The law of avoidance was a measure to deter corruption by preventing officials with common ancestry, hometowns, cohorts, and other sorts of relationships from practicing favoritism that would hinder their official duties. This is an extremely important and unique characteristic of Chinese personnel administration. The Qing dynasty system of avoidance inherited the positive and negative legacy of two millennia of regulations, and still influences procedures for taking office, exams, and security checks today. Yet no category of “the avoidance system” was static or rigid, but could be adapted at the emperor’s discretion for imperial implementation.