Social Mobility in Late Imperial China: Reconsidering the “Ladder of Success” Hypothesis

Abstract

Using unique data, we test whether the civil examination system in late imperial China (1796–1905) constituted a route to social mobility. We find that measures of both ability and “family type”—specifically the upper gentry family type—consistently predict success in the highest level exam, the jinshi, while direct proxies for wealth do not. Specifically, the higher the level of the father’s education the greater the odds of passing the first stage of the jinshi exam—the metropolitan exam. But in the final stage of the jinshi exam (the palace exam), where candidates were examined only on their knowledge of statecraft, it is the official rank of one’s father and ancestors, which we use to proxy for family-specific tacit knowledge (or “cultural capital”), that significantly predicts the final ranking and class of honors—both of which crucially determined entry into the Hanlin Academy and subsequent career trajectories. Thus, while it unwittingly facilitated mobility, the civil examination system transmitted hidden advantages among those endowed with more than just human capital.