| “The Eight-pronged Evaluation Regulation” of the Ming dynasty as an institution focused more on conciseness and pragmatism than red tapes turned out to be highly enforceable and efficient in real operation.As a result,it played an indispensible role in both the aspect of punishing the misbehaved officials and upholding conventional governing ethics and that of pursuing appropriate reforms and establishing the administrative system aligned with the bureaucratic principles.In terms of institution,the essential principles of the Regulation can be concluded as “the aged and diseased should retire,the derelict and reckless should be removed from their postswith their official status retained,the corrupt and ruthless should be reduced to plebeian,and the fickle and inadequate should be demoted.”Though with only over 40 Chinese characters,the institutional contentstipulatedin theRegulationoccupied an irreplaceable position in the official management mechanism in the Ming dynasty.As to the reason behind,it's imperative to make a comprehensive research in order to figure that out: analyses will be done not only at the institutional level but also operational level;research will be conducted based upon not only the institutional content set out in TheStatutes of the Ming Dynasty,TheHistory of the Ming Dynasty and other ancient codes,but also evaluations,appraisals,memorials to the throne and imperial mandates recorded in TheAnalects of the Ming Dynasty,notes of the Ming and Qing dynasties and other relevant documents;understanding of the Regulationwill be approached not onlyfor its literal meanings but also connotations.“The Eight-pronged Evaluation Regulation” was enforced in varied forms of assessments,and all of them except for the assessment on capital officials,the only one created by the Ming dynasty,were inherited at least partially from the previous dynasties: monarch-presentation assessment from the admonishment mechanism of the Qin dynasty,provincial governors' assessment from the Han dynasty's system featuring prefectural governors' assessment followed by censors' reevaluation,and daily official assessment by chiefsof Yamens(governmental organs in ancient China)from the similar regular evaluation system of the previous dynasties.The content of the “Eight-pronged Evaluation Regulation” could be traced back to the “six rites” recorded in The Ritual of the Zhou Dynasty and also drew lessons from “five virtues” and “five misconducts” of the Qin dynasty,“six-faceted examination” of the Han dynasty,the official motivation system of the Wei and Jin dynasties characterized by the criteria of “integrity”,“prudence” and “industry”,as well as the “four virtues” prevalent in both the Tang and Song dynasties.The middle of the Ming dynasty witnessed the improvement of three measures of monarch-presentation assessment,capital official evaluation and external spot-check,and ever since that the Regulation became more universally applicable as a standardized evaluation.In addition,evaluations,memorials to the throne,imperial mandates and other assessment documents of the Ming dynasty are also adopted to explore the operational and other relevant issues of the Eight-pronged Evaluation Regulation: for instance,the definition of “aged” was based not on the natural age but work performance of the officials.According to their individual circumstances,those aged officials would face four possibilities: no-benefits retirement,with-benefits retirement,lay-off and extended employment.Those stricken with diseases would be further classified into two categories: those with illness inflicted by old age and those not.It's not until the reign of Yingzong emperor in the Song dynasty that the stipulation on official retirement was observed accordingly and that those coming down with diseases were to be removed from post with their official status retained.Other relevant policies not included in the institution are as follows: continued employment,restored employment after recovery,treatment of disease provided by imperial doctors as ordered by the emperor,exempt from presentation in front of the emperor,continued salary payment and other preferential benefits.Whilst some officials worked hard to restore their employment after being evaluated as “too old to work”,others hoped to retire on the pretext of “morbidity”.In the case of “corrupt” and “ruthless” officials,criminal attributes could be perceived in the three aspects of evaluation benchmarks,handling decisions and assessment procedures,and the accusations and penalties prescribed in laws and regulations were already used as the main yardsticks for decision-making;the handling decision of “reduction to plebeian” was no more an administrative punishment than a criminal penalty under certain circumstance;upon the result of assessment,all the criminal procedures including arrest and condemnation,recovery of illegal gains as well as recording and submission would be included in the administrative evaluation procedures.In real