Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1907 edition. Excerpt: ... duckling was about to launch on waters where he could not follow. Chiu, driven at the point of the ruler, distinguished himself in the magistrate's examinations for junior candidates, and was entered to sit for the first degree at the next triennial visit of the Literary Chancellor. When the great man passed through the streets, borne by eight bearers in his green silk palanquin and attended by a retinue of local officers, the lad was deep in the jostling crowds, gaping with the best of them. The city was thronged by scholars of every condition in life, both rich and poor; polished citizens in flowing silks; rough villagers from the hills in robes of cotton homespun; young lads, the red blood still suffusing their yellow cheeks; toothless veterans of the pencil, faint yet pursuing in spite of wrinkles and white hair. These men, some nine thousand in number, accompanied by an army of servants and followers, were added to the population within the walls for the time being, and helped to fill the city to overflowing, whilst waiting to be examined according to their districts in groups of from one to three thousand. When the day arrived for Chiu's district to enter upon its trials, he was conducted to the examination hall and pushed in trembling within the gates. He nearly suffered shipwreck at the outset, when being searched for 'sleeve editions' or cribs, answering wildly and looking so unlike a candidate, that had it not been for his credentials, he would have been driven from the place. Seated at last on the allotted bench, panic took the lad as he looked right and left, where some three thousand men were ranged row upon row in long shed-like buildings, edging a grass-grown stone court. He shifted nervously upon his seat and scarcely...
