The Changes of Zhu Xi's Attitude to Imperial Civil Examination System and His Ideas of Reform

Zhu Xi is gradually deified in the imperial civil examination system during the Ming and Qing Dynasties since his Annotations of the Four Books is the official acquired book and standard keys,which leads people to regard him as the archcriminal to advocate imperial civil examination and his book as the inhibition to restrain people's mind emancipation.Actually,his attitude to it experiences three different stages.The first one is the stage of enlightenment during which his attitude changes from participation to doubt.The second stage begins from delivering lectures in the academy,changing from discontent to continuous criticism or denouncement.The third stage is in his late years,proposing relevant reform of imperial civil examination on the basis of seriously criticizing its defects.As far as the negative influences imposed by his book on the imperial civil examination system in the Ming and Qing Dynasties after his death is concerned,it could not only be predicted by him in his years,but also conflict with his reform of imperial civil examination.