operation,those “corrupt” officials would be confronted with different punishment,such as reduction to plebeian,confiscation of illegal gains,exile,expulsion from the official status and ransom payment.The emperors sometimes were flexible in handling the corrupt officials based on either the political climate or their personal disposition.If it's the discipline inspectors who committed corruption,the penalty tended to be more severe than otherwise;by contrast,those with no corruption record might receive leniency when convicted with other crimes.As to the “ruthless” officials,they might face such punishments as reduction to plebeian,death penalty,demotion,exile,ransom payment and the emperors would also likely make their own decision on punishment after taking into account how merciless and brutal the officials had been.In line with the principle of “high-rank officials are immune to condemnation”,the assessments on “corruption” and “ruthlessness” were revoked many times in capital official evaluation.The in-court security agencies instead would all have to undergo evaluation especially against the stipulations on “corruption”,“ruthlessness” and “recklessness”,and a reasonable explanation for these three especially might be that they were more connected to criminal nature.The assessment on“dereliction” focused more on the officials' work attitude,which together with their ability was usually determined by the chief officials.Due to lack of consistent standards,misjudgement was not an uncommon thing.The punishment of removal from post while retaining official status wasn't regarded as a standardregulation until the ruling of Xianzong emperor;before that,other punishments were imposed instead,including dismissal or demotion,expulsion as border garrisons,retirement and reduction to plebeian,etc.During the reign of Xiaozong emperor,those evaluated as derelict officials whose term hadn't expired could remain on employment in view of talent shortage and long-term office tradition.In Shizong's period,the punishment of dereliction was once used as an abatement from more serious penalties.The assessment on “recklessness” would judge whether an official was careless in either doing his job or developing his character.Apartfrom that,it would also consider officials' inappropriate behavior in their hometown either after his resignation due to illness or during the three-year mourning period for their deceased parents.Those in violation would be removed from post with their official status retained,demoted,retained for employment,or retired.“Recklessness” with its criminal attribute is an evaluation on the misconducts of officials and its punishment tended to be noncriminal or with leniency.Even if there was any criminal penalty imposed,it would not be as heavy and severe.When Shenzong emperor was on the throne,those convicted of such offense would be,in accordance with relevant regulations,directly removed from post with their official status retained.In the mid-to-late period of the Ming dynasty,the punishments of “recklessness” were once used as an abatement from the penalties for “corrupt” officials.During Xianzong emperor's period,out of the consideration to mitigate the stringent law and value talented officials,lighter misdemeanors classified as “inadequacy” and “fickleness” were set up under “dereliction” and “recklessness” respectively and once convicted,the officials concerned would face to be demoted by only one ranking to work in other provinces.The officials in charge of evaluation needed to judge whether the officials in question were inadequate based upon the appraisals of the latter's chiefs.Similar to “recklessness”,“fickleness” was also used to assess the officials' conduct and the difference between the two mainly lies in the severity of the misbehavior.The then ministry of personnel affairs would,based upon the severity,decide on the punishment,which,in real enforcement,included demotion by one,two,three or four rankings.When the assessment on “inadequacy” was just set up,the punishment on the officials in violation was usually a transfer to remote governmental organs with the original ranks unchanged;during Xiaozong emperor's reign,however,the punishment escalated to demotion by one ranking together with a transfer to remote region;later on,the punishment tended to be more flexible with transfer decision.The “Eight-pronged Evaluation Regulation” exerted great impact on the term-based evaluation system as well as other administrative policies such as election.Under the political climate in the mid-and-late period of the Ming dynasty,however,the Regulation was very often exploited by the warring factions,which unfortunately ran very counter to the original purpose of such legislation.From the angle of historical development,the Regulation contributed a lot to the evaluation system of the Qing dynasty,thanks to its concise content,simple operation and positive consequence.Official evaluation mechanism in the Qing dynasty could be divided into assessment