The Song Dynasty had more talents than the other dynasties in the Chinese history. The imperial examination reforms made it easier for the talented from the ordinary stood out. It provided opportunities for them to display their talents. It was also related to the official recommendation system. There were three major types of recommendations. The first is ″Juguan Zidai.″ Usually when a middle or high level official received a promotion, he must recommend someone to replace his for-mer position. Though this practice was adopted previously, it was the Song Dynasty that formed the system officially. The second, if low level civil officials were to be promoted to the middle level, they needed several referrals.The third, sometimes they also needed referrals in cases such as promotion or appointment of a government position. There are two basic concepts in recommending a qualified candidate in the Song Dynasty. One is Liu Zhi's viewpoint: a talent must possess both political integrity and professional competence. The other is Yuan Xie's viewpoint: political integrity is usually separated from ability. As it's was not easy to find talents, mistakes were unavoidable in practice, even for statesmen like Wang Anshi and Sima Guang. However, Cui Yuzhi of the Southern Song Dynasty made fewer mistakes and recommended many talents. He proposed a more comprehensive view of talent selection. On the one hand, he emphasized on a morality-oriented concept. The best talent is someone who possesses both political integrity and professional competence. The second best talent is someone who possesses loyalty and political integrity. On the other hand, he was not fully against appointing a useful petty man. However, measures must be adopted to prevent a petty man from winnibg power and influence while a gentleman lose them. This theory is more comprehensive than Yuan Xie's. The success of Cui Yuzhi was guided by a correct concept of talents. He did a fine job in the following three aspects: discover able people and put them at suitable posts, paying great attention to the roles of talents in administering state affairs|do not care about personal gain or loss in talent selection for the country|no faction viewpoint and no bias in the process of recommending talents. The talents recommendation system and the example of Cui Yuzhi in the Song Dynasty can be used for reference today when we select cadres.
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引用本文:
何忠礼. 论宋代的举官制度——以崔与之的举人为中心[J]. 浙江大学学报(人文社会科学版), 2016, 2(4): 71-81.
He Zhongli. Official Recommendation System in the Song Dynasty in the Case of a Successful Referrer Cui Yuzi. JOURNAL OF ZHEJIANG UNIVERSITY, 2016, 2(4): 71-81.