Xi Jinping repeats imperial China’s mistakes

One hopesEAST Gui Youguang, a 16th-century Chinese bureaucrat, knew how to enjoy success in the moment. By the standards of the time, he was old when he passed the Ming dynasty’s most exacting grade of test for mandarins, after decades of failed attempts. Alas, not long after securing a degree at 59, Gui died.The rigours of imperial China’s civil-service examination system—the , used to select scholar-officials for over 1,300 years—are described in a new book by Yasheng Huang called “The Rise and Fall of the : How Exams, Autocracy, Stability, and Technology Brought China Success, and Why They Might Lead to Its Decline”. Arguing that the exams stifled innovation in ancient times, Professor Huang sees lessons for Xi Jinping’s China.