Surviving Remnants of the Yuan Dynasty Examination System

Timeline

1. 1238–1313Dadu · ChinaAfter the Mongol conquest, scholars were long recruited through the kheshig, military merit, and recommendations; the traditional Han examination system was largely suspended, with scholars turning to clerical posts, recommendations, and religious administration, leaving the examinations interrupted as an institution.
2. 1313–1333Dadu · ChinaEmperor Renzong of Yuan restored the examinations in the second year of the Yanyou era, establishing a dual-list system with Mongols and Semu on the right list and Han and Southerners on the left, using the Collected Commentaries on the Four Books as the standard, and reinstating the three-tier framework of provincial, metropolitan, and palace examinations, though quotas and frequency were constrained by Mongol rule.
3. 1341–1350Jiangnan Province · JiangnanDuring the Zhizheng era the Yuan court held examinations several times in the 1340s, with provincial exams proceeding as usual in Jiangnan, Huguang, and other provinces; yet the Red Turban uprising was brewing amid fiscal distress and political corruption, and although the examinations remained an important path to office for Han scholars, quotas per session were limited, showing clear features of institutional remnant compared to the Tang and Song heyday.
4. 1368Dadu · ChinaIn 1368 Ming forces captured Dadu and the Yuan court retreated north; the Yuan examination system ended with the dynasty. After the early Ming restored the examinations, it absorbed some Yuan experience but abolished the dual-list system, opening a new cycle of Ming examinations.