[Introduction] The official system is a basic element in understanding China's political society. The official system and its cultural context formed in historical periods will help us to enter China's history and political culture more deeply, thus providing a mirror for the con

✪ Liu Jie

Chinese Administrative Management Society

(This article was originally published in "School " 2022 Issue 5)

[Introduction] Official system is a basic element in understanding China's political society. The official system and cultural context formed in historical periods help us to enter China's history and political culture more deeply, thereby providing a mirror for the contemporary era. This article attempts to understand the formation process of the Tang and Song official culture through the unique perspective of "level dispersion". In the author's view, the maturity of the official-oriented system of the Tang and Song dynasties can be logically divided into two steps:

One is the structural expansion of level , including the quality of position level and the expansion of grade level. The two are integrated into one furnace, and the center of gravity of bureaucratic is constantly tilted towards the grade level; in terms of position level, through the establishment of ad hoc positions, reference positions, extra-staff positions, and arranged positions, one person and multiple positions have appeared one after another, and the position sequence has been greatly expanded; in terms of grade level, in terms of traditional levels, benchmark levels, expansion levels, etc., the bureaucratic team has achieved great expansion through multiple sequences of levels.

The second is the level of functional integration . The quality level continues to spread to the society, and a large number of "officials" are scattered in all areas and levels of society through the absorption of elites. At the same time, the official has absorbed society through various institutional arrangements, and the level management and society are integrated. The values ​​and codes of conduct of respecting "officials" and advocating "officials" continue to spread to the society. The official-oriented system has become an important dominant force in traditional society. In the author's view, the process of maturing the official system in the Tang and Song dynasties was the process of dispersing level management.

This article was originally published in "Sea of ​​Learning" 2022 No. 5 , the original title is "Level diffusion and the maturity of the official-centered system - an investigation on the level management of bureaucratic systems in the Tang and Song dynasties" . only represents the author's views and is for your reference.

Level dispersion and the maturity of the official system

——An investigation into the level management of bureaucratic system in the Tang and Song

▍ Explore how the traditional bureaucracy is becoming mature official

(I) Question: Why is the official oriented system highly developed?

For ancient Chinese society, "'s role in bureaucratic politics dominates and implements gradually creates a kind of ideological and life net" . Bureaucracy is its basic characteristics and core composition, and this bureaucracy has a strong power-centered and hierarchical color. "It is an official-centered system based on power-based, that is, power is the basic standard for measuring human social value, and it is also a decisive factor affecting human social status and social attributes, and it controls the allocation of all social resources, including material resources and cultural resources."

People generally call the strong hierarchical color of the traditional bureaucracy the official position. The connotation of the official-oriented is very rich. It can be a social system, a social operation state, a culture and value, or it can be combined: people's ideological consciousness, behavioral orientation and institutional arrangements, everything is centered on officials, with officials as the starting point and destination . But its core is highly consistent, that is, it is based on level, and furthermore, the acquisition of power, status and reputation, and the ownership of official positions and function performance. Based on this, this article defines the official-oriented system: uses the corresponding individual level in the bureaucratic system as the social system for determining the status of social members and allocating social resources. has two meanings: one is that within the bureaucratic system, level determines the personal status of officials; the other is that between the bureaucratic system and society, level becomes the main basis for social resources.

Traditional bureaucracy and officialism are not natural forms of one and two sides. According to the investigation of Yan Buke , the traditional bureaucracy experienced the rank system of the Qin and Han dynasties, and entered the full maturity period of the official-oriented system in the Tang and Song dynasties. Based on this judgment, we can infer that the "official-oriented" is not the pre-tributive feature of the traditional bureaucracy, but the "leap" and "qualitative change" that occur later. In other words, the official nature is not innate to the traditional bureaucracy, but a process of historical evolution, and is the product of the latter's development to a certain stage.

If the official position is regarded as a development stage in the evolution of the traditional bureaucracy, a series of problems will be presented: Why did the traditional bureaucracy enter the official position from the rank system, how was the official position shaped, how did this system fully mature and highly developed in the Tang and Song dynasties, etc. . The previous questions are temporarily suspended. This article intends to use the evolution of the official-centered state in the Tang and Song dynasties as the research object to analyze how the bureaucracy developed into a mature official-centered state system and how its internal mechanism was established and operated? To explore this internal mechanism, we first need to find the right wedge. We choose this wedge as the basic attribute of the official-level management.

(II) Topic: The level management of traditional bureaucracy

Level is closely related to hierarchy, hierarchy is a common phenomenon in organizations, hierarchy is a structural principle in any organizational system, which means clear or implicit sorting in one or more valuable social dimensions, including power, identity and salary. This hierarchy can be divided into two dimensions: organizational level and personal level . Organizational hierarchy is used to determine the ownership relationship between organizations, which is relatively simple and stable, while individual hierarchy is relatively complex, which not only involves the hierarchy relationship between organizations, but also closely related to individual positions and qualifications.

Individual hierarchy division in an organization, we can call it level. Some scholars have expressed the connotation of the current civil servant level as follows: The level is a vertical division of the position level in the agency based on the nature of the work of civil servants, the difficulty of the work, the simplicity of the work, the slightest responsibilities, and the required qualifications. It is the basis for the management links of civil servant recruitment, assessment, rewards and punishments, training, and retirement. It is also an important basis for determining the treatment of civil servants. This connotation provides an important reference for us to examine the levels of traditional bureaucracy. But it should be seen that in the traditional bureaucracy, bureaucrats have more non-position levels in addition to their position levels. Therefore, the hierarchy in this article is: vertically divides members in bureaucratic organizations based on the standards of traditional, simple, and simplified positions and individual qualifications. The so-called level management is the system design and practice of the bureaucratic level. It can be seen that the level and level here are basically synonyms, and level management can also be used with "level management".

There are two main criteria for determining the official level. One dimension of is based on the position , including the complexity of work, the difficulty of tasks, and the severity of responsibilities, which can be called the position level, and the official level is integrated with the level of his position; the other dimension of is based on the identity , which includes qualifications, professional titles, education, and backgrounds, which can be called the taste level. Officials have both positions and various "official titles" that identify their identities. The focus of this classification is on people, not on things. This category draws on the concepts of position classification and taste classification in the modern civil service system , but it downplays the "category" and draws and emphasizes the function of grades.

