Meanings
- historicalIn ancient China, a scholar who has passed the entry-level examination to study at a college.
Hsü Shih-hsien [Xu Shixian], 1908–83, was born in T’ai-nan city, Taiwan. Her father, Hsü Huan-ch’ang [Xu Huanchang], was a “cultivated talent” (hsiu-ts’ai) of the former Ch’ing [Qing] dynasty; her mother's name was Ch’en Fu.
[2003, “Hsü Shih-hsien”, in Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Women, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 2331 more example
The author of The Compendium of Materia Medica was Li Shih-chen (1518-93), a pioneering scholar in the field of medicinal research in the late Ming. A native of Ch’i-chou in Hukuang (modern Ch’i-ch’un in Hupei), Li Shih-chen achieved the first-degree hsiu-ts'ai in 1531, but gave up obtaining the second-degree chü-jen after three unsuccessful attempts between 1534 and 1540.
[1992, Chun-shu Chang, Hsueh-lun Chang, “Crisis and Revolution in the Ming-Ch'ing Intellectual World: Li Yü's World in Historical Perspective”, in Crisis and Transformation in Seventeenth-Century China: Society, Culture, and Modernity in Li Yü's World, Paperback edition, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, published 1998, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, pages 285–286Synonyms: shengyuan
Synonyms & antonyms
nounIn ancient China, a scholar who has passed the entry-level examination to study at a college.
Origin
Transliteration from Mandarin 秀才 (xiùcái) via Hanyu Pinyin.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
xiucai. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/xiucai
“xiucai.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/xiucai. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “xiucai,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/xiucai.
Source: xiucai on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.