HKDSE Chinese History Paper 1 Mock (2027): Compulsory and Elective Questions with Answers

Question 1

(a) Enfeoffment rested on kinship (same-clan sons and brothers) and merit, and was graded, forming a ranking of Son of Heaven, lords, ministers and grand officers, and knights (4 marks, 2 each). (b) Its purpose was to make the kinsmen states a protective screen around the royal house, using blood ties to secure the throne and ward off enemies (4 marks). (c) For: the lords shielded the royal house, so early Zhou was stable and its territory expanded (3 marks); against: the lords held hereditary land, people and troops, so as blood ties thinned their centrifugal pull grew, ending in the struggle for hegemony of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods (3 marks). (d) The clan system fixed succession by the eldest legitimate son, ranking legitimate from illegitimate and senior from junior, and apportioned political and sacrificial rights; feudalism distributed land and titles by the same kinship order. Together they merged family and state, blood and politics to uphold the hierarchy (6 marks).

Question 2

(a) Setting up military industries (Jiangnan Arsenal, Fuzhou Navy Yard) and establishing civilian enterprises, a navy and overseas study (4 marks, 2 each). (b) It means keeping China’s Confucian ethics and political system as the substance (ti) while adopting only Western machinery and techniques as the use (yong) – learning from the West without touching the fundamental system (4 marks). (c) In guiding thought, “substance and use” borrowed only implements and left the system untouched, so corruption and institutional defects were never cured (4 marks); in scope, it was led by a few provincial officials without central planning and was blocked by conservatives (4 marks). (d) The lesson was that self-strengthening at the level of machinery alone cannot bring wealth and power; reform must reach the institutional and political level, which is exactly what the Hundred Days’ Reform attempted (4 marks).

Question 1

Model-answer points (25-mark scheme): (1) Political unification: abolishing feudalism for the commandery-county system and setting up a centralised bureaucracy (chancellor, imperial secretary, grand commandant), laying the institutional foundation of later dynastic unity (8). (2) Cultural and economic unification: standardising the script (small seal), currency (round coin with square hole) and weights and measures to erase regional difference (7). (3) Consolidation: building the imperial highways and the Great Wall and imposing intellectual uniformity (the book burning) – controversial, but they tightened central control (5). (4) Influence and limits: the commandery-county system outlasted Qin, but harsh law and tyranny brought its rapid fall, showing unity cannot rest on coercion alone (5).

Question 2

Model-answer points (25-mark scheme): (1) An emperor open to remonstrance: Taizong took Sui’s fall as a lesson and kept outspoken advisers such as Wei Zheng, so “listening to both sides” reduced policy errors (7). (2) Merit-based appointment: ministers such as Fang Xuanling and Du Ruhui, plus a perfected Three Departments-Six Ministries system and civil-service examinations, widened the talent pool (7). (3) Light taxes and people-first rule: the equal-field and zu-yong-diao systems eased the peasants’ burden, restored production and steadied society (6). (4) An open, cosmopolitan posture: peace and trade with neighbouring peoples and cultural openness gave the era a stable environment (5).

Question 3

Model-answer points (25-mark scheme): (1) Agriculture and handicrafts: Champa rice and better tools raised yields; textiles, porcelain and shipbuilding flourished (6). (2) The commercial revolution: the fang-shi ward system broke down and night markets appeared; the world’s earliest paper money, the jiaozi, emerged in Sichuan; maritime trade boomed with superintendencies of maritime trade (8). (3) The southward shift of the economic centre was completed: southern population and taxes overtook the north (5). (4) Significance: urbanisation and a lively urban culture arose, and the commodity economy laid the foundation for later dynasties (6).

Question 1

Model-answer points (25-mark scheme): (1) Similarities: both aimed at national survival and both accepted learning from the West (5). (2) Difference in idea: the Yangwu “substance and use” borrowed only machinery and left the system intact, while the Hundred Days’ Reform reached the political system, seeking constitutional monarchy and bureaucratic reform (8). (3) Difference in result: Yangwu ran over thirty years with some real gains but was exposed as a failure by defeat in the Sino-Japanese War; the Hundred Days’ Reform lasted a little over a hundred days before Empress Dowager Cixi crushed it (8). (4) Assessment: Yangwu opened the door to modernisation and the Reform carried salvation to the institutional level – continuous yet deepening (4).

Question 2

Model-answer points (25-mark scheme): (1) Ending over two millennia of monarchy: it overthrew the Qing and founded the Republic of China, a fundamental change of the political system (8). (2) Spreading democratic republicanism: the Provisional Constitution affirmed popular sovereignty and separation of powers, ideas that took root (7). (3) Opening modernisation and social change: cutting the queue, abolishing the kowtow, and promoting industry and modern schooling drove social transformation (5). (4) Limits: power soon fell to Yuan Shikai and then to warlords, so the republic was nominal at first – yet republicanism became an irreversible direction (5).

Question 3

Model-answer points (25-mark scheme): (1) Economic transformation: after the 1978 Third Plenum, the shift from planned to market economy and the household-responsibility system in the countryside produced rapid growth (8). (2) Opening to the world: special economic zones such as Shenzhen attracted foreign capital and technology and integrated China into the global economy (7). (3) Social and intellectual change: rising living standards, faster urbanisation and an opening of thought (5). (4) Challenges: regional gaps and environmental costs followed, requiring continued deepening of reform (5).