Gong Ling and the Selection of Officials in the Early Western Han Dynasty:On the Evolution of the Han-Tang Legal Systems and the Early Achievements of Chinese Political Civilization
Gong Ling and the Selection of Officials in the Early Western Han Dynasty:On the Evolution of the Han-Tang Legal Systems and the Early Achievements of Chinese Political Civilization
The Zhangjiashan Han Bamboo Slips(M336)contain a text titled Gong Ling(The Merit Regulations),which provides insights into the selection and appointment of officials based on merit in the early Western Han Dynasty.The Han Dynasty's Gong Ling served as a supple-mentary regulation to the Zhi Li Lü(The Law on Official Appointments),rather than being comparable to the Xuan Ju Ling(The Regulations on Official Selection)of the Tang Dynasty.The Tang legal scholars were already somewhat unfamiliar with the Han legal system,leading to later misinterpretations of Han legal codes.This study challenges previous views by demonstra-ting that the Han legal categories—Prison Laws,Supplementary Laws,Administrative Orders,and Specialized Regulations—correspond structurally and functionally to the Tang system of Laws,Administrative Orders,Supplementary Regulations,and Procedural Statutes.The evolu-tion of the Han-Tang legal system also parallels the development of imperial edicts in both dy-nasties.Gong Ling explicitly stipulates that the conversion ratio between zhong gong lao(civil merit)and jun gong lao(military merit)was set as 4∶1.Merit was classified into comprehen-sive categories of civil merit and military merit,rather than being based solely on seniority.Many principles found in Gong Ling can be traced back to the Qin Dynasty.Official merit re-cords included"merit submission documents"and merit officer Ddocuments,which were linked to genealogical records,tomb inscriptions,and bureaucratic archives.Local officials were classified as shi(secretary),distinguishing two separate promotion pathways.Low-rank-ing clerks could advance to senior officials through two routes,with the clerical path offering greater vertical mobility.Unlike the recommendation system and grace-based appointments of later dynasties,the Han bureaucracy was fundamentally merit-based.Gong Ling introduced ex-ceptional promotions,a mechanism that may have served as an early prototype of the selection and recommendation system in later dynasties.
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