5p.Qian,Part 1,Spirit and Self - ScholarSpace

Character Appraisal 27
havior.” 25 Understandably, such procedures and standards, with their
strong Confucian ethical orientation, made the selection process heavily
reliant upon the observations and comments of leading local Confucians.
They were, after all, the most familiar with both Confucian moral teachings
and the candidates’ moral performance.
It was not until the reign of Emperor Chang-ti (r. 76–88) of the Later
Han, however, that the government clearly emphasized the importance of
local Confucians’ comments and recommendations in the selection system.
As Emperor Chang-ti decreed in a.d. 76: “The local selection should
be based upon the candidate’s accumulated merits and deeds, yet at present
governors and prefects cannot tell the true from the false. Each year they
recommended hundreds of the ‘outstanding talents’ and the ‘filial and incorrupt,’
yet these candidates are neither capable nor famous. To entrust
state affairs to them is quite senseless. I often recall that, in the previous
dynasties, gentlemen were sometimes selected from the fields, not on the
basis of their pedigree.” 26 The emperor felt unsatisfied because the selection
had skipped the townspeople’s scrutiny and operated directly through
higher levels of local government and even the court. The government then
had no way to find out about the candidates’ moral quality. Immediately
after this decree, Emperor Chang-ti mandated the restoration of the Former
Han four-category standard of selecting officials. While all the selected
candidates had to go through probation, those who “excelled in virtuous
conduct” could assume their office directly. 27
This decree by Emperor Chang-ti was the turning point for the Later
Han selection system. It placed overwhelming emphasis on the local evaluation
of candidates’ moral behavior; hence the year of the decree, a.d.
76, should be taken as the “official” starting point of character appraisal. 28
As leading local Confucians’ evaluations assumed increasing importance,
they tended to impose more rigorous and detailed moral standards on the
candidates. Consequently, the Later Han selection categories rapidly multiplied
in a moral direction. Fan Yeh remarks in the History of the Later
Han: “At the beginning of the Former Han, the emperor decreed the nomination
of [gentlemen who were] worthy and outstanding and square and
upright. The states and prefectures recommended [gentlemen who were]