Guan Shanyuan

    The national "Two sessions" is about to be held, and "How to bid farewell to the worship of GDP" has become a hot word。For a long time,Many places in the "GDP on the hero" situation,Rewards and punishments for promotion of leading cadres,Are simplistically tied to quantitative indicators related to the economy,"Image project", "face project", "figure out the official" and "official figure" and so on are widely criticized,It is also rooted in this。

    The appraisal of political performance has been an official appraisal method since ancient times。However, in ancient times, official performance assessment was more of a closed, top-down assessment system with many drawbacks, but it was rarely based on GDP, and more often it was a comprehensive assessment system that integrated official virtues, financial endowments, and merits and demerits。 

Zhang Juzheng's "Following the Official" and Bai Juyi's "Nasu"

　　"Money is not everything, but without money you can do nothing."。In ancient China, local officials were called fathers and mothers officials, and the people under their rule became "subjects".。According to the traditional rites and laws, parents have the right to teach and punish their children, and they also have the right to get their children to worship and honor them。As an official of father and mother, the power to teach and punish is the power of judicial trial, and the right to worship and honor, that is, the power to levy taxes。The ability to collect a steady stream of taxes for the emperor was a major test for local officials。

    During the Qin and Han dynasties, the system of examination and courses was carried out for officials。The examination course is the examination of the official's political performance, that is, today's performance appraisal。The examination course is used to link the position responsibility with the ability and behavior of the officials, restrict and motivate the officials according to the performance standards, and decide the reward, punishment, dismissal and promotion of the officials according to the merits of the examination results, so as to persuade the good and discourage the evil, so that the performance evaluation can play a role。The examination course in Qin Dynasty was carried out through the upper scheme system。The upper scheme system is: the county minister at the beginning of the year will write the tax revenue budget on the wooden coupon, presented to the king, the king divided the wooden coupon in two, the king holds the right coupon, the minister holds the left coupon。At the end of the year, those who meet the standards will remain in office, and those who do not meet the standards will be dismissed - that is, when the budget is completed, they will remain in office;Can't finish, get out。

    Therefore, officials who can exceed the task of making money are always favored。At the beginning of the reign of Zhang Juzheng in the Ming Dynasty, faced with the dilemma of corrupt official administration, financial crisis, uneven service and scattered army, he made up his mind and carried out a series of reforms with great force, which made the life of the Ming Dynasty continue for several decades。During Zhang Juzheng's administration, the minister strongly recommended Hai Rui, who is famous for his honesty and integrity in the world, Zhang Juzheng did not catch a cold on Haiqingtian, repeatedly refused to allow, asked the reason, said the following sentence: "...More should be used to follow the official, less with clear flow。”

    The so-called "official", first seen in the "official biography" in the Records of the Grand Historian, refers to those officials who attach importance to agricultural propaganda and education, honest and honest, rich residents, go to see and think, and ordinary "honest officials" and "good officials" are very different。But in the Zhang Juzheng dynasty,The term "follow officials" refers to officials who use all means to achieve the goals of their superiors,For example, the ministry of Shangshu Wang Guoguang,The crime of nepotism, selling official goods, profiting from public wealth and so on was repeated impeachment,But also familiar with the financial master,Five years in charge of the Ministry,The court's taxes rose year after year,This kind of person is exactly what Zhang Juzheng likes,Not that stubborn Harry。

    Of course, the unscrupulous "follow the official" more, will naturally become a cruel official。In ancient times, the punishment for "grain resisters", that is, those who do not pay taxes on time, is very serious。In the Ming and Qing dynasties, if the taxpayer did not pay on time, he had to use the threat of force。This is called "comparison", setting a deadline of 5 or 10 days, notifying the other party that it must pay at the government office, if it is late, or if it is reported to the government office but cannot pay the amount due, it will be "compared" and subjected to a punishment, which can be whipped up to 50 or 20 in accordance with the law。If you do not report to the yamen on the comparison day, you will be invoiced。If after three "comparisons" he could not complete the punishment, he was guilty of "resisting grain" and, after being arrested and brought to justice, he was flogged for fifty and put on display for a month。The comparison day is announced in advance, generally in the afternoon of the opening day, in the morning, the chief officer will hear the case, and in the afternoon, the "responsibility ratio" will be concentrated, and those who fail to complete the punishment will be gathered, beaten in turn, and sent out to the public in batches。

