Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1873-04-24

notion Of their science and power Over
the outside Of the gateway of the Exami-
nation Hall at Pekin there is an inscrip-
ton saying: If you are high up in the
classics you will gain Scholarship and
over the inside of the same door it saws:
" Those VINO pass through here afterwards
learn to govern the country" This simply
means that knowledge Of the classics is
all that man required to entitle him to
be a governor of men in the nineteenth
century in China.
There are examination halls in every
provincial capital, where the first two de-
grees can only be given; but the two high
er degrees can only be completed at Pekin-
The SuWang Iuen is the fourth degree,
and IS equivalent to our Senior Wrangler.
He is so-called Zone of the Ten Thou
sand" The place where the examination
IS held contains 10000, and hence the
name, for there only is one young man out
Of that number who can receive the honor
once in three years Examination after
examination, men come up to compete,
till they grow old and gray, such is the de-
sire to achieve this high distinction. 1t is
told Of one man that he competed every
three years till he was eighty. When men
pcrScyere TO this great age the Emperor
generally confers some honor upon them.
The competition at Pehin is a hard trial.
1t lasts for nine days, and is divided into
three goes" For three days and three
nights the "ten thousandn are confined in
pens, each man having about a square
yard of space into which he is imprisoned,
so that he is totally separated from his
neighbors, and there he has to write his
essay or paper on the subject given to him
by the Judges and which he knows moth
ing about till he is in his cell Paper,
with an official stamp, is given to each to
write upon, and all depends upon his mem
DRY Of the classics-miniature copies have
been produced, so that they could be
Struggled in, but it is a crime to print or
sell suc1 copies now. | have read some of
the early efforts produced, and they remind
one much Of early school essays or essays
for young mems associations for mental
cultivation at home, but they are embel-
lishcd with endless quotations from the
classics, and the style Of writing may be
family imagined from the sign-board STYLE
already given their tiowerv phraseologv
largely predominates. The examination
hall occupies some acres of ground, and is
formed of large rows Of cells, which look
as if intended for a competition of prize
pigs; there are towers all round in which
sentinels are placed to watch that no one
communicates with the competitors from
the outside, and that they do not COM
municate with each other Ten thousand
men, and some Of them very old men, are
confined in this way for three days and
three nights at a stretch, and three stretches
of that duration is a hard trial 1t often
happens that some Of the Older men die
under it. In such cases hole is knocked
through the outer wall and the body is
pitched out This is rather a sad end to a
literary career, but then the honors con-
ferreC upon success give Us the other side
Of the shield. When main gains any of
the degrees of these examinations his
name is placed on the front of his fathers
house, and the village or town is proud of
the distinction. Place and preferment
are before him. He may rise to the high
est dignities of the State. If he attain to
great renown as a literary man, there are
Confucian temples where tablets are
| erected to celebrities, and his name handed
down to osterity-Petjn Cor. London
Duiiy Nelcs.