean they're unethical or evil. Be glad there are at least some who try.
- d0mine 3y ago
  It might look like cynicism but it was not my intention. The statement about politicians is testable. No faith, specific political views are required, just facts: who voted for what and how it correlates with actual voters--actually, somebody did something along the lines and the conclusions were that politicians do not represent their constituents, at best they represent the very very rich part (it hit a nerve, I saw clumsy attempts to discredit the study in the google results).