THE SECOND MILLENIA
AD 1000 -- AD 2000

Testing, Testing, Testing

Sharpen your number two pencils and take this test!

It all started about a thousand years ago -- our collective, standardized, SAT-cramming, TAAS-requiring, No. 2-pencil-sharpening, tiny-oval-filling nightmare.

Sometime during China's combined Northern and Southern Song eras (960 -- 1279 A.D., Western Time), a bureaucrat got the bright idea that there should be a series of standardized tests to choose who was qualified for coveted civil service jobs. In the mere seconds it took that first sleep-deprived young test taker to sign his name at the top of a form, the gravest ills of the modern age were born: study service fees and all-nighter anxiety.

In honor of that nameless examination victim, here's a multiple-choice look at the Song Dynasties' numerous and generally less nefarious, accomplishments. Please don't mark on your test booklet.

    A. The only thing that would interrupt the 1,000 year reign of the standardized civil service exam that began in the Song era was:
  1. the Mongol hordes
  2. lunch
  3. a cheating scandal
  4. a forced return to an agrarian society

    B. The combined Northern and Southern Song Dynasties were well known for:
  1. perfecting iron smelting and steel production
  2. the widespread use of gunpowder for weaponry and amusement
  3. the widespread use of a common paper currency
  4. all of the above.

    C. This oppressive practice started during the Song Era and flourished later, much to the chagrin of the women it pained. It was:
  1. foot binding
  2. eyebrow plucking
  3. corset cinching
  4. back boarding

    D. The Song Era was famed for its poetry -- by one estimate, there were 3,812 santioned poets writing during the 319-year dynasty. A common theme chosen by these poets was:
  1. the disastrous effect of ill-informed bureaucrats
  2. how poorly crops were faring this and every other year
  3. the poor quality of poetry going around
  4. all of the above

EXTRA CREDIT: If you were taking the Song-Era Chinese Civil Service Exam, you'd be forced to quote long passages of poetry from memory, after being read only a few lines of a poem. For extra credit, answer this question about the poem: "At cock crow the whole village rouses,"
    E. What does the yellow earth glisten from?
  1. the disastrous effect of ill-informed bureaucrats
  2. the rain that has passed
  3. the gold of the Khan
  4. the sweat of our labors

Okay...Now let's see if you passed the test!! Answers:
  • A: 1. The civil service exam continued in increasingly elaborate form until the 20th Century, but was interrupted during the Mongol Empire's 13th century reign. Not that cheating wasn't a HUGE problem. Records show the evidence of extravagant safeguards to keep up with ingenious cheating methods.
  • B: 4. The Song Era was known for ALL these developments.
  • C: If you answered "1", you're right..and entirely too tense. Agonizingly tiny feet were "in" for generations.
  • D: 4 -- All of those topics, believe it or not. One aspect of Chinese poetry was that it was becoming "art criticism"
  • E: Extra Credit. Well , Duh, The yellow earth glistens from the rain that has passed. Song Era test takers didn't get it nearly that easy. They were forced to write whole pages of prose and verse by memory and to create original works on the spot in response to test questions. And you thought those SAT math story problems were hard!