The system of selecting officials in Ming dynasty

There were three ways to choose officials in Ming Dynasty: imperial examination, recommendation and official selection. But generally speaking, the imperial examination in Ming Dynasty is the most important way, and the Jinshi branch is the most important. After obtaining the official candidate status through official selection, we must face the civil service election system. The system of selecting officials in Ming Dynasty is generally divided into the following categories: ministerial election, ministerial promotion, ministerial promotion and ministerial election. As the name implies, the official departments themselves give candidates specific positions. Generally speaking, Beijing officials with five grades or less and local officials with four grades or less are all elected by the official department. One of the greatest innovations in the selection of ministries in the Ming Dynasty was the method of drawing lots, that is, drawing lots. Because there are hundreds of candidates at a time, and the ancient materials are relatively backward, it is difficult to determine who should be an official in a short time. The fairest way is to draw lots to decide your destination. This system was first implemented in the Taizu period, but it officially became a practice during the Wanli period of Zongshen and remained in use until the Qing Dynasty. The greatest advantage of this pioneering work is justice, and the greatest disadvantage is laziness! Some people were unlucky enough to be assigned to the backcountry as county lords, while others were lucky enough to find a rich place in Jiangnan. But in any case, where you are assigned has nothing to do with the selfishness of the official department's ministers, and it all depends on which brand your paw shakes out at that moment. Because of this, many candidates think they are incompetent, so that by Wanli, dozens of Jinshi who think they are incompetent have collectively ran to the door of the official department to scold Shangshu as an animal, and Shangshu's countermeasures are also very clear. They took the assistant minister and other officials, crossed their asses and ran to the door, scolding animals with people. 1) recommendation by the official department means that when some positions are vacant, the official department selects a list of candidates and submits it to the court for approval. Generally speaking, there will be one or several main candidates, namely the first candidate, and a larger number of accompanying candidates, namely the second candidate. The practice of the Ming dynasty was that after seeing the list, the emperor drew a circle on the names of people he was satisfied with. In most cases, the emperor will draw a circle on the name of the main promoter. Sometimes the emperor was angry with the minister, so he deliberately drew a circle on the name of the accompanying pusher, and even called back the list of the pusher and asked for a new push. Generally speaking, the scope of application of the Ministry is mainly middle-level officials in Beijing and local officials with the following three products. Seeing this, you should know why I said earlier that the official department minister has great authority, because he actually holds the appointment right of the grassroots officials of the entire Ming Empire. 2) Retirement by the court, headed by the official ministers, attended by six deputies, officials and university students, and elected senior officials and local officials in Beijing. Generally speaking, the higher the position, the more people will participate in the selection. After the list is drawn up, it will be given to the emperor to draw a circle. Since Jiajing, the evolution of the official selection system was promoted by the imperial court. Most senior officials were promoted by the imperial court, from cabinet assistant ministers and officials to local officials. An official once said: "I have been promoted by the court, and most of the ministers who have not been promoted by the court have been criticized." Therefore, the practice formed in the middle and late Ming Dynasty is advanced.