It can be said that any bureaucratic system has position level and taste level.Eisenstadt once pointed out that Rome , Byzantine and China each have a dual rank system. One rank confirms that its owner belongs to a specific class, and the other rank confirms the functions and official positions of its owner. The traditional Chinese bureaucracy has rich practices in official rank setting, hierarchy arrangement, and rank of ranks. If you use level management, position level and grade level as analysis tools to analyze the traditional bureaucracy rank management, you can find the following characteristics:

First, there are always positions and grade levels in the traditional bureaucracy. position level undertakes actual administrative functions such as military, punishment, money, supervision and selection, etc. The quality level is mainly used to arrange the quality of bureaucrats, to increase the quality of their talents, to give them treatment, to confirm the grade, as well as to provide official positions or to transfer, to provide candidates, to reserve talents or to arrange redundant positions. It can be seen that position level and taste level are the two "wheels" of traditional bureaucratic level management. From the emergence of the traditional bureaucratic system to its disintegration, it has been coexisting and coexisting for more than two thousand years.

Second, in terms of position level, it shows relatively stable characteristics. During the Qin and Han dynasties, the basic framework of the traditional government was initially laid, with the Prime Minister and the Prime Minister at the central level, the Grand Marshal was in charge of military affairs, and the Censor was in charge of supervision. Under the Three Dukes, Nine Ministers were established, and under the Nine Ministers, several subordinate officials were established, and the central organization was basically systematic. The county system is implemented in local areas. The county and county have positions such as magistrate (order), chief, and lieutenant. Bureaucrats at all levels determine their positions by responsibilities, rank by positions, and rank by rank, etc., to establish a systematic position level system. Overall, the establishment of officials and positions is consistent.

Third, in terms of taste level, it shows an increasingly diverse feature. grade level has been continuously rising since weeks ago toward title. The Grade has always had a strong taste, is lifelong, treated, and is an important basis for social resource allocation. After the Qin and Han dynasties, in addition to titles, the ranks were richer. For example, the honorary officials of the Sui Dynasty were another rank of ranks that lasted for thousands of years in the bureaucracy. They covered most bureaucrats in terms of sequence distribution and had a high degree of independence relative to the position level.

Fourth, from the perspective of the relationship between position level and taste level, there is a development trend of "job integration" and "product promotion and job withdrawal". In the early days of the traditional bureaucratic system, the position and taste were equally important, and the position level and taste level were in parallel. However, from the perspective of long-term trends, position level and grade level are gradually integrated into a hierarchy system with the same ruler, while the focus of level management is tilted towards the identity grade level, focusing on "position" rather than "job", which is the basic trend of traditional bureaucratic level management.

(III) Proposition: The dispersion of levels has promoted the maturity of the official-oriented system of the Tang and Song dynasties

and above basic narrative about the level management of the traditional bureaucratic system, forming the historical background of our investigation of the Tang and Song dynasties official-oriented system. At this point, we can roughly judge that bureaucracy does not necessarily lead to the official-centeredness. The transformation between traditional bureaucracy and official-centeredness and the maturity of the official-centeredness is precisely the level management that plays a conductive role in it. By applying the "Position Level-Trial Level" analysis tool and going deeper along this point, we will find that the maturity of the official-based system is the continuous expansion and integration of position level and grade level, thereby achieving the process and result of diffusion. The concept of "dispersion" comes from reference to other disciplines. In the process of investigating Chinese religion , some scholars proposed that Western religion is an institutional religion, while Chinese religion is a diffuse religion. The diffusion here contains two levels of meaning.First, this is a process, that is, diffusing from the center, similar to ink dropping into clear water and spreading, the corresponding meaning is "dispersion"; second, this is a state, that is, the result of the above diffusion, which produces a state of complete fusion and inseparability, just like the water vapor dispersed in the air during heavy fog, and the corresponding meaning is "diffusing". This concept more accurately reveals the relationship between the integration and symbiosis of traditional religions and Chinese society. Starting from the two-layer structure of the meaning of dispersion, we find that hierarchical management plays a similar diffusion function in the official-centered system where the traditional bureaucracy is moving towards a mature official system. First, the level achieves structural diffusion. With the continuous expansion of the job level and the continuous expansion of the taste level, the two are integrated under the same standard, and the focus of the bureaucratic system continues to tilt towards the taste level, and the taste level has become the background color of level management. Secondly, the level achieves functional fusion. The taste level continues to spread to society, and a large number of "officials" are spread in all areas and levels of society through the absorption of elites. Again, through various institutional arrangements, the government has absorbed society, and the level management and society are integrated. The values ​​and codes of conduct of respecting officials continue to spread to society, and the official-oriented system has become an important dominant force in traditional society. Of course, this is a logical analysis. The two are sometimes intertwined in the historical development process. Such a process and state are called "level dispersion" in this article.

Therefore, the core proposition of this article is: the dispersion of levels promoted the maturity of the official system of the Tang and Song dynasties. 's proof of this proposition is mainly to sort out the history of bureaucratic management in the Tang and Song dynasties, reproduce the process of continuous expansion of position levels and taste levels, and analyze why it dispersed, how it dispersed, and how it dispersed, and the state after it dispersed into society.

▍ level structural expansion—the expansion of quantity and uniformity of quality

The level management before the Tang and Song dynasties had roughly the following characteristics: the position level followed the basic structure of the bureaucratic system and was relatively stable; the grade level had some categories but had not been systematic yet; the position level and grade level moved from alienation to connectivity, and there was a trend of "product promotion and job withdrawal". These characteristics continued to evolve during the Tang and Song dynasties, and eventually led to the maturity of the official-oriented system.

(I) Positions have become virtual: jobs have been removed from the level of rank and become

is limited by the constraints of the bureaucratic structure, and the position level has the characteristics of stable characteristics. However, various institutional innovations in the separation of positions in the Tang and Song dynasties expanded the position level, making the correspondence between positions and individuals changed from "one carrot one pit" to "one carrot one pit". This expansion mainly includes the continuous establishment and increase of ad hoc positions, extra-staff positions, reference positions, and arranged positions.

