The Intellectuals in Northern China and The Abolition of the Civil Service Examinations: Minds and Identities

Abstract

In order to understand the impact of the abolition of the civil service examinations, I examine the lives of Chinese intellectuals during 1895-1910. I investigate their behaviors, emotions, and living environment, and explore how intellectuals retained positions in society through various channels and compare different patterns of their psychological change. What I discover is that stratification among local elites promoted them to discover their new identities in the transition from the Qing dynasty to the Republican government: they were trying to become pure intellectuals or scholar-officials before the dramatic changes of the civil service examinations; however, during the republican times, they would explore their new life path and gradually shape their unique understanding of modernization.