A son who doesn't resemble his father? Love you, old man, see you at Xuanwu Gate!

Chapter 151 Hundred Wisdoms
Chang'an, Weiyang Palace, Xuanshi Hall.

Chancellor Gongsun Hong and Imperial Censor Zhang Tang jointly came to pay their respects.

On the emperor's desk.

The memorial presented by Zhang Tang was displayed on the table.

The things mentioned can be described as new or old, which makes some sense.

The content details are just one thing: changing the existing system for selecting officials.

The foundation was the "probationary official system" of the Qin Dynasty.

During the Qin Dynasty, the imperial court required local officials to recommend candidates for official positions based on public opinion, with a focus on assessing their local reputation and abilities.

Candidates for official positions must undergo visual inspection and oral examination by officials at the county level or above to assess their demeanor and adaptability.

Officials who pass the initial screening must undergo a probationary period of about one year, known as "trial". Those who pass the assessment after the probationary period are called "real officials", while those who fail are dismissed.

There are three prerequisites for clerks to enter officialdom.

Candidates for official positions must be at least seventeen years old, while some positions, such as "assistant," require candidates to be at least thirty.

A certain level of wealth was required; those who were poor, like Han Xin, were excluded from the selection process because of their "lack of virtue."

Students needed to master writing and legal knowledge. The Qin Dynasty promoted the idea of ​​"taking officials as teachers" and "taking the law as teaching," making legal studies a compulsory subject.

Emperor Gaozu of this dynasty, Liu Bang, obtained the position of Sishui Pavilion Chief through the trial system for officials.

The reason he was stopped at the position of pavilion chief was that he failed the assessments after entering officialdom, which included "five virtues," "no mistakes," "reporting to higher authorities," and "lessons."

The Five Virtues: Loyalty, Integrity, Prudence, Kindness, and Humility.

Five faults: boasting, valuing, arbitrarily cutting, offending superiors without knowing the consequences, and despising scholars while valuing wealth.

The upper-level report system: Local officials report their performance to the central government annually and are subject to evaluation.

The assessment is a legally recognized evaluation, with results divided into "best" and "lowest," and rewards and punishments are given based on performance.

The Han dynasty's "recruitment system" and the father emperor's "recommendation system" were both based on the Qin dynasty's "probationary system for officials," but they were not as strict as the probationary system, which led to frequent cases of corruption and favoritism.

Moreover, the trial system, the recruitment system, and the recommendation system were mostly geared towards aristocratic families and wealthy people, and could not truly benefit the common people.

In Zhang Tang's memorial, it was stated that the Han dynasty's "trial officials" would face all the common people.

Anyone from a respectable family background who is literate, proficient in arithmetic, and knowledgeable in laws and regulations can recommend themselves or be nominated by their village to participate in the "qualification examination" organized by the county.

Those who passed the basic laws, documents, and arithmetic were appointed as the lowest-ranking clerks and became one of the officials of the Han Dynasty.

This was the "trial official reform".

Then comes the "transformation of secondary merit".

Clear standards for merit and demerit are set. Once a certain number of "merits" are accumulated, one can be promoted, while major mistakes are recorded as "demerits." Merits and demerits offset each other, and the capable are promoted while the mediocre are demoted.

Seniority will no longer be the deciding factor; merit will be the only measure of success.

All achievements, including increases and decreases in taxes, agricultural and sericultural development, income and expenditure of money and grain, canal transport and water conservancy, education and promotion, disasters and diseases, and the number of thieves, were recorded in the "books".

To the greatest extent possible and by the means, minimize any possible human intervention. This is the new system for selecting "legal officials".

The "military merit system" was still retained, serving as the core promotion channel for military officers and those who had made special contributions, such as being sent as envoys to the Western Regions or managing major rivers.

There are clear rewards for military achievements such as beheadings, sieges, and being the first to scale a city, and corresponding titles and official positions are awarded.

But key changes were implemented.

