What was wrong with the recommendation system in the Song Dynasty in the selection of Chinese historical talents? In the long course of history, the Song Dynasty is an extremely important dynasty, and its rise and fall are highly controversial. During this period, the recommendation system was widely used as an important way to select talents. The purpose of this system was to train and promote talented officials and to provide the backbone of the country. However, in the process of implementing this system, does it offset the merits or does it do more harm than good? Has it really fulfilled its original purpose, or has it been corrupted and distorted to its original purpose? Let's take a closer look at this important historical phenomenon.
The rise of the recommendation system in the Song Dynasty
The predecessor of the recommendation system in the Song Dynasty can be traced back to the inspection system in the Zhou and Han dynasties. As early as in the "Zhou Li", there is a record of "township selection", which is the prototype of the recommendation system. In the Han Dynasty, the inspection system became the first relatively mature system for talent selection, and it was created by Liu Bang, the ancestor of the Han Dynasty, who issued an edict to seek talents.
After that, the Wei and Jin dynasties appeared in the nine-product zhongzheng system, which was derived from Cao Cao's idea of "meritocracy", which was formulated and implemented by Cao Pi. In the selection of talents, the Jiupin Zhongzheng system focuses on three aspects: family background, ability and conduct, which to a certain extent strengthens the support of local nobles for the central power and is conducive to the concentration of power in the imperial court. But this system also sets the threshold for talented people at the bottom.
In the Tang Dynasty, the recommendation system began to be institutionalized to a certain extent. In the early Tang Dynasty, recommendation was only an auxiliary and temporary talent selection method. It was not until after the Anshi Rebellion that the Tang Dynasty established the "Winter Recommendation System", which stipulated that low-level officials should be recommended once or twice a year, and the recommended persons needed to go to the Ministry of Officials to participate in the corresponding assessment, and decide whether to be promoted and the degree of promotion according to their results. This marked a common form of promotion of officials in the late Tang Dynasty.
On the basis of the Tang Dynasty's recommendation system, the Song Dynasty further pushed it to a high degree of institutionalization. During the reign of Emperor Taizong of the Song Dynasty, the edict of recommendation was promulgated in the fourth year of Chunhua, which clearly stipulated the scope of officials who were qualified to be recommended and the situation of the person who was to be examined, and if the person who was promoted was at fault, he would also be required to be jointly and severally liable. The real institutionalization appeared in the Song Zhenzong period, when he issued an edict requiring the governor to pass the judgment and declare the recommended candidates to the imperial court at the end of each year, and those who failed to recommend them within the time limit would be punished. Since then, the official recommendation system has been formally incorporated into the Song Dynasty's selection system, and has gradually become a necessary condition for the promotion of middle- and lower-level officials.
Strict assessment mechanism
In order to ensure the fairness of the recommendation system, the Song Dynasty government invested a lot of effort in the design of the system and formulated a series of strict assessment regulations. The purpose of these provisions is to comprehensively review the moral integrity, academic ability of the recommended person, and to avoid abusive recommendation.
One of the most important is to conduct a detailed social background check on the referee. The content of the survey includes the recommended person's academic accomplishment, personal conduct, whether there is any substantial fault, etc., which can be said to put virtue at the core. During the Song Taizong period, the moral assessment was very strict. According to historical records, Zhao Dezhao, the son of Song Taizong, had a bad character when he was young and was demoted to a concubine by Taizong. Zhao Dezhao did not give up, he still studied hard, and finally got reused later. It can be seen that in the early Song Dynasty, special attention was paid to the selection of officials, including both ability and political integrity, even if it was a noble imperial relative.
Another important provision is the implementation of a joint accountability system for recommenders. According to the relevant provisions, if the person being recommended later commits misconduct or other misconduct in office, the official who originally recommended him will also be held jointly and severally liable. This system undoubtedly increases the risk of referrals, thus prompting more prudent selection of recommenders.
