656 REFORM OF GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATION
individuals would be left out of the search. The only certain method to predict
a man's reliability was to depend on village recommendation and recommen-
dations by scnior officials for their subordinates and district magistrates. All super-
ficial marks of character. such as "clever words, an insinuating appearance, and
sycophancy" had to be discounted, and recommenders had to be held responsi-
ble for their word. Empress Wu had been successful in obtaining good men for
office because she had not shown favor only to men with official rank. Emperor
Hsiian-tsung had also used recommendation, but shortly thereafter charged that
recommendations had been based on favoritism and ordered Lu to take full
responsibility for recommendations himselfY
Appointment of Subordinates by Local Magistrates. Tu Yu, the author of the
T'ung-tien in 801 and admirer of ancient models, emphasized the division of
responsibility between the king of Chou and the rulers of feudal states for appoint-
ment ofthcir subordinate officials. Ofthe three highest ministers (Ching) of rulers
of large feudal states. two were appointed by the Son of Heaven (the king of
Chou) and the other one by the ruler of the state. In smaller states. the Son of
Heaven appointed one of the three ministers, and the ruler of the statc appointed
the other two. In the second rank of high officials (Ta-fu), three of the top five
ranks of feudal lords received a so-called double appointment (one from the Son
of Heaven and the other from the ruler of the state), and the lowest two received
only a single appointment from his ruler. Only the lowest rank of officials (Shih)
received a single appointment from the ruler of their state alone.
This tradition was carried over partly into the Han period when only two of
the high officials of a kingdom (Wang-kuo) or marquisate (Hou-kuo) - which
were kept separate from the centralized bureaucratic control of most of the empire
- were appointed by the emperor; all other officials appointed to these feudal
enclaves were appointed by feudal lords themselves. Then with the suppression
ofthefeudal territories in the reign of Emperor Ching (I 56- 140 B.c.), these feu-
dal rulers were stripped of their authority to appoint their officials, and the cen-
tral government took responsibility for appointing all 2.000-picul rank officials
to magisterial posts. .1.1
Nonetheless, even though the remnants of feudalism were eliminated, the right
of the magistrate to appoint his own subordinates (tsu-pi; chabyok in Korean)
from men in the villages (hsiang-tang) after a test of their effectiveness was pre-
served without change to the end of the Han. .14
Several centuries later Emperor Hsiao-wen of the Northern Wei (r. 470-500)
ordered that all officials evaluate their subordinates and assign one of nine grades
divided into three general categories (superior, satisfactory. inferior). The min-
ister of personnel (Shang-shu) would take charge of all officials of rank six
through nine, and the emperor and his high ministers would discuss officials
from ranks one through five. Only those who received an "upper-upper" rating
(the highest of nine grades of performance) would be promoted, while those
who received the "lower-lower" rating would be dismissed. The others would
retain their posts without promotion.3^5