The Sienfu Provincial Examination Hall

The Sienfu Provincial Examination Hall

The Sienfu Provincial Examination Hall

The Sienfu Provincial Examination Hall, located at the foot of the Back Hill within Binyang County Vocational High School, currently houses the school’s music rooms and art studios. It is one of the most well-preserved modern-era provincial examination halls in Guangxi.

The Sienfu Examination Hall is a traditional Chinese-style building constructed of brick and wood, oriented from northwest to southeast. It consists of three main sections in a row, with side chambers on both the left and right. The central three main buildings are each 15 meters wide: the front building is 8.4 meters deep, the middle one 7 meters, and the rear one 7.5 meters. The side chambers are each 32 meters wide and 41 meters deep. Between the front and middle buildings, there is a courtyard with moon gates on both sides leading to the side chambers. On either side of the front building’s outer corridor, there is an arched gate, and on both sides of the middle building’s rear corridor, there are arched gates leading to the passageways. The corridors of the side chambers feature ten round pillars, while the rest are square. From the stone carvings at the bases of the pillars and the architectural style of the buildings, the characteristics of traditional Chinese architecture can be clearly seen. The examination hall includes the examiners’ hall, the accompanying teachers’ rooms, and the “examination sheds” with a total of 2,400 enclosed examination rooms. The examiners’ hall stands in front of the examination sheds and is divided into a front hall, a middle hall, and a rear hall. Elevated, it offers a clear view over the examination sheds. On both sides of the hall are corridor rooms, nine on each side, serving as resting areas for the examiners. The accompanying teachers’ rooms are located about 10 meters directly to the right of the hall, equipped with relatively complete facilities. Being in this space, one can almost envision the solemn examiners and the frowning, deep-in-thought candidates of those examination days. The grey bricks, blue tiles, and stone steps add a touch of antiquity and solemnity to the entire examination hall.

The Sienfu Examination Hall was originally reconstructed from the office of the Right River Dao. The exact date is unknown. By the sixth year of the Qianlong reign during the Qing Dynasty (1741), Magistrate Song Yunsheng petitioned for its reconstruction due to its dilapidated state. In the eighth year (1743), Magistrate Ruan Weizhang, in the twenty-fifth year (1760), Magistrate Xu Shangzhong, and in the twenty-sixth year (1761), Prefect Liang JuZhen, successively carried out repairs. Over the next sixty-five years, only minor maintenance was done before the annual and triennial examinations, with no major renovations. By the sixth year of the Daoguang reign (1826), Prefect Li Yanzhang took the lead in donating funds, and the gentry and people of Wuming, Binyang, Shanglin, and Qianjiang counties enthusiastically contributed financially for a large-scale renovation and expansion. In the eighth year of the Xianfeng reign (1858), it was destroyed by bandits during the chaos of war. In the fourth year of the Tongzhi reign (1862), Prefect Xiong Shoushan, along with local gentry such as Lu Shenglan and Jiang Chengzhou, raised funds to rebuild it to its former scale. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, when the imperial examination system was abolished and modern schools were established, the examination hall was repurposed as the “Sienfu Prefecture Middle School,” which was later renamed “Binyang-Shanglin-Qianjiang Middle School.” In the fifteenth year of the Republic of China (1926), it became the Guangxi Provincial No. 12 Middle School (the predecessor of today’s Binyang Middle School).

According to historical records, the Sienfu Provincial Examination Hall hosted the “triennial two-exam” system as well as the “provincial and annual examinations,” where candidates resided and took their tests. The prefect also conducted evaluations of scholars from Binyang, Shanglin, and Qianjiang counties here at the examination hall. Originally, the examination hall had only 1,200 examination sheds, but as education flourished and the desire for scholarly success grew, the number of candidates increased dramatically, far exceeding the capacity of the existing sheds. After a major renovation and expansion by Magistrate Li Yanzhang in the sixth year of the Daoguang reign (1826), both the overall area of the examination hall and the number of examination sheds doubled, making its scale the largest in Guangxi at that time. Scholars came from as far as the Twelve Tusi regions and as near as the Fifteen Garrison Garrisons to take the exams, demonstrating the profound influence the Sienfu Provincial Examination Hall had across Guangxi and its important role in promoting social progress and educational development. The remaining site holds significant value for the study of Qing Dynasty politics, economy, and cultural education.