A Reservoir of Talent: An Analysis of the Career Advancement of Imperial Library Officials during the Southern Song

In the autumn of 1177, Vice Director of the Imperial Library (bishu shaojian 秘書少監) Chen Kui 陳騤 and his colleagues compiled the Records of the Imperial Library in the Southern Song (Nan Song guan'ge lu 南宋館 閣錄) and presented it to Emperor Xiaozong 孝宗 (r. 1162–1194).¹ This book contains the comprehensive history of, and organizational information on, the Imperial Library (bishu sheng 秘書省), including two juan of particularly detailed official rosters (guanlian 官聯).² The compilation of the Continuing Records of the Imperial Library in the Southern Song (Nan Song guan'ge xulu 南宋館閣續錄), which was similar in structure to the original Records, started in 1210/10,³ and its chapters of official rosters were continuously supplemented by anonymous compilers until the end of the dynasty.⁴ To create a roster of incumbents of a given office was a prevailing convention during the Song era for many government organs, both in the capital and in the provinces. However, with 2,616 tenure dates for 954 officials evenly distributed between 1126 and 1266, the official rosters of the NSGGL form an exceptionally rich trove of information compared to other official rosters, in terms of the total number of records, the time span covered, and most significantly, the amount of detailed information provided.

The careful preservation of the official rosters of Imperial Library posts (bishusheng zhi 秘書省職) reflects the political and social attention that this category of posts received during the Southern Song period. Many modern scholars have delineated that the Imperial Library functioned as a reservoir of talent (rencai 人才) for the Southern Song state.⁵ Some scholars have posited that Imperial Library service benefited these officeholders, allowing them to circumvent the routine promotion sequence more easily as they ascended the bureaucratic ranks, even though their positions and terms of service in the Library varied.⁶ Previous studies have also revealed a strong connection between holding office in the Imperial Library in the early to middle phase of one's career and becoming a high-ranking official as a state councilor (zaizhi 宰執) later on.⁷

Yet, it remains a puzzle as to how this process operated so that these promising but low-ranking officials were able to scale the bureaucratic ladder to reach its upper echelons; and more significantly, how these selected officials could have equipped themselves with the necessary and relevant skills and experience in order to meet the demands of managing state affairs. To solve this puzzle, this article will analyze the career advancement of Imperial Library officials (bishusheng guan 秘書省官) in order to shed light on the so-called policy of "garnering talent in academies and institutes" (guan'ge chucai 館 閣儲才)⁸ that was in place during the Southern Song.⁹

This article argues that under the Southern Song state's practice of "garnering talent in academies and institutes," service in the Imperial Library functioned as a means of status distinction amongst officeholders. Song personnel authorities selected promising junior officials via special examinations for Imperial Library posts (guanzhi shi 館職試), distinguishing these officials from others. The state's demand for human resources, coinciding with these promising officials' individually pursuing self-fulfillment, opened up a particular series of advancement paths. These paths integrated Imperial Library incumbencies with service in other central administrative and provincial offices, covering a diverse range of administrative service. How officials advanced through different categories of posts greatly depended upon the current political circumstances as well as individuals' preferences. As these officials systematically advanced through prescribed patterns of promotion, they gained the necessary qualifications of seniority (zi 資) for holding higher and more influential offices in administrative agencies in the central government or in crucial frontier regions. In theory, they were simultaneously equipping themselves with the skills and experience that the Song personnel authorities deemed necessary for assisting the emperor in governance.

The first section of this article will trace institutional and organizational changes in the practice of "garnering talent in academies and institutes." These changes made the function of the Imperial Library, an institute that shouldered the responsibilities for recruiting talent in the Southern Song, more...