PMM ND Xu Et Al

New development: Wang Anshi’s Wanyanshu as the origins of modern public management?

Yunxiao Xu, Caichen Ma and James L. Chan A recent paper in this journal (Drechsler, 2013) traced the origins of modern Western public management to the Wanyanshu, a memorandum Wang Anshi submitted in 1058 to a Song Dynasty emperor in China. We raise doubts about the author’s assessment and claims about that still remarkable document about government human resource management, in part by citing Chinese historians’ ambivalence. Believing in the value of Sino-Western comparative research in public management, we push back the origins of Chinese statecraft by 2,000 years by suggesting further research into older and greater Chinese contributions to global public management. Keywords: China; civil service examination; human resource management; international comparative public management; Wang Anshi; Wanyanshu. Professor Drechsler’s article in the September Wang Anshi’s Wanyanshu Yunxiao Xu is 2013 issue of Public Money & Management praised The Wanyanshu was in effect Wang Anshi’s Associate Professor highly a memorandum submitted in 1058 by mission report to the emperor. Calling it ‘a of Public Finance, Wang Anshi, a Chinese Song Dynasty official to report to the Emperor Renzhong about current School of Economics, the emperor, regarding it as ‘one of the key affairs’, Wang Anshi wrote it after serving six Peking University, texts of Chinese public management’ and ‘one years as a local government official. Thus he China; and Visiting of the first texts of public management in the had learned first-hand a great deal of the Researcher (2013– modern sense’ (Drechsler, 2013, p. 1). He realities of what was going on in government 14), Humphrey further traced the origins of modern, and society, and accumulated many reform School of Public presumably Western, public management to ideas to submit to the emperor and his ministers. Affairs, University of the Wangyanshu, as the memorandum is The memorandum, therefore, was written to Minnesota, USA. commonly known.* While we applaud address specific issues of the time and to provide Professor Drechsler’s recognition of Wang useful advice, in keeping with the Confucian Anshi’s contribution, our research has found tradition for officials to mind only their own Caichen Ma is that Chinese historians are divided over the business and referring to the wisdom of ancient Professor of Public significance of that still remarkable document sages. Finance and by a young local government official. We also We researched the original Chinese text of Director of the Fiscal raise doubts about the legitimacy of leaping Wanyanshu and translated some key terms Development from comparative research to a claim of differently to better reflect what we regard as Research Center, origins, which would require stronger the intended meanings. Whereas the references School of Economics, evidence of diffusion and influence of ideas. to the Wanyanshu in Drechsler (2013) were Nankai University, In view of the scholarly and practical value based on the translation in Chapter VII of China. of further Sino-Western comparative Williamson (1935), we analysed the original research, we suggest a research agenda that text in The Collected Works of Wang Anshi. We use is promising in uncovering the origins of the more specific ‘instruction’ instead of the James L. Chan is Chinese statecraft as a contribution to global more general ‘teaching’; ‘compensation’ instead Professor Emeritus public management. of the more general ‘nurturing’; the more general of Accounting, process of ‘recruitment’, instead of the specific University of Illinois activity of ‘selection’; and ‘reappointment’ instead at Chicago; and *Following convention, Chinese names in this article begin of ‘appointment’ to emphasize later personnel Distinguished with the family name followed by the given name, i.e. Wang is Wang Anshi’s family name. The ‘Memorial in Ten action. Overseas Professor, Thousand Words’ is called here by its popular title of For easier comprehension, we present the Peking University, Wanyanshu, a term that consists of three characters Wan essence of the entire Wanyanshu in an China. Yan Shu in Drechsler (2013). uninterrupted passage below, instead of

segments as appeared in Drechsler (2013, pp. demotion or dismissal. 3–6): In conclusion, if we exercise strategic thinking, make The implementation of laws and rules requires competent calculations, implement the measures gradually, personnel developed in advance. The development and motivate people with rewards, and judge officials by management of human talents for government has four results, it would be easy to increase the talents available components: instruction, compensation, recruiting, to government. reappointment. The Wanyanshu can be better understood in the Instruction: In order to better prepare candidates for context of how government officials and civil government offices, there should be a system of local servants were selected in imperial China. By the and national schools with qualified teachers and a Song Dynasty (960–1279 AD), the practice of practical curriculum. While the current system of appointing government officials by means of civil service examination should continue, it