Examination procedures

     By 1370, the examinations kept going somewhere around 24 and 72 hours, and were led in extra, confined examination rooms; once in a while, notwithstanding, it was held inside desk areas. The little rooms highlighted two sheets which could be set together to frame a bed or put on various levels to serve as a work area and seat. To get objectivity in assessment, applicants were distinguished by number as opposed to name, and examination answers were recopied by an outsider before being assessed to keep the competitor's penmanship from being perceived. 

                                          Examination procedures

     In the fundamental corridor of the magnificent royal residence amid the Tang and Song Dynasties there stood two stone statues. One was of a winged serpent and the other of Ao (鳌), the legendary turtle whose hacked off legs serve as columns for the sky in Chinese legend. The statues were raised on stone plinths in the focal point of a flight of stairs where effective competitors (jinshi) in the castle examination arranged to anticipate the perusing of their rankings from a parchment known as the jinbang (金榜). The initially positioned researcher got the title of Zhuàngyuán (狀元/状元), and the respect of remaining before the statue of Ao. This offered ascend to the utilization of the expressions "to have remained at Ao's head" (占鳌头 [Zhàn ào tóu]), or "to have remained solitary at Ao's head" (独占鳌头 [Dú zhàn ào tóu]) to portray a Zhuàngyuán, and all the more for the most part to allude to somebody who exceeds expectations in a specific field.