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ace examination were awarded a jinshi presented scholar degree and assured a high level position 124 in 276 years of ming rule and ninety palace examinations the number of doctoral degrees granted by passing the palace examinations was 24 874 125 ebrey states that there were only two to four thousand of these jinshi at any given time on the order of one out of 10 000 adult males this was in comparison to the 100 000 shengyuan government students the lowest tier of graduates by the 16th century 126 processional figurines from the shanghai tomb of pan yongzheng a ming dynasty official who lived during the 16th century the maximum tenure in office was nine years but every three years officials were graded on their performance by senior officials if they were graded as superior then they were promoted if graded adequate then they retained their ranks and if graded inadequate they were demoted one rank in extreme cases officials would be dismissed or punished only capital officials of grade 4 and above were exempt from the scrutiny of recorded evaluation although they were expected to confess any of their faults there were over 4 000 school instructors in county and prefectural schools who were subject to evaluations every nine years the chief instructor on the prefectural level was classified as equal to a second grade county graduate the supervisorate of imperial instruction oversaw the education of the heir apparent to the throne this office was headed by a grand supervisor of instruction who was ranked as first class of grade three 127 historians debate whether the examination system expanded or contracted upward social mobility on the one hand the exams were graded without regard to a candidate s social background and were theoretically open to everyone d in actual practice the successful candidates had years of a very expensive sophisticated tutoring of the sort that wealthy gentry families specialized in providing their talented sons in practice 90 percent of the population was ineligible due to lack of education but the upper 10 percent had equal chances for moving to the top to be successful young men had to have extensive expensive training in classical chinese the use of mandarin in spoken conversation calligraphy and had to master the intricate poetic requirements of the eight legged essay not only did the traditional gentry dominate the system they also learned that conservatism and resistance to new ideas was the path to success for centuries critics had pointed out these problems but the examination system only became more abstract and less relevant to the needs of china 128 the consensus of scholars is that the eight legged essay can be blamed as a major cause of china s cultural stagnation and economic backwardness however benjamin ellman argues there were some positive features since the essay form was capable of fostering abstract thinking persuasiveness and prosodic form and that its elaborate structure discouraged a wandering unfocused narrative 129 lesser functionaries the xuande emperor playing chuiwan with his eunuchs a game similar to golf by an anonymous court painter of the xuande period 1425 1435 scholar officials who entered civil service through examinations acted as executive officials to a much larger body of non ranked personnel called lesser functionaries they outnumbered officials by four to one charles hucker estimates that they were perhaps as many as 100 000 throughout the empire these lesser functionaries performed clerical and technical tasks for government agencies yet they should not be confused with lowly lictors runners and bearers lesser functionaries were given periodic merit evaluations like officials and after nine years of service might be accepted into a low civil service rank 130 the one great advantage of the lesser functionaries over officials was that officials were periodically rotated and assigned to different regional posts and had to rely on the good service and cooperation of the local lesser functionaries 131 eunuchs princes and generals detail of the emperor s approach showing the wanli emperor s royal carriage being pulled by elephants and escorted by cavalry eunuchs gained unprecedented power over state affairs during the ming dynasty one of the most effective means of control was the secret service stationed in what was called the eastern depot at the beginning of the dynasty later the western depot this secret service was overseen by the directorate of ceremonial hence this state organ s often totalitarian affiliation eunuchs had ranks that were equivalent to civil service ranks only theirs had four grades instead of nine 115 132 descendants of the first ming emperor were made princes and given typically nominal military commands annual stipends and large estates the title used was king 王 wáng but unlike the princes in the han and jin dynasties these estates were not feudatories the princes did not serve any administrative function and they partook in military affairs only during the reigns of the first two emperors 133 the rebellion of the prince of yan was justified in part as upholding the rights of the princes but once the yongle emperor was enthroned he continued his nephew s policy of disarming his brothers and moved their fiefs away from the militarized northern border although princes served no organ of state administration the princes consorts of the imperial princesses and ennobled relatives did staff the imperial clan court which supervised the imperial genealogy 134 like scholar officials military generals were ranked in a hierarchic grading system and were given merit evaluations every five years as opposed to three years for officials 135 however military officers had less prestige than officials this was due to their hereditary service instead of solely merit based and confucian values that dictated those who chose the profession of violence wu over the cultured pursuits of knowledge wen 136 although seen as less prestigious military officers were not excluded from taking civil service examinations and after 1478 the military even held their own examinations to test military skills 137 in addition to taking over the established bureaucratic structure from the yuan period the ming emperors established the new post of the travelling military inspector in the early half of the dynasty men of noble lineage dominated the higher ranks of military office this trend was reversed during the latter half of the dynasty as men from more humble origins eventually displaced them 138 society and culture main article culture of the ming dynasty literature and arts further information ming dynasty literature ming dynasty painting ming poetry and musicians in ming china lofty mount lu by shen zhou 1467 decorated back of a pipa from the ming dynasty literature painting poetry music and chinese opera of various types flourished during the ming dynasty especially in the economically prosperous lower yangzi valley although short fiction had been popular as far back as the tang dynasty 618 907 139 and the works of contemporaneous authors such as xu guangqi xu xiake and song yingxing were often technical and encyclopedic the most striking literary development was the vernacular novel while the gentry elite were educated enough to fully comprehend the language of classical chinese those with rudimentary education such as women in educated families merchants and shop clerks became a