In addition to the above two important provisions, the Song Dynasty also made detailed regulations on the qualifications, procedures, and time limits of the recommenders, so as to make the whole process rigorous and orderly. For example, it is stipulated that only high-level officials above the state level are eligible for recommendation; It is stipulated that the recommendation must be completed before the end of each year, and those who fail to do so will be punished; It is also necessary to conduct a comprehensive review of the recommended person's employment experience, merit and deeds to ensure that he is loyal, honest and capable.
This series of strict assessment mechanisms ensures the fairness and impartiality of the recommendation system to a considerable extent, avoids excessive black box operations, and is conducive to truly promoting the pillars of official employment. Many outstanding Song Dynasty ministers, such as Fan Zhongyan and Zeng Bu, were reused through the recommendation system by virtue of their excellent character and rich practical experience. It is precisely because of these outstanding talents that the national strength of the Song Dynasty was strengthened during the heyday of Kaixi, thus creating a splendid Song Dynasty civilization in history.
Political corruption and malpractice breed
In the early Song Dynasty, the recommendation system was rigorously designed and operated in an orderly manner, and it did send a lot of talents to the imperial court. However, the good times did not last long, and with the passage of time, this originally well-intentioned system was gradually corrupted and distorted, and became a tool for some powerful people to form private parties.
The first malaise that arose was that the ugly phenomena of bribery and buying and selling official positions began to spread in the recommendation system. In order to get promoted in their careers, some incompetent and unscrupulous little people often secretly bribe officials with the right to recommend and conduct illegal transactions in monetary or other forms of benefits. Correspondingly, some traitorous villains saw Wind.y and took the initiative to extort bribes from lower-level officials, otherwise they refused to recommend them. Such behaviour seriously undermines the impartiality of the system.
According to historical records, there was a prime minister named Wang Xu, who was a typical representative of corrupt elements. During his tenure, he took bribes on a large scale, and even openly sold the right to recommend him at a high price like a commodity. In order to obtain personal gains, Wang Shu did whatever it took to obtain personal gains, and even did not let go of the emperor's relatives and relatives, resulting in serious abuse of power. Corrupt elements like Wang Shu were indeed common in the Song Dynasty.
Another serious malpractice is that some officials secretly form parties for personal gain and form gangs when making recommendations. They are not judged on the actual performance of the person being promoted, but use the right to recommend as a tool to win over the hearts and minds of the people and expand their sphere of influence. Many of the recommended targets are actually protégés, cronies, or fellow villagers of these officials, and there are obvious personal relationships such as geography and teachers and students.
This practice of prioritizing private interests rather than national interests has resulted in the nomination system dying in name only, and the selection criteria have been completely distorted. Talented but not talented, virtuous but not virtuous, as long as they are their own people, they can be favored, and they are rotten. According to some historical records, there was a saying that "recommending my boy is inevitably biased" at that time, which shows that this drawback is well known among the people.
In addition to directly forming parties for personal gain, some officials have also developed their own protégé system to prevent newcomers from advancing. In the society of the Song Dynasty, the identity of a protégé had an important impact on the development of official careers. Some officials took advantage of the recommendation power in their hands to promote a large number of their protégés, thus concentrating these people into their own gate valve system and forming a semi-feudal family power.
As a result, it is difficult for newcomers with real talents and learning in society to get the opportunity to be promoted and enter the core decision-making level of the imperial court. The government is becoming more and more rigid and decadent, and it is difficult to inject new vitality. This undoubtedly exacerbated the crisis of the Song Dynasty at that time, and was far from the original intention of revitalizing China.
The emergence of the pillars of the famous ministers
Although there were various drawbacks in the later period of the Song Dynasty, we cannot completely deny its positive effects. In fact, during most of its operation, this system cultivated and sent a large number of famous ministers and pillars to the Song Dynasty, who made outstanding contributions to the country's development and social progress.
