134 SOCIAL REFORMcontemporary and later Chinese statecraft writers, what started out in the Wei
dynasty as an attempt to approximate the ancient ideals of equal opportunity,
recruitment according to moral worth and local community participation, ended
up as the direct antithesis of those ideals.
Hsi Shen in the Chin dynasty (265-290) criticized the use of favoritism and
the influence of parents, relatives, and personal connections in personnel mat-
ters, and he blamed competition for office for producing factions that distorted
the truth. He tried using recommendation as a means of recruitment, but he had
to use the law instead of moral exhortation to implement it.^40
Yu found that opinion was split in the Chinese literature over the question of
whether the Chung-cheng and nine-rank system were a legitimate compromise
with ancient norms. Several scholars believed that the Chung-cheng system could
be restored by a few adjustments. Liu I and Wei Chtian of the Chin dynasty
(265-90) argued that it was not possible to restore the ancient ideal of recom-
mendation at the village level because of social disruption and migration. Because
the Chung-cheng did not have personal knowledge of the inhabitants of the vil-
lages and were influenced by rumor, unreliable opinion, gifts, and bribes, in
assigning rank they failed to heed honest local opinion and failed to notice many
bona fide scholars and worthy men. Wei hoped to solve this problem by using
rewards and punishment and requiring new migrants to register as permanent
residents in their new settlements (t'u-tuan) since permanent settlements and
registration would create stable communities for restoring the ancient system
of recommendation.4'
Fu Hstian of the Chin dynasty believed that the spirit of the ancient model
could be retained if the Chung-cheng paid attention to "pure discussion"
(ch 'ing-i) or what might be defined as the opinions of the men of virtue, talent,
and leaming in the villages. Fu held that pure discussion was one of the char-
acteristics of ancient times when sage kings had established the principles of
moral transformation at couli and the ordinary people in the countryside main-
tained feelings of righteousness in their conversations with one another, but it
had been abandoned by the "defunct Ch'in" dynasty, which shifted to a reliance
on law and tactics (fa and shu - the two main methods of the Legalists).4^2
Most commentators whom Yu cited, however, felt that the institutional com-
promises of the Wei and other states of the Northern and Southern dynasties
period were too great a departure from the system of the ancients. P'ei Tsu-yeh,
who lived at the tum of the sixth century, said that the local community had
been lost as the proper locus for initial recommendation in the Wei and Chin
(265-420) dynasties. He lauded the ancient village community, or at least his
image of it, in idealistic terms:
While a person was living at home you could observe his [capacity for 1 filial
piety and friendship. In the sub-district and village communities [hyangdang]
you could investigate his sincerity and trustworthiness. In his comings and
goings you could see his will and righteousness. In his grief and difficulty you