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The imperial examination was a highly competitive endeavour which required both effort and luck. For every round of examinations, only a selected few were awarded top honours among tens of thousands of candidates. Many were tempted to take shortcuts to success by cheating. A variety of tools and tricks were used, including bribery, and cheats were caught frequently. This is a replica of a linen vest which was used for cheating in the imperial examination during the Qing dynasty. Hidden inside are 62 "eight-legged essays" with a total of more than 40,000 characters. This artefact is from the Shanghai Jiading Museum.
 
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