After Cao Pi succeeded to the throne as the king of Wei, he adopted the suggestion of Shangshu Chen Qun and established the Jiupin Zhongzheng system, which was also an important system for electing officials during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties.

Historically, the probationary system, the Jiupin Zhongzheng system, and the imperial examination system were called the three major official election systems in China's feudal society.

【Start time】

Although the current mainstream view is that the Jiupin Zhongzheng system was established by Cao Pi following Chen Qun's advice when he first became the queen of Wei, there is still some controversy about this point. According to the Book of Jin, it is possible that the Jiupin Zhongzheng system was already implemented during the Cao Cao period.

[Brief description of the "Nine Products Zhongzheng System"]

There are two main points in the content of the "Nine Products in the Positive System". The first point is the person in charge, also known as the Zhongzheng, who is in charge of evaluating the characters in a certain area, and is called the Zhongzheng Guan, and the Zhongzheng Guan, which has long been held by the central officials.

The second point is the character of Pindi, which is the main responsibility of the central magistrate. The Lieutenant was responsible for evaluating scholars of his same nationality, including those in the prefecture and in other counties.

There are two main contents of the evaluation: 1. Family background: that is, family origin and background. It refers to the seniority of the fathers and grandparents, the situation of the eunuchs and the level of the title. These materials are called books or books, and they are something that the central magistrate must master in detail. 2. Behavior: that is, the general evaluation of personal character and ability, which is equivalent to moral evaluation. The general comments of the Wei and Jin dynasties are generally very concise, such as "the talent is brilliant, bright and outstanding", "the virtue is excellent and the ability is few", etc. In the end, the Zhongzheng official determines the grade according to the family background, moral character, and talent of the person being assessed. In principle, the order is based on the line, and the family history is only for reference. However, the later family background has almost become the only criterion for determining the grade.

The product is divided into nine grades, namely upper, upper, upper, lower, middle, lower But the categories are only upper and lower. No one can get a product, it is a fictitious thing, so the second product is actually the highest product. At the beginning of the Western Jin Dynasty, the three products could still be regarded as high grades (upper grades), and later they were reduced to low grades (lower grades).

At the beginning of the Wei Dynasty, Zhongzheng Dingpin still valued the township theory. In the early days of Cao Wei, the county was the grass-roots level, and the county was the one who really played the role of the first character, they were still under the exclusive control of the local scholars, and the prefecture was just a general discussion. Therefore, the wealthy families in the center have not been able to control the Zhongzheng system well to serve them.

After the death of Cao Rui, Cao Wei's power gradually declined, and Sima Yi, who leaned towards the government and the opposition, proposed to set up the state Zhongzheng, but was opposed by Cao Xi and others, and later Cao Xi and his brother Cao Shuang were killed by Sima Yi. However, it also made it easier for the powerful central nobles to expand their power, and they controlled the local and even central system of electing officials, while the local families with low or no official positions were declining. The threat to the regime representing the "national interest" was not the local Qing scholars in the early Wei period, but the emerging family bureaucrats entrenched in the imperial court, the clan lords.

["Nine-product Zhongzheng System" and "Inspection System"]

In a sense, the "Nine Grades of the Positive System" is the evolution of the "Probation System", and the common point between the two is the recommendation system.

At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, due to the chaos in the world, it had a great impact on the "probation system", which led to the displacement of people, and the government election could not check the criticism of the township, so on the one hand, taking into account the old tradition of township assessment, and on the other hand, adapting to the new environment of the flow of people, it was finally decided to choose an appropriate person in the township to preside over the task of assessment.

Compared with the "probation system", the "Jiupin Zhongzheng System" further strengthened the centralization of power and took back the power of local officials to appoint officials.

[Reasons for the establishment of the "Nine Products Zhongzheng System"]

There are many factors that can replace the "inspection system" of the "Nine Products Zhongzheng System", the first of which is because the inspection system of prefectures and counties in the Han Dynasty has been corrupted at that time, and the household registration in the late Han Dynasty has been displaced, that is, many landlords and scholars also live in other places, and the state and county inspection system is no longer applicable.

Secondly, Cao Pi was preparing to claim the title of emperor on behalf of the Han Dynasty at that time, so he hoped to seek the support of the family with the help of the establishment of the "Jiupin Zhongzheng System". Historically, although Cao Cao said that he wanted to be the king of Zhou Wen, his son Cao Pi could not be compared with the king of Zhou Wu, when Cao Pi had just ascended the throne and did not have enough prestige, so he finally chose to compromise in order to seek the title of emperor.

[The influence of the "Nine Products Zhongzheng System"]

Although Cao Cao issued many orders to seek talents, and promoted talents without sticking to one pattern, there was no corresponding system in the end, and the problem could not be solved from the root.

In the early days, the selection of talents still pays more attention to morality and ability, but later with the gate valve of the scholars, the selection of talents pays more attention to the family, and later the Zhongzheng is basically the noble bureaucrats of the famous families of the county of Benzhou, so the people who are designated as the top grades are also those famous families.

In the end, those people from big families, regardless of their moral character and ability, were basically evaluated as superior, while the children of poor families had no way out, forming an obvious boundary of the rank of the scholars.

[The gate valve of the scholar clan and the "Nine Products Zhongzheng System"]

As early as the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the scholar clan has a trend of gate valve, Runan Yuan family and Hongnong Yang family are typical representatives at that time, two families of four generations and three dukes, in the court inside and outside the disciples of the world. At that time, the probationary system had begun to collapse, and the clans took advantage of the omission of the probationary examination to form gangs, and had formed a considerable force and completed the initial gate-valve.

At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the clans, relatives, and eunuchs were the three major tumors at that time.

In the Wei and Jin dynasties, the rulers learned the lesson of the fall of the Eastern Han Dynasty and restricted eunuchs and relatives, resulting in the dominance of the Shi clan gate lords.

The first genuine product is based on the bloodline, and the door is high that is, the high quality, at this time, it is enough to distinguish the high and low grades, and the first genuine product is just a routine. The so-called "high-grade has no cold door, and the lower grade has no powerful family", "the public door has the public, and the secretary has the secretary".

The growth of the power of the scholars also means the decline of the imperial power, in the two Jin Dynasty, the decline of the imperial power fell to a new low point, the emperor wants to govern the world must rely on the gate valve to do, and later the birth and development of the imperial examination system made the imperial power from decline to prosperity again.