Alicorn comments on The Great Brain is Located Externally - Less Wrong

25 Post author: Alicorn 25 June 2009 10:29PM

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Comment author: Alicorn 26 June 2009 04:28:11PM 0 points [-]

Or the Chinese civil service exam that consisted of reciting (IIRC) the Book of Songs, the Confucian Analects, and a few other things, from memory.

Comment author: thomblake 26 June 2009 04:34:35PM *  0 points [-]

Yeah, basically the "5 classics" and whatever else they felt was important at the time. Not necessarily reciting, though. Often it was being locked in a box for an extended period, expected to transcribe whole passages perfectly from memory.

ETA: Wikipedia link