Museum of Imperial Examination Wooden Plaques at Lizhi Hall

Museum of Imperial Examination Wooden Plaques at Lizhi Hall

Beijing, the imperial capital for eight hundred years, made it the center of the imperial examination system during that period. Over these eight centuries, the highest-level imperial examinations—the metropolitan examination (会试) and the palace examination (殿试)—were mostly held in Beijing. During this time, around 250 top-ranking scholars (zhuangyuan) and nearly 50,000 successful examination candidates (jinshi) were produced here. What glory, what grandeur it was. Yet, sadly, in today’s vast Beijing, aside from the stone tablets inscribed with the names of jinshi from the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties in the Confucius Temple, there are very few other relics related to the imperial examination system. Nowadays, Beijingers’ understanding of the imperial examinations is far less than that of people in the historically and culturally rich towns of southern China.

Currently, interpreting traditional Chinese culture and promoting classic heritage have garnered national attention. To this end, we focus on exhibiting a large collection of imperial examination plaques as a gateway to promote the culture of the imperial examinations. This helps more Beijingers learn about the imperial examination system while further exploring traditional culture and better inheriting our long-standing historical legacy.

The museum houses a collection of over 500 wooden and stone plaques. Among them, there are nearly 50 stone plaques—a number unmatched domestically. The collection includes over 40 plaques inscribed by 32 top-ranking scholars (zhuangyuan) from the Ming and Qing dynasties, plaques by 13 second-place scholars (bangyan), and plaques by 12 third-place scholars (tanhua). The oldest zhuangyuan plaque dates back to the 16th year of the Yongle era in the Ming Dynasty, 589 years ago. The Yuan Dynasty imperial examination gate in our collection is the museum’s prized treasure.

Location

Xinwenhua Street, Chaoyang District, Beijing

Source: Beijing Municipal Commission of Tourism Development