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- #41
Um, okay. Let's look at that. At the time that this exam was done, probably less than 10% of the Chinese population could even read.
The exams perpetuated class differences, which is why China had nearly a century of civil war before the Communists took over. Only the wealthy could study for them. For instance, the guy who led the Taiping Rebellion, Hong Xiuquan, was a peasant who failed the exam several times before he went nuts and thought he was the brother of Jesus.
What the Communists did (and I wouldn't say I like praising them because they were brutal in other ways) is they took a country where the literacy rate was 20% and raised it up to 96% today. (They also did some very smart things, like replacing Traditional Chinese with Simplified Chinese and reducing the number of characters.)
So once again, Hector uses bad history to rationalize his bizarre race theories.
Imperial examination
Many individuals of low social status were able to rise to political prominence through success in the imperial examination. According to studies of degree-holders in the years 1148 and 1256, approximately 57 percent originated from families without a father, grandfather, or great-grandfather who had held official rank...
By the Song dynasty, theoretically all adult Chinese men were eligible for the examinations...
Chinese legal institutions and the examination system began to heavily influence Japan during the Tang dynasty...
The Korean examination system was established in 958 under the reign of Gwangjong of Goryeo. The examination system was spread to Goryeo in 957 by a visiting Hanlin scholar named Shuang Ji from Later Zhou. Gwangjong was highly pleased with Shuang Ji and requested that he remain at the Korean court permanently.
According to Xu Jing, writing during the Song dynasty, the Korean examinations were largely the same as the Chinese ones with some differences...
The Confucian examination system in Vietnam was established in 1075 under the Lý dynasty Emperor Lý Nhân Tông and lasted until the Nguyễn dynasty Emperor Khải Định (1919).
![en.wikipedia.org](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/17/Ming-Beamtenpr%C3%BCfungen1.jpg/1200px-Ming-Beamtenpr%C3%BCfungen1.jpg)
Imperial examination - Wikipedia
Inteligent Oriental peasants increased their landholdings. Some of their sons became merchants, who could afford the education necessary to prepare their sons for the exams.
To a greater extent than in the West, and to a far greater extent than in sub Saharan Africa, intelligent people were more prolific than those of lesser intelligence.
The vast majority of Negroes in and out of sub Saharan Africa are descended from the Bantu. These never developed a system of writing. They had three words for numbers: one, two, and more than two.