明代の廷試合格者と初任官ポスト : 「同年齒録」とその統計的利用

Abstract

The author presents a complex picture of the successful candidates of the final palace examination particularly the connection between their ages of passing the examination and initial appointments under the civil service examination system of the Ming Dynasty. Recent studies, in his view, failed to deal with this aspect of the examination system properly due to the bias in the historical materials concerned. Hence, this article tries to reinforce our understanding of this aspect through statistical analysis based on several Tong-nian-shi-lu (Lists of successful candidates by order of seniority in age). It can be summarized as follows: 1. The Ming Jin-shi 進士's average graduate age was about 31. 2. Most of the Jin-shi graduates 進士及第者' initial appointments were district magistrate 知縣, secretary of the six ministries 六部主事, judge of prefecture 推官, messenger of the messenger office 行人司行人. 3. The Jin-shi graduates preferred to receive the third-class honours 三甲 and be appointed as judge of prefecture or district magistrate rather than receive the second-class honours 二甲 and be appointed as secretary of the six ministries.