本文考察了中华帝国晚期的科举制度及其演变和转化,认为明清科举制度是中国政治、社会、经济和智识生活中最具活力的政治交汇点,它支持了前近代中国社会、政治、经济与文化再生产。文章进而指出中国传统学术和科举制度的终结,及其被现代教育所取代的历史复杂性。科举的终结,更意味着连接传统士人价值观、帝国的文化活力和精英士绅地位之间的社会文化纽带的解体。

This article examines the civil service examinations and its evolvement and transmission in the late imperial China．It argues that civil examinations in late imperial China marked the most traveled and political intersections between politics，society，economy，and intellectual life，and enabled the social and cultural reproduction in the pre-modern China．It goes on exploring the demise of the traditional learning and its replacement by the modern schools and shows the complexity in this series of historical events．The end of the imperial civil examination also meant the unraveling of the social，political，and cultural nexus of classical literati values，elite status and Chinese dynastic imperial power．