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Autocracy, Exams and Stagnation: Imperial China's Modern Legacy


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Podcast: ChinaTalk (LS 39 · TOP 2% what is this?)
Episode: Autocracy, Exams and Stagnation: Imperial China's Modern Legacy
Pub date: 2024-09-23

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Yasheng Huang 黄亚生 is the author of one of the decade’s greatest books about China — The Rise and Fall of the EAST: How Exams, Autocracy, Stability, and Technology Brought China Success and Why They Might Lead to Its Decline. It’s a rich book, a product of a career of reflections, with each page delivering something novel and provocative.

In this first half of our two-part interview, we discuss…

  • How the imperial examination system (known as keju) shaped Chinese governance, culture, and society,
  • Why autocratic Chinese dynasties benefitted from a meritocratic bureaucracy,
  • Statistical methods for analyzing social mobility in imperial China,
  • How the keju system survived the Mongol conquest,
  • What the tradeoffs in the imperial exam system can teach us about the future economic prospects of China and Taiwan.
  • Co-hosting today is Ilari Mäkelä, host of the On Humans podcast. 

    NOTES (Courtesy of Ilari)

    A Rough Timeline of Chinese history:

    Pre–221 BCE: Disunity (e.g. Warring States) 

    221 BCE – 220: Unity (Qin & Han dynasties)

    220 – 581: Disunity (“Han-Sui Interregnum”)

    581 – 1911: Unity (Sui, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasties)

    Historical figures

    Emperor Wanli 萬曆帝 | Shen Kuo 沈括 (polymath) | Zhu Xi 朱熹 (classical philosopher) | Hong Xiuquan 洪秀全 (leader of the Taiping Rebellion) | Yuan Shikai 袁世凯 (military leader) | Chiang Kai-shek 蔣介石 (military leader and statesman)

    Modern scholars

    Ping-ti Ho 何炳棣 (historian) | Clair Yang (economist) | Joseph Needham (scientist and historian) | Daron Acemoglu | James Robinson

    Historical terms

    Keju civil service exams | Taiping Rebellion

    REFERENCES

    A lot of the original data discussed in the episode is original from Huang’s book. As an exception, Huang references his co-authored article on civil service exams and imperial stability, written with Clair Yang.

    Outtro music: 等着你回来 by 白光, a 1930s Shanghai starlet https://open.spotify.com/track/0aHMT9dIdPDz094fc37Xq0?si=d1591ff2339d421c

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