PERSONNEL POLICY 657
In 779, Shen Chi-ch'i, an undersecretary in the Ministry of Personnel in the
Tang dynasty, proposed allowing provincial officials, including governors, pre-
fects, and district magistrates to appoint their own subordinates with confirma-
tion by the Ministries of Personnel and War. Strict control was to be exerted
over provincial officials and magistrates whose recommendations or appoint-
ments of subordinate clerks and assistants proved faulty by meting out punish-
ments according to the degree of transgression.^36
Shen Chi-ch'i believed that the local magistrates would have greater knowl-
edge of the merits of their subordinates than staff officials in the Ministry of
Personnel. He thought that since 70 percent of assistants appointed by provin-
cial officials in charge of tax collection, training of soldiers, and border defense
were quite good despite the danger of favoritism, the system ought to be extended
down to the prefectures, districts, and natural villages as well. Restoring the right
to appoint subordinates would raise the morale of many ordinary men who would
have the prospect of performing some serviceY
Unfortunately, the practice of allowing magistrates and other officials to appoint
their subordinates was corrupted by the late eighth-century military governors,
who ran certain provinces in the northeast without much intcrfcrence from the
central government and used direct hiring (pi-chao) as a mcans of reinforcing
thcir autonomous power against imperial control.^38 In addition, the "Miscella-
neous Discussion of Selection and Appointment" (Hstian-chti tsa-i) in the
Tung-tien, which Yu cited in his own study, also claimed that the probity of
local government could not be guaranteed by a sudden restoration of direct hir-
ing of clerks and subordinates by district magistrates because local people might
well choose to recommend their friends and powerful men.3^9
A number of officials in Korea had been wary of this problem, but Yu felt that
it could he checked hy a thorough review of performance of all officials, and he
appearcd to be sympathetic with the idea of using local people to aid in local
government.
Failure ofLate-T'ang Personnel Reforms. Yu did not conduct a thorough study
of some of the prohlems of Tang personnel policy. such as the activities of Li
Lin-fu, chief minister and minister of personnel between 736 and 752.1,0 He
ignored Emperor Hsien-tsung's emphasis on increased review of officials and
their records, his reduction of official posts after 807, and his success in regain-
ing direct control over some provinces by 8 I 7 by forbidding provincial gover-
nors from appointing their own subordinates - what Yu had evidently regarded
as a superior policy - but in the forty years after his death his achievements werc
undermined by factional conflict and eunuch interference. Emperor Wen-tsung
did attl:mpt to reform examination and recruitment procedures in 827, but in
835 the eunuch Ch'iu Shih-liang blocked his attempt to purge eunuchs from power
and forced him to abandon the struggle for reform. The swan song of person-
nel reform caml: with the promulgation of regulations for recommendation and
review of the performance in 852; thereafter the empire disso\vl:d in corruption
and rehellion.1,1