This chapter presents an institutional and social analysis of the transformation of literati roles from 1650 to 1800, the early and mid-Ch'ing period. It describes the interactions between the examination marketplace and elite cultural practice. The chapter explores the rise of Han Learning and interest in natural studies, which shows importance of literati intellectual life in and outside the precincts of the Ch'ing state. Ch'ing examinations include policy questions dealing with the statecraft issues of fiscal policy, military organization, or political institutions of the day. Under the provincial education commissioners, three categories of Ming-Ch'ing local education officials were placed incharge of the schools. When the Ming dynasty came to power in 1368, the Han-lin Academy was a fully developed government institution. One factor that distinguished Ch'ing scholars from their Ming predecessors was the prominence of academies in forming a relatively autonomous intellectual community committed to evidential research.