Yuan Imperial Examinations and Civil Administration

Timeline

1. 1313–1320Dadu · North ChinaEmperor Renzong of Yuan restored the imperial examination, designating Mongols and Semu on the left list and Han and Southerners on the right, with exam content centered on the Four Books with Cheng-Zhu commentary and policy essays, held every three years, establishing the institutional framework for Yuan civil official selection.
2. 1320–1350Jiangzhe Province · East ChinaJinshi degree-holders mostly served as educational officials, clerks, and aides in circuits, prefectures, and counties, governing locally alongside Mongol and Semu officials and those of keshig origin. Han Confucian scholars entered the bureaucracy through the examination, but real power was often constrained by Mongol nobles and powerful provincial governors.
3. 1351–1360Yingzhou · East ChinaAfter the Red Turban uprising, examinations were suspended in Jianghuai and elsewhere, and yamen of circuits, prefectures, and counties were paralyzed or became private offices of warlords. Confucian officials of examination origin either joined the rebel armies or lived in seclusion in their home villages, and the Yuan order of selecting officials through classical learning rapidly disintegrated in the warfare.
4. 1360–1368Dadu · North ChinaDuring the Zhizheng era the Yuan court could no longer hold nationwide examinations, and civil official selection existed in name only. In the early Ming, Zhu Yuanzhang restored the examination; the separate lists and Cheng-Zhu classical tradition continued Yuan experience, but the Mongol–Han co-governance structure ended with the fall of the Yuan.