Imperial Examination is a talent selection examination for ancient literati in China. Since the Wei and Jin Dynasties, officials have been selected from the children of powerful people in various places. Children of powerful people, regardless of merits and demerits, can be officials. Many people with humble origins but real talent and learning cannot hold senior positions in the central and local governments. In order to change this kind of malpractice, Emperor Wendi of Sui Dynasty began to select talents by subject examination. During the reign of Yang Di, Jinshi was formally established to evaluate candidates' views on current affairs and select talents according to the examination results. China's imperial examination system was formally born.

Imperial examination is a system of selecting officials through examinations in feudal dynasties. It is called imperial examination because it adopts the method of selecting scholars by subjects. The imperial examination system was implemented in the first year of Daye in Sui Dynasty (605), and the last Jinshi examination was held in the 31st year of Guangxu in Qing Dynasty (1905), which lasted more than 1300 years.