The system more closely linked noble titles with official positions, requiring those holding high-ranking titles such as "Five Grand Masters" or above to pass the corresponding civil and legal examinations in order to assume the corresponding local official positions with real power, thus preventing the emergence of military officers who could fight battles but were unable to govern the people.

In addition, the system of recruitment and the system of submitting memorials were fully retained. The emperor or the central court could directly recruit virtuous people to serve as officials, and at the same time, anyone was allowed to "submit a memorial to the emperor" to make suggestions on major policies of the empire.

If the person who submitted the memorial had something to say, he could be directly appointed to an official position. This was equivalent to a "strategic inquiry" personally presided over by the emperor, which selected people with ingenious ideas and plans.

Finally, the emperor of the Han Dynasty established "official schools" and served as "principals," while "branch schools" were set up in local counties to teach subjects such as laws, documents, financial management, arithmetic, maps, and construction.

After passing the rigorous graduation exams, students were not directly appointed to official positions, but instead entered the pool of "probationary officials." However, as the monarch's protégés, they had a higher starting point and faster promotion.

"Zhang Tang".

"The minister is here."

"This memorial was entirely written by you?" Liu Ju's voice was unreadable.

This system of selecting officials is a rational and professional bureaucratic selection system with the Legalist principle of "following the name and holding the reality accountable" as its core, "law and arithmetic" as the entry threshold, "accounting books" as the core of promotion, "military merit" and "special recruitment by the monarch" as important supplements, and "professional official schools" as the talent reserve.

The promotion of all officials ultimately depended on the merit standards set by the central court and the final appointment by the monarch, which effectively severed the personal favor ties between officials and local powerful families, magnates, and recommenders.

The system incentivizes the ability to solve practical problems and selects doers rather than moral exemplars.

Once implemented, the status of legal officials and the power of the Censor-in-Chief, who is responsible for supervising the authenticity and accuracy of the "account books," will both rise.

Zhang Tang, being both a legal official and an imperial censor, could win twice in an instant!
At that time, Zhang Tang will be no less than the prime minister of the Han Dynasty, but he will be even more powerful than the prime minister of the Han Dynasty.

Personnel is politics!
Zhang Tang was forcibly seizing power from the old prime minister Gongsun Hong. This ruthless official had no humanity whatsoever, and politics without humanity is short-lived. Liu Ju disliked him.

"No."

Zhang Tang sprang up from the embroidered stool, first bowing to the throne, then bowing to Gongsun Hong opposite him. "Your Majesty, this is a system of discourse by disciples of various schools of thought, including Taoism, Mohism, Agriculturalism, and Diplomacy. What I have done is merely to copy it."

Since the emergence of the Hundred Schools of Thought, they have remained relatively quiet, not because they have done nothing, but because they have been working on something big.

During the Spring and Autumn Period, the Warring States Period, and the Qin and Han Dynasties, the rise and fall of Confucianism and the suppression of other schools of thought also made people realize the true nature of the world: ideological debate is one thing, and power struggle is another.

Without the mindset of power struggles, no matter how loud the voice, it cannot withstand the suppression of power and the will of the people.

Therefore, based on the Qin system, the various schools of thought pooled their wisdom and efforts to build a new system for selecting officials, ensuring that the people were loyal only to the imperial decrees and the monarch's will, and were no longer influenced or constrained by any particular ideology.

In short, the Hundred Schools of Thought and Confucianism are locked in a fierce battle!
They would rather risk the decline of their own tradition than let Confucianism perish, ensuring that Confucian scholars never have a chance to rise again!
As for Zhang Tang, Prime Minister Gongsun Hong was a Confucian scholar in name only. When the various schools of thought had to choose one person to lead the charge, they could only choose Zhang Tang, the second-best legal official. This "tailor-made" system for selecting officials was both a coincidence and a deliberate act.

Gongsun Hong remained silent.

He really wanted to tell the various schools of thought that he wasn't a Confucian scholar either, and that such good things should be directed at him.

A military-powerful, administratively efficient, and financially abundant absolutely centralized imperial system could also be tailor-made for him!
At this moment, the old prime minister was filled with turmoil, but his face remained calm.

(End of this chapter)