What to see
Jiangnan Examination Institute
The riverfront Jiangnan Examination Institute (Jiangnan Gongyuan) in the city of Nanjing is China's best preserved historical site for Keju, an ancient system of nationwide examination held by the imperial court to unearth talent. It offers illumination and penetrating insight into the ebb and flow of the 1,300-year-old Keju. Over a span of eight centuries, Jiangnan Examination Institute saw lots of candidates to exams, and some of them became movers and shakers that helped shape the nation, including Tang Bohu whose paintings today still capture the imagination of art aficionados and sell at astronomical prices, Wu Cheng'en who is remembered as the writer of one of the China's four literary classics, and Lin Zexu who led the Chinese campaign against British opium.
Jiangnan Examination Institute was founded way back in 1168 as a Song Dynasty institution to host imperial examinations at the county level. When Ming's first emperor made Nanjing its seat of power, the academy became the site of examinations given by the central government and its status never changed throughout Ming and subsequent Qing.
Just a quick look at the stats can reveal how prominent the academy was as an exam venue in the last years of Qing – it contained over 20,000 rooms to lodge candidates and hundreds of others used by officials administering and invigilating exams. It just topped the list of the country's twenty-three venues at the time.
During the 1,300 years from its birth to its demise, Keju as an elaborate system produced millions of officials, including outstanding ones who have left their mark on the nation's history.
First established in Sui, Keju gave a new lease of life to the dynastic system of selecting officials. In Ming, it peaked. But in early Ming, the emperor once discontinued the system for a while since he found officials selected in this way were mostly bookish but lacked practical problem-solving skills. Hence, the emperor endorsed the system of recommendation and referral. Keju was later reinstated with the royal imprimatur since recommendation and referral failed to give a court outstanding talent.
Before Ming, schools were just one of the conduits to feed candidates to imperial exams, but in Ming they became the only conduit. The court ordered that government-sponsored schools be created in the entire country. Guozijian(central school)was a court school. After completing their studies at Guozijian, students were assigned to government organs to learn about governmental affaires. Imperial patronage was a cast-iron guarantee that they could live a good life. The biggest ancient encyclopedia, Yongle Canon, was written by Guozijian of Nanjing. After Ming moved its dynastic seat to Beijing, the court created another Guozijian in the new capital. Dianshi(hall exam) was the exam of the highest order. Taking place in the Hall of Sky Worship and Hall of Scholarly Wits, Dianshi was supervised by the emperor himself personally.
It was not until the Manchu conquered China and founded Qing that the new masters of the big Central Kingdom began to use Keju as a new way of selecting officials. Initially, Qing's Dianshi used to take place outside Tian An Men. In October of the first year of Emperor Yongzheng's reign, it was relocated to the Hall of Supreme Harmony since the weather was cold. From the 54th year of Emperor Qianlong's reign onward, Dianshi were held in the Hall of Preserved Harmony.
As a defense against cheating and bribery that did occur in Keju, two-layered high walls were built to loop around the compound of Jiangnan Examination Institute, and between the two layers was a walled passageway. On four corners were watchtowers. During exams, the site was heavily guarded by soldiers.
Candidates lived inside the compound during exams. Each room was small as a birdcage. Two wooden boards ran from wall to wall at different heights. In daytime, the higher one served as table and the lower one as bench, but in nighttime, the two were set flush with each other to make a bed. An exam was to last days, and it was a grueling experience for candidates. Keju ended when Qing was toppled.
