PE RSONN EL POLICY 647
PERSONNEL PROCEDURES IN CHINA
Chou Feudalism: Periodic Review of PerformanceYu's study of the history of personnel procedures in China convinced him that
the Chou period, as described in the Rites of Chou, had naturally approached a
model of near-perfection because the performance of all officials had to be
reviewed every three years, and every nine years a grand review was conducted
to mete out reward and punishment The better officials were rewarded by pro-
motion in rank and salary while the incompetents were dismissed from office.
The personnel officer (Ssu-shih), a subordinate of the officer of summer (Hsia-
kuan), was responsible for recording the feudal ranks of all officials and merits
and demerits accumulated every year. He would report the best officials to the
king who would appoint them to office for long terms and select those who
deserved raises and promotions.
There were six criteria of evaluation defined as follows: goodness or doing affairs
well; ability or carrying out government orders; seriousness or not abandoning
one's post; rectitude or acting without partiality; luw or maintaining the laws with-
out error; and discrimination or not being confused in making decisions. The
Wang-chih chapter of the Book of Rites (Li-chi) mentioned also that official
appointments required lengthy discussion of top officials for selection of the most
advanced scholars (chinsa). After the Chou system was discontinued by the Ch'in
dynasty all the responsibilities of the Ssu-shih wcre transferred eventually to the
Ministry of Personnel (Li-pu) in the age of bureaucratic organization.^2
Han Bureaucracy: Long-term Appointments and RecommendationsThe Han dynasty was able to preserve certain basic personnel techniques of the
Chou because officials were reputed to have been kept on long-term appoint-
ments, sometimes for as long as a decade, before earning a promotion, and the
emperor personally interviewed every candidate for the post of district magis-
trate before choosing them. Tung Chung-shu of Emperor Wu's reign proposed
that officials be judged for meeting their responsibilities rather than the length
of time they spent in office, contrary to current practice. Emperor Hsiian (r. B.C.
73-48) remarked that men recruited for officials of "2,000 picul rank" (i-eh 'ien-
shih), who were eligible for appointment as district magistrates, had to be judged
with utmost care since they would bc holding office for long terms and could
not be transferred frequently lest the peasants lose trust in them. Those who per-
formed their magisterial tasks adequately would then be chosen for higher posts
of capital rank. Commanderies (chiin) and kingdoms (kuo) or principates were
required to recommend suitable candidates for high ministerial posts and cen-
sors (YU-shih).
When Emperor Ch'eng (r. 32-6 B.c.) established five Masters of Documents
(Shang-shu), he assigned two of them to handle personnel matters, one to run