First, it is to add a large number of special positions. From the middle and late stages, Tang established a number of service positions. These service positions undertake specific work tasks have no direct relationship with the original position of an official, nor have a level or establishment, and are not included in the formal service system. However, the officials who hold service positions also retain the service positions they originally held. Tang Dynasty has a considerable number of positions, even as high as more than 100, covering the fields of politics, military, economy, etc., and has undergone a change from temporary to fixed permanent, and from local to system settings. These positions in the central government include the main positions of Pingzhangshi, Hanlin Bachelor, Xuanwei Envoy, and History Museum Envoy. In the local areas, there are mainly military governors, interviewers, defense envoys, regiment training envoys, strategy envoys, recruitment envoys, salt and iron transport envoys, etc. After the Anshi Rebellion, various special positions became more common. The six official departments of the Central Committee ignored the affairs of their department, and the local administrative system with the envoys as the core replaced the administrative system led by the governor and the governor in the past. Even the position of prime minister is often a position of envoy. "The position of the prime minister is said to be a common ruler, but there is no rank. From the first and second ranks to the third and fourth ranks, officials can all be informed of the country's affairs, so they live in the political and local governments, but the ranks are very different. If the position of the government is dismissed, the position will be restored. If the position of the general secretary is also a position rather than an official." Regarding the importance of the envoy, Du You, who had served as an important envoy in the Tang Dynasty, once commented that "there is an official to be appointed to serve and the envoy is appointed to serve to serve. ... So a hundred officials have been promoted, and all the achievements are all reasonable, which is also a system for one generation."

The situation of separation of positions (positions) and (positions) in the Tang Dynasty also existed in , Song Dynasty , and was even more common. Northern Song In the early days, general officials had both official titles (positions) and dispatches (positions). The one that really determines their actual position and actual power is dispatches. The names of dispatches often contain the words "judgment, knowledge, trial, management, promotion, supervision, power, direct". For example, an official was a doctor of the Ministry of Personnel and the head of Kaifeng Prefecture. The doctor of the Ministry of Personnel was his original position and knew that Kaifeng Prefecture was a dispatcher, but the official went to Kaifeng Prefecture every day instead of a director of the Ministry of Personnel. The essence of a special position such as

is to separate positions from unity to separation. The emergence of the special position category was a major change in the hierarchical management of the bureaucracy in the Tang and Song dynasties. Some people pointed out that the Tang Ting actually adopted a certain "dual-track system" of to govern the country. Sometimes, in some occasions, he would serve as a vocational officer, and sometimes in other occasions, he would appoint a position to do things to complement the director's strengths.

The second is to establish extra-staff positions for a long time. During the Tang and Song dynasties, many positions in the posts were set up, that is, positions in the posts. The so-called "there is no good and the lack of the right, the posts in the posts are added." This kind of extra-staff officer has a fixed quota, and even has an official position of "official officer with a full member". For example, Prime Minister Li Deyu was demoted to " Chaozhou Sima ranks the extra-staff officer with a full member", which is equivalent to adding another level between extra-staff officer and a full member. The awards of foreign officials in the Tang Dynasty mainly include the following categories: granting relatives, giving credit to officials, giving credit to officials with military merits, giving credit to minorities and foreigners, giving credit to technical officials, and giving credit to eunuchs. The extra-staff positions in the Song Dynasty except for the official positions were called "Genziguan", and their treatment was the same as those of the official positions. Most of them had nothing to do and were called "Genziguan" and "Genziguan". The ways to recruit and promote officials are more convenient than those of the official, and many officials are even several times more likely to be appointed by the official.

Third, gradually expand reference positions. In addition to the formal position system, the Tang and Song dynasties invented various reference positions, and included various quasi-bureaucrats who had no formal positions, no official offices, and no staff. This practice began as early as , the Han Dynasty . For example, the Han Dynasty implemented "comparison" for officials with no rank around the emperor. The so-called comparison means that it is equivalent to an official title of a certain level. The Tang Dynasty inherited the previous dynasties and implemented a "qualification" system for officials from the government below the royal family, including some informal bureaucrats in reference management, including the officials of the Sapbao Prefecture, the officials of the Prince, and the officials of the various governments, and included them in the office of the Ministry of Personnel. The Song Dynasty included auxiliary bureaucrats who performed administrative management functions, such as officials and yamen runners, in reference management, and had several ranks for officials and yamen. For example, officials from the state yamen, from the capital of the Confucius Officer to the grain and material officer, a total of 10 ranks, which was called the rank.

Fourth, it is generally set up arranged positions. During the Tang and Song dynasties, the court set up a large number of idle positions for political reasons. In the early Song Dynasty, a large number of old officials from the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, as well as royal families, relatives and honors, were retained, and they were generally granted high-ranking officials, with preferential salary increases and no real power was given. The Song Dynasty set up the temple and official , which was to allow the dismissed ministers to promote palaces, temples and a small number of temples to show their etiquette and hold food and fortune, which was called the sacred temple. The royal family, relatives, old ministers, dissidents and some demoted officials can all be placed here. The Song Dynasty also had a system of hiring counties, and senior court officials could apply to the place they were willing to go to as governors to rest. The Song Dynasty also placed a large number of officials who returned to the court, returned to the court, and those who "changed military squads" and "military merits".

Of course, the above four types are not clearly distinguished, but are crossed and can be transformed with each other.For example, many off-staff positions will gradually evolve into arranged positions. At the same time, with the increase of positions, many positions that identify the content of the duties have become only a order of determining the treatment and no longer have the meaning of the duties. In other words, the original official becomes a professional official. This phenomenon can be called the rank of the official, which the historical community calls it "the official of the official position of the official position." If the analysis framework of this article is applied, it can be regarded as a job level taste. In other words, many positions have been transformed into part of their taste, which is mainly reflected in the following aspects.

