of intellectual life brought about by the expansion of examinations. For the
most part, gentry prepared for the competitions by private study. With growing
competitiveness, large numbers of scholars who had not passed the final
examination or who were out of office because of politics were becoming
available as private teachers. There was a large increase in the number of
schools, including those established in local Confucian temples, as well as
Buddhist schools and the private academies of well-known scholars. Famous
scholar-officials continued to teach personal disciples while in their official
posts. Some schools were official, notably the Imperial University and other
schools in the capital such as the Directory of Education; initially for sons of
officials, they began to be opened to others in the 1040s (Chaffee, 1985: 30,
73–80). Local government schools were also promoted, with the height of
school-building during 1020–1060—again, the early takeoff point for the
Neo-Confucian movement.
During 1100–1120 yet another twist of factional reforms brought a radical
effort to replace the examination system with a hierarchy of government
schools. These comprised primary, county, and prefectural schools, each di-
vided into three grades; promotion from rung to rung in this ladder was based
on internal examinations, leading finally to selection for the Imperial University
and thence to the chin-shih degree for officials. This system attempted to
combine the supervision of moral character with academic testing. Its policy
was a compromise among the different factional positions. But it was admin-
istered in a spirit of hostility to most of them, especially to the Neo-Confucians;
“unorthodox” books and ideas were banned and private schools prohibited.
These government schools enrolled 200,000 students. The expense of supply-
ing them with room and board brought the system to an end in 1121. Sub-
sequently, private and locally controlled education was again dominant.
The Neo-Confucians, as well as most of the various “reform” factions,
were typically based on careers in one or another portion of these educational
organizations. Chang Tsai and Shao Yung had their own schools, which were
carried on after their deaths by disciples. Ch’eng I, despite his qualification for
office, nevertheless spent most of his life as a private teacher. In the Southern
Sung, Chu Hsi had his famous White Deer Hollow Academy in the middle
Yangtze valley; his rival Lu Chiu-Yüan was a professor at the national univer-
sity, but visited the private academies for debates. Neo-Confucians declared
that education should occur not merely for the utilitarian purpose of passing
the examinations but for moral development. But though they often preached
holding oneself aloof from examinations, most of the Neo-Confucian leaders
had passed the chin-shih degree; they were recruited from the elite of the
educational competition, not from its failures. Their theme arose by opposition
to prevailing conditions in the literati class. Materially the very existence of
304 • (^) Intellectual Communities: Asian Paths