Since the Tang and Song dynasties, the imperial examination system has established palace examinations personally presided over by the emperor. The Ming dynasty continued this tradition in both civil and military examinations. Below, the history encyclopedia editor will bring you a detailed introduction. Let’s take a look together.
1、 The role of martial arts examination
1. Resist foreign aggression and defend China
The Ming Dynasty had a strong culture of valuing civil officials over military commanders, and the social status of military commanders was not high, which did not attract widespread attention. Many historical documents also did not record the detailed deeds of outstanding military commanders in the Ming Dynasty.
Except for Lu Bing, a successful candidate who made an exception to enter the Inner Court, and Chen Qixin, the top scorer in the martial arts examination, who was granted the title of Ke Dao Guan, there were a total of 24 military generals born through the martial arts examination. Among them, 10 generals born through the martial arts examination served as military generals in the border defense forces, and four generals born through the martial arts examination participated in the war against Japanese pirates and made remarkable achievements in the war. These two types of generals accounted for 41.8% and 16.7% of the total, respectively.
Among the military examination generals, Wang Xiao, a commoner with outstanding military achievements, passed the military examination during the reign of Emperor Shizong of the Ming Dynasty. Historical records of Wang Xiao’s related deeds praise him for being “loyal, loving soldiers like a son, possessing both civil and military skills, repeatedly devising extraordinary strategies, and achieving great victories over the Mongols, with a distinguished reputation
The famous general Yu Dayou, who fought against Japanese pirates, also came from a military examination background. He was “young, intelligent, good at reading military books, skilled in military strategy, and extraordinary!” This person passed the imperial examination in 1535 and became a general of the Ming Dynasty. In the war against Japanese pirates, Yu Dayou used his troops like a god, repeatedly achieved remarkable feats, and defeated Japanese pirates, making great contributions to maintaining national unity.
In addition, generals such as General Zhao Guozhong, General Zhang Ke, General An Guo, and General Yin Feng were outstanding military commanders of the Ming Dynasty at that time. According to historical records, “Wu Sangui, a great general of the late Ming Dynasty, was a Chinese scholar in the martial arts examination
2. Suppress resistance and maintain rule
The military examination system of the Ming Dynasty played an extremely important role in suppressing resistance and maintaining rule. On the one hand, it provides another way for those who fail the civil service examination to enter the officialdom; On the other hand, they want to use the martial arts examination to attract martial arts talents, in order to prevent them from confronting and causing chaos with the court. In fact, many emperors of the Ming Dynasty also paid attention to recruiting martial arts talents through the system of military examinations.
The military examination system selects a large number of middle or lower ranking officers to suppress uprisings. The peasant army uprisings accompanied the Ming Dynasty throughout its dynasties. At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, peasant army uprisings were only small-scale. In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, due to increasing political corruption and the gradual decline of national strength, peasant army uprisings became more and more intense, seriously threatening the rule of the Ming Dynasty.
The admission quota for the Ming Dynasty martial arts examination was complementary to the occurrence of the Ming Dynasty peasant army uprising. In the early Ming Dynasty, there were only 2 to 7 or 15 Chinese candidates in the martial arts examination, with a maximum of no more than 30. In 1504, there were 35 Chinese candidates for the martial arts examination, 60 in 1508, 70 in 1547, 90 in 1550, 106 in 1589, 165 in 1622, and 100 in 1631.
From this set of data, it can be found that the number of people admitted to the Ming Dynasty martial arts examination was increasing, and this admission model also changed the nature of the Ming Dynasty martial arts examination system to a certain extent: from cultivating high-end talents to cultivating middle and low-end talents.
2、 Limitations of the Military Examination
The system of martial arts examinations stimulates people’s desire to pursue fame and fortune
The military examination system of the Ming Dynasty was regarded by the people at that time as a means to obtain fame and fortune, and was widely recognized in society. Miss Lu, who wrote “The Scholars” in the Qing Dynasty, once said, “In today’s society, a good man has aspirations for all directions and does not eat the food of dividing his family. In my opinion, a man should never inherit the legacy of his parents, but should strive to become strong and achieve success in his lifetime. He can also be considered a rising star and bring glory to his ancestors
This statement profoundly reflects the prevalent trend of fame and fortune in the Ming Dynasty, and this trend was extremely strong in the society at that time. However, under the influence of this trend of fame and fortune, both civil and military examinations were completely reduced to a means of obtaining fame and fortune in the imperial examination system. From this perspective, there is no difference between civil and military examinations.
Therefore, in the Ming Dynasty, more and more people went to take the military examination. History records: “In the third year of Jiajing, there were less than 500 participants in the rural examination for the military examination, and by the fifth year of Jiajing, there were more than a thousand participants in the rural examination for the military examination.” Indeed, the gradual increase in the number of candidates for the military examination in the Ming Dynasty does not mean that the status of the civil and military examinations is completely the same.
At that time, scholars in the Ming Dynasty highly respected the civil service examination and hoped to win. However, due to the large number of candidates and fierce competition, many scholars who had been taking the examination for thirty or forty years were unable to pass. According to historical records, ‘Those who fail to pass the civil service examination are more likely to participate in the military examination.’ Those scholars who spend their days reading the books of sages in their homes, in order to pursue honesty and integrity, turned to marching and setting up formations that they were not good at.