First, the taste of job separation. Many special positions established during the Tang and Song dynasties all undertake actual political affairs. Since the functions of traditional governments are quite stable, the work of these special positions will inevitably encroach on the responsibilities of the original officials to a considerable extent. Therefore, a phenomenon occurred in the Tang and Song dynasties. Various special positions assumed the actual responsibility for government affairs, while positions within the staff were gradually marginalized, and a large number of officials inside and outside the court were idle and became idle officials. In the local area, officials from Beijing were sent to the prefectures and county magistrates, while officials such as governors and county magistrates were false, becoming increasingly idle and tasteful.

The outstanding performance of the official in the Tang Dynasty was the prosecutor and the constitutional officer. After the special positions in the Tang Dynasty developed, the official titles of official titles, including Pushe and Shangshu, to Langzhong, Yuanwailang, proofreader , etc., can be added with the word "prosecutor" and become proofreader . Most bureaucrats with such positions do not serve in the department, but only hold ranks to express their respect for their status and promotion experience. For example, Du Fu is called Du Work Department . In fact, he has not held any official position in the Ministry of Work Department, but he is only a staff officer in the Nishikawa Jiedushi Yan Wu shogunate, and once held the title of "Unroku, the Ministry of Work Department of the School". Some governors also hold the title of "Ping Zhang" as "" , but they do not care about the Prime Minister's affairs. The outstanding manifestation of the rank of the official in the Song Dynasty was the official who was the official who was a scholar in the early Song Dynasty. After the generalization of dispatch in the early Song Dynasty, the officials led by officials only determine the rank, salary, seal and order of relocation, which is called the official of the Lu. Officials are determined according to the promotion of the official of the Lu. Even if they do not serve as the dispatch, they can still receive their salary. It can be seen that the original position level has been highly qualified.

Second, it is the taste of the job blurring. Many positions established in the Tang and Song dynasties were set up or retained in order to win over the hearts of officials and place officials, and became tasteful positions. There are mainly the following types. first, branch office officer. Tang Dynasty Gaozong and Wu Empress mostly live in Luoyang, the eastern capital. Although Xuanzong after , Luoyang was not omitted, and anyone who worked there was called the branch office. In the early Tang Dynasty, the branch offices were mainly engaged in service officials, while in the later period, they mainly arranged idle personnel. The duties of the branch officials in the Song Dynasty were further blurred on the basis of Tang , the Five Dynasties . The Northern Song Dynasty patriarchs all set up branch offices and branch office officials, but they had no actual responsibilities. second, the official of the Eastern Palace and the Wang Fu. The administrative functions of the officials of the Eastern Palace, such as the Prince Zhan Shi, the Prince Chaozi, and the Doctor Zanshan, gradually disappeared, and a considerable number of them became idle positions or local officials and additional officials, and there was no direct relationship with their actual duties. third, derogatory position. In the early Tang Dynasty, officials from outside the government could handle affairs like regular officials. Later, they basically became idle positions, mainly used to arrange for favoring royal families, military generals, demoted ministers, and idle officials, called left-down official . This kind of official only has an official name and does not serve. He is named a member of the official, but can only receive a small amount of living expenses.

Third, the position level is directly converted into the grade level. This transformation is typical of the upgrade of prefectures and counties in the Tang and Song dynasties. Du You said in the "Election Document": "At first, the prefectures and counties are mixed, and there is no difference in rank. Any awards that are given are either big and small, or they are close and far away, without customization. Since there are many people selected later, they are not given, so the difference in the county and county levels has been increased." It can be seen that solving the personal level of officials in the promotion of prefectures and counties is an important consideration.The prefectures of the Tang Dynasty were positioned according to three standards. First, the prefectures were determined, including Kyoto Prefecture and the governor's prefecture; secondly, other prefectures were determined by the local view, which were divided into "Four Auxiliary, Six Heroes, Ten Wangs, Ten Tight "; finally, the remaining 200 states were divided into three levels according to the number of households, with different ranks or relocation orders. For example, in the late Tang Dynasty, Yizhou, Qizhou and Liangzhou were upgraded to prefectures. After the promotion, the title of governor was changed to prefecture, and the official position was promoted, the position was increased, and the salary would also increase. The Song Dynasty also promoted the status of its superiors by elevating the state. For example, the state is divided into several levels such as Jiedu state, Observation state, Defense state, , Regiment and Lianzhou , and Governor state. That is, the rank differences based on the position can be "transferred" to mark the transfer of officials' taste.

Song Taizu once promoted Qingzhou , Suzhou , Shuzhou, Tangzhou, Huaizhou and other states, but this did not change the position of the prefectural chief, but improved his personal grade, which is actually a kind of promotion dispatch.

In summary, through the expansion and taste of positions, the position level in the Tang and Song dynasties has changed. First, the relationship between positions and positions has changed greatly. Through the establishment of ad hoc positions, reference positions, extra-staff positions, and arranged positions, the phenomenon of multiple positions and multiple positions has emerged one after another, and the position sequence has been greatly expanded. Second, with the increase of positions, many positions that identify the content of the duty are either separated from the actual position of the official, or become virtual, or directly become grades, thus becoming a certain order of determining the treatment to a large extent, and deviating from the original meaning of the duty and becoming tasteful content.

(II) The official hat is rolling: the diversification of taste

Although the position level achieved a certain expansion in the Tang and Song dynasties and made some positions taste, after all, positions belong to the category of "work", with limited functions and limited affairs, and the total number of positions is still greatly restricted. For example, during the 290th year of the Tang Dynasty, almost no new formal duties, official positions and government offices were added, all of which were inherited from the previous dynasty, and only a few were newly established. At the same time, the grade level has a strong internal expansion.

