WORLD HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -In the Song meritocracy, bureaucrats earned and kept their positions according to their abilities and performances. The Song government was based on Confucian traditions that required the state’s most talented and educated subjects to serve in the government.

Detailed explanation-2: -Imperial China was famous for its civil service examination system, which had its beginnings in the Sui dynasty (581-618 CE) but was fully developed during the Qing dynasty.

Detailed explanation-3: -Beginning in the late tenth century, in the early Northern Song, the government bureaucracy was staffed entirely by scholar-officials chosen through a civil examination system. The highest degree, the jinshi (“presented scholar”), was awarded as the culmination of a three-stage process.

Detailed explanation-4: -In the Song dynasty, the aristocratic families declined, and political power was held entirely by the emperor. The emperor’s position was thus consolidated, and he could control officials at will.

Detailed explanation-5: -Just a few of these advancements included improvements in agriculture, development of moveable type, uses for gunpowder, invention of a mechanical clock, superior shipbuilding, the use of paper money, compass navigation, and porcelain production.