Civil service recruitment in Themiclesia

The civil service of Themiclesia recruits it members from a pool of candidates qualified through a combination of methods. Recruitment and appointment are two separate processes.

History

Election by deliberation

The earliest settlers in Themiclesia migrated from the Menggok area, today in central Menghe. The first coherent, dynastic state in Themiclesia imitated the Meng dynasty's system of government and its recruitment practices. The literate classes were well-represented in the first waves of settlers, providing firm and foundational support for the continuation of a familiar form of recruitment. During the Tsjinh Dynasty (265–420) there were two genera of recruitment, the "filial and principled" (孝廉, hruh-rjam) and the "illustriously able" (茂才, mroh-dze). Despite differences in name, the criteria for both qualifications are the same, and recruits must demonstrate a noted local reputation of good character, literacy, and ability. Recruitment was annual and theoretically open to all landed individuals, but in practice most recruits were male and part of prominent families that occupied large swathes of land and most often holders of many retainers and slaves. The selection mechanism was heavily biased towards these privileged individuals, though exceptions do occur regularly.

Nomination

In Menghean fashion, the imperial court practiced the "Law of Officialdom in Nine Classes" (九品官人法, klju-p'ljem'-kwal-njing-pjap). For each annual recruitment season, the court appointed an Impartial Official (中正官, trjung-tjings-kwal) to oversee the recruitment process in each prefecture. When he travelled to his charge, he read an edict to the local magistrate, stating the court's intentions to recruit the "filial, principled, and illustriously able gentlemen of the countryside". Then, nominations would be open to the public; candidates could not nominate themselves, but a single seconder sufficed, and candidates attached their personal histories to their entries. The names of those entered would be reported to the Impartial, who would investigate these claims personally. In the summer, after three months of investigation, each of the "gentle houses" would be represented by one person at the prefectural capital to "deliberate" (議, ngjarh) the candidates' merits and faults, with reference to the Impartial's observations. The Impartial himself was not supposed to be biased in favour of any candidate, though this understandably did occur frequently, though not always egregiously, since he was also subject to the assessment of the local elites. A house was considered "gentle" if it produced officials within five generations of the householder's ancestry or any of their progeny.

Results

It is not clear how the deliberation proceeded precisely, but at the end all candidates received one of nine asssessments, from the highest upper-upper, upper-middle, upper-lower, middle-upper, etc., to the lowest lower-lower. The class upper-upper was not awarded in deference to the sages of antiquity. The best class in practice was therefore upper-middle, which was called the "high class", and everything following was "base class". Recipients of the "high class" were to be appointed to officialdom in the Sixth Rank immediately after selection. The recipients of upper-lower and middle-upper, the base class would be appointed between the Seventh Rank and Ninth Rank. Candidates who were classed in or lower than middle-middle were ineligible for officialdom but could serve as petty officers. If a candidate was not satisfied with his class, he could enter his name again next year (whether he was subsequently appointed or not); conversely, if someone found a serving official's character wanting, he could submit the official's name for the same deliberation process, which could result in demotion or expulsion. The elected were then summoned to Kien-k'ang and sit a second round of testing, held by the Council of Correspondence, to identify the strengths of each elect and assign him a position accordingly. The most highly acclaimed candidates found themselves represented in the Council of Protonotaries, where they had the power and were expected to give input on policies according to their local experience.

Assessments

Some historians believe that this method of election must have been paired with a system of ballots or tokens awarded to each "gentle house" during the deliberation process, in order to prevent an excessive number of candidates from emerging. Others say that there were quotas on the higher classes that could be handed out. In Menghe, each prefecture was only permitted to send a single hruh-gljam and three mrogw-dzog, and considering in Themiclesia the "high class" qualifiers were presented as hruh-gljam to the court, and the "base class" as mrogw-dzog, the second view is considered persuasive by many. In surviving records, there were always only one or two "high class" qualifiers. It also seems the restriction of electors to gentle houses may have served as an implicit barrier to the production of too many "high class" qualifiers, since runaway elections would only result in the destruction of the entire system that served the houses' interests well and injure relations with houses in other regions. The arrival of the Menghean monarchy in 542 re-affirmed this mode of recruitment, since the nobles that accompanied the Menghean Emperor settled alongside Themiclesian ones and found the stability it brought appealing.

Evolution

Election by deliberation became a long-standing recruitment method, surviving all six dynasties up to the present. After the introduction of election by examination in the 600s, election by deliberation was superseded except in selecting members of the Council of Protonotaries. Though volume dwindled, it remained a highly prestigious path to officialdom, since it carried the approval (but not necessarily subsequent support) of the local political and economic elites; prospects at promotion were also considerably better than election by examination, which produced more specialized functionaries. Pressure from the latter gradually restricted recruits by deliberation to so-called "pure officialdom", positions close to the formation of public policy, the emperor, and otherwise not involved in technical work. Though developing public policy was the remit of the Council of Correspondence, which was staffed by both recruits by deliberation and examination, a position close to the throne entitled one to influence, since minor changes to edicts were sufficient to benefit one's locality considerably. Into the 1840s, deliberation was reformed as a Casaterran-style general election for the sole purpose of electing legislators.

Election by shadow

This form of recruitment is named for the simile of a highly-ranked ancestor as a tree, whose shade offers comfort to descendants. It is a prerogative based on heredity, but it is not heredity of office. The higher ranked the ancestor, the greater the "shade", that is the privileged extended and number of generations it affects, will be. Though it is the recruitment functions of the shadow that is the focus in this article, the shade also carries privileges like tax refunds, right to occupy more farmland, to own more servants, and to have more tenants in the pre-modern period.

Entitlement to privilege under this system is not a guarantee to position in the civil service. Those eligible to being elected by shadow report to the Council of Correspondence at the age of 30 to claim their privilege, which is five years higher than the lower limit for deliberation; historians cite essays written by political figures that describe this discrepancy as a discouragement against those who did not qualify by their own merits. They sit the same examination as the one given to qualifiers by deliberation; as the recruits by deliberation are far better esteemed than those by shadow, it is difficult for them to obtain desirable position, save those with extraordinary talent. If a person enters by privilege and obtains a position, his name is also subject to the same deliberation as someone who enters by deliberation; it is possible that he will be complained against and be demoted, if he proves incompetent or underperforms. At the absolute worse, the government can appoint a privileged person to a position without functions, if he is shown to have no qualities available to the public interest.

Self	Siblings	1st generation		2nd generation		3nd generation		4th generation		5th generation
		eldest	other	eldest	other	eldest	other	eldest	other	eldest	other
1	6	5	6	6	6	6	9	9	9	9
2	6	6	9	6	9	9	9	9
3	9	6	9	6	9	9
4		9	9	9
5		9	9

Election by examination

科考

Election by appointment

辟任

Election by retention

幕賓