Lidai gongju zhi 歷代貢舉志

Feng Mengzhen's 馮夢禎 (1548-1605) Lidai gongju zhi 歷代貢舉志 "The recruitment of state officials through the ages" is a short overview of the system of appointees from the Zhou period down to the Ming period.

Feng Mengzhen, courtesy name Kaizhi 開之, style Juqu 具區 or Zhenshi Jushi 真實居士, hailed from Xiushui 秀水 (today's Jiaxing 嘉興, Zhejiang), and was in 1592 appointed Chancellor (jijiu 祭酒) of the Directorate of Education (guozijian 國子監) in the southern capital Nanjing 南京.

The text includes information about the themes of the metropolitan examinations, name lists of the best of the successful candidates, the chief examiners of the provincial and metropolitan examinations, and mention such that obtained that highest honours in the course of their career, like Hanlin bachelors (shujishi 庶吉士), 'ministers' (mingchen 名臣), administrators of the Imperial Household (neiwufu 内務府), or grand ministers of the first and second official rank.

It is part of the series Gongjuzhi wuzhong 貢舉志五種, published by Chen Wenxin 陳文新 in 2009, which also includes the texts Huang-Ming gongju kao 皇明貢舉志 (with the appendix Gongju jilüe 貢舉紀略) by Zhang Chaorui 張朝瑞 (1536-1608), Huang-Ming sanyuan kao 皇明三元考 by Zhang Hongdao 張弘道 and Zhang Ningdao 張凝道, Zengbu gongju kaolüe 增補貢舉考略 (i.e. Ming gongju kaolüe 明貢舉考略 and Guochao gongju kaolüe 國朝貢舉考略/Qing gongju kaolüe 清貢舉考略) by Huang Chonglan 黃崇蘭, and Guochao gongju nianbiao 國朝貢舉年表 by Chen Guolin 陳國霖. Feng Mengzhen's book is also found in the series Xuehai leibian 學海類編 and Xuxiu siku quanshu 續修四庫全書.