    Bai Juyi was a tax collector in the Tang Dynasty. At that time, he suffered from the Rebellion of An and Shi Dynasty, and the prosperous Tang Dynasty was not prosperous。Bai Yiju is also a humanist, while ruthlessly collecting taxes, he also wrote a lot of poems full of compassion, such as the poem "Najiao", Bai Juyi wrote:

    Officials knocked at the door at night and shouted for millet。The family is not waiting for dawn, the field is lit up。
Winnow like a bead, a car thirty dendrobium。He is still in trouble, scourging and chastising his servants。
Once upon a time, I was guilty of being inadequate。Four officers in a row, ten years of dead bodies。
Often hear the ancient saying, the gains and losses will be restored。Forgive me today, and return him Taicang Valley。

The "three classes and nine levels" within the system and the "people's umbrella" outside the system

    On the whole, however, the assessment of officials in ancient times was relatively comprehensive。

    In the Western Jin Dynasty, county and county officials were assessed according to five criteria: Zhengshen (personal qualities), Qinmin (working for the people), Fu Gu (caring for the elderly), and Xiu Ren (helping people correct mistakes).。The assessment officials in Northern Wei were divided into three grades: upper, middle and lower。Those above are promoted, those below are removed from office, and those in the middle are not promoted inevitably。The assessment officials in Northern Zhou formulated six standards, which were: clear body and mind, good education, the best geographical position (development of agricultural production), promote the good people (recommendation of talents), pardon the prison litigation (fair law enforcement), and pay service (reasonable taxation and labor).。

    The examination in Tang Dynasty was very perfect。One examination a year, of which the civil service exam is the third grade nine, the reference standard is "four good" and "twenty-seven best"。The four virtues are: moral righteousness is heard, clear and prudent, fair can be called, but diligent bandits。Lay particular stress on ideology, morality and work style;"Twenty-seven most" is to distinguish between different positions, focusing on administrative ability and performance。For example, the criterion of "the best judge" is "push 鞫.,The judgment is fair ";The standard of "the most academic officer" is "good instruction.,"Students become apprentices";The standard of "Collation" is "collation",Published in the Ming dynasty",It is similar to the assessment of the editing and correcting staff of the modern publishing General Administration,The error rate shall not exceed a few parts per 10,000,And so on。

    Taiwan historian Huang Ching-lian in the Tang Dynasty Civil Service Examination System,Compiled a Tang Dynasty official ninth grade examination of the evaluation rules: according to the job set up to reach the "most",All four good things,Just say "good",One of the three best or none of the four best,Evaluable "top middle",One best three good or no best three good,Can be evaluated "up and down";One best good or no best good,Can be rated above average;One best or one good without the best,Evaluable "medium";If there is nothing, there is nothing good,But "the job is rough",Evaluable "middle bottom"。Then it is "love hate ren feeling, deal with broken good reason" comment "on the next";"Back to the public to the private, the job abolished hearing" comments "under the middle";"Officials are flattering, corrupt and cloudy" comment "Xiaxia"。Can rank in the middle three,At least you can keep your job or rank,Classified in the lower three categories,This was followed by dismissal and demotion,Waiting for the supervision department to investigate and punish,Until "corruption and corruption" handed over to the judiciary,It's pretty much like "Excellent, good, average, pass, fail" today,However, the Tang Dynasty dealt with those who did not pass the examination,Much harsher than it is today。　

    The performance evaluation of ancient officials was mostly carried out internally, but it does not mean that the voice of the people was completely ignored, such as the trick of "people umbrella", which was never tired of playing。In ancient times, it was customary for a county chief to leave office and always hope that the local people would hold some commemorative activities to show their "outstanding official voice" and "love the people".。The people have to cooperate, save money and save trouble is to give the outgoing chief a gentleman's signature of the "people umbrella", meaning that the gentry people have been protected by the chief。

