Part I. Becoming mainstream : "Way Learning" during the late empire: Ming Imperial Power, Cultural Politics, and Civil Examinations -- Ming to Qing: "Way Learning" Standards and the 8-Legged Essay
Part II. Unintended consequences of civil examinations Circulation of Ming-Qing Elites: Circulation of Ming-Qing elites -- Classical literacy in Late Imperial China -- Anxiety, Dreams, and the Examination Life
Part III. Retooling civil examinations to suit changing times: Limits of Dynastic Power -- From Ming to Qing Policy Questions -- Curricular Reform: From Qing to the Taipings.
Appendixes: 1. Dates of Chinese Dynasties. 2. Emperors of the Great Ming (1368– 1644). 3. Emperors of the Great Qing (1644– 1911).

"During China's late imperial period (roughly 1400-1900 CE), men would gather by the millions every two or three years outside official examination compounds sprinkled across China. Only one percent of candidates would complete the academic regimen that would earn them a post in the administrative bureaucracy. Civil Examinations assesses the role of education, examination, and China's civil service in fostering the world's first professional class based on demonstrated knowledge and skill."--Jacket.

Access online via Gleeson Library
Local access dig.pdf. [Elman-Civil Exams Meritocracy.pdf]

The mushrooming of reference (leishu) and daily-use encyclopedias (riyong leishu) in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries drew on earlier book collections, which Chinese literati previously had valued as texts while preparing for civil examinations or for collecting source materials needed by officials to carry out their activities. Since 1000, these traditional collections transmitted a specific epistemological approach for investigating things, events, and phenomena. Beginning in the mid-thirteenth century under Mongol rule, new types of leishu developed, some of which, owing to the steady expansion of printing as well as literacy and the corresponding proliferation of a bookish print culture, reached a much wider readership than ever before. On the one hand, these new types of leishu covered a wider range of knowledge. On the other hand, they represented a form of classicism that approached things/events/phenomena textually, i.e., in a lexicographic and etymological way. Using the encyclopedic form, compilers increasingly applied the ideals for " investigating things and extending knowledge " (gewu zhizhi) beyond the classical corpus. This textual approach to natural studies and practical knowledge culminated in the creation of textual repositories simulating " textual museums. "

doi:10.3406/oroc.2007.1073
Local access dig.pdf. [Elman-Ming Compendia Leishu.pdf]

Rethinking the historical roots of late imperial civil examinations -- Imperial power, cultural politics, and civil examination in the early Ming -- Institutional dynamics and the mobilization of elites in late imperial civil examinations -- Examination compounds and the limits of dynastic power -- Classical literacy and the social dimensions of late imperial civil examinations -- Emotional anxiety, dreams of success, and the examination life -- The cultural scope of civil examinations and the eight-legged essay among elites -- Examiner standards, literati interpretation, and limits to the dynasitc control of knowledge -- Natural studies, history, and Han learning in civil examinations -- Acceleration of curricular reform under Ch'ing rule before 1800 -- Delegitimation and decanonization : the pitfalls of late Ch'ing examination reform -- Appendix 1 : civil examination primary sources, 1148-1904 -- Appendix 2 : civil examination primary sources in the Mormon genealogical library -- Appendix 3 : tables -- Appendix 4 : timelines for civil examination curriculum change, 650-1905 -- Appendix 5 : major types of civil examination sources besides gazetteers.

Physical copy Gleeson Library
Local access dig.pdf. [Elman-Civil_Exams.pdf]

The Jesuit legacy -- Recovering the Chinese classics -- The rise of Imperial Chinese manufacturing and trade -- Science and the Protestant mission -- From textbooks to Darwin: modern science arrives -- Government arsenals spur new technologies -- The displacement of traditional Chinese science and medicine -- Appendixes.

Chinese dynasties -- I. Introduction. Prologue ; Ming classification on the eve of Jesuit contact -- II. Natural studies and the Jesuits. The Late Ming calendar crisis and Gregorian reform ; Sino-Jesuit accommodations during the seventeenth century ; The limits of Western learning in the early eighteenth century ; The Jesuit role as experts in high Qing cartography and technology -- III. Evidential research and natural studies. Evidential research and the restoration of ancient learning ; Seeking the truth and high Qing mathematics -- IV. Modern science and the Protestants. Protestants, education, and modern science to 1880 ; The construction of modern science in late Qing China -- V. Qing reformism and modern science. Government arsenals, science, and technology in China after 1860 ; Displacement of traditional Chinese science and medicine in the twentieth century -- Appendixes. Tang mathematical classics ; Some translations of chemistry, 1855-1873 ; Science outline series, 1882-1898 ; Partial chronological list of arsenals, etc., in China, 1861-1892 ; Table of contents for the 1886 Primers for science studies (Gezhi qimeng) ; Twenty-three fields of the sciences in the 1886 Primers for science studies ; Science compendia published in China from 1877 to 1903.

Also in digital pdf format: [Elman-ScienceChina.pdf]