Chen Wen-Bo is in his early fifties and is a tireless bureaucrat. He is the chief examiner of the Jin-Shi system, ensuring that only those who are exception are passed and given the potential to hold exceptional offices within the Imperial Bureaucracy. He insists always on proper form and doing everything through the appropriate channels after considerable time spent contemplating all the implications of any possible solution to a problem. His dress is very conservative and sober and he is believed to have very little social life outside the office.