Can descendants of Ming Dynasty businessmen take the imperial examination?

The descendants of businessmen in the Ming Dynasty can not only take the imperial examination, but also the Ming government constantly provides convenience for businessmen with great mobility to take the imperial examination.

"Around the middle of the Ming Dynasty, in addition to the relocation and settlement of negative businesses, there were a large number of floating population such as refugees and runaway households in the society for other reasons. Obviously, the traditional household registration system for managing population can no longer meet the needs of reality. After a series of adjustments, the government first granted refugees and fugitives the right to stay in different places for temporary residence and detention. In terms of liquidity, passive traders are no different from refugees and fugitives, but in terms of financial resources, they are not the same. Their economic strength can ensure that they can quickly take root in their place of residence (of course, many people occupy their property by force). They buy industries, build houses, build cemeteries and raise children in their business premises, and their descendants "get married here and eat and wear here, which is different from the indigenous world producers"; When they return home, they will be rejected by the villagers because of "different words, unfamiliar faces and no job to test". Therefore, during the period of Jia Zheng and Jiaqing, the government also gave them the same rights as other migrant workers, that is, to issue accounts in different places or attach accounts. In the sixth year of Jiajing (1527), the imperial court ordered: "Except for mobile merchants, anyone who has set up shop fronts for a long time will be subordinate to Waner County for rates. "Although this is aimed at those who have been doing business in the capital for many years and have settled their industries, because this phenomenon has been widespread throughout the country, it has also affected the whole country, and all localities have followed suit. In some places, according to their own needs, businessmen living in their places of residence and in foreign countries are also recognized, and special books are set up for floating families and included in the books. Businessmen, refugees and fugitives are allowed to register in different places. " [ 196]

What is the impact of this reform? That is, even if the industrial and commercial class goes to other places because of business and production activities, they can still sign up for the imperial examination locally. If there used to be some obstacles and troubles for the merchant class to train their children to take the imperial examination, now even such troubles have been completely eliminated.

This is much more convenient than our college entrance examination today, and it is also cracking down on college entrance examination immigrants. Of course, the background is different and cannot be generalized. From this perspective, we can also think about who the bureaucratic class became after the Ming Dynasty.

The above information is taken from Du Chebei's The Death of the Ming Dynasty and the Advanced Development of China's Ancient Political System.