Scholar-officials, also known as
Scholar-gentlemen,
Scholar-bureaucrats or
Scholar-gentry were civil servants appointed by the
emperor of China to perform day-to-day governance from the
Han dynasty to the end of the
Qing dynasty in 1912,
China's last imperial dynasty. After the
Sui dynasty these officials mostly came from the
scholar-gentry (绅士
shēnshì) who had earned academic degrees (such as
xiucai,
juren, or
jinshi) by passing the
imperial examinations. The scholar-officials were schooled in
calligraphy and
Confucian texts. They dominated the government and local life of China until 1911.