I never really thought about it this way but that is kind of true... I mean I don't know if memorizing a bunch of confuciodaoan music and proverbs is the best system for talent assessment, but the imperial examination system was at least meritocratic in principle.It does raise some questions thoughbeit. Mainly did it actually spread outside of the sinosphere though? I know Japan and Korea, but did it make its way to Europe via the middle east?The Church was the equivalent in Europe and the only real quasi-meritocracy (still a lot of advancement due to birth), but did it pick that up indirectly from Asia? I'm not really clear on how meritocratic it was though actually, did The Church have an examination system? I know at least in Wolf Hall the conflict is produced by the friction causes due to Cardinal Wolsey being the son of a butcher.
>>18479245do you want a guy in charge of money be able to count up to one hundred or a million?
>>18479245>Mainly did it actually spread outside of the sinosphere though?Not really. It's more or less impossible to separate Chinese-style meritocracy from Confucianism and Chinese cultural context as a whole. Even the implementation in Japan was pretty faulty. Western meritocracy developed independently of the already existing Eastern current.
>>18479245>It does raise some questions thoughbeit. Mainly did it actually spread outside of the sinosphere though? I know Japan and Korea, but did it make its way to Europe via the middle east?No on both counts. As the first guy said, the chinese examination system relies on Chinese culture.>The Church was the equivalent in Europe and the only real quasi-meritocracy (still a lot of advancement due to birth), but did it pick that up indirectly from Asia?No. No evidence of such a practice in the middle east.>I'm not really clear on how meritocratic it was though actually, did The Church have an examination system? I mean not really, normal people did have to study to become priests (usually) but that wasn't an established rule or anything, ten year olds could become cardinals. Becoming a bishop or a Cardinal or anything important was mostly predicated on lineage. And iirc you don't need any pre-existing qualifications to join a monastic order.
