毁誉驱动式任官摇摆 / Court Hearsay Appointment Volatility

Definition

毁誉驱动式任官摇摆 / court hearsay appointment volatility is the failure mode in which a ruler changes a personnel decision after sequential praise and criticism without first establishing a stable, evidence-based judgment of the candidate.

Current Synthesis

Hanji 215 part 1 grounds the concept in 季布’s summons from Hedong. 汉文帝刘恒 reportedly considers Ji Bu for御史大夫 after hearing praise, then leaves him waiting and prepares to send him back after hearing criticism about temperament and accessibility.

Ji Bu’s remonstrance identifies the wider cost: inconsistent treatment does not affect only one candidate. It teaches courtiers and outside observers that recommendation channels can redirect the ruler, invites strategic praise and slander, and exposes the weakness of the decision process. The corrective principle is not to ignore reputation, but to test reports against role requirements and evidence before making visible commitments.

Key Claims

• Praise and criticism are inputs to appointment judgment, not substitutes for it.
• A public summons followed by unexplained reversal imposes costs on both the candidate and the ruler’s credibility.
• Volatile decisions reward actors who can control access, endorsement, or denunciation.
• The candidate can sometimes repair the process by naming its inconsistency directly.
• One corrected encounter does not establish that the ruler’s broader appointment system is stable.

Evidence

Summons and reversal:

• Hanji 215 part 1 says Liu Heng summons Ji Bu with a high appointment in view, then hesitates after hearing a negative characterization.

Governance cost and correction:

• Hanji 215 part 1 says Ji Bu warns that praise-driven recall and criticism-driven dismissal let the realm assess the ruler’s judgment; Liu Heng becomes ashamed and offers a face-saving explanation.

Counterevidence & Qualifications

The concept currently rests on one popular-history rendering of one appointment episode. The source does not identify the endorsers, specify the evidence Liu Heng possessed, or prove that Ji Bu had already received a formal offer. Changing one’s mind can be prudent when new evidence is reliable; the failure named here is reversal through untested hearsay and an opaque process, not reconsideration itself.

What Changed

• Created the concept from Ji Bu’s critique of Liu Heng’s praise-and-slander-driven reversal.

Related Concepts

• 任官适任性国家能力 - broader framework in which role fit and evidence determine whether appointments build state capacity.
• 谗言疑心式反馈失灵 - later and more severe pattern where denunciation repeatedly displaces worthy counsel.
• 道德诬陷焦点转移 - adjacent mechanism by which character attack can replace evaluation of public usefulness.
• 君臣反馈失灵 - downstream condition when ministers learn that accurate advice cannot reliably survive filtered reports.