Ministry of Administration
| 尚書吏部 djang'-st'ja-rjes-be' | |
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | February 17, 266 |
| Preceding |
|
| Dissolved | Dec. 31, 1975 |
| Superseding agency |
|
| Employees | 984 (1975) |
| Parent department | Council of Correspondence |
The Ministry of the Civil Service (尚書吏部, djang’-st'ja-rjes-be’) was a government department, part of the Council of Correspondence, responsible for the appointment, appraisal, and promotions of senior government officials, according to statutory and customary standards. Somewhat unfaithful to its name in translation, its power was not limited to the "civil service" as normally understood in the Western context. Once the most powerful department, its influence was curbed in the 18th through 20th centuries through the establishment of more specfic criteria that reduced the number of candidates for specific office. During the Pan-Septentrion War, its rigidity became an obstacle to the timely appointment of military and civil officers to staff the rapidly expanding bureaucracy, and statutes were passed to allow appointments without its scrutiny. However, until its abolition in 1975, it still wielded considerable power, through appraisals and inspections, and was seen as a bulwark of conservatism in government.
Name
The word rjeh (吏, "official") in Themiclesia is picto-semantic glyph representing a hand holding a writing brush, with a stroke indicating the tip of the brush. It does not mean "to write" but, in the derivative sense, an act or person characterized by writing, or in other words, an administrator. Gradually, all public officers, including military officers above a certain rank, came to be called rjeh. Administrative skill was highly prized under Menghean influence and key to centralization, in which the Hexarchy was interested in competition with each other. The other word be’ (部, "part") means "department" in the administrative context and also a military unit roughly 800 to 1,000 in pre-modern Themiclesia.
History
Before 292
During the early stages of the Hexarchy, it appears there were few rules regarding the selection of officials. Kings generally appointed and removed them upon the advice of his ministers, some of whom were very powerful. All six states provided some sort of upwards mobility by petty soldiers to claim public office based on their battlefield performance. Once the Tsjins Dynasty nominally united the Hexarchy, however, military service was no longer a typical route to officialdom. It should be noted that any degree of military achievement could only make a soldier a bottom-rank administrator; any promotion from there would be independent of military records. Replacing this system was an examination system that tested young men for literacy, penmanship, mathematics, law, and basic policies; qualifiers would be appointed scribes, like soldiers who wanted to become administrators. An early document suggests that a scribe had to master at least 6,000 characters at appointment. At the bottom ranks (50, 60, 80, and 100 bushels), this was done by the Chancellor with assistance from the President of Tribunes. However, royal approval was required to appoint officials above the rank of 120 bushels (120, 160, 200, 250, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, 1,000, and 2,000). At the same time, it became customary to appoint distinguished members of the royal retinue (宦者) to positions in the administration; amongst them, the Gentlemen-at-Arms (郎中), the royal bodyguard, were most likely to be appointed. In the Council of Correspondence, the Division of Ordinary Attendants was established to manage the appointment of such more senior officials.
After 292
Immediately before or around 292, the Law of Officials in Nine Classes (九品官人法, kju’-phrjem’-kwal-njing-pjap) was enacted, which officially graded civil service recruits and official posts into nine classes (Class I being the highest, Class IX lowest, in both systems). Positions above 200 bushels were graded into the nine classes and deemed "gentry offices", and those below were "petty offices". As with the rule before, "gentry offices" were appointed by the emperor and through the Division of Ordinary Attendants, and "petty offices" were generally appointed by other officers, from the pool of literate recruits, by officers with supervision from the central government. Under the new Law, recruits had to receive a grade of II to be appointed to positions above Class VI and a grade of III or IV to those below. The task of grading recruits was done by local officials under central supervision, and prominent local clans had the right to grade candidates.