Proof of Character for Imperial Servant

[ericthered]

I'm building out the next scenarios for my next real-time game. One of those scenarios involves solving a murder (and through it evidence for a brewing coup) in an imperial court mostly based on the old Chinese imperial court.



How would one prove that they have passed the imperial exams? Pyramid 87 talks about measures to ensure that the exams were graded correctly, but what about proving it afterwards? Is it paperwork the person carries on themselves? Is it records stored at the capital? In a rural environment, everyone knows your family and history and if you passed or not, but in a urban one, how do you weed out which of the new arrivals actually passed the test?



I'm looking at faking either the exams for planted assassins/agents in court or at assuming the identity of someone who had secured a position at court.



In a related question, presumably the servants at the court are drawn from trustworthy sources, but haven't passed the exams. How would a steward make sure the servants are trustworthy? How would factions at court go about inserting or recruiting agents among the servants?


I'm interested in both historical answers and just plain good thinking: the setting is BASED on imperial china, not the real thing.


thanks!

[TGLS]

Originally Posted by ericthered

How would one prove that they have passed the imperial exams? Pyramid 87 talks about measures to ensure that the exams were graded correctly, but what about proving it afterwards?

...

I'm looking at faking either the exams for planted assassins/agents in court or at assuming the identity of someone who had secured a position at court.

OK; I'm not sure about the first part of the question. However, with regard to the second part, my understanding is that the examinations were a four stage process. The first two exams were held locally and in provincial capitals, while the last two were held in the national capital. In order to receive an actual appointment (as opposed to simply the ability to avoid certain taxes and corporal punishment), you needed to pass the last examination, which was overseen by the emperor directly. The graduating class of each triennial examination was so small (i.e. 60-100 people depending on the era) that it's probable that most of the bureaucrats either knew or knew someone who knew any given recent graduate. Failing that, there were probably records held within the capital which could verify that.

[Varyon]

For a bureaucracy, I would expect at least two, possibly three, proofs to be in play. First, the successful applicant would have some physical proof of passing the exams. I would expect this to be some sort of paperwork, stamped with an official seal of some sort (possibly that of the exam proctor, or the person who graded it), but some sort of physical token (again with an official seal - or maybe it itself is a seal) could also be used - indeed you may well have both, using the token like a badge for casual passage and the paperwork for more official passage. The second (or third) proof would be official documentation stored at one or more government offices. This last I would expect to be consulted as an additional security check before letting someone get access to a sensitive location (to prevent forgeries from getting through), to check against if someone is suspected of using a forged/stolen diploma/token, and to allow someone to replace a lost/damaged diploma/token.

That said, I have no knowledge of the old Chinese imperial court, this is more just what I'd expect to be the case.

[Dalillama]

There were central records kept of all the people who had passed the exams; in the case of provincial examinations copies were kept by the province as well. Graduates were issued papers certifying their passing, and scholars of the highest rank were entitled to wear green robes as a symbol of achievement.