First of all, from the perspective of connotation, positions are single-dimensional, granted according to abilities, and can only be granted according to abilities, and taste has more aspects. In addition to abilities, there are also various qualification elements , such as family background, education level, military merit qualifications, etc., which contain more content. Secondly, from the perspective of scarcity, under the position level, if the position does not follow people and the position does not increase, the number of officials cannot increase. Under the taste level, the taste level follows people, is personalized and lifelong. Moreover, the taste sequence is not subject to quantity constraints, and various names can continue to increase. Again, from the perspective of flexibility, under the position level, qualifications, salary, privileges and courtesy can only be determined based on the position, and the sequence relationship between positions determines the superiority of an official; and at the level of the taste, the personal treatment of an official can be configured according to the position or the taste, and the position and taste can also be configured with a mix of positions and tastes. Through various combinations such as high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocation

Based on the expansion of the grade level, the grade level was constantly innovating in the Tang and Song dynasties. Overall, the Tang Dynasty formed a diverse hierarchical structure of positions, scattered, honored, rank, rank, rank, and rank, while the Song Dynasty formed a six-in-one hierarchical structure of official and rank (the position here is a literary position, such as the scholars of the Pavilion, etc., which is different from the "job" of the Tang Dynasty), dispatch, rank, rank, and rank, rank, and rank, rank, and rank, rank, rank, and rank, rank, rank, and rank, rank, rank, and rank, rank, rank, and rank, rank, rank, and rank, which was mainly manifested in:

, one is the abandonment of the traditional rank. The title level is a tool used in all dynasties.The Tang and Song dynasties inherited the practice of title titles, but the content changed a little, and title titles gradually became a symbol of honor from the fact that they could obtain actual benefits. The titles of the Tang and Song dynasties were divided into nine levels, mainly granted to officials, royal family members and relatives, political leaders in the surrounding areas, as well as descendants of the advanced dynasties and sages, and continued to play an important role in identifying identities. After the title of senior officials, there are many preferential treatments. The award of title and the promotion of title have a certain relationship with official rank, fief, and actual title. 2 is the determination of the benchmark level. A major breakthrough in the level of Tang and Song dynasties was to determine the rank sequence of scattered officials (rank officials). The san rank has existed since the Han Dynasty. In the Tang Dynasty, the title of san rank was sorted out and supplemented, and the rank was used as the title of an official. The Wensan official has a total of twenty-nine ranks from the third rank of Kaifu Yitong (from the first rank), special ranks (second rank) to the General Shilang (from the ninth rank). The Wusan official ranks are similar to this, and they are all named "Dawu", "Lang", "General", and "School Commander". scattered is the benchmark rank of an official in his career. When awarding a vocational officer, it is generally required that the rank of the position be equal to the corresponding rank of the scattered rank. The decision of the official's rank, rank, and uniform is the basic standard for maintaining the qualifications, remuneration and privileges of the official. The rank of officials is extremely stable, and it is a constant identity or even a lifelong identity during the bureaucracy's career, and it has become the main measure to define the identity of an official. In the Song Dynasty, the official of the Lu Lu was similar to this, becoming a "hard ruler" and "gold standard" for determining various treatments. is the inheritance of the expansion level. In the grade level, the honorary officials are another system that identifies the bureaucratic status rank. The honorary officials originated from Northern Zhou . At first, they were mainly awarded to people with military achievements. The Sui Dynasty used it to indicate the bureaucratic rank. During the Tang and Song dynasties, civil and military officers could receive honorary officials based on their political achievements or special rewards. During the Tang and Song dynasties, the honorary officials were divided into twelve transfers (i.e., the twelve levels), and honorary officials became an important level of qualities in the Tang and Song dynasties. Of course, the expansion level also develops in other aspects. For example, in terms of car clothes and clothing, the Tang and Song dynasties used fish bags to label officials' ranks with gold or silver. This system of wearing fish carried on the fish has been carried forward for more than 650 years and has become an important manifestation of grade treatment.

At this point, through the continuous expansion of position level and grade level, the diversified hierarchical structure of the organic combination of job products has been formed. Its biggest feature is that the bureaucratic organization has become an identity organization in general, with a personnel structure that is significantly larger than the position structure, and the number of officials is much larger than the number of positions. This structure makes the number of officials almost unrestricted, achieving a great expansion of the bureaucratic team.

(two) All methods are unified in order of superiority and inferiority: the integration of positions and tastes

With the development of the hierarchy sequence, especially the continuous expansion of the hierarchy level, a new look has appeared in the Tang and Song dynasties level management. For various levels of officials, positions, assignments, ranks, honors, titles, etc., it is necessary to establish unified standards, and to melt various position levels and grades into one furnace to achieve "a ruler to measure the world." The centralized effort of

is first from the throne. The Han Dynasty used the "chao position" to distinguish the official position, and the official position was determined in order of the past and later. The class system continued to develop during the Tang and Song dynasties. In the Tang Dynasty, official rank was the basic basis for determining the class. In the early Northern Song Dynasty, the ranking level and class developed into a very complex complex, with the ranking of the official rank as the "measurement benchmark", and a series of "insert items" were superimposed, including assignments, job titles, appointment order, degree of qualifications, and other personnel factors. The throne is essentially a sort of identity rank, which ranks the relative position of various official positions (i.e., multiple identity elements) in the hierarchical order.

And this kind of holistic master should be the invention of official quality. The ninth rank official rank originated from the Cao Wei period, which has been used for more than 1,600 years. It is the most common sign of the status of an official in the traditional official system. The civil officials in the Tang Dynasty had the ninth rank, and there were some regular and some followers. From the fourth rank, they were divided into upper and lower levels, with a total of thirty ranks. In the Song Dynasty, they changed to the ninth rank, and the eighteenth rank.The role of "official rank" in level management is similar to the equivalent of money in the field of economic circulation. If an official rank is used to his official position, there is a yardstick for measuring the difference. The structure of the ninth-rank official rank in the Tang Dynasty was the official rank of officials, civil and military officials, titles, and honorary officials. This is a unified multi-sequence framework, with multiple sequences contained in a unified framework, and they are clear and clear in comparison with each other.

