Path toward the Top Leadership: A Network Analysis of the Civil Service System in the Early Southern Song (1131 – 1164)

This study takes a network approach to explore the career trajectories of Song officials who served in the Imperial Library from 1131 to 1164. It exemplifies how officials’ career records, abundant in Chinese historical sources, can provide a trove of information that we may utilize to decipher the operations of imperial bureaucracy and the career paths of officials. “Nurturing talents in the academic institutes” was a policy that the Song dynasty developed to prepare promising junior officials for top civilian leadership. Under this “talent-nurturing” policy, “talented officials” were appointed to the Imperial Library. Such appointments were considered a launchpad for a successful career, as the appointees often soon advanced to other influential offices across diverse branches of government. As an official was transferred from one position to another, the connections between offices reveal early Southern Song bureaucratic practices. Using the career records of officials appointed to the Imperial Library in the early Southern Song, this paper constructs a directed network of bureaucratic transfers. It demonstrates that many offices held by beneficiaries of the “talent-nurturing” policy were stepping-stones towards the highest echelon of government. Their duties involved personnel administration, especially the evaluation of the character and performance of other officials. By focusing on the early Southern Song, a period in which the dynasty was embroiled in war and struggling to survive, this paper also demonstrates how political crises impacted the implementation of the “talent-nurturing” policy.