Obtaining a government position was the key to success in late imperial China. An official of the state bureaucracy reaped social status, local (and possibly national) influence, and generally favorable life prospects; he could also acquire wealth, sometimes in vast amounts. For these reasons, individuals and families sought to ensure either themselves or their male heirs held an official post, often plotting for generations to not only secure such positions but also to continue to populate them long into the future. Scholars have traditionally maintained that the path necessitated sitting for the civil service examinations and that approaches consisted chiefly of preparing male offspring to excel in the exam. The book under review here shows, however, that the exams were just one part of such strategies: beginning in the Ming and accelerating in the Qing, purchasing an office from the state (juanna) figured prominently into the calculus.
It...
