The feudal era of Chinese competition

The booklet has hundreds of years of age and records Tu Thu Ngu Ngu Kinh was used by the students of Minh and life of Thanh was used as a contest to be presented in a conference in Hunan province on April 17.

The float was introduced at an ancient book conference in Changsha City, China.(Photo: SCMP).

The buoy is about the size of a match box, a small word like a grain of rice, a popular type of buoy in the world of Minh and Thanh students (1368-1911). Candidates often sew a float on a shirt or shoe sole to bypass the supervisor and bring it to the exam school, said Long Guisheng, director of an old bookstore in Hunan.

According to SCMP, the academic regime takes place over 1,300 years in Chinese history, exam questions often rely on ancient books such as the works of Confucius.

In 2009, a pontoon was discovered in Qingdao City, Shandong Province. The buoy has 160 pages, 6cm long, 5cm wide, and more than 140,000 words. Another buoy that was found in Hainan province has 32 pages, containing 32 million characters, costing up to 10,700 USD.

Shi Xiaoyan, vice president of the Association of Chinese Collectors, said the value of ancient Chinese books, paintings and porcelain is often very high. However, he did not reveal the identity of the owner of the exhibition buoy in Truong Sa as well as its value.