    There's also the ritual of leaving office, "taking off your boots and leaving your love."。In the Tang Dynasty, there was a good official named Cui Rong, who did a lot of good deeds when he was governor of Huazhou。Later, when Ren left, the people were not willing to let him go, blocked the road, pulled the REINS of his horse, and took off his official boots。Later, it became a habit that in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, prefectures and counties would perform such a trick when they left office, regardless of whether they were pure, virtuous and foolish. Before leaving the country, they would be blocked by the gentry and ask the grand master to stretch out his feet to take off the official boots for the master, which was kept as a souvenir。 

Different places, different assessments

　　One of the major drawbacks of the "only GDP" theory of political performance assessment is that the same ruler is used to evaluate, and the result is the absurdity of "long-distance running and swimming races together" and "quail and geese are compared with each other in size". Some areas with poor resource conditions and thin foundation, work hard and society is harmonious, but the assessment does not rank well。In recent years, there has been another new change in the assessment of local governments - they have begun to pay attention to classified assessment, no longer ignoring the differences between different places, and pay attention to science and reality。

    In fact, the appraisal of officials' performance in ancient times also paid more attention to differentiation。In the Ming Dynasty, the degree of difficulty to fully take into account the busy state affairs of different counties was not the same, although all prefecture-county governors had the same rank, but if officials were appointed according to the same standard, because of the different abilities of the officials, it would cause problems in dealing with government affairs。For this reason, shortly after the Ming Dynasty unified the ranks of prefecture and county officials, in the fourteenth year of Hongwu (1381), the "complex" or "simple" was determined according to the amount of taxes borne by each state and county.。Where the amount of grain is more than 70,000 stone states, more than 30,000 stone counties are "complex", below this amount is "simple", in the selection and appointment of state and county governors, we must take into account the complex and simple factors。In the first year of Longqing (1567), the Ministry of Official Affairs decreed that the world's prefectural counties were divided into upper, middle and lower levels according to the four criteria of "size, complexity, lunginess, and difficulty"。

    The Qing Dynasty still followed the Ming Dynasty system, and the standard for grading was simplified into four aspects: rushing, complicated, tiring and difficult。In the sixth year of Yongzheng (1728), it was further clarified: "The earth is full of holes, the government affairs are complex, the people have a large number of convicts are weak, and the people have a large number of crimes.。"When the hole for the rush", traffic arteries。"Government affairs are complicated." There are many things。"The people who are endowed with a large number of unpaid taxes are not easy to collect.。"People diao vulgarity, order to steal a lot of difficult", public security complex。

    According to these four standards, the Qing Dynasty divided the county shortage into simple shortage, medium shortage, to lack, the most need to lack four levels。All four words in one place,Is "the most need.",People who have experience as prefectural and county governors and have good performance in assessment can be appointed.It has three words,That is, "lack.",Someone with experience as a county governor should also be appointed;It has two words,Is for the lack of,It can be held by a person with two officer experience, or a person with good scores in the exam;Counties with only one word or none at all,It's called "lack.",It could be someone from the primary office。The most important and important vacancies are often appointed by local governors who are familiar with the local situation, while the middle and simple vacancies are directly appointed by the Official Officials of the Imperial Court。The classification of prefectures and counties in each province had to be approved by the imperial court. Generally speaking, the number of prefectures and counties in each province was fixed, and if one of the prefectures was upgraded to one of the prefectures, it must also be reduced to one of the prefectures。

    According to the statistics of the "Qing History Draft · Geography", about 5% of the counties in the country at the end of the Qing Dynasty were designated as the "most lacking" of 4 characters, nearly 20% of the counties were designated as the "most lacking" of 3 characters, about 30% of the counties were the "middle lacking" of 2 characters, and about 45% of the counties with 1 word or no word were "simply lacking"。For example, Shanghai County in the late Qing Dynasty is the most lacking of the four words of "rushing and tiring and difficult", while nearby Huating County is the most lacking of "tiring and difficult", and Fengxian County is the most lacking of "tiring and difficult"。In the whole Jiangnan area, there is no shortage in the prefectural counties of Changzhou Prefecture, Suzhou Prefecture and Songjiang Prefecture。

    At that time, to be able to govern a "rushing, complex, tiring, difficult" place well, that is called a real achievement - for today, in fact, this is also the truth。

From: Xinhua Daily Telegraph