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INTRODUCTION TO TANG POETRY Poetry and the Civil Service Examination |
Robert Oxnam :: In the year 680, composition of poetry was introduced as one of the requirements in the civil service examination that was used to recruit candidates outside of the governing elite for civil service. Many scholars today believe that the dramatic increase in the production of poetry that occurred at this time was related to the exam requirement. Stephen Owen :: To choose a member of the elite, to participate in the government in the Tang, and here we should remember that in the Tang there was an aristocratic society and that if your parents were nobility or high officials or powerful military people, you didn't have to take the examination. But for those who hoped for some social mobility, there was the examination system. And among the requirements of the examination system was the composition of poetry, very bad poetry, highly stylized poetry, but what it meant was that at least the technical competence in writing poetry was necessary for anyone who hoped to rise in the government in the Tang dynasty. |
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