Page:China- Its State and Prospects.djvu/199

Rh published for the information of the people. Seventy-two "elevated men," equivalent to our masters of arts, are chosen out of the ten thousand competitors in the province of Canton, and about as many for each of the other provinces, making about thirteen hundred for the whole empire. When the announcement of the successful candidates is published, the multitude rush forward to gain the intelligence, and hand-bills are printed and circulated far and wide; not only for the information of the candidates themselves, but their parents and kindred also, who receive titles and honours in common with their favoured relations. Presents are then made to the triumphant scholars, and splendid apparel prepared for them, so that they soon become rich and great. To-day they are dwelling in an humble cottage, and to-morrow introduced to the palaces of the great; riding in sedans, or on horseback, and every where received with the greatest honour.

The third degree is the result of a still more rigorous examination at the capital. The thirteen hundred new masters of arts, together with those formerly graduated, who have not risen higher, assemble once in three years, at the capital, to try for the third literary degree. Here also about ten thousand candidates enter the lists, and after an examination similar to what has been described, three hundred are chosen, who are dignified with the title of tsin-sze, or "advanced scholars," equal to our doctors of law. On attaining this degree, they are immediately eligible to office, and are generally appointed forthwith. The superintendency of a district is the first post they occupy, and there is not a magistrate throughout the empire who has not attained the degree referred to.