Buddhism and Imperial Examination 1000 Years Ago
Japan imported various products of culture and civilization from China since its foundation of the imperial government about 1500 years ago.
Especially Japanese were eager to learn Buddhism flourishing in China in the era of the Tang Dynasty (618-907). To absorb essence of this religion, first launched in India by the Buddha in about 500 BC, the Imperial Court of Yamato of Japan sent may envoys to China, namely Tang. Though Japanese Buddhism today is a result of hard efforts of Japanese people over 1000 years to modify and develop unique aspects of this religion, Japanese Buddhism has its roots in China, since India was so far away. Many young Japanese Buddhist monks crossed the East China Sea to Tang to learn and receive training in temples in Tang's capital Changan and other regions.
But traditionally Chinese civilization had three main features: Confucianism, Buddhism, and Imperial Examination. Japanese imported eagerly Confucianism and Buddhism from China but did not adopt the Imperial Examination.
The imperial examination was a civil service examination system in Imperial China designed to select the best potential candidates to serve as administrative officials, for the purpose of recruiting them for the state's bureaucracy. The tests were designed as objective measures to evaluate the educational attainment and merit of the examinees, as part of the process by which final selections and appointments to office would be made. Candidates could receive the jinshi (chin-shih), and other degrees, generally followed by assignment to specific offices, with higher level degrees tending to lead to higher ranking placements in the imperial government service.
Established in 605 during the Sui Dynasty, the system was used only on a relatively small scale during the Tang Dynasty, although extensively expanded during the reign of Wu Zetian:[1] the impact of her use of the testing system is still a matter for scholarly debate. Under the Song dynasty the emperors expanded the examinations and the government school system in order to counter the influence of military aristocrats, increasing the number of those who passed the exams to more than four to five times that of the Tang. Thus the system played a key role in the emergence of the scholar-officials, who came to dominate society. Under the Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty, the system contributed to the narrowness of intellectual life and the autocratic power of the emperor. The system continued with some modifications until its 1905 abolition under the Qing Dynasty. The system had a history (with brief interruptions, e.g. at the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty) of 1,300 years. The modern examination system for selecting civil service staff also indirectly evolved from the imperial one.[2]In China to become members of the elite class in the nation, students had to study hard to master many classic books, especially the so-called Four Books and Five Classics.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_examination
The Four Books are Chinese classic texts illustrating the core value and belief systems in Confucianism. They were selected by Zhu Xi in the Song Dynasty to serve as general introduction to Confucian thought, and they were, in the Ming and Qing dynasties, made the core of the official curriculum for the civil service examinations.
The Five Classics are five pre-Qin Chinese books that form part of the traditional Confucian canon. Several of the texts were already prominent by the Warring States period. Mencius, the leading Confucian scholar of the time, regarded the Spring and Autumn Annals as being equally important as the semi-legendary chronicles of earlier periods. During the Western Han Dynasty, which adopted Confucianism as its official ideology, these texts became part of the state-sponsored curriculum. It was during this period that the texts first began to be considered together as a set collection, and to be called collectively the "Five Classics."Chinese youths with big ambition for success in society had to learn these texts so hard. They could not develop their talent and ability in art freely. Such freedom of expression of humanity was suffocated by the burden of learning classics. However, if they had been able to pass the Imperial Examination, their success should be assured, regardless of their places of origin. They could even become super-rich, since bribery and graft were overlooked in any Chinese dynasties. If a young man who had passed the Imperial Examination and had been appointed to a governor in a local region, he could get money and other profits as much as he wanted virtually.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Books_and_Five_Classics
The Japanese Imperial Court did not adopt this system. When samurais took over political power from the Imperial Court in the 12th century, they did not introduce the system, either.
Japanese governments under emperor's authority or samurai shogun's authority operated promotion systems mostly based on status and social standing of families. Young men from notable families of the noble class or the samurai class were, in most cases, promoted in governmental or administrative offices in Japan.
But, there is a way for young men from ordinary families or farmers could be successful in the society under the imperial rule or the samurai rule in Japan. Talented young men, not from notable houses, could become Buddhist monks. They studied Buddhism and even Chinese classics in big temples in Japan. Talented young men could move up the ladder to be high-ranking priests or leaders in various factions of Japanese Buddhists. They were respected by elite noblemen and samurais in government. In this way, able men from poor families could achieve their goals to occupy leading seats in the society and the government, though officially they were Buddhist monks and priests.
This flexible social system of Japan was far better than the Chinese system.
In China the gate was only one. And only a few members of the society, good at learning classics, could become intellectual persons and at the same time bureaucrats. But in Japan there were more ways for young people to develop their talents and achieve their worldly dreams even in politics.
In addition, Chinese letters were too difficult for farmers to learn and master. Only sons of rich families had time and money to learn how to read and write, taking many years. But in Japan as they invented Kana letters, a kind of alphabets, around the 10th century in addition to wider use of Kanji (Chinese) letters, even farmers and children could easily learn how to read and write. The base of intellectual people was wider in the Japanese society than in China in terms of a literacy rate.
To make sure, Confucianism was also smoothly imported to Japan. But this subject could be easily learnt from Chinese classics, old Japanese had to only import books from China. No Japanese youths were dispatched to Chinese dynasties only to learn Confucianism by the Yamato Court or samurai shoguns. But Buddhism was so difficult that Japanese, more than 1000 years ago, could not master it by themselves. They needed excellent Chinese Buddhist priests, just like even Chinese Buddhist priests in the Tang Dynasty traveled to India to learn Buddhism and collect Buddhist holy books and scriptures written in Sanskrit. Those books were translated into Chinese. Accordingly Japanese Buddhists learnt Chinese to read them.
Even today Japanese students learn some Chinese classics in high schools, since Chinese Buddhist scriptures were written in Chinese classic letters and sentences. Chinese today must also learn classic Chinese to read those holy scriptures if not for the Imperial Examination or tests held by today's Chinese Government or the Chinese Communist Party.
###
