What were the systems for selecting officials in ancient China?

1. Shiqing Shilu System

"Qing": is a senior official in ancient times, "Lu" is the salary of ancient officials, Shiqing Shilu System refers to the Western Zhou Dynasty In the early days, officials such as the royal family of Zhou and the ministers and officials of various vassal states could pass down their posts from father to son after their father died. They would inherit this position hereditary and enjoy the salary of this position from generation to generation.

The Shiqing Shilu system was an official replacement system in early ancient times. After Qin Shihuang destroyed the six kingdoms and unified China, he established prefectures and counties and abolished the feudal system. This system was basically abolished.

2. The Chaju system

is a talent selection system popular in the Han Dynasty. After the establishment of the Qin Dynasty, the hereditary system of officials in the Shang and Zhou Dynasties was completely abolished, but it was replaced by the Han Dynasty before the Qin Dynasty established a systematic talent selection system. During the Han Dynasty, the Chaju system was established, in which the princes, princes, ministers, county governors, etc. recommended talents to the court as a source of officials.

The objects of investigation and promotion can be either civilians or officials. This system basically ensured the court's demand for administrative officials. The inspection and promotion system was relatively strict in the Western Han Dynasty. In the late Eastern Han Dynasty, due to political corruption and fraud by powerful officials, the inspection and promotion system lost its effectiveness.

3. The Nine-Rank Zhongzheng System

It is a system for selecting talented officials during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. It was first created by the Cao Wei regime. In order to strengthen the government's control over talent selection, Cao Cao adopted the method of sending officials to various places to evaluate and select talents. Later, in order to win over the nobles, Cao Pi established this method as a system, namely the nine-rank Zhongzheng system.

The specific operation method of this system is that the government dispatches officials named Zhongzheng in each state and county. Zhongzheng evaluates the characters in each state and county based on family background, morality, and talent. The specific operation method is to divide the characters into nine grades, namely : up-up, up-middle, up-down, middle-up, middle-middle, middle-down, down-up, down-middle, down-down. Zhongzheng reported the results of this evaluation to the imperial court, and the imperial court appointed these talents to official positions based on the results.

4. The imperial examination system

A system for selecting officials that was implemented for more than 1,300 years from the Sui Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty. The imperial examination system is a system for selecting talents that we are all familiar with. After Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty established the Sui Dynasty, in view of the drawbacks of all the above selection systems, and at the same time, in order to strengthen centralization, he took the power of selecting officials back to the central government and initiated the imperial examination system. Unfortunately, the imperial examination system had not yet established a perfect mechanism. The dynasty perished.

5. Chaju levy system

The so-called chaju means that local officials such as states and counties conduct inspections in their own jurisdictions to discover the talents needed by the ruling class. Titles such as "filial piety and honesty", "talented talents" and "virtuous and upright" were recommended to the central government, and after certain assessments, they were appointed to corresponding official positions; the so-called recruiting refers to direct recruitment by the emperor or local governors.

The inspection and examination system is a great progress compared with the original Shilu Shiqing system. However, this system also has the characteristics of no distinction between promotion of scholars and promotion of officials, no distinction between elections and examinations, separation of elections and education, no full-time officials for selecting officials, and the selection first and then examination. This leaves many loopholes for officials at all levels to practice favoritism and malpractice in inspections and recruitment.