It can be seen that in the level management of the Tang and Song dynasties, after the Chaozhou position and official ranks were connected through multiple rank sequences, the greatest inclusiveness and widest coverage were achieved, forming an organic unified and even integrated unified multi-sequence hierarchy system. The nine-rank official rank is a big framework, and officials, officials, honorary officials, and titles are melted into one furnace, arranged various position levels and grade levels, and accommodate all bureaucrats in the system. If we carefully analyze this structure, we can find that among the various hierarchical sequences, there is always only one sequence belonging to "thing", which is determined by the exclusiveness of "thing", which means that the position level is always limited, and the grade level can continue to expand. As Lu Zhi said in the Tang Dynasty, there are officials, officials in charge, officials in charge, officials in charge, and officials in charge. "The only thing that is to be a minister is to be a official, to be able to describe his talents and be good at position and virtue. The so-called real profit and to be a false reputation. Honors, scattered titles are limited to the patriotic and color, to control the noble and to save the credit." As a result, the structure of has become a structure that dominates the level of grade, comprehensively crushes and swallows the position level, and all officials have the absolute standard of superiority and inferiority. After the official rank is connected to each level sequence, it has the important function of "rule" and can realize "a ruler to measure the world". The superiority and inferiority between officials and the people, and the corresponding rights that can be obtained, can have the standard of "objective and fairness" through the division of official ranks.

During the Tang and Song dynasties, official rank was the standard for demarcating internal officials and external officials, noble officials and low officials. All the privileges enjoyed by a rank official are determined by the level of the official rank. In the Tang Dynasty, the first to third grades were the best grades, the fourth to fifth grades were the middle grades, and the sixth to ninth grades were the lowest grades. During the Song Dynasty, the sixth rank was used as the boundary line and divided officials into noble and low-ranking officials. The first to fifth ranks are noble officials, and the sixth to ninth ranks are low-ranking officials. With the iron ruler of official rank, you can use it to determine the treatment of officials. For example, the third-rank scattered officials in the Tang Dynasty were an important threshold. Although the prime minister was honored, the scattered officials were not as high as the third rank, and they were still given the purple rank. That is to say, even if they were appointed as the prime minister, if the scattered officials were not as high as the third rank, they would not be given the purple rank. The fifth grade is also an important step. Taking the Tang Dynasty as an example, all civil and military officials held a tablet, and were above the fifth rank, and used horns and teeth, and below the sixth rank, and used bamboo and wood. Tang Dynasty Funeral Order stipulates: monuments above the fifth rank and steles above the seventh rank and steles above the seventh rank. A monument with a fifth rank or above is erected, with a dragon head and a tortoise tilt, which is less than nine feet high. The stele is erected at the seventh rank or above, with the head of the gui, and the height of the foyer is four feet high. The officialdom of the Song Dynasty took the fifth-rank upper rank (Zhongsan Dafu) as the goal of progress in the career path. In addition to wearing red and peeping fish, there were still ten privileges, such as the official position of the monk, riding a horse and riding on a road, and the confession behind him.

In short, the system designers are not afraid to ponder the order of each official position, which is far more than considering the matching of people and positions and the proportion of functions, but rather to make bureaucrats have their own advantages, and comprehensively consider the factors such as duty, rank, qualifications, titles, honors, origins, and age, and balance the treatment of fief, actual title, seal, uniformity, quality, salary, and class.

✪ Liu Jie

Chinese Administrative Management Society

(This article was originally published in "School " 2022 Issue 5)

[Introduction] Official system is a basic element in understanding China's political society. The official system and cultural context formed in historical periods help us to enter China's history and political culture more deeply, thereby providing a mirror for the contemporary era. This article attempts to understand the formation process of the Tang and Song official culture through the unique perspective of "level dispersion". In the author's view, the maturity of the official-oriented system of the Tang and Song dynasties can be logically divided into two steps:

One is the structural expansion of level , including the quality of position level and the expansion of grade level. The two are integrated into one furnace, and the center of gravity of bureaucratic is constantly tilted towards the grade level; in terms of position level, through the establishment of ad hoc positions, reference positions, extra-staff positions, and arranged positions, one person and multiple positions have appeared one after another, and the position sequence has been greatly expanded; in terms of grade level, in terms of traditional levels, benchmark levels, expansion levels, etc., the bureaucratic team has achieved great expansion through multiple sequences of levels.

The second is the level of functional integration . The quality level continues to spread to the society, and a large number of "officials" are scattered in all areas and levels of society through the absorption of elites. At the same time, the official has absorbed society through various institutional arrangements, and the level management and society are integrated. The values ​​and codes of conduct of respecting "officials" and advocating "officials" continue to spread to the society. The official-oriented system has become an important dominant force in traditional society. In the author's view, the process of maturing the official system in the Tang and Song dynasties was the process of dispersing level management.

This article was originally published in "Sea of ​​Learning" 2022 No. 5 , the original title is "Level diffusion and the maturity of the official-centered system - an investigation on the level management of bureaucratic systems in the Tang and Song dynasties" . only represents the author's views and is for your reference.

Level dispersion and the maturity of the official system

——An investigation into the level management of bureaucratic system in the Tang and Song

▍ Explore how the traditional bureaucracy is becoming mature official

(I) Question: Why is the official oriented system highly developed?

For ancient Chinese society, "'s role in bureaucratic politics dominates and implements gradually creates a kind of ideological and life net" . Bureaucracy is its basic characteristics and core composition, and this bureaucracy has a strong power-centered and hierarchical color. "It is an official-centered system based on power-based, that is, power is the basic standard for measuring human social value, and it is also a decisive factor affecting human social status and social attributes, and it controls the allocation of all social resources, including material resources and cultural resources."

People generally call the strong hierarchical color of the traditional bureaucracy the official position. The connotation of the official-oriented is very rich. It can be a social system, a social operation state, a culture and value, or it can be combined: people's ideological consciousness, behavioral orientation and institutional arrangements, everything is centered on officials, with officials as the starting point and destination . But its core is highly consistent, that is, it is based on level, and furthermore, the acquisition of power, status and reputation, and the ownership of official positions and function performance. Based on this, this article defines the official-oriented system: uses the corresponding individual level in the bureaucratic system as the social system for determining the status of social members and allocating social resources. has two meanings: one is that within the bureaucratic system, level determines the personal status of officials; the other is that between the bureaucratic system and society, level becomes the main basis for social resources.

Traditional bureaucracy and officialism are not natural forms of one and two sides. According to the investigation of Yan Buke , the traditional bureaucracy experienced the rank system of the Qin and Han dynasties, and entered the full maturity period of the official-oriented system in the Tang and Song dynasties. Based on this judgment, we can infer that the "official-oriented" is not the pre-tributive feature of the traditional bureaucracy, but the "leap" and "qualitative change" that occur later. In other words, the official nature is not innate to the traditional bureaucracy, but a process of historical evolution, and is the product of the latter's development to a certain stage.

