In 655, Wu Zetian graduated 44 candidates with the "jìnshì" degree (), and during one 7-year period the annual average of exam takers graduated with a "jinshi" degree was greater than 58 persons per year. Wu lavished favors on the newly graduated "jinshi" degree-holders, increasing the prestige associated with this path of attaining a government career, and clearly began a process of opening up opportunities to success for a wider population pool, including inhabitants of China's less prestigious southeast area. Most of the Li family supporters were located to the northwest, particularly around the capital city of Chang'an. Wu's progressive accumulation of political power through enhancement of the examination system involved attaining the allegiance of previously under-represented regions, alleviating frustrations of the literati, and encouraging education in various locales so even people in the remote corners of the empire would study to pass the imperial exams. These degree holders would then become a new nucleus of elite bureaucrats around which the government could center itself.