| Note | JapSin I, (38/42) 38/3
Yijing zhujuan 易經硃卷.
Essays by Tan You 談猷 for the
juren 舉人 examination of 1699 (Kangxi 38). One volume. Chinese bamboo paper. Unnumbered folios.The Latin inscription on the cover reads: Compositio uniq. Kiu Gin [舉人] qui obtinuit per eam gradum Anno 1699. Folio 1a has this inscription: 康熙己卯科廣東鄉硃卷 (Examination papers for the juren candidates in the Province of Guangdong in the jimao year of the Kangxi reign [1699]); 中式二十二名談猷，封川縣學生，習易經 (The twenty-second candidate who passed the examinations, Tan You, student of the prefecture of Fengchuan, his [special] field being the Book of Changes). Then follow the names of examiners, the governor of the prefecture etc.
The text contains seven essays in fifteen folios. The titles of the seven essays are given one by one, together with the essays. On the top of the essays 4 and 5 there are inscriptions with the characters jincheng 進呈 (To be presented to His Majesty). Opinions on essays are given by the examiners on folio 1a.
In the middle of each folio the title Yijing zhujuan is given on the top and jimao ke 己卯科 (1699 examination) is marked below the title.
There can be no doubt that this was a sample of the examination papers sent back to Europe by missioners in China to illustrate the examination system which was so highly developed and which had aroused the attention of so many European scholars through the writings of the missioners.For the Chinese examination system, cf. Etienne Zi, S.J., Pratique des examens litéraires en Chine (Variétés Sinologiques, no. 5), Shanghai 1894.
Source: Albert Chan, SJ, Chinese Books and Documents in the Jesuit Archives in Rome, pp. 36, 39. |
