Confucianism as State Ideology and Religion

Confucianism became state orthodoxy under Emperor Wu of Han (r. 141-87 BCE), largely through the advocacy of the scholar Dong Zhongshu, who argued around 136 BCE that the Five Classics should form the basis of official education and that Confucian scholars should staff the imperial bureaucracy. This fusion of Confucian learning with political power gave rise, over subsequent centuries, to the imperial examination system (keju), which tested candidates on their mastery of the classical canon and its approved commentaries. Though its origins lie in earlier recruitment practices, the examination system was substantially formalized under the Sui and Tang dynasties (from the late sixth century CE onward) and reached its mature, highly competitive form under the Song.