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Written examinations were being used to select Chinese civil servan as far back as the 2nd century BC - at a time when government jobs elsewhere in the world were largely filled by the relatives of protégés of those in power. By the time of the Tang dynasty (AD 618 - 906), this principle of selecting public officials on the basis of merit had developed into a system of centralised public examinations open to all. A Jesuit missionary, Matteo Ricci, who reached China in 1583, described how the system worked. Exams lasted several days, he said, and candidates were allowed all day to write their answers. Ricci also reported that the Chinese took enormous trouble to avoid even the possibility of favouritism affecting the examiners’ marks. When the exams were over, he said, the completed Papers all had to be copied out by another hand in order to conceal the candidate's identity from the examiners.