If the official position is regarded as a development stage in the evolution of the traditional bureaucracy, a series of problems will be presented: Why did the traditional bureaucracy enter the official position from the rank system, how was the official position shaped, how did this system fully mature and highly developed in the Tang and Song dynasties, etc. . The previous questions are temporarily suspended. This article intends to use the evolution of the official-centered state in the Tang and Song dynasties as the research object to analyze how the bureaucracy developed into a mature official-centered state system and how its internal mechanism was established and operated? To explore this internal mechanism, we first need to find the right wedge. We choose this wedge as the basic attribute of the official-level management.

(II) Topic: The level management of traditional bureaucracy

Level is closely related to hierarchy, hierarchy is a common phenomenon in organizations, hierarchy is a structural principle in any organizational system, which means clear or implicit sorting in one or more valuable social dimensions, including power, identity and salary. This hierarchy can be divided into two dimensions: organizational level and personal level . Organizational hierarchy is used to determine the ownership relationship between organizations, which is relatively simple and stable, while individual hierarchy is relatively complex, which not only involves the hierarchy relationship between organizations, but also closely related to individual positions and qualifications.

Individual hierarchy division in an organization, we can call it level. Some scholars have expressed the connotation of the current civil servant level as follows: The level is a vertical division of the position level in the agency based on the nature of the work of civil servants, the difficulty of the work, the simplicity of the work, the slightest responsibilities, and the required qualifications. It is the basis for the management links of civil servant recruitment, assessment, rewards and punishments, training, and retirement. It is also an important basis for determining the treatment of civil servants. This connotation provides an important reference for us to examine the levels of traditional bureaucracy. But it should be seen that in the traditional bureaucracy, bureaucrats have more non-position levels in addition to their position levels. Therefore, the hierarchy in this article is: vertically divides members in bureaucratic organizations based on the standards of traditional, simple, and simplified positions and individual qualifications. The so-called level management is the system design and practice of the bureaucratic level. It can be seen that the level and level here are basically synonyms, and level management can also be used with "level management".

There are two main criteria for determining the official level. One dimension of is based on the position , including the complexity of work, the difficulty of tasks, and the severity of responsibilities, which can be called the position level, and the official level is integrated with the level of his position; the other dimension of is based on the identity , which includes qualifications, professional titles, education, and backgrounds, which can be called the taste level. Officials have both positions and various "official titles" that identify their identities. The focus of this classification is on people, not on things. This category draws on the concepts of position classification and taste classification in the modern civil service system , but it downplays the "category" and draws and emphasizes the function of grades.

It can be said that any bureaucratic system has position level and taste level.Eisenstadt once pointed out that Rome , Byzantine and China each have a dual rank system. One rank confirms that its owner belongs to a specific class, and the other rank confirms the functions and official positions of its owner. The traditional Chinese bureaucracy has rich practices in official rank setting, hierarchy arrangement, and rank of ranks. If you use level management, position level and grade level as analysis tools to analyze the traditional bureaucracy rank management, you can find the following characteristics:

First, there are always positions and grade levels in the traditional bureaucracy. position level undertakes actual administrative functions such as military, punishment, money, supervision and selection, etc. The quality level is mainly used to arrange the quality of bureaucrats, to increase the quality of their talents, to give them treatment, to confirm the grade, as well as to provide official positions or to transfer, to provide candidates, to reserve talents or to arrange redundant positions. It can be seen that position level and taste level are the two "wheels" of traditional bureaucratic level management. From the emergence of the traditional bureaucratic system to its disintegration, it has been coexisting and coexisting for more than two thousand years.

Second, in terms of position level, it shows relatively stable characteristics. During the Qin and Han dynasties, the basic framework of the traditional government was initially laid, with the Prime Minister and the Prime Minister at the central level, the Grand Marshal was in charge of military affairs, and the Censor was in charge of supervision. Under the Three Dukes, Nine Ministers were established, and under the Nine Ministers, several subordinate officials were established, and the central organization was basically systematic. The county system is implemented in local areas. The county and county have positions such as magistrate (order), chief, and lieutenant. Bureaucrats at all levels determine their positions by responsibilities, rank by positions, and rank by rank, etc., to establish a systematic position level system. Overall, the establishment of officials and positions is consistent.

Third, in terms of taste level, it shows an increasingly diverse feature. grade level has been continuously rising since weeks ago toward title. The Grade has always had a strong taste, is lifelong, treated, and is an important basis for social resource allocation. After the Qin and Han dynasties, in addition to titles, the ranks were richer. For example, the honorary officials of the Sui Dynasty were another rank of ranks that lasted for thousands of years in the bureaucracy. They covered most bureaucrats in terms of sequence distribution and had a high degree of independence relative to the position level.

Fourth, from the perspective of the relationship between position level and taste level, there is a development trend of "job integration" and "product promotion and job withdrawal". In the early days of the traditional bureaucratic system, the position and taste were equally important, and the position level and taste level were in parallel. However, from the perspective of long-term trends, position level and grade level are gradually integrated into a hierarchy system with the same ruler, while the focus of level management is tilted towards the identity grade level, focusing on "position" rather than "job", which is the basic trend of traditional bureaucratic level management.

