In ancient times, before the imperial examination system, how did you acquire talents?

First, this system should be the earliest time to elect talents. This system was basically adopted in Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties. Rather than selecting talents, it is better to say that the son directly inherits the position of his father. To put it bluntly, he is fighting directly for his father. Under this system, if the father is a big official, then one of his sons can be chosen to succeed him, provided that they have not made any big mistakes. Of course, the biggest drawback of this talent selection system is that if these sons are mediocre, it is absolutely a disaster for the country, so this system was directly eliminated later.

Second, the Han dynasty used the system of inspection and requisition. The so-called investigation and recruitment means that some local officials look for talents on their own turf and then recommend these talents to the court, which will give them corresponding positions. Conquest means that emperors of a single dynasty or some local officials directly recruited from abroad. As long as you think you are very talented, you can attend some job fairs like now. The advantage of this system is that it can recruit talents for the whole society. Of course, the disadvantage is also obvious, that is, there is no reliable measure, so there will be a lot of favoritism, and many local officials recommend talents entirely according to personal preferences.

Third, the nine-grade system is a system formulated by Cao Pi during the Three Kingdoms period. In order to prevent many local officials from interfering in the selection of talents, such a system was formulated, that is, some officials were appointed by the court, and their main task was to select all kinds of talents. Generally, all talents need to be considered, from his own family background, talent, moral character to assess. However, in the Jin Dynasty, the system of this kind of wine was basically in the hands of some big chaebol, so it gradually evolved into a family-based classification.

It was not until the Sui Dynasty that the imperial examination system appeared. It can be said that the emergence of the imperial examination system has made many poor children see hope, and through their own efforts, they can serve the court and honor their ancestors. Although there are some cheating phenomena in the imperial examination system, after all, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages and it has been used until the Qing Dynasty.