In the Ming Dynasty, switching from participating in the civil service examination to the military examination not only increased the chances of passing the examination, but also provided the opportunity to become a civil servant. The ultimate effect was almost the same as the civil service examination, which was quite attractive to struggling scholars in the civil service examination.
In the Ming Dynasty, not only did the unsuccessful scholars in the civil service examination admire the military examination, but also the descendants of those who inherited military positions. Although receiving salaries from the court was secondary, in the society that highly valued fame and fortune in the Ming Dynasty, it was difficult to obtain social status without achieving fame and fortune.
However, there are two ways to obtain fame and fortune. The difficulty of the civil service examination is very high, and most people find it difficult to pass. Therefore, these hereditary military officers turn their attention to the military examination. As long as they pass the examination, they can not only be promoted and wealthy, but also their social status will be greatly improved.
2. The subordinate status of the martial arts examination determines that military officials with a background in martial arts cannot be highly valued
In theory, the system of military examinations was extremely important for the crisis ridden Ming government, as the examination could select outstanding generals and consolidate the foundation of Ming rule. From this perspective, the system of military examinations should be highly valued by the Ming government. According to historical records, during the reign of Zhu Yuanzhang, there were 28754 military officials, and during the reign of Emperor Xianzong of the Ming Dynasty, there were 82540 military officials.
But in this vast group of military officials, there are only 26 people who have passed the martial arts examination. In fact, many famous generals in the Ming Dynasty were hereditary, such as the famous anti Japanese general Qi Jiguang who held hereditary military positions. At the beginning of the martial arts examination, no more than 10 people were recruited, and this admission ratio could even be ignored among the large army of generals in the Ming Dynasty.
The civil service examination system created an extremely large group of successful candidates, which played a crucial role in the political system, economy, military, and administrative management of the entire society in the Ming Dynasty. According to the “Compilation of Ming Jing Shi Wen”, there were a total of 172 prime ministers in the Ming Dynasty, of whom 10% had a Hanlin background, and the basic qualification for entering the Hanlin Academy must be a jinshi.
However, the development of the Ming Dynasty’s military examination was far less smooth than that of the civil examination. The examination procedures were not fixed and sometimes could not be held as scheduled. There was no specific customization in terms of the number of admissions and the level of appointment. Therefore, compared with the military examination, the civil examination of the Ming Dynasty was only a supplementary tool for the civil examination.
The subordinate status of the martial arts examination prevented generals who had passed the examination from occupying a dominant position in the Ming Dynasty’s border protection, resistance against Japanese pirates, suppression of peasant uprisings, and various rebellions.
3. The quality of military officials selected through the martial arts examination system is not high
The Ming Dynasty learned from the lessons of the An Lushan Rebellion in the Tang Dynasty. Since the founding emperor Zhu Yuanzhang, it has attached great importance to humanities and neglected military examinations. After more than a hundred years of development, the Ming Dynasty’s civil service examination system entered its heyday, and civil servants also enjoyed high treatment in the Ming government. In other words, the social status of military officials in the Ming Dynasty was relatively low.
In the Ming Dynasty, there was a strong emphasis on literature and a gradual decline in martial arts consciousness. Under the influence of the Ming government’s emphasis on humanities and disregard for military examinations, many scholars in society were enthusiastic about pursuing literary examinations and generally did not participate in military examinations. Even some descendants of hereditary military officials, those with slightly outstanding literary talents will take the civil service examination.
As a result, military officers with a background in civil service often hold a much lower social status than those with a background in civil service, even though they are descendants of the same family and inherit hereditary titles. They continue to pursue a career in literature and hope to achieve a higher level of proficiency in civil service. At that time, only those scholars who had repeatedly landed in the civil service examination and the descendants of hereditary military officials would participate in the martial arts examination in order to obtain fame.
Therefore, anyone who participates in the martial arts examination is a failure in the civil arts examination, and some even fail multiple times in the civil arts examination. It can be inferred that a considerable number of participants in the martial arts examination have low quality, which leads to the vast majority of generals selected through the examination being only able to serve as junior or mid-level officers in the Ming Dynasty army, and the number of senior officers is extremely rare.
For example, during the reign of Emperor Sizong of the Ming Dynasty, the government deliberately attached great importance to the martial arts examination in order to maintain its rule. The number of candidates admitted to the martial arts examination also increased sharply, but the quality of Chinese candidates in the examination decreased significantly. This led to many people in society mocking the martial arts examination as not selecting outstanding generals with military talents, but rather selecting “thugs”.
Conclusion
The Ming Emperor attached great importance to martial arts and hoped to select more outstanding generals through the martial arts examination. However, in the content of the martial arts examination, there is a focus on assessing physical fitness, strength, and martial arts skills, while neglecting the assessment of military strategy and strategic vision. So much so that some candidates directly questioned the supervising examiner in the martial arts examination room, ‘May I ask if you have chosen a general or a family member today?’.
From this, it can be inferred that the quality of military officials selected for the martial arts examination is definitely not very high. At the same time, this is the fundamental reason why military officers with a background in military examinations cannot serve as senior generals.