should examinations was firmly established since it was test the candidates’ specialized preparation for started in the Sui Dynasty (607 AD) and expanded performing specific tasks in government (instead of during the Tang Dynasty (618–907 AD). These reciting classics and writing essays). Furthermore, examinations of various cohorts of candidates both civil administration and military training should were authorized by royal decrees to be held in be emphasized, as the purpose is to prepare competent regional centres and eventually in the capital, personnel to properly manage the affairs of the state. with the finalists being examined by the emperor himself. Candidates were drawn from various Compensation: The basic salaries of civil servants strata of society throughout the country and should be raised to adequate levels to make up for the were judged on the basis of their moral standing differences from other types of employment, so that and command of the designated classics through they would have sufficient financial means to support a series of standardized tests. The classics were their families and maintain an appropriate life style.* generally the Four Books and Five Classics. The Furthermore, after they die their descendants should Four Books containing the core of Confucianism be supported by the state. These financial provisions are: Great Learning, Doctrine of the Mean, Analects, should be complemented by measures to inculcate in and Mencius. The Five Classics, ancient Chinese them a sense of propriety, as well as penalties, including texts used as basis of studies by Confucians, are: banishment, for those who disobey the rules. Officials Classic of Poetry, Book of Documents, Book of Rites, I of higher ranks should set an example for their Ching or the Book of Changes, Spring and Autumn subordinates, so that it would not be necessary to rely Annals. on punishment to enforce the rules of ethics. Since passing increasingly rigorous tests meant a greater chance of achieving higher Recruitment: The recruitment of civil servants should ranks in the officialdom, participation and good be done in a decentralized manner with nominations performance in these examinations had a solicited from throughout the country for decision by significant impact on the education of young the throne. Candidates should be evaluated on their men. Thus began the tradition that continues to basis of their character, knowledge and ability to the present day in China that the best students perform by means of their words and deeds over a should become government officials. The saying probationary period by more experienced officials. ‘excellent students should become government Successful ones would be appointed and be entrusted officials’ perfectly captures the relationship with the task of recruiting another generation of between the academe and the officialdom, better officials. termed the ‘mandarinate’ (Woodside, 2006). Furthermore, due to a fear that the generals Reappointment: It is important to match ranks and might be disloyal, civilians were put in charge of positions with the candidates’ differing levels of the military, thus lowering the status of the character, ability and specialty. After they are military and the neglect of the art of war. These appointed, government officials should be given long considerations led to periodic debates throughout enough a period of time, such as three years, to Chinese history about the relative emphasis of demonstrate their abilities and show the results of various subjects, and which classics should be their performance, or the lack thereof. The evaluation included in the official curriculum. will determine their promotion with greater rewards, A critique of Drechsler’s claims Drechsler has succeeded in demonstrating that * Woodside (2006, p. 47) characterized this as the link between official corruption and low salaries, and credited Wang Anshi’s Wanyanshu has ‘contemporary Wang Anshi as arguing this was a ‘first principle of politics’. relevance’, in that the following human resource

management practices contribute to good appropriate method for demonstrating the government: quality teachers and curriculum to origins of an idea or a practice. Drechsler found ensure technical competence, merit-based that certain ideas and practices about human selection, recruitment from all levels of society resource management discussed in modern and all parts of the country, adequate public management had also been addressed in compensation to ensure decent living, sufficient the Wanyanshu. He took this inter-temporal discretion and a long period of time to association as indicating ‘the origins of modern demonstrate good performance. These ideas in public management in Song Dynasty China’, the Wanyanshu have clearly stood the test of time specifically Wang Anshi’s Wanyanshu. Drechsler and are common features of good management (2013, p. 1) states that his approach was based on practices. Gadamer’s (1960) hermeneutics, and The use of the word ‘origins’ in Professor characterized it as saying ‘the full reconstruction Drechsler’s paper raises expectations about causal of the meaning of the original, or of the author’s links, rather than mere association, between the intent is impossible, even if such a meaning