Paper short abstract:

The paper will analyse the State officials' examinations essays contained in Keikokushū (Collection for Ruling the Country, 827). Dated from 707 to 757, they all deal with ideological questions, and are essential to the understanding of the Confucian paradigms applied in the Nara period.

Paper long abstract:

Nara period official's education system was based on the Laws on Education (Gakuryō 学令), Section 11 of the Taihō ritsuryō (Taihō Era Penal and Administrative Code, 701). The 22 articles of laws concerned the State Academy, an institution belonging to the Ministry of Ceremonial (Shikibushō), its teachers, students, the curricula (the way of Classics and the way of Mathematics), the examinations, etc. After the 9-year course, the students had to pass the final examinations, writing two essays on a given subject (taisaku 対策). Twenty four of these officials' essays, dated from 707 to 757, have been handed down in the anthology Keikokushū 経国集 (Collection for Ruling the Country, 827); they deal with subjects as Confucian virtues, the importance of rites and culture, the behaviour of a sage and faithful State official, the ideological differences between Confucian and Taoist ideologies. These essays are essential to understand how theoretical questions were studied and assimilated, and what kind of knowledge and competence were required for officials. The analysis of the taisaku could help to understand which kind of Confucian paradigms were applied in the Nara period, how Japanese elite adapted and/or re-formulated the Chinese cultural system, and in which degrees and aspects the educational system affected Japanese administrative careers of State officials, in terms of stipends, career advancements and access to positions of real power.