LET'S BE honest. Ever since exams were invented, there have been cheats. How many of us have never thought about cheating in a test or exam even once?
Two recent archaeological finds on the mainland show us what cheats were up to in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912).
A piece of white silk covered with about 100,000 Chinese characters the size of rice grains has been found in Shaanxi province. The writing, done with a brush on an area measuring two metres by a half metre, contains excerpts from the Confucian classics The Four Books and The Five Classics.
'It is light and can be rolled into a small ball for smuggling into the exam venue,' the Huashang News reported.
In Zhejiang province, a set of two printed books - each 5.7cm by 4.3cm by 0.8cm - has been discovered, a Xinhua report said.
They are the smallest 'books for cheats' ever discovered - so small that they could fit into the sole of specially made shoes. But they carried the complete Commentary On The Five Classics and precautions to be taken during exams, a total of 280,000 characters.