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The Chinese Imperial examination, used for entrance into the Chinese state bureaucracy from the middle of the Tang Dynasty (618-907) until 1905, was incredibly rigorous. What did it involve?

Answer: Candidates had to stay in an examination compound in an isolated cell for three days and two nights. Here they wrote the “eight-legged essay” meant to show their mastery of Confucian classics. Only five percent of those sitting the exam passed.

Source: The China Collectors by Karl E. Meyer et al

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