Listen to this articlexuǎnjǔ 选举
Select and Recommend
选拔和推举德才兼备的人。自上而下叫做“选”，自下而上叫做“举”。作为官吏选用制度，由国家确定人才选拔的标准，把德才出众的人“选举”到政权体系中来，授以官职，治理国家，以达成理想的统治状态。这种制度，虽因朝代和时势变迁而不尽相同，但大都注重品德、才智及门第出身等条件，基本保障了政权体系和社会精英之间的纵向贯通。它是“人治”“德政”理念的体现。
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.”
引例 Citation:
◎选举之法，大略有四：曰学校，曰科目，曰荐举，曰铨选。学校以教育之，科目以登进之，荐举以旁招之，铨选以布列之，天下人才尽于是矣。（《明史·选举志一》）
（选举官吏的方法，大体有四种：官学推荐，科举录用，举荐产生，选材授官。官学用来培育人才，科举用来录取人才，举荐作为佐助手段招揽人才，吏部选材授官，使人才遍布各处，天下的人才全都收揽进来了。）
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)
