This research project uncovers the economic forces which reshaped the evolution of the imperial examination system in traditional China, using a new dataset from archival sources of ancient Chinese Books.
It is common for Western scholars to apply ideologies and perspectives based on European experience as a framework for understanding Chinese history. By contrast, this project provides a new entry point for Western scholars to understand the history, experience, and logic of China by furthering the understanding of the relationship and interactions between the political institutions of bureaucratic selection and the evolution of economic forces.