Christopher Wallis writes:
This may have been quibbled already, however I recently saw an episode on Dave were Stephen says that written exams were invented in England in 1792. I have learned through my University degree however that written exams took place in China as far back as 133 CE for qualification to the civil service.
An elf replies:
Thanks Christopher. I think we have been a little simplistic, or merely anglocentric here; it is a slapped wrist and 100 lines for the elves.
In 1792, the man who invented the sandwich was born and the guillotine was first used and a professor called William Farish came up with the idea of assigning a numerical ranking to academic work - it was the birth of the system that is used in the English speaking world today. Althought it's highly unlikely, he could easily have got his idea from Ancient China, where written tests had been going since at least the 14th century.
Although the Han Civil Service exams were taking place from around 115 AD, there is little evidence that they were written until 1370 when they definitely were so. At that time, candidates were placed in isolation cells for 72 hours. They were provided with food, water and bedding and lived in the cell for three days, during which time they were required to attempt all the papers. In order to ensure that the marker was not biased, students did not write their names on their scripts, but a code number - moreover, so that they could not recognise a student's handwriting, the completed scripts were transcribed by a third party before being submitted for marking. The exam was not finally abolished until 1909, by which time the syllabus had been little changed for a thousand years or more.
One could ask whether these exams were marked in the same way as the Farish numerical score. Well, the students in China certainly were ranked, in numerical order, with results being announced to all with the "releasing of the roll," it was a great honour to be ranked number one. If anything it was more thorough than today's marking systems. Overall, it must be said that the question is something of a black mark against the elves. C minus: Must do Better.
Sources:
http://www.beijingtouree.com/index.php/chinese-culture/tradition/38-tradition/302-chinese-imperial-examination-system
EBR
http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6021570
Do you have a bone to pick with QI? E-mail us here: elves@qi.com
Or watch us tweet at http://twitter.com/qikipedia
This may have been quibbled already, however I recently saw an episode on Dave were Stephen says that written exams were invented in England in 1792. I have learned through my University degree however that written exams took place in China as far back as 133 CE for qualification to the civil service.
An elf replies:
Thanks Christopher. I think we have been a little simplistic, or merely anglocentric here; it is a slapped wrist and 100 lines for the elves.
In 1792, the man who invented the sandwich was born and the guillotine was first used and a professor called William Farish came up with the idea of assigning a numerical ranking to academic work - it was the birth of the system that is used in the English speaking world today. Althought it's highly unlikely, he could easily have got his idea from Ancient China, where written tests had been going since at least the 14th century.
Although the Han Civil Service exams were taking place from around 115 AD, there is little evidence that they were written until 1370 when they definitely were so. At that time, candidates were placed in isolation cells for 72 hours. They were provided with food, water and bedding and lived in the cell for three days, during which time they were required to attempt all the papers. In order to ensure that the marker was not biased, students did not write their names on their scripts, but a code number - moreover, so that they could not recognise a student's handwriting, the completed scripts were transcribed by a third party before being submitted for marking. The exam was not finally abolished until 1909, by which time the syllabus had been little changed for a thousand years or more.
One could ask whether these exams were marked in the same way as the Farish numerical score. Well, the students in China certainly were ranked, in numerical order, with results being announced to all with the "releasing of the roll," it was a great honour to be ranked number one. If anything it was more thorough than today's marking systems. Overall, it must be said that the question is something of a black mark against the elves. C minus: Must do Better.
Sources:
http://www.beijingtouree.com/index.php/chinese-culture/tradition/38-tradition/302-chinese-imperial-examination-system
EBR
http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6021570
Do you have a bone to pick with QI? E-mail us here: elves@qi.com
Or watch us tweet at http://twitter.com/qikipedia
To be pedantic here, is it correct to say 115 AD, rather than AD 115? After all, it is short for anno domini (or 'in the year of Our Lord') 115.
I recently brought the QI book, The Book Of General Ignorance, and wish to Quibble something i read. The book stated that the Nursurey Rhyme "Ring-a-ring-a-roses" dated back to a time before the plague and that the words were changed during the pandemic. My family and I all believed this to be wrong and i though i should ask for proof on this point.
