Below are the topic assignments for memorials. Please be prepared to present about a five-minute speech (2-3 written pages) regarding your topic on Thursday.
Christine and Mike:
Is the present examination system the best means of recruiting effective officials? Do the Confucian texts prepare one well to serve as an official? Is the system truly meritocratic? Are the best men being found? Should the present examination system be entirely – or in part- replaced by a system of recommendation? Is there another system that might work better?
David, Emily, and John:
In recent years state revenue has been falling. Is the government monopoly on salt a legitimate way to raise revenue? (See Discourse on Salt and Iron in the appendix; see also “State and Society under the Ming,” in China: Tradition and Transformation.) What do you see as the advantages and disadvantages of government monopolies? What other methods might be employed to raise government revenue? Should there be a more aggressive tax on commerce? How do you propose it work? Could there be a tax on foreign trade? Should the government sell licenses to those engaging in foreign trade? On what grounds would the government determine who should receive a license? Consider these questions and others and then propose means by which the government could strengthen its fiscal conditions.
Katie and Melissa:
Banditry and peasant revolts have sprung up throughout the empire. In your opinion, what is their cause? What can and should be done to bring an end to them?
Tasha and Drew:
What makes for a good, effective ruler?
Erin and Marie:
The Yellow River continues to be an enormous problem, breaking through its dykes and flooding much of the surrounding countryside. Famine, death, and banditry have become widespread. What can be done to improve control of the Yellow River? And, at what cost?
Kainen and Nick:
Propose the main question for the metropolitan examination of the civil service examination to be held next month in Beijing. Pick a passage from a Confucian text (e.g. the Analects or The Book of History), pose a question, and then present a model answer.
Shannon:
Interpret the Confucian Analect found in Book 2, Analect 3.
The Son of the Most High awaits your words. Prepare with wisdom.
-First Grand Secretary
Christine and Mike:
Is the present examination system the best means of recruiting effective officials? Do the Confucian texts prepare one well to serve as an official? Is the system truly meritocratic? Are the best men being found? Should the present examination system be entirely – or in part- replaced by a system of recommendation? Is there another system that might work better?
David, Emily, and John:
In recent years state revenue has been falling. Is the government monopoly on salt a legitimate way to raise revenue? (See Discourse on Salt and Iron in the appendix; see also “State and Society under the Ming,” in China: Tradition and Transformation.) What do you see as the advantages and disadvantages of government monopolies? What other methods might be employed to raise government revenue? Should there be a more aggressive tax on commerce? How do you propose it work? Could there be a tax on foreign trade? Should the government sell licenses to those engaging in foreign trade? On what grounds would the government determine who should receive a license? Consider these questions and others and then propose means by which the government could strengthen its fiscal conditions.
Katie and Melissa:
Banditry and peasant revolts have sprung up throughout the empire. In your opinion, what is their cause? What can and should be done to bring an end to them?
Tasha and Drew:
What makes for a good, effective ruler?
Erin and Marie:
The Yellow River continues to be an enormous problem, breaking through its dykes and flooding much of the surrounding countryside. Famine, death, and banditry have become widespread. What can be done to improve control of the Yellow River? And, at what cost?
Kainen and Nick:
Propose the main question for the metropolitan examination of the civil service examination to be held next month in Beijing. Pick a passage from a Confucian text (e.g. the Analects or The Book of History), pose a question, and then present a model answer.
Shannon:
Interpret the Confucian Analect found in Book 2, Analect 3.
The Son of the Most High awaits your words. Prepare with wisdom.
-First Grand Secretary
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