I've read many history books praise the Chinese imperial examinations for meritocratically granting rank based on scholarship. ...and then casually mention that theoretically poor people could attain high rank through them but guess who had all the books and free time?https://twitter.com/jenistyping/status/1179038292299304961 …
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Replying to @workingjubilee
I know a story fragment from my family about this. My grandfather's father did surveying and was able to pay for schooling. He took the 3 day exam and almost made it. He came from a family of farmers in a one bedroom house. You got me curious if I have the details right.
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Replying to @_StevenFan @workingjubilee
"Your great grandfather took the exam and didn’t pass. He was educated though, and went to work for a landlord, calculating land affected by flooding. He married an illiterate woman, who nonetheless was wise enough to be the go-to woman to handle village disputes."
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Replying to @_StevenFan
It's not unusual at all to not pass, since they're egregiously hard and basically only the top of the top passed... and they were sequenced to multiple exams. You could easily pass the ~first round, essentially, and never get past the second, and definitely never get the third.
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Passing was extremely prestigious. But that wasnt our recent family. I've heard one our ancestors was a famous beauracrat who reformed the education system so I guess we have that going for us. 
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"Nasty little Buddhist"
Seeking via neuroscience and psychology informed dharma.