 One of the primary issues that the rulers of the Warring States faced was that of recruitment into government service. During the aristocratic Springs-and-Autumns period, the overwhelming majority of officials were scions of hereditary ministerial lineages; only exceptionally could outsiders join the government. This situation changed by the fifth century BCE, as aristocratic lineages were largely eliminated in internecine struggles and members of lower nobility—the so-called “men of service,” shi 士—could advance up the ladder of officialdom. It was then that the new meritocratic discourse of “elevating the worthy” (shang xian 尚賢) proliferated and upward social mobility became legitimate (Pines 2013c). Yet who were the “worthy” and how to determine one’s worthiness was a matter of considerable uncertainty and confusion. While certain texts presented highly sophisticated ways of discerning the employee’s true worth (Richter 2005), their recommendations required exceptional perspicacity of an employer and were largely impractical. Instead, the most popular way of recruitment was based on a notion of “recognition” of one’s worth (Henry 1987): an employee was recommended to the ruler (or to a high official), interviewed, and then his worth was “recognized” and high position assigned. This widespread practice was deeply resented by the Legalists. The very idea of reliance on vague concept of “worthiness” and on personal impression of the ruler as the primary means of recruitment was in their eyes fundamentally flawed, because it allowed manifold manipulations. Shang Yang explains why “worthiness” based on one’s reputation is an intrinsically problematic concept: