Expansion of Northern Song Imperial Examination Recruitment (around 1015)

Timeline

1. 1014–1015Bianjing Examination Hall · HenanZhenzong ordered the Ministry of Rites to hold the metropolitan examination at the capital on the basis of the provincial qualifying exams across the circuits, appropriately relaxing jinshi quotas and regulatory limits. The triennial examination system with staged testing had already been established under Taizong; recruitment was now significantly larger than in the early dynasty, and the trend of scholars across the realm attending examinations grew ever stronger.
2. 1015Bianjing · HenanIn 1015 the jinshi results were announced, with a noticeably larger number admitted than in previous sessions. The new jinshi received official appointments after the palace examination and took up posts, staffing prefectures, counties and central government offices. Examination expansion and Zhenzong's pro-Confucian policies reinforced each other, and the political influence of the scholar-official class continued to rise.