1 Introduction: the examination life

1.3 The examination literature
p10
(Kracke and Ho's) mobility thesis and its accompanying model of Chinese society has come under challenge in recent years...
First...it confuses status group with class...
Second...ignores ssuch critical factors as lineage,marriage relationships, and even siblings and uncles...

Hartwell's opinion: p11-12 
marriage, not examinations, was the critical criterion for entrance into a socially-defined elite...however...
First...it does not rove that examinations were unimportant...
Moreover...examination was (not) the completely dependent variable...even as marriage could aid one in the examinations, so could examination success be of benefit for social climbing through marriage.
Second, there is an inherent imprecision in speaking of "elite lineages," for Chinese lineage could be extremely heterogeneous bodies, as their common charity provisions for poor members bear witness.To belong to an elite lineage did not mean that one was elite, although the connection undoubtedly conferred many benefits upon the poor member unavailable to his unconnected neighbors. Thus under the umbrella of the lineage and perhaps concealed by it, there was ample opportunity for individual and family mobility, both upwards and downwards.
Third...does not take into accountthe growing centrality of schools and examinations in Sung society.

aim of the study: p13
conjunction between institution and society..emphasis will be upon the social functions of the examination system and people's perceptions of it, and esp. how those changed during the 3 century span of the Sung.