清代科举考试趣闻及谎报年龄现象探析

Anecdotes of imperial examination in Qing Dynasty and the phenomenon of lying about age

清代科举考试始于顺治二年(1645),从乾隆朝开始恩赏老年士子,给予功名、官职和财物等,引发了老年士子谎报年龄的现象始终未能杜绝。科举考试是一个说不尽的话题,奇闻逸事不胜枚举。有人交白卷,有人用阿拉伯数字书写数目,也有外国人企图参加科举。有人春风得意,有人客死他乡。工业革命以后,科举制日益落后于世界潮流,迟暮的清王朝不得不废除科举。

The imperial examination of the Qing Dynasty began in the second year of Shunzhi(1645).From the Qianlong Dynasty,the imperial examination began to reward the elderly scholars with awards of fame,official positions and property,which led to the phenomenon that the elderly scholars lied about their ages.The imperial examinations are an inexhaustible topic,and anecdotes are too numerous to enumerate.Some handed in blank papers,some wrote numbers in Arabic numerals,and some foreigners tried to take the imperial examinations.Some got the glory smoothly unile some even lost their lives far away from hometown.After the industrial revolution,the imperial examination system increasingly fell behind the world trend,and the late Qing Dynasty had to make the decision to abolish the imperial examination.