After the establishment of the Han Dynasty, China entered a long period of unification. The unified empire can no longer be like the Warring States Seven Heroes period, it needs a stable system of electing officials. This system is not only to be

Referral system

　　After the establishment of the Han Dynasty, China entered a long period of unification. The unified empire can no longer be like the Warring States Seven Heroes period, it needs a stable system of electing officials. This system must not only take into account the efficiency of selecting and promoting talents, but also take into account the political balance. The Han Dynasty instinctively chose another alternative, and that was the recommendation system.

　　There are two kinds of recommendations, one called requisition and the other called probation. Summoning means that senior officials can recruit their own subordinates, and these subordinates have the opportunity to be recognized by the imperial court and enter the career. Not only did the Chancellor and the Three Dukes have this right to summon, but even the local governors such as The Assassin, the County Sheriff, and the County Order also have this power. In later dynasties, local officials could not be appointed by a single officer, but had to be appointed by the central authorities. However, in the Han Dynasty, the number one could form a leadership team by himself. In this way, as long as the local governor has a crush on you, you may become an official of the imperial court.

　　But more importantly, "detection". The so-called inspection refers to having officials conduct inspections and recommend talents to the imperial court. There are two types of inspections, with senior officials above the history of the assassination recommending Xiucai (later renamed Maocai in order to avoid the Han Guangwu Emperor Liu Xiuxuan), and the county sheriff recommending filial piety, the so-called "prefecture raising Xiucai, county filial piety". The Xiucai here is not the kind of Xiucai that Fan Jin later did, their status is much higher, often the current official, so the recommendation of Xiucai is more like a promotion within the official system, and Ju Xiaolian is the real elected official, once elected as a filial piety, you can enter the Imperial Court Lang Office and change from a civilian to an official.

　　Filial piety is very formal, just like the later imperial examination system. Every year, filial piety is required, and there are strict quota indicators. The indicator of the Western Han Dynasty was two indicators for each county, and the indicator for the Eastern Han Dynasty was to allocate one indicator of filial piety for every 200,000 people. Under normal circumstances, the whole country can produce more than two hundred filial pieties a year. This system sounds a bit like the examination system, but when filial piety does not rely on examinations, but on recommendations, it is the so-called "promotion of excellence" in the current further education.

　　So how to push "excellent"? Of course, according to the regulations, there is also a standard, which is the so-called "four subjects". Filial piety should meet at least one of the following four conditions: high moral character (filial piety), learning to practice (scripture), knowing the law (civil servant), and being able to enter politics. But that being said, how can it be considered virtuous and virtuous, and how can it be considered strong and strategic? This is evidenced by the free will of the governor.

　　So let's consider from the perspective of the local governor, who should they choose to be filial piety? Ancient chiefs are different from the current leaders, their technical control ability is relatively primitive, in order to maintain a stable situation in the local area, often rely on the cooperation of the local upper class, so when they raise filial piety, they have to consider "material conditions". So who to recommend is considered to be "material"? There are only two kinds of people who are suitable, one is that the local power is large, and the other is that the force is not necessarily large but has a good reputation. Thus, the probation system leads to two outcomes.

　　The first result is the rise in the power of local clans. Generation after generation, they sent officials to the imperial court, gained power, and then this power was further translated into influence in their homeland to ensure that their next generation continued to be "scrutinized." In this way, their local power is getting bigger and bigger like a snowball. As a result, the Han Dynasty experienced the localization of power. This power can even be transformed into military power in critical periods.

　　The second result was a boom in personal prestige. Under the examination system, whether you can become an official or not mainly depends on the test results, and the public opinion environment has little impact on you. If people around you praise you, of course, it feels good, but after all, you can't directly exchange it for benefits. However, in the Han Dynasty, when others praised you for your "high moral integrity" and "learning to practice passing", you could directly become an official. Then don't think about it, you must be thinking about how to make others praise you every day. Once this trend is formed, it is out of control. The person who everyone praises becomes a big celebrity, and then these big celebrities praise you, and you can also become a little celebrity. And fame itself is the channel for officials. In this way, an unbreakable chain of interests is formed. As a result, for the first time in China's history, "celebrities" exploded. These people are extremely prominent, and some celebrities return to their hometowns, and there are thousands of cars to send them off. Some celebrities died, and as many as 6,000 or 7,000 people were sent to the funeral. Flipping through the Book of the Later Han Dynasty, there are glorious deeds of these famous scholars everywhere.

　　In addition to celebrities, filial piety has also sprung up in large numbers. Guo Ju also began to bury his child, and Huang Xiang also began to fan the pillow. Of course, there are also false filial pieties, just like Zhao Xuan of Anle. Everyone keeps filial piety for three years, and he keeps filial piety for more than twenty years, and then he lives in the cemetery next to the grave. Children were then born one after another in the cemetery. The leader was going to "investigate" him, but when he found out that he had given birth to five children in the cemetery, he was furious: "What did you do next to your parents' graves?" Instead, he was punished with the sin of "deceiving the people and slandering the ghosts and gods."

　　From the emperor's point of view, this is also a headache, and the elected officials have elected a bunch of rich families and celebrities to add chaos to the imperial court. But beyond that, there is no better way to do it for a while, only to improve some details. For example, during the han shun emperor period, a "Yangjia new system" was carried out. The filial piety sent by the local government was not directly appointed by the imperial court, but also had to take a test, "all the students tested the family law, the literary officials' lesson notes, played the end of the door, and practiced their virtual reality", which was barely a bit of a shadow of the examination system. However, the impact of this reform is very small, and it cannot shake the entire social atmosphere.