Na An, "Reading activities for Chinese imperial examination scholars from the 14th to 17th centuries"
The 14th to 17th centuries were the mature period of the Chinese imperial examination system. In the Ming Dynasty, eight-part essays had become an important assessment article for government recruitment of officials, so eight-part essays had the largest reading group in the Ming Dynasty. Because of their joint study and reading of eight-part essays, the imperial examination scholars carried out a series of reading activities, such as forming literary societies. At the same time, the literary status of eight-part essays was greatly improved. The experience of imperial examination scholars in learning eight-part essays also became an important theme of Ming Dynasty novels. Many imperial examination scholars also became publishers because they were good at writing eight-part essays, thus giving imperial examination scholars multiple identities.
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