On the Impact of Commercially-printed Examination Aids in the Qing Dynasty and the Government's Strategies to Eliminate the Negative Effects.

Examination aids were a major type of publications in the Qing dynasty. These aids were largely produced by the commercial printing houses and were widely circulated in book markets. They included commentaries on the Four Books and Five Classics as well as anthologies of the eight-legged essays, rhythmic poems, and policy essays. These aids had greatly simplified the preparation for civil service examinations and had helped prepare candidates in two major areas: knowledge they needed to acquire before they sat for the examination and techniques on answering the examination questions. This paper examines the impact on commercially-printed examination aids in the Qing dynasty as well as the strategies and measures adopted by the government to eliminate the negative effects. There are three parts in this paper. Part one outlines the publishing activities of these commercially-printed examination aids, as well as the major types of aids published in the dynasty. Part two examines the impact these aids as well as the reactions from the government and the public toward them. Part three discusses the strategies and measures adopted by the Qing government to eliminate the negative effects. However, failure in the education system, cheating and fraud in examination, and negligence of education officials and examiners had reduced the effectiveness of these strategies and measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]