did Wanyanshu and modern public management. exist’. Interpretation cannot substitute the That Wanyanshu has ‘contemporary relevance’ identification of the mechanism by which the (Drechsler, 2013, p. 1) is demonstrated. However, original idea or practice evolved over time and Drechsler entitled his paper ‘Wang Anshi and disseminated to other places, such as the the origins of modern public management in Wanyanshu in 11th-century China to Western Song Dynasty China’. That leads us to believe practices in the 20th and 21st centuries, even if that Drechsler sees Wang Anshi’s ideas in certain both deal with identical or similar perennial modern, presumably Western, public issues of managing government personnel. management practices cited throughout the paper. The implication is that the parallel Wang Anshi’s standing in the pantheon of occurrences of these ideas are more than Chinese statesmen coincidental, and that there is a relationship. But Whereas Professor Drechsler assigned Wang the paper does not make clear what kind of Anshi the lofty status of ‘the great Song Dynasty relationship exists, and no evidence is presented statesman, philosopher and poet’ and the to show that the modern proponents of those Wanyanshu a ‘global classic’, Chinese historians practices were influenced by, or at least aware of, have more ambivalent and nuanced views about Wang Anshi’s ideas. both the man and his document. An examination of the Western public Thanks in part to Wang Anshi’s daring management literature has found no references comprehensive reform, called ‘New Policies’, the to indicate the influence of Wang Anshi in general Wanyanshu became well-known and some of his and his Wanyanshu in particular.* While we do proposals were incorporated in his New Policies. not claim that our examination is exhaustive, we In 1071, the national academy (or university) in did survey an anthology (Shafritz and Hyde, the capital was reorganized and expanded, and 2008) which included 57 ‘classics of public schools were established in the regions. Training administration’ covering the period from the was provided in such specialized fields as military 1880s to early 2000s, and a relatively recent science, law and medicine. The structure and handbook (Ferlie et al., 2005) that covers virtually contents of the examinations were changed to all aspects of the field. We also analysed several place greater emphasis on current affairs, policy intellectual histories of the public management discussions and interpretations of classics (instead discipline written by scholars of high repute of poetry and rhymed prose) for doctoral (Frederickson, 1980; Ostrom, 1989; Hood, 1998; examinations, and law was added as a new Lynn, 2005). In none of these could we find requirement for lower degrees (Liu, 1959, pp. 6– mention of Wang Anshi and his Wanyanshu. 7). However, after Wang Anshi lost power and While one might believe that Wang Anshi or his resigned, these educational and examination Wanyanshu should have an impact on Western measures were rescinded by his opponents. In public management, the empirical evidence is any event, the imperial examination system lacking. continued for the next 800 years in some fashion Furthermore, in our view, hermeneutics— through succeeding dynasties until 1905, five the science of interpretation—is not an years before the collapse of the Qing Dynasty under the heavy weight of the military and *In the historical context, the change from ‘public economic might of invading Western powers administration’ to ‘public management’ in the early 1980s (Woodside, 2006; Zhou, 2008). is not significant enough to warrant the use of two terms. We use the term ‘public management’, and understand it However, the Wanyanshu did not receive as the present evolution of public administration. attention from the emperor or his ministers at

the time it was prepared. At the time the had its roots in profound sources, and was memorandum was submitted, it was virtually certainly not just responding to current realities ignored. Wang Anshi was merely a 37-year-old or produced by a desire to promote one’s reputation. local government official when he wrote the Lying behind Wang Anshi’s New Policies was Wanyanshu to ostensibly report his personal ‘New Learning’. Even though Anshi’s New experience in his latest posting. In addition, Policies failed, New Learning continued to be Deng, a well-known historian of the Song advanced. Zhu Xi appeared and his Four Books: Dynasty, believed that there were three main Comprehensive Annotations became the standards reasons: for evaluating candidates for government offices during the 700 years in the Yuan, Ming and Qi •It dealt narrowly with the issues of producing three dynasties. Actually he followed the route of a large number of qualified government Wang Anshi’s New Doctrines and Principles. officials. The idealistic political reforms of Fan Zhongyan •Many of the proposals were speculative and and Wang Anshi failed in turn; the spirit and not readily implementable. aspirations of their personal conduct and scholarly •There was a wide gap between the proposals inquiry continued to be emulated by successive and the realities of the day (Deng, 2007, p. future generations in China until recently (Qian, 37). 1996, pp. 579–580).

