Technical Bureaucrats’ Law and Confucian Virtue

Although legal practices were sharply criticized and reforms were occasionally suggested, no significant changes were ever realized. Chapters 10 and 11 delve into the puzzle by examining the critics themselves. The majority of these critics were Confucians, who often attacked the law implementers – the technical bureaucrats – for lacking virtue and enforcing the law with brutality. Chapter 10 argues that the Confucians’ fierce attacks on technical bureaucrats were, in fact, a struggle against the bureaucratic hierarchy and its mechanism for producing political elites. Leading Confucians refused to serve as prudent, detail-oriented, and technique-focused bureaucrats. Nor were they willing to climb the ladder of success from the bottom of the bureaucracy. However, they faced a significant dilemma: those Confucians who aspired to act according to their ideals rather than submitting to institutional rules were rejected by officialdom. Yet, once Confucians successfully became officials, they were expected to obey the bureaucratic hierarchy and follow administrative regulations – ultimately becoming the very technical bureaucrats they had once criticized.