A Meritocracy refers to a system of government where those in power only got to that position by merit. In other words they showed that they were capable of efficiently managing the roles and responsibilities that came with their positions.
The Han dynasty laid the foundations for a meritocracy in China when they demanded that all Civil servants take examinations based on Confucian ideals to determine their competence.
Performance was directly correlated with the position one got in the exam which influenced people to study really hard for these exams thereby gaining the necessary knowledge to run the office they would be assigned to.
