658 REFORM OF GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATIONWang An-shih 's Critique of Personnel ProcedureYu avoided a chronological account of the Sung recruitment and evaluation sys-
tem and turned immediately to a lengthy memorial of Wang An-shih in the mid-
twelfth century.42 Although Wang's essay introduced no argument that had not
been discussed in the literature from the Han to the T'ang, he provided a pithy
summary of views that Yu obviously admired. Wang respected the classical sys-
tem on choosing candidates for office from the local villages and schools by a
detailed investigation of their behavior by neighbors, teachers, and acquaintances,
a system he much preferred to written examinations or the judgment of a few
officials in the Ministry of Personnel in the capital. 43 He preferred employing
people in posts according to specialized and technical knowledge in agriculture
or industry, appointing the best men to the top posts and men of lesser talent to
minor positions, and keeping competent officials in their posts for long terms,
even for their whole lives. Instead of rewarding a good official by transferring
him to another post, the ancient rulers rewarded excellent performance by increas-
ing his rank and salary.44
By contrast Wang deplored the inferior personnel practices of T'ang times:
basing promotion on time-in-grade, emphasizing general education over spe-
cific knowledge of the administrative problems, and transferring generalists from
one post to another. He found that officials in ritual and criminal affairs, for exam-
ple, were totally lacking in training and experience because they were trans-
ferred too frequently to allow them to gain expertise in their specialties. He was
unhappy that the fathers and elder brothers of officials were not required to guar-
antee the probity of their relatives in office, that officials received no instruc-
tion in ethics and the arts and were not examined by their own agencies.
Wang believed that in ancient times no advantage was granted to those with
rank because officials were chosen on the basis of merit and worth, but the intro-
duction of rank criteria kept men of talent outside the regular bureaucracy and
virtually forced men to flatter the powerful to gain posts. In short, except for
possibly more emphasis on expertise and practical experience than other T'ang
commentators, Wang essentially endorsed the reform proposals of that period.^45
Ch'eng Hao: The Hall for Inviting the Brave
Yu finally concluded his discussion by citing the recommendation of Ch'eng Hao
in Shen-tsung's reign (in the period of 1068 to 1086), who emphasized moral
education over writing skills. Ch'eng argued for the creation of a special insti-
tute for the recruiting and training of the governing class, called the Hall for Invit-
ing the Brave (Yen-ying-ytian). Suitable candidates from remote places in the
countryside would be invited there to study, conduct frequent discussions with
the highest officials, draw up detailed regulations, or make recommendations to
officials. Lengthy residence in the hall would allow for minute observation of
their talents and allow some basis for evaluating their qualifications for office.