Heroes within Bowshot: Examination Administration, the Lower Yangzi Delta, and the Qing Consolidation of Empire, 1645-1720

Abstract

Fashishan, Qingmi shuwen (Gleanings from the palace precincts), 3–24.The early Qing administrative unit Jiangnan comprised Jiangsu and Anhui provinces, and the Jiangnan provincial examination (xiangshi) in which scholars from both provinces competed took place in Jiangning (Nanjing). In other usage, “Jiangnan” can also indicate the Yangzi Delta region “south of the [Yangzi] River,” including northern Zhejiang province. To avoid confusion, ‘lower Yangzi Delta region’ will indicate this broader geographical designation and corresponding economic macroregion. 3 Xu Qianxue and Xu Bingyi placed third in the examinations of 1670 and 1673, respectively. See Struve, “The Hsu Brothers”; and Dennerline, Chia–ting Loyalists, 311. 4