Review of Aristocratic Power Through Tang’s Imperial Examination: Confrontation and Collapse
Abstract
This paper aims to discuss the rise and fall of the aristocratic prestigious families through the dynamics and characteristics of Imperial Examination System. The concrete contents include but not limited to the exposure of the exclusivity, inheritance and antagonism of prestigious families at the birth time of the Imperial Examination system as well as its collapse after the Resettlement and migration of prestigious families. The methodology employed by this paper goes beyond the qualitative way that is typically used by the current scholarship in the research of this topic. It basically answers the question of how the power origins of the aristocratic prestigious families during the Tang dynasty had been suppressed by the newly reformed educational policies regarding selecting, ultimately leading to their collapse. In summary, the introduction and development of the Imperial Examination System significantly weakened the Fengjian nature of the aristocratic families, undermined their privileges established through monopolization across different social strata, and further ensured the decline and eventual demise of these clans.
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