The Jinshi Academy(進士館) of the Imperial University(Jing-shi da-xue-tang), opened in May 26th 1904 according to the sudden order of the court in December 1902, was a symbol of the change of time. The highest elites who had succeeded in the final State Examination was forced to learn modern studies different from traditional studies, which was a new and strange attempt and was enough to be regarded as a symbol of change of time. It was a contraction of the time, the study on it is significant.
The Jinshi Academy was at first just like the Institute for the reeducation of newly advanced Jinshi, as we can see from 'the regulation of the Jinshi Academy' proclaimed in January 1904.
However, from 1903 newly advanced Jinshi was obliged to complete the 3-year course of all the curriculum composed of new studies.
Their entrance and graduation of the Jinshi Academy was obligatory. Jinshi who was appointed to county magistrate(知縣) because he was over 35-years old was also required to learn modern studies in Shi-xue Guan(仕學館) or Ke-li Guan(課吏館), which indicates that the court of Ching Dynasty emphasized very much newly appointed officials' learning of new studies. Here we can understand that the further research on Shi-xue Guan(仕學館) or Ke-li Guan(課吏館) in each province is another historical task in the future.
Shi-xue Guan which was reopened after the Righteous Rebellion succeeding to the Shi-xue Yuan(仕學院) which had first opened in the Imperial University became obscure in its meaning of existence due to the opening of the Jinshi Academy. Both of them were similar in their natures. Though it is said that Shi-xue Guan was incorporated into the Jinshi Academy, in fact it was not complete integration. Just the students of Shi-xue Guan was moved to the Jinshi Academy. It remained a different and independent course, with its own independent curriculum. Complete incorporation was impossible, because the status of students were different between these two groups.
'The Imperial school regulation' was rectified in September 1904, just 4 months after the opening of the Academy, which indicates that there were not a few problems in the early Jinshi Academy.
These newly advanced Jinshi who had succeeded in the final state examination came to have complaints about the coercive dormitory life and the compulsion of the new studies. So students were classified into two groups, a group of living in dormitory and another group of commuting to Academy, according to the 'rectified regulation', which might be the result of the complaints of the Jinshi. Hanlim Jungshu were classified as inner group who were supposed to live in the dormitory, and executive officials were classified as outer group who could commute to academy.
'The Rectified Regulation' pointed that some were not observing the academy rules and ordered a thorough obedience, which also indicates that the highest elites had complaints, feeling strange and uncomfortable about living in community and learning unfamiliar studies different from traditional studies. And 'the Regulation' also commanded that heterogeneous opinions concerning the state system should be strictly cracked down, which also indicates that while living together for study, Jinshi shared critical opinions about state system and dynasty.
The permission of Jinshi's study-abroad at his own expense was significant in the sense that it symbolized change of time. What did study-abroad mean and why was it necessary to Jinshi who had aready reached its peak in academic level? And what did the permission of study-abroad mean? At this time Ching authority does not seem to have permitted Jinshi to study abroad by its own will but because of the Jinshi's demands. A 'policy of abolishing the state examination 10 years later', which was decided together with "the Imperial School Regulations" of January 1904, has been attended to as a background of increase in the number of students studying abroad. Students who were studying in the Jinshi Academy demanded the permission of study-abroad, not only due to their complaints about living in dormitory and studying studies which were strange to them, but also in the expectation that larger freedom and promising future would be secured through studying abroad. On the other hand this indicates that Ching government and the elites literati class recognized the backwardness of China and the ineffectiveness of the education of the Jinshi Academy.
However, as the government policy to abolish the state examination 10 years later changed to that of immediate abolition in September 1905, the future of the Jinshi Academy was pessimistic, because there was no other entrance of the new Jinshi students any more. One year later, in August 1906, a change in the management of the Jinshi Academy and the dispatch of them to foreign nations were determined, which means that Ching government confessed that the establishment of the Jinshi Academy had been reckless in itself. By this government determination, the Jinshi Academy was proved not to have well settled down until that time, so the large scale of the Jinshi student who entered in the second year was decided to be dispatched to ToKyo Hosei University in Japan.
As the expense for the conduct of the Jinshi Academy was changed to the expense for the study-abroad, Jinshi were able to depart to study abroad not at their own expense but by the state financial support. The relation between the government's permission of the Jinshi Academy students to study abroad in September 1904 and the highest fever of study-abroad in 1906 is a subject of future research. It is true especially because this fever of study-abroad provided the Chinese history with the energy for the revolution. As situation changed, the Jinshi Academy got separated from the Imperial University being an independent educational institute, the Capital College of Law and Politics, which was opened in spring 1908. The Jinshi Academy lost its meaning completely at this stage of historical development.
The number of the first students of the Jinshi Academy was at least over 108 out of 1903's 315 Jinshis, for the number who took the graduation test was over 108. 34.3% of 1903's 315 Jinshis were enrolled. Rest of them went out to counties as magistrates and others did not attend the Academy due to different reasons. Most of the Jinshi students who had entered in the first year were inner group who stayed in the dormitory. And the second group of the Jinshi Academy students composed of the 273 Jinshi members of 1904 mostly graduated by passing through the test for students studying abroad, and the total 150 students are confirmed to have graduated this way. All the enrolled 150 students were the second group of the Jinshi Academy was about 54.9% out of 273 which were higher than first group.
The course of the Jinshi Academy was composed of 15 curriculums under the large three classification of traditional Ke(果) Da(達) Yi(藝), and each of these curriculums was again subdivided into several subjects. This system was different from the general practice dividing studies into the Chinese Study and the West Study, which indicates that new integrated study system transcending the distinction between the Chinese Study and the West Study.was being pursued. Especially the fact that the constitution of each nation was placed for study under the curriculum, 'the study of law', indicates many significant things, since the state structure and the political system of China would naturally be studied in comparison with those of the West while those of the West were being learned.
The Jinshi Academy students went out in a large scale to foreign nations to study, because the expense for study-abroad was paid by government. This made the bad educational situation of the Jinshi Academy worse. As a result, the second group of two inner students and 40 outer students who stayed in the country was required to study for themselves without attending the classroom.
The educational situation of the second group of students was sharply compared with that of the first group of students who were on the point of graduating in January 1907 after having completed the whole 6 semesters. The Jinshi Academy students composed of newly advanced Jinshi not only had many rules and regulation to observe, but enjoyed not a few privileges. They didn't have to pay tuitions. They were provided with free dormitory and food supply, and also paid some allowance beyond scholarships. They were able to study abroad by the financial support of government. When getting a good grade in the graduation test, they could be rewarded with higher government offices. The Jinshi Academy at first established as a desperate measure to consolidate the imperial system perished away for this and that reason. The variation of the Jinshi Academy seems to have been a symbolic change of time, containing various meanings and abstracting changes of time.