Furthermore, Wang Anshi’s ideas were On the negative side was Xiao, who noted overshadowed by other reform proposals made that the whole document dealt with one single by equally, if not more, influential officials. In topic of cultivating human talent: particularly, 15 years earlier, another official, Fan Zhongyan, had submitted a document Anshi’s reform was aimed at saving the poor and entitled A Memorial of Ten Items to the emperor, weak. Even though it emphasized institutions, covering some of the points that Wang Anshi from beginning to end it recognized the subsequently raised. The Wang and Fan fundamental importance of human talent. Even memorandums stood out in terms of their though ‘Memorial Submitted to Emperor comprehensiveness among the many proposals Renzhong’ had ten thousand words, actually it made by scholars eager to reform the status quo dealt with the single topic of cultivating human or attract the favourable attention of the royal talent (Xiao, originally 1940, p. 304). court. Together these Song scholar-officials were keenly aware of their obligation to improve Liu (1987) went further than Xiao and the society (Qian, 1996, pp. 557–580), as called Wang’s proposal of ‘human talentism’ a captured in Fan’s famous saying: ‘It’s the failure. Ironically, Wang Anshi was himself a scholar-official’s duty to be the first to worry— victim of the talents he sought to develop. and the last to be happy—about the current According to Liu: ‘He used some people who state of affairs’. were long on talents but short on ethics. His Chinese historians hold ambivalent views talented supporters had different ideas and of the contributions and significance of Wang were not united, and his followers could only Anshi’s Wanyanshu; these were largely help him with instituting new systems and overlooked in Drechsler (2013). On the positive lacked his idealism to achieve the ultimate goal side, historian Sah, asserts that ‘even though of reforming social customs’. Wang had many writings, his [reform] proposals Still, some historians of the Song Dynasty were all in the Memorial to Renzhong Emperor attribute little significance to the Wanyanshu in concerning current affairs’ (Sah, 2008, p. 346). terms of its impact on broader government Another eminent historian, Qian, credited policy. Deng (2007, pp. 27–37) believed that Wanyanshu for putting Wang Anshi’s personal due to its narrow focus on how to manage interpretation of Confucianism on the contents bureaucrats, the Wanyanshu was not blueprint of civil service examinations, thus affecting the for the New Policies, saying: ‘it could not be knowledge requirements of potential said that Wanyanshu had already produced a government officials for the next 1000 years. draft or a blue print for his New Policies later He elaborated Wang Anshi’s contribution to on’. Liang Ken-yao, a well known Song Dynasty Chinese intellectual history: historian from Taiwan, is of the opinion that the specific measures proposed in Wanyanshu There is a body of lofty ideals behind the political had little direct relationship to the economic institutions proposed by Anshi’s New Policies, and fiscal measures in subsequent New Policies. even though those policies failed. This idealism Wang Anshi’s main interest was in creating a

pool of human talents as a favourable pre- to other schools of the art of managing the condition for his reform agenda. He made state. The informal tone of the characterization some novel proposals, however Wang Anshi leads us to speculate that Professor Hood was not the only one to bring up this point—a probably was not asserting Confucian paternity notable example was Fan Zhongyan, who for Western public management. Indeed, he covered many of the same points 15 years was in fact advancing a cultural theory of global earlier in a memorandum to Emperor public management to take into greater account Renzhong (correspondence with the authors, the societal context of public management. In July 2013). this spirit Frederickson compares what he calls ‘bureaucratic morality’ in Western and Eastern Conclusion and further research thought, with