The New Way: Chinese Examination System

The Han wanted a way to identify people of high quality and talent for the local government jobs. For example, if the government wanted to put someone in charge of building roads and bridges in the territory, the king wanted to be sure the person had skills to handle all the details such as hiring the workers and buying the materials wisely. The Han ruler decided to begin using tests to help control the quality of those who were appointed. Senior officials (high up) in the government would be allowed to recommend talented people they knew for the jobs. That limited the power of the nobles because they could no longer appoint or give the job, they could just recommend people. Though the awarding of a recommendation was still a form of power, it was not as automatic that the person would get the job because the government would test those people to see if they had the skills they needed. A written examination (test) was developed to do that. Anyone who was recommended and passed the examination could get the positions. This did accomplish the goal of identifying people with talent but power was still limited to those who could get the recommendations.