元朝的科舉制度是當時特殊政治社會結構的反映。蒙古、色目人在科舉中與漢族享有相等的配額，則可說是元朝科舉制度的一大特色。蒙古、色目人為征服族群，與漢族地位不同，其固有文化與漢族亦大有差異。本文係根據《元統元年進士錄》及筆者重構之其他十五科進士錄，自三方面探討蒙古、色目進士的背景及其與登科的關係。自家族仕宦經歷言之，多達八成的蒙古、色目進士出身於官宦家族，而來自布衣之家者不過二成。可見科舉制度的主要作用在於為官宦子弟增加一修入仕的途徑，但亦為原來甚為閉鎖的蒙古、色目統治菁英階層注入數量不大，卻甚重要的新血。自族群分布言之，蒙古各族原有文化水平頗為近似，科舉所產進士的數目亦甚平均。而色目各族所產生進士人數的多寡則與其本族原有文化水平的高低具有密切的關聯。自婚姻關係言之，甚多蒙古、色目進士的家族早已與漢族建立密切的通婚關係，嫁入蒙古、色目家庭的婦女不少來自漢族士人之家。這些漢族婦女往往知書識禮，對其子孫的文化取向及登科應舉的動向具有重要影響。總之，從社會觀點來說，大多數進士是蒙古、色目族群中傳統菁英家族的延伸。從文化觀點來說，蒙古‘色目進士則是其族群中漢化最深的一群。

　　　　　The vivil service examination system of the Yuan dynasty was a faithful reflection of the unique sociopolitical structure of that period. The fact that the Mongols and the Se-mu were guaranteed a quota of chin-shih(successful candidates in the metropolitan examinations) equal to that of the Chinese majority was a salient feature of the Yuan system. The Mongols and the Se-mu were privileged conquering minority groups with cultural backgrounds sharply different from that of the Chinese. Using the List of Chin-shih of A.D. 1333 and 15 other chin-shih records reconstructed by the author, this paper examines the relationship between the backgrounds of Mongol and Se-mu chin-shih and their success in the examinations from three different perspectives. In terms of the bureaucratic background of their families, more than 80% of the chin-shih had official backgrounds, and less than 20% could be considered " new blood" in the sense that none of their forebears in the previous three generations had held an office under the Mongol-Yuan regime. These statistics indicate that the main function of the examination system was to open a new door to officialdom for the scions of bureaucratic families. Nevertheless, the system still injected a small but significant amount of "new blood" into the originally closed Mongol and Se-mu elite stratum. In terms of ethnic background, while the numbers of the chin-shih produced by various Mongolian tribes and clans show no major differences, those produced by various Se-mu groups differed greatly from each other. This is because while the Mongols had become an ethnically and culturally homogeneous group by the 14th century, the Se-mu was constituted of peoples from sharply divergent ethnic and cultural backgrounds. The degree of success achieved by various Se-mu groups in the Yuan examinations was closely related to the original levels of culture these ethnic groups had achieved before entering China. In terms of the marital background of the chin-shih families, a significant proportion of the chin-shih were from Mongol and Se-mu families that had intermarried with the Chinese. The Chinese mothers in elite families were often educated and exerted great influence on their scions in terms of cultural orientation. In sum, from a social perspective, the chin-shih as a group can be considered an extension of the original Mongol and Se-mu elite stratum. From a cultural perspective, the chin-shih were the products of the most heavily sinicized Mongol and Se-mu families.