Explanation : One of the oldest examples of a civil service based on meritocracy is the Imperial bureaucracy of China, which can be traced as far back as the Qin Dynasty (221-207 BC). During the Han Dynasty (202 BC-220 AD) the xiaolian system of recommendation by superiors for appointments to office was established. The civil service recruitment method and educational system employed from the Han dynasty (206 B.C.- A.D. 220) was abolished by the Ch’ing dowager empress Tz’u Hsi in 1905 under pressure from leading Chinese intellectuals. The Sui dynasty (581-618) adopted this Han system and applied it in a much more systematic way as a method of official recruitment. ....Read more