Waiting for the Dawn

Answers

• Q12JUDGMENT

  Can numerical measures adequately determine a person's fitness for a position of responsibility?

  No. examinations select poorly. Criticizes the examination system for selecting officials by a narrow written test, and proposes several alternative routes of recruitment such as recommendation and appointment.

  流俗之人，徒見夫二百年以來之功名氣節，一二出於其中 ，遂以為科法已善，不必他求。不知科目之內，既聚此百千萬 人，不應功名氣節之士獨不得入，則是功名氣節之士之得科目 ，非科目之能得功名氣節之士也。假使士子探籌，第其長短而 取之，行之數百年，則功名氣節之士亦自有出於探籌之中者， 寧可謂探籌為取士之善法耶？究竟功名氣節人物，不及漢唐甚 ，徒使庸妄之輩充塞天下。豈天下之不生才哉？則取之之法非 也。

  Vulgar people see only that in the past two hundred years one or two men of achievement and moral integrity have come out of it, and so conclude that the examination system is already good and nothing else need be sought. They do not know that since hundreds of thousands and millions of men are gathered within the examination categories, it is not to be expected that men of achievement and integrity alone should be unable to get in; so it is that men of achievement and integrity obtain the degrees, not that the examinations are able to obtain men of achievement and integrity. Suppose candidates drew lots and were ranked and taken by the length of their lots: if this were practised for several hundred years, men of achievement and integrity would also naturally emerge from among those drawing lots. Could one then call drawing lots a good method of selecting scholars? In the end, men of achievement and integrity fall far short of those of the Han and Tang, and mediocre and reckless people are merely made to fill the realm. Is it that the realm does not produce talent? It is that the method of selecting them is wrong.

  machine translation

  取士 (On the selection of scholars) · Completed 1663, 21 chapters including 取士 (chinaknowledge.de, Wikipedia); Chinese text on Gutenberg #23855. Circulated in manuscript; printed later.