This term refers to the traditional way through which men were selected and appointed to government offices. Designed to achieve an ideal state of rule, the method worked to select and recommend people with outstanding virtue and talent into the system of political power and put them to official posts, where they took charge of the governance of the country. Although the mechanism varied from dynasty to dynasty, it always emphasized a person’s moral integrity, ability, wisdom, and family background. It basically ensured that social elites had vertical mobility in the system of political power, and reflected the concepts of “rule of man” and “rule of virtue.”

Officials were chosen mainly through four channels: recommendations by government-run schools, imperial civil examinations, recommendations, and selection according to ability. Schools trained talent, imperial civil examinations recruited talent, recommendations served as a supplementary means to seek talent, and the Ministry of Civil Appointment selected officials according to their ability. In this way, all talent in the country could be recruited. (The History of the Ming Dynasty)