PERSONNEL POLICY 653
of men than discovering human beings capable of service. Men hoping for office
or promotion dispensed with the task of self-cultivation and preferred to estab-
lish connections, flatter men of influence, and form factions to obtain a post.^2!
When Empcror Hsiian-tsung tried to extend responsibility for judging candi-
dates beyond the Ministry of Personnel in 725 by establishing a new committee
often men headed by the Minister of Rites and a Censor to meet inside the Impe-
rial Palace without any participation by the Minister and Vice-Minister of Per-
sonnel, Wu Ching objected to any unwarranted imperial interference with duties
of his officials, and the emperor acceded and rescinded his edict the next year. 22
Tu Yu of the eighth-century T'ang dynasty complained that since the Wei
dynasty in the third century, personnel officials had neglected direct contact with
all incumbents and relied on paperwork as the main means of evaluation. He
preferred a system of annual assessment that would rank officials by their per-
formance for a period of six years, after which those who had received inferior
ratings would be dismissed, and only those with highest ratings would be pro-
moted. Any officials found guilty of using his own personal feelings in ranking
other officials would bc impeached.^23
The trend toward institutionalized routinization continued when in 730 Min-
ister of Personnel P'ei Kuang-ting sought to break the backlog of expectant offi-
cials and increase the speed of promotion by eliminating the requirement for
subjective judgment of the quality and personality of candidates. All officials
were listed on a hierarchical scale based on their office grade and a time limit
was set for staying in the same grade. All officials not guilty of criminal acts
were then promoted without any review of performance, and no skipping of rank
or double promotions were allowed. As a result P'ei Kuang-ting earned the sorry
reputation as the father of routinized personnel procedure, dubbed "appointment
by seniority."24
Yu Hyongwon then reminded his readers of the remarks of Tung Chung-shu
of the Han to demonstrate that P'ei had overturned thc wisdom of Han person-
nel policy: "The ancients established grades of merit based on an official's abil-
ity to mect his responsibilities. They never talked about accumulating days of
service or long periods of time [in grade]. While the Han did talk about years
of service and effort, they never adopted it as the method for appointing people
to office."
It was not until Ts'ai Liang of the Northern Wei and P'ei Kuang-ting of the
T'ang created the system of promotion based on time-in-grade that the original
purpose for reviewing performance of officials was destroyed. In Yu's opinion,
locking officials into rank meant that men of talent and moral worth were buried
at the bottom of the ranks and were unable to make their way up.25
By the late eighth century, personnel administration had deteriorated because
of an increase in the number of applicants for a reduced number of posts, the
granting of honorific titles and improper promotions, appointments to office to
reward soldiers, ministerial and eunuch interference with personnel matters, sale
of office, and the takeover of certain provinces by military governors and their