Page 61 - Chiense TExtiles, MET MUSEUM Pub 1934

CHINESE TEXTILES
all society is, but nevertheless logical and standing exact-
ly for his rank or for what he had gained in the particu-
lar segment in which he lived. The nine degrees were
not hereditary but were attained, as were even duke-
doms and kingdoms, for under the Chinese system of
government and education, one could, if one wished, go
first to local schools, and then by merit advance to coun-
ty schools and finally to the Imperial Academy, the Han
Lin, graduation from which meant an official appoint-
ment and a degree from which one might progress rank
by rank. And it is not a matter for ridicule that the exam-
inations consisted of original composition in prose and
poetry, for success meant a knowledge of the classic lit-
erature of the past, and rulers, great and petty, were re-
quired to be men of understanding and cultivation,
versed in the knowledge of what past generations had
found good rules to live by. For the most part they ruled
wisely, taxing the people no more than they could
bear, and facing the devastating floods and famines with _
a feeling of responsibility- consider the magistrate Li
of Hi.in Yuan, who threw himself into the raging river
to appease the wrath of the gods and so calm the floods,
a noble action worthy of being written into the history
of the glorious things men have done in the face of the
inevitable cruelties of nature.

The emperor moved forward clad in the yellow color
symbolic of Earth prescribed by the Emperor Wen of
the Sui dynasty. He was the Son of Heaven and thus the

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