The Imperial Civil Service Examination System:Its Contribution to the Development of Private Schools during the Ming and Qing Dynasties

The imperial civil service examination system reached its height of development during the Ming and Qing dynasties. It had been changed and revised in the early Ming, but was finally recognized as an official, authoritative system. When official schools could not satisfy the needs of the masses for education, various kinds of private schools were set up. Reputed cultural and official clans, merchants and common people made every effort to start their own schools for their descendants, thereby bringing about a general prosperity of culture and education, for which the imperial examination system was an undeniable impetus. Though there were various problems in the actual implementation of the system, its role in stimulating the development of private schools deserves a positive appraisal because the private schools motivated by the system later proved to play an active and positive role in the political constructions in the Ming and Qing dynasties.