Johnson, Leah: Credentialing

Could you imagine life without knowledge? Without curiosity or wonder? For centuries there has been the need for learning. For people to obtain an education, it meant the need for “tests” to determine one’s worth or abilities.

            In ancient China, an emperor devised a way to allow the peasants in his domain to gain higher positions by taking an exam to test their knowledge. More and more people would take the test and gain those positions which eventually led to more “degree-holders than there were positions.” After the Ming Dynasty fell, the Qing, their successors, decided to make the exam more difficult to resolve this problem. However, the exam failure of one man, Hong Xiuquan, led to the “bloodiest conflict of the 19^th century,” which killed 20 million people, after he became discouraged to the point of being sick and delirious. After he converted to Christianity and failed the exam two more times. Later, he “convinced himself and a band of other young men defeated by the test that he was Christ’s younger brother,” and believed it was his “destiny to build a heavenly kingdom purged of sexual depravity”. Therefore, he gathered an army and began to conquer China.

                        I would not go as far as Hong if I failed at an important test. Even if it was, for example, the test to determine whether or not I should get my degree. I believe that if I wasn’t meant to have a degree then I wouldn’t fail in my attempt to obtain it. If I didn’t attempt to go to college then I would probably end up in a dead end job with little income to support myself or a future family. Having a degree allows me to be able to get the better jobs that are out there so I will be able to support myself and a future family. Which I think was Hong’s true purpose as well others who wanted to pass that exam.

            Knowledge is power, but the ability to wield that power in a positive way is, for lack of a better euphemism, the difference between good and evil. Hong wanted to gain a higher standing, but lacked the knowledge required to pass the difficult examination. This allowed him to lose sight of his goal and instead of pursuing it went on to try and conquer China.