on capital officials and that on other provincial officials and the assessment content could be summarized as “four categories” and “eight criteria”.The eight criteria of the Qing dynasty apparently used the Eight-pronged Evaluation Regulation of the Ming dynasty for reference and were reduced to six criteria after “corruption” and “ruthlessness” were removed due to their involvement of too serious offenses and too strong criminal attributes.Analyzed alone in the Ming dynasty,the Regulation helped to develop “non-bias” as the core principle of evaluation.For the officials on different posts,the responsibilities also varied,so usually only the individual ability and performance would be considered for evaluation.There were eleven records on official evaluation in the historical documents of the Ming dynasty,and the handling of the problematic officials included demotion,transfer with rank unchanged,retained employment,and dismissal.Upon comprehensive analysis,it's discovered that the standardized punishment was “demotion”.The guiding principle of the Eight-pronged Evaluation Regulation is the traditional governing ethics and its structure also gave a full expression to not only the government work concepts,including “integrity and honesty”,“justice and compassion”,“clear mind and healthy body”,“self-discipline and modesty”,“uprightness and prudence”,“self-reflection and self-cultivation”,“industry and dedication” and “eligibility and responsibility”,but also the qualifications demanded by the political system of that era for the administrative jobs.The evaluation criteria fully demonstrated the priority of ethics among the governmental officials,with a special focus on integrity and justice.And therefore,the Regulation perfectly performed its functions: to punish and educate the officials so as to straighten out the official community;to dismiss the unqualified so as to improve administrative efficiency;to mobilize the human resources so as to fit the right persons in the right position;to improve the administrative operation so as to fulfill the governing objectives.It can be concluded from the above that the aim for the Ming emperors to govern the empire was to “create a world for everyone” and the concepts they followed were “people are the foundation of a state” in their pursuit of “value and love people”,“benefit and enrich people” and “educate and employ people”;and “ethics is given top priority in administration” in their pursuit of “self-cultivation and family management with sincerity and integrity”,“care for plebeians with integrity and dedication” and “combination of virtue with punishment,laws with discipline rites”.They also observed the principle of “virtue and ability matter the most” in the hopes that talent developmentwould be regarded as the foundation,official selection as the corner stone,and “virtue” and “ability” as the evaluation criteria,and evaluation mechanism as the guarantee to achieve the ideal of “virtue and ability matter the most”.Modern China has further developed the traditional governing ethics in a creative way and effectively realized selective inheritance.Nowadays,the core idea of “people are the foundation of the state” is “to adhere to the belief that people are the owners of the country”,“to stick to the principle that people's livelihood be guaranteed and improved in the midst of development” and “to strengthen the safety net system of the society”.The principle of “ethicsare given top priority in administration” stresses that both the Communist Party and civil servants should focus on “administrative ethics”,i.e.“to value great virtues,abide by social moralities and reinforce self-discipline”,and should promote civic virtues and incorporate the governing concept of “rule of law” with that of “rule of virtue”.The principle of “virtue and ability matter the most” involves the talent selection based on both virtue and ability with the priority given to the former,emphasis on matchmaking of the talent and post in employment,establishment of an evaluation mechanism centering on daily and categorical assessments,imposition of supervision according to law,and implementation of comprehensive scrutiny on all the civil servants with public power in hand.In doing all this,we will not only carry forward the good aspects of the traditional governing ethics and legislation-related cultures,but also provide guidance for the personnel affairs and legal system of the modern society.In that sense,the newly amended Civil Servant Law has inherited from and carried forward the traditional governing ethics in a selective manner in terms of both the guiding principles and specific contents;in the meanwhile,it has also used for reference the reasonable factors of the ancient governmental officiallegislation in fixing the administrative management principles and approaches.This is what we have learned from studying the connotation of the Eight-pronged Evaluation Regulation. |
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