REMOLDING THE RULING CLASS 141Despite the use of policy questions in the examinations, the tests of knowledge
and talent had become irrelevant to real affairs. Even military officials were
selected more on their skill with the bow and arrow than on the basis of any
practical ability to command men or devise strategy. Chao K'uang, a T'ang pre-
fect, also said that "What people talk about and what they study is not what is
of use. What is of use is not what is studied, and thus there are few men who
can meet their responsibilities as officials."62
One of the most telling criticisms, however, was the charge that the exami-
nations stressed the mastery of fact at the expense of understanding. For exam-
ple, in 741 the authorities began to paste a slip of paper over a page from the
classics, leaving only a single row or a few characters visible to the candidate,
who had to recall the rest from memory. This ostensible improvement in objec-
tivity, however, was attacked for encouraging rote memorization: "Those who
were able to pass about a dozen of these sections knew all the difficult mater-
ial in detail, but most people were as in the dark as someone facing a wall when
it came to understanding the general meaning behind the regular texts."63
Chao K'uang thought the examination system was not merely a neutral device
distorted by evil men, but an institution that even stimulated avarice, ambition,
mendicant appeals for favors from high officials, and slander against fellow stu-
dents because of the competitive atmosphere that had been created. "It is not
that they are endowed with natures like this; it is the situation that causes them
to be this way."6^4 Yu Hyongwon, too, shared Chao's conviction that poor insti-
tutions were easily capable of destroying mores.
Liu Chih and Chao K'uang believed that the examination system had created
a surplus of idle degree-holders waiting for appointments to fill too few posts,
and that the cost of their upkeep had driven many into bankruptcy and imposed
too heavy a burden in taxes and fees on the populace.6s Liu blamed the drain-
ing of the countryside of scholars and the inundation of the capital by them on
the Sui regime and regarded the old Chung-cheng officials with nostalgia.^66
T'ang Proposals for Reform of Recruitment ProceduresQuotas. Several solutions were proposed to improve the examination system
in the T'ang dynasty: quotas, decentralization of appointment powers, the
revival of recommendation, or special recommendation examinations, and
reform of the school system. Liu Hsiang-tao of the early seventh century pro-
posed a quota limit of five hundred men a year for the examinations to reduce
the plethora of aspirants who flocked to the examinations in the capital.^67 But
Chao K'uang felt that the quota system would have a serious negative effect
because incompetents would be selected just for the purpose of filling the quo-
tas, and later on qualified men would be turned away because slots were already
filled by incompetents. "Therefore scholars of no talent would reach the high-
est ranks while men of talent and ability would sit around and turn grey."68
Compromise: Recommendation Examinations. No sooner had the examina-