large potential audience for literature and performing arts that employed vernacular chinese 140 literati scholars edited or developed major chinese novels into mature form in this period such as water margin and journey to the west jin ping mei published in 1610 although incorporating earlier material marks the trend toward independent composition and concern with psychology 141 in the later years of the dynasty feng menglong and ling mengchu innovated with vernacular short fiction theater scripts were equally imaginative the most famous the peony pavilion was written by tang xianzu 1550 1616 with its first performance at the pavilion of prince teng in 1598 informal essay and travel writing was another highlight xu xiake 1587 1641 a travel literature author published his travel diaries in 404 000 written characters with information on everything from local geography to mineralogy 142 143 the first reference to the publishing of private newspapers in beijing was in 1582 by 1638 the peking gazette switched from using woodblock print to movable type printing 144 the new literary field of the moral guide to business ethics was developed during the late ming period for the readership of the merchant class 145 painting of a peddler selling birds by ji sheng 計盛 15th century in contrast to xu xiake who focused on technical aspects in his travel literature the chinese poet and official yuan hongdao 1568 1610 used travel literature to express his desires for individualism as well as autonomy from and frustration with confucian court politics yuan desired to free himself from the ethical compromises that were inseparable from the career of a scholar official this anti official sentiment in yuan s travel literature and poetry was actually following in the tradition of the song dynasty poet and official su shi 1037 1101 yuan hongdao and his two brothers yuan zongdao 1560 1600 and yuan zhongdao 1570 1623 were the founders of the gong an school of letters 146 this highly individualistic school of poetry and prose was criticized by the confucian establishment for its association with intense sensual lyricism which was also apparent in ming vernacular novels such as the jin ping mei 147 yet even gentry and scholar officials were affected by the new popular romantic literature seeking gejis as soulmates to re enact the heroic love stories that arranged marriages often could not provide or accommodate during the ming some gentry dated well educated gejis outside of marriage and the concubine system gējì culture reshaped the purely sexual relationship with prostitutes into a cultural relationship and men could even become friends with like minded gejis 148 painting of flowers a butterfly and rock sculpture by chen hongshou 1598 1652 small leaf album paintings like this one first became popular in the song dynasty shen zhou 1427 1509 founded the wu school of painting contributing greatly to chinese artistic tradition famous painters included ni zan and dong qichang as well as the four masters of the ming dynasty shen zhou tang yin wen zhengming and qiu ying they drew upon the techniques styles and complexity in painting achieved by their song and yuan predecessors but added techniques and styles well known ming artists could make a living simply by painting due to the high prices they demanded for their artworks and the great demand by the highly cultured community to collect precious works of art the artist qiu ying was once paid 2 8 kg 100 oz of silver to paint a long handscroll for the eightieth birthday celebration of the mother of a wealthy patron renowned artists often gathered an entourage of followers some who were amateurs who painted while pursuing an official career and others who were full time painters 149 a xuande period 1426 1435 imperial blue and white vase metropolitan museum of art new york the period was also renowned for ceramics and porcelains the major production center for porcelain was the imperial kilns at jingdezhen in jiangxi most famous in the period for blue and white porcelain but also producing other styles the dehua porcelain factories in fujian catered to european tastes by creating chinese export porcelain by the late 16th century individual potters also became known such as he chaozong who became famous in the early 17th century for his style of white porcelain sculpture in the ceramic trade in asia chuimei ho estimates that about 16 of late ming era chinese ceramic exports were sent to europe while the rest were destined for japan and south east asia 150 carved designs in lacquerware and designs glazed onto porcelain wares displayed intricate scenes similar in complexity to those in painting these items could be found in the homes of the wealthy alongside embroidered silks and wares in jade ivory and cloisonné the houses of the rich were also furnished with rosewood furniture and feathery latticework the writing materials in a scholar s private study including elaborately carved brush holders made of stone or wood were designed and arranged ritually to give an aesthetic appeal 151 connoisseurship in the late ming period centered on these items of refined artistic taste which provided work for art dealers and even underground scammers who themselves made imitations and false attributions 151 the jesuit matteo ricci while staying in nanjing wrote that chinese scam artists were ingenious at making forgeries and huge profits 152 however there were guides to help the wary new connoisseur liu tong died 1637 wrote a book printed in 1635 that told his readers how to spot fake and authentic pieces of art 153 he revealed that a xuande era 1426 1435 bronze work could be authenticated by judging its sheen porcelain wares from the yongle era 1402 1424 could be judged authentic by their thickness 154 religion see also islam during the ming dynasty glazed stoneware statue of a taoist deity 16th century the dominant religious beliefs during the ming dynasty were the various forms of chinese folk religion and the three teachings confucianism taoism and buddhism the yuan supported tibetan lamas fell from favor and the early ming emperors particularly favored taoism granting its practitioners many positions in the state s ritual offices the hongwu emperor curtailed the cosmopolitan culture of the mongol yuan dynasty and the prolific prince of ning zhu quan even composed one encyclopedia attacking buddhism as a foreign mourning cult deleterious to the state and another encyclopedia that subsequently joined the taoist canon 155 islam was also well established in china with a history traditionally traced to sa d ibn abi waqqas during the tang dynasty and enjoying strong official support under the yuan although this patronage was sharply curtailed under the ming dynasty several prominent muslims remained influential in the early ming period most notably the powerful eunuch zheng he some hui scholars have identified several generals of the hongwu emperor including chang yuchun lan yu ding dexing and mu ying as muslims however these claims are disputed by non muslim sources 156 bodhisattva manjusri in blanc de chine by he chaozong 17th century 157 the establishment of the ming dynasty was initially devastating to christianity in his first year of rule the hongwu emperor declared the eighty year old franciscan missions established under the yuan dynasty heterodox and illegal 158 the centuries old church of the east in china also disappeared during the later ming a new wave of christian missiona...