Confucianism representing the In our view, Professor Drechsler elevated the latter. stature of Wang Anshi’s Wanyanshu to a level We encourage others to pursue this line of not supported by its substance and historians’ research, and are ourselves studying the public opinions. Chinese historians, in particular, have management philosophy of the ancient sages shown greater ambivalence about the invoked by Wang Anshi in the Wanyanshu. In contribution of Wanyanshu to Wang Anshi’s addition to studying the well-known Confucius New Policies reform, and its historical Analects and Mencius, as Creel (1970) and more significance relative to other contemporary recently Fukuyama (2011) did, we are tracing proposals. While he noted Wang Anshi was a the intellectual history of Chinese public Confucian and even a Neo-Confucian management to the even earlier Western Zhou (Drechsler, 2013, pp. 1 and 2), Drechsler did Empire (1045–771 BC). The remarkable book not explain what that means or put Wanyanshu Zhouli, which describes the political system and in the historical context of ancient Chinese government structure of the Western Zhou public management. This deserves further Empire, stands out as a good Chinese candidate research as described below. for a ‘global classic’ in public management—we Professor Drechsler’s claim that modern share Creel’s assessment that it is the origins of public management has its ‘origins’ in Song statecraft of China. Dynasty China, specifically Wang Anshi’s Greater Western and global awareness of Wanyanshu, is not supported by citations in the Chinese public management takes on practical literature. While we also see some common significance as China rises as an economic power elements between contemporary government and the authorities reject a Western system of human resource management practices and governance. For the past 200 years, the Chinese those recommended in Wanyanshu, the term have attempted to catch up with the West ‘origins’ requires demonstration of an (Schell and Delury, 2013). After making evolutionary link between the two phenomena. remarkable economic progress in the past three In the likely absence of documented cultural decades by opening up and creating a socialist exchanges, especially among scholars and market economy with Chinese characteristics, officials, between China and the West nearly the governing party has steadfastly rejected 1000 years ago, the hypothesis of Chinese the Western political model of multi-party influences on Western political institutions constitutional democracy. The current hardly seems plausible. leadership is working towards realizing the Nevertheless, we regard Drechsler (2013) Chinese dream of restoring the historical glory as a valuable extension to the literature of of the Chinese nation. Confucianism has made comparative public management, especially a comeback (Bell, 2008; Jiang, 2013) as an concerning China and the West, which holds alternative to the Western model. Chinese both scholarly and practical significance. confidence seems bolstered as the USA and Academically, it would remind Chinese public Europe, after falling into financial crises, are management scholars of their own political making painfully slow economic recoveries cultural heritage even as they earnestly study (Zhang, 2012), and as the general decline of the all things Western for application in China. It West is observed (for example Jacques, 2009; would also extend the small, but growing, Friedman and Mandelbaum, 2011). Even such Sino-Western comparative literature (for a strong advocate of Western values as Ferguson example Hood, 1998; Frederickson, 2002; concedes ‘the great degeneration’ of the West Cheung, 2010). In particular, Hood (1998, pp. by describing how its institutions decay and 76–81) characterizes Confucian public economies die (Ferguson, 2013). Yet, even as management as hierarchical and bestows on it China goes global, it is still conflicted about its the honor of ‘the daddy of them all’, referring international identity as a role model for other

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