In response to “The Chinese Civil Examinations” twentieth century, the Chinese civil service examinations became in China, as well as elsewhere, a symbol of the failure of the Chinese dynastic state and the backwardness of Chinese society. Chinese intellectuals saw the examinations as an obstacle to modernization, to the spread of modern science and technology, and to democratization and the broadening of education to the population at large. The “eight-legged essay” (baguwen), one of the genres tested in the examinations, was then typically singled out as the embodiment of a system that...…In response to “The Chinese Civil Examinations” twentieth century, the Chinese civil service examinations became in China, as well as elsewhere, a symbol of the failure of the Chinese dynastic state and the backwardness of Chinese society. Chinese intellectuals saw the examinations as an obstacle to modernization, to the spread of modern science and technology, and to democratization and the broadening of education to the population at large. The “eight-legged essay” (baguwen), one of the genres tested in the examinations, was then typically singled out as the embodiment of a system that...WW…