Research On The Merit System In Northern Wei

Merit system was a system according to which the central government assessed the achievements, the administrative ability and morality of an official. It was a key component in ancient China's political system. This paper provides a survey of the merit system in Northern Wei, with its formation, establishment, evolution and destruction as focuses.Merit system was formed gradually from the reign of Emperor Daowu to the holding court of Empress Dowager Feng. Because of the dual administrative system of no-Hans and Hans, the merit system was applied only to the local officials under the traditional system of prefectures and counties, while there were no direct merit documents regarding to the central officials. The merit ways included ambassadors'going the rounds, emperor's going on an imperial tour and government clerks'and the common peoples'reporting of officials'malfeasance, etc. In Taiyan the first year there appeared another merit way, i.e. evaluating regional chief, grand protector and county magistrate level by level. The contents of local official merit were mainly directed to agriculture, taxation and corvee, households, jurisdiction and personnel designation, with the examination of whether an official committed graft and corruption as focus. There was no system of dismissing or promoting officials after merit was performed, but officials who got an excellent rank in the merit would be awarded clothing, horses and silk, etc. It was until Yanxing the second year when the standard of promoting officials with achievements was established that Northern Wei connected assessment of the merit system with the promotion of officials. The punishment inflicted on the officials with bad rank in the merit was harsh, ranging from bastinado, dismiss to death penalty.After Emperor Xiaowen ascended the throne, he designated the scholar-officials of the Hans to important positions to reform the civil service system. As a result, the administrative structure developed from the duality of no-Hans and Hans into the monopoly of Hans. And the scope of merit system was extended to all officials, including the local and central officials. Officials'ranks in the merit were directly related to their demotion or promotion. And Emperor Xiaowen himself was in charge of official merit. In Taihe the fifteenth year, merit system was established by law as one part of political system. According to the merit decree directed to local officials'merit, in the end of every year, merit was performed in the governments below that of prefectures. Regional chief would rank grand protectors and county magistrates according to their achievements and report the results to the central government. When the central government merited officials, the officials'achievements would be decisive to their promotion or demotion. In Taihe the eighteenth year, at T'o P'ayu's suggestion, the merit decree directed to the officials of central government was established formally, i.e, head of each department was in charge of the merit of department officials and the officials'achievements would be rated in nine ranks. The first and last two ranks would be promoted and demoted respectively; the...