Sorry about my last comment, i know it has nothing to do with the blog, i am new to this and am not quite sure how i do it. :)
As I say in my recently written hisory of the far east "How China invented and discovered evrything centuries before the West did", China had early hominids 5 million years before they evolved in Africa, dinosaurs were made extinct in China by an asteroid impact 50 million years before they were wiped out in the west. China invented asteroids. The concept of a Messiah was created in China 5000 years before the Jews came up with the idea. The Pyramid is actually a Chinese architectural style, devised 1000 years before the Egyptians thought of it. Curries are an ancient form of culinary art, from which all current Canton cooking evolved. The Chinese invented holidays and discovered sunshine, water, air. God was Chinese and if you study the shapes of the continents from space you will see that they can be formed into the Cantonese symbol for "Kilroy woz ere"
A few months back Stephen said that boys where wearing shorts because of war shortages. This is not true boys wore shorts up to the age of 13 then changed to long ones ..I know because I was there.Peter age 73 and 8 months
I can't work out how to add a query/correction of what has been said on the show, so I've resorted to leaving this comment, though I doubt anyone will find it.
I was watching Dave and one of the Christmas episodes was on. They were talking about the nativity and the fact there was no room at the inn. Steven (who I have to say is one of my role models) said that the inn was like an inn would be today, like a hotel, and so they had to sleep in a stable. In fact, I go to a Christian-ethos school who have taught us from year 7 that in fact Mary and Joseph will have stayed at Josephs family's house, as they would always stay with their family who lived in the town they were in. They were there for a census along wiht the rest of his big family, who would have also stayed at home, so there was no room. The 'inn' is actually a raised platform that would be at the back on the house/room they lived in where people would sleep, and the animals would be brought into the house on the non raised part at night so they weren't stolen, so it was like a stable. Mary and Joseph will have had to sleep with the animals because there was no room on the inn because of the rest of Josephs family, and Jesus would have been put in the manger form the animals. So it would have been very full!
Thank you. I hope you get this and correct it on your next Christmas show!
I too do not know how to leave a comment. My comment is on human body heat.
More body heat is lost through breathing through the mouth than any other part of the body. I am sure a panel of doctors and physicists could explain why.
Good Luck to us both, getting the message out.
I too can't find how to start a new thread! My quibble is with QI's "Fact of the day", as shown on the BBC homepage, which states that Abingdon is the longest continually inhabited town in the UK. I used to live in Thatcham, Berks, and it's only claim to fame is that it is actually the longest continually inhabited town. This is stated in the Guiness Book of Records, and also in an article written by the BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/berkshire/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_8327000/8327303.stm
Please don't take away the only good thing to happen to Thatcham!
I have a quibble with today's 'Fact of Today'. Abortion, strictly speaking, is still illegal. All that the Abortion Act does is provide a statutory defence to medical professionals conducting abortions in specified circumstances. The common law defence of necessity is also still available but very rarely used.
I'm a medical student from Bristol - and I just had to correct QI about something they said on the Eyes and Ears episode on recently. Stephen Fry said that, if both parents have attached lobes, their baby couldn't possibly have unattached lobes because the unattached lobe gene is dominant. This is wrong because, although it is the dominant gene, if both parents possess the recessive gene (as everyone has two versions of each gene), it is possible that the baby will by chance inherit both recessive genes and no dominant, in which case, it would have unattached lobes.
You've got it the wrong way round. If both parents have a dominant and a recessive gene, they will have unattached lobes, and the baby will have a 75% chance of getting unattached lobes and a 25% chance of getting attached lobes, the latter only possible if it inherits the recessive gene from both parents. On the other hand, if both parents have attached lobes, they must both have two recessive genes, and the baby must also have two recessive genes and therefore attached lobes, as was said on the programme.
tonights episode (fri 27th aug 2010) that the plethysmograph went out of use in the 1980s...
which comes a surprise to me, having been trained as a specialist operator at Broadmoor Hospital in Berkshire as late as 2000, and i am very aware that upon my departure i was replaced by a new operator - rather than machine decommissioned!