Sun Piyang was an official during the Ming Dynasty, and at the age of sixty-two, he held the position of official Shangshu. The main task of this position was to help the emperor select talents and arrange them to the right positions. Because of the particularity of the official system of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty did not have a prime minister, and Sun Piyang, as the head of the six ministries, was the biggest official at that time.
According to historical records, Sun Piyang was a very honest and honest person, but it is ridiculous that after Sun Piyang took the position of shangshu of the official department, he created the "Signature Law" to select officials of the Ming Dynasty. Under such rules, if you want to get a certain position, you do not look at talent, nor do you look at qualifications, but by hand.
It is really surprising that a minister who is intelligent and has a positive image will actually regard such a big thing as the selection of talents as a child's play, which is really absurd.
As we all know, when the imperial court selects talents, it must not only select the best candidates, but also look at what the strengths of this person are. Only in this way can the right talents be arranged to the right posts, but Sun Piyang's practice has disrupted the normal system of selecting and promoting talents in the imperial court. Sun Piyang's approach caused criticism from many people in the dynasty, such as Yu Shenxing.
In the fifth volume of Gushan Pen Dust, he criticized Sun Piyang as follows:
People's talents have their own strengths and weaknesses, and each has its own suitability; there are high and low qualifications, and each has its own convenience; local affairs are complicated and simple, and each has its own integration; and the road to office is far and near, and each has its own accuracy. And all these differences are taken away, can you still see the face after covering the mirror, and can you weigh the weight if you break the scale rod?
In addition, Yu Shenxing also took into account the road problem of serving officials. In ancient times, transportation was not very developed everywhere, and officials needed a lot of travel expenses if they wanted to take office in other places. But how can a newly appointed official have so much travel expenses? This has led many new officials to borrow money.
In the case of low salaries for officials, newly appointed officials will be corrupt while facing the pressure to repay debts. What's more, the results of the drawing of lots are random, and it is likely that the officials selected are not very familiar with the local situation, and even have a language barrier. How can new officials manage such a complex situation?
Even Gu Yanwu, a scholar of the Ming Dynasty, made sharp accusations against Sun Piyang's practices. He believes that Sun Piyang is to keep himself out of the matter and has never considered the interests of the country. The talents selected by this method are not suitable for the local officials, the officials force the people to rebel, and the swords and soldiers meet each other.
So, since Sun Piyang's lottery method is very impractical, why should he do it?
According to the "History of Ming", Sun Piyang was not afraid of anyone, but he was only afraid of eunuchs.
Everyone in the court knew that he was a clean and honest official, and did not dare to go through his back door, but the eunuchs dared. After many eunuchs learned that Sun Piyang could arrange official positions for people, they pestered Sun Piyang to arrange for himself. For these eunuchs, Sun Piyang did not dare to offend, and did not dare not help, so he could only come up with such a bad idea to block the eunuchs' shortcuts, which was also considered to be well-intentioned.
During Zhu Yuanzhang's reign, he was particularly afraid of the monopoly of power and the influence of the emperor to seize power. Therefore, he wrote such a passage in the "Ancestral Training of the Emperor and Ming": There are descendants who dare to suggest that those who establish a prime minister will destroy the Nine Tribes. In this way, Sun Piyang only needed to be directly responsible to the emperor and did not have to be influenced by the eunuchs, but this was not the case.
After the Ming Dynasty abolished the prime minister, the emperor had to personally deal with many things, and he could not let people do it for him. As the emperor of a dynasty, as a high-level administrator, it is very difficult for the emperor to do everything. The emperor had lived in the palace since he was a child and did not know much about some of the actual situations, so he needed a right-hand man to assist him.
Every time the emperor approved the recital, he needed a group of people to review it first, and then draft an opinion for the emperor, called "draft vote". After that, it was sent back to the hands of the emperor, who agreed, and Zhu Approve could be issued after that. In this process, the emperor needed to personally review them one by one.
If the emperor is slack, the power to approve the recital will fall into the hands of others, such as: the Zhengde Emperor, because of his own greed, he will review the recital and hand over to the eunuchs around him, so that the head of the dynasty can not see the truth or falsehood. It was in the process that some of the centers of executive power began to shift.
Even if the Ming Dynasty had a cabinet to assist the emperor, and there were strict controls on the cabinet ministers, the power fell into the hands of eunuchs. Therefore, for the eunuchs, how could Sun Piyang not be afraid?
In the "Rizhilu", Gu Yanwu discussed the source of seniority ranking, arguing that it is the same as the lottery system, which relies on luck to select talents, and abandons the principle of selecting talents according to talents. Moreover, in order to show the "superiority" of this system, it is also selected according to the qualifications and years, two prerequisites.
In view of this, Cui Liang had to write to ask for instructions and select talents according to the number of years of service.
Although this method was not taken seriously by many people at the time, it was indeed a good way to protect themselves. Moreover, the upward and downward effects, the imperial court did this, and the people below naturally did so. Over time, seniority has become a conventional habit. Until now, when selecting talents, they will be affected by seniority ranking.
This law of impeding fairness has become a middle ground for the selection of talents to be fair or not, and in this regard, many corrupt things have been spawned. Even though this law is now accepted by the world, the talents it has selected are uneven, and even unable to shoulder heavy responsibilities. Therefore, in a society where capital operates and the survival of the fittest is eliminated, it will eventually be eliminated by time.
Resources:
[History of Ming", "Gu shan pen dust", "Emperor Ming Ancestral Training", "Rizhilu"]