Among them, the most dazzling ones are probably Wang Anshi and Sima Guang. Wang Anshi was recommended to enter the office, and later as the chief physicist of Song Shenzong, he implemented the famous "reform of the new law". Although this reform was later almost completely overturned due to fierce resistance from conservatives, many of its pragmatic and innovative ideas did play an important role in promoting the social development of the Song Dynasty and improving its national strength.
Sima Guang, who was also a master of science and science with Wang Anshi, made indelible contributions to the revitalization of the Song Dynasty's economy and politics. With his rich practical experience and extraordinary wisdom, he has repeatedly tried to revitalize Chen, including many insightful suggestions. For example, the "Green Seedlings Law" proposed by him is an innovative work that effectively prevents excessive tax collection, and can be regarded as an important milestone in economic history. It is precisely with this group of virtuous and upright ministers at the helm that the Song Dynasty was able to show unprecedented prosperity.
In addition to Wang Anshi and Sima Guang, many outstanding writers and thinkers have also been discovered and reused through the recommendation system. Such as Su Shi, Huang Tingjian, Ouyang Xiu and others, they not only made outstanding achievements in political theory and practical governance, but also made immortal contributions to the prosperity of Song Dynasty culture. Su Shi's "Former Red Cliff Fu" and other masterpieces are still regarded as classic masterpieces of Chinese literature; Huang Tingjian's poem "Rolling Yangtze River East Passing Water" is even more popular and has become a well-known sentence. It is precisely because of these erudite and talented literati who became officials that the Song Dynasty was able to gather such a strong cultural heritage.
It can be said that although the recommendation system later had twists and turns due to various human factors, in its heyday, it did select and cultivate many outstanding figures for the country, and laid a solid talent foundation for the prosperity of the Song Dynasty. Some leading modern scholars even believe that if the ruling team of the late Song dynasty had had had the same level of talent, the course of Chinese history would likely have changed. It can be seen that as long as the recommendation system is strictly implemented, it is still a powerful mechanism for identifying and cultivating outstanding talents.
Mixed evaluations and reflections
Throughout the whole process of the recommendation system in the Song Dynasty, it is not difficult for us to find that it is not smooth sailing, but accompanied by serious twists and turns and drawbacks. Although when it was first established, this system did uphold the original intention of selecting talented talents for the country, and strictly implemented various audit and inspection measures, so it did send a batch of outstanding figures to the Song Dynasty. However, with the passage of time, the operation of the system has gradually been corrupted and distorted, and it has become a tool for some powerful people to form private parties, resulting in the lack of promotion of newcomers with real skills in society, and even the emergence of a serious phenomenon of buying and selling official positions, which has corrupted the atmosphere.
However, even so, we should not completely deny the merits and demerits of the Song Dynasty's recommendation system. In fact, during the long period of its operation, there were indeed quite a few stories of famous ministers who took office through this route. The best of them, such as Wang Anshi, Sima Guang, Su Shi, Huang Tingjian and others, all made indelible and significant contributions to the revitalization of the Song Dynasty, the enrichment of the country and the strengthening of the army, the development of the economy and the promotion of cultural prosperity. If there was no recommendation system to discover and reuse these figures in time, the Song Dynasty may not be able to create such brilliant achievements.
From this point of view, the Song Dynasty's recommendation system has mixed merits. It is not at fault of its own, but the problem lies in the abuse and corruption of the system. On the one hand, it has selected and cultivated many outstanding talents for the country, realizing the original intention of the system; On the other hand, it has also been exploited by some villains and abused for personal gain. This duality is also the dialects of the system itself.
For future generations, while we learn from and learn from the recommendation system of the Song Dynasty, we should also learn from the lessons and put an end to the risk of abuse of the system. An excellent and effective talent selection mechanism must be built on the basis of fairness, justice, honesty and efficiency. Only by adhering to the standard of having both ability and political integrity, and truly embodying the employment concept of "the companion of the party and the companion of the people", can the system truly be stable and far-reaching, select and appoint talents, and continue to nurture new vitality for the development of the country. Isn't this the biggest inspiration and reflection given to us by the recommendation system in the Song Dynasty?