Early in his reign, Emperor Shizong chose 3,000 Jurchen men to study the Jurchen language. In 1173, the state started offering "jinshi" degrees in Jurchen, opened the Jurchen Imperial Academy () in the capital and local schools in all the circuits of the empire. It is thought by modern scholars that the purpose of offering the "jinshi" examinations in Jurchen was more to promote Jurchen scholarship than to recruit more Jurchen for the state service, as most of the Jurchen "jinshi" degree holders ended up working as teachers of the Jurchen language and of the Chinese classics in Jurchen translation.