ucted by an examiner sent from Pekin. A
third examination is also held once every three years, in Pekin, and
success in this is rewarded by the title "Fit for Office." Holders of
the last two degrees are entitled to an appointment to some office, the
highest aim of a Chinaman. All of these examinations are conducted with
great strictness and fairness, no one being excluded. Thus every Chinese
child of ability has the opportunity to reach the highest positions in
the country.

There is a still higher degree called the "Forest of Pencils," which is
open only to members of the Royal Academy, the _Hanlin_. The acquirement
of this degree is the greatest honor to be attained; its possessor is
highly esteemed, and may hold the highest offices in the country.

In 1905 an edict was promulgated abolishing the old system of
examinations. This marks an epoch in Chinese educational history and
will tend to place China in the line of modern political and industrial
development.

=Criticism of Chinese Education.=--1. It is not under government
control.

2. It has no interest beyond the boundaries of China, and regards no
literature save the Chinese classics.

3. It is non-progressive, having made practically no improvement for
many centuries.

4. It cultivates memory to the neglect of the other powers of the mind,
and places more emphasis on the acquirement of knowledge than on the
development of the human faculties.

5. It obtains its results through fear, not by awakening interest in or
love for study.

6. Women are not embraced in the scheme of education.

7. It produces a conservative, untruthful, cunning, and non-progressive
people.

8. It reaches practically all of the male sex, and there is opportunity
for all to rise to the highest positions of honor, but its methods are
so unnatural as to awaken little desire for education on the part of the
young.

9. Its motive is debasing to the character.

CONFUCIUS (B.C. 550-478)

The name of Confucius is the one most revered among the Chinese. To him
and his disciples are due not only the native religion, now supplanted
by Buddhism, but also the language and literature. He began to teach in
a private school at the age of twenty-two. He rejected no pupil of
ability and ambition, but accepted none without these qualities. He
said, "When I have presented one corner of a subject, and the pupil
cannot make out the other three, I do not repeat the lesson." The
following a