(III) Proposition: The dispersion of levels has promoted the maturity of the official-oriented system of the Tang and Song dynasties

and above basic narrative about the level management of the traditional bureaucratic system, forming the historical background of our investigation of the Tang and Song dynasties official-oriented system. At this point, we can roughly judge that bureaucracy does not necessarily lead to the official-centeredness. The transformation between traditional bureaucracy and official-centeredness and the maturity of the official-centeredness is precisely the level management that plays a conductive role in it. By applying the "Position Level-Trial Level" analysis tool and going deeper along this point, we will find that the maturity of the official-based system is the continuous expansion and integration of position level and grade level, thereby achieving the process and result of diffusion. The concept of "dispersion" comes from reference to other disciplines. In the process of investigating Chinese religion , some scholars proposed that Western religion is an institutional religion, while Chinese religion is a diffuse religion. The diffusion here contains two levels of meaning.First, this is a process, that is, diffusing from the center, similar to ink dropping into clear water and spreading, the corresponding meaning is "dispersion"; second, this is a state, that is, the result of the above diffusion, which produces a state of complete fusion and inseparability, just like the water vapor dispersed in the air during heavy fog, and the corresponding meaning is "diffusing". This concept more accurately reveals the relationship between the integration and symbiosis of traditional religions and Chinese society. Starting from the two-layer structure of the meaning of dispersion, we find that hierarchical management plays a similar diffusion function in the official-centered system where the traditional bureaucracy is moving towards a mature official system. First, the level achieves structural diffusion. With the continuous expansion of the job level and the continuous expansion of the taste level, the two are integrated under the same standard, and the focus of the bureaucratic system continues to tilt towards the taste level, and the taste level has become the background color of level management. Secondly, the level achieves functional fusion. The taste level continues to spread to society, and a large number of "officials" are spread in all areas and levels of society through the absorption of elites. Again, through various institutional arrangements, the government has absorbed society, and the level management and society are integrated. The values ​​and codes of conduct of respecting officials continue to spread to society, and the official-oriented system has become an important dominant force in traditional society. Of course, this is a logical analysis. The two are sometimes intertwined in the historical development process. Such a process and state are called "level dispersion" in this article.

Therefore, the core proposition of this article is: the dispersion of levels promoted the maturity of the official system of the Tang and Song dynasties. 's proof of this proposition is mainly to sort out the history of bureaucratic management in the Tang and Song dynasties, reproduce the process of continuous expansion of position levels and taste levels, and analyze why it dispersed, how it dispersed, and how it dispersed, and the state after it dispersed into society.

▍ level structural expansion—the expansion of quantity and uniformity of quality

The level management before the Tang and Song dynasties had roughly the following characteristics: the position level followed the basic structure of the bureaucratic system and was relatively stable; the grade level had some categories but had not been systematic yet; the position level and grade level moved from alienation to connectivity, and there was a trend of "product promotion and job withdrawal". These characteristics continued to evolve during the Tang and Song dynasties, and eventually led to the maturity of the official-oriented system.

(I) Positions have become virtual: jobs have been removed from the level of rank and become

is limited by the constraints of the bureaucratic structure, and the position level has the characteristics of stable characteristics. However, various institutional innovations in the separation of positions in the Tang and Song dynasties expanded the position level, making the correspondence between positions and individuals changed from "one carrot one pit" to "one carrot one pit". This expansion mainly includes the continuous establishment and increase of ad hoc positions, extra-staff positions, reference positions, and arranged positions.

First, it is to add a large number of special positions. From the middle and late stages, Tang established a number of service positions. These service positions undertake specific work tasks have no direct relationship with the original position of an official, nor have a level or establishment, and are not included in the formal service system. However, the officials who hold service positions also retain the service positions they originally held. Tang Dynasty has a considerable number of positions, even as high as more than 100, covering the fields of politics, military, economy, etc., and has undergone a change from temporary to fixed permanent, and from local to system settings. These positions in the central government include the main positions of Pingzhangshi, Hanlin Bachelor, Xuanwei Envoy, and History Museum Envoy. In the local areas, there are mainly military governors, interviewers, defense envoys, regiment training envoys, strategy envoys, recruitment envoys, salt and iron transport envoys, etc. After the Anshi Rebellion, various special positions became more common. The six official departments of the Central Committee ignored the affairs of their department, and the local administrative system with the envoys as the core replaced the administrative system led by the governor and the governor in the past. Even the position of prime minister is often a position of envoy. "The position of the prime minister is said to be a common ruler, but there is no rank. From the first and second ranks to the third and fourth ranks, officials can all be informed of the country's affairs, so they live in the political and local governments, but the ranks are very different. If the position of the government is dismissed, the position will be restored. If the position of the general secretary is also a position rather than an official." Regarding the importance of the envoy, Du You, who had served as an important envoy in the Tang Dynasty, once commented that "there is an official to be appointed to serve and the envoy is appointed to serve to serve. ... So a hundred officials have been promoted, and all the achievements are all reasonable, which is also a system for one generation."

The situation of separation of positions (positions) and (positions) in the Tang Dynasty also existed in , Song Dynasty , and was even more common. Northern Song In the early days, general officials had both official titles (positions) and dispatches (positions). The one that really determines their actual position and actual power is dispatches. The names of dispatches often contain the words "judgment, knowledge, trial, management, promotion, supervision, power, direct". For example, an official was a doctor of the Ministry of Personnel and the head of Kaifeng Prefecture. The doctor of the Ministry of Personnel was his original position and knew that Kaifeng Prefecture was a dispatcher, but the official went to Kaifeng Prefecture every day instead of a director of the Ministry of Personnel. The essence of a special position such as

is to separate positions from unity to separation. The emergence of the special position category was a major change in the hierarchical management of the bureaucracy in the Tang and Song dynasties. Some people pointed out that the Tang Ting actually adopted a certain "dual-track system" of to govern the country. Sometimes, in some occasions, he would serve as a vocational officer, and sometimes in other occasions, he would appoint a position to do things to complement the director's strengths.

The second is to establish extra-staff positions for a long time. During the Tang and Song dynasties, many positions in the posts were set up, that is, positions in the posts. The so-called "there is no good and the lack of the right, the posts in the posts are added." This kind of extra-staff officer has a fixed quota, and even has an official position of "official officer with a full member". For example, Prime Minister Li Deyu was demoted to " Chaozhou Sima ranks the extra-staff officer with a full member", which is equivalent to adding another level between extra-staff officer and a full member. The awards of foreign officials in the Tang Dynasty mainly include the following categories: granting relatives, giving credit to officials, giving credit to officials with military merits, giving credit to minorities and foreigners, giving credit to technical officials, and giving credit to eunuchs. The extra-staff positions in the Song Dynasty except for the official positions were called "Genziguan", and their treatment was the same as those of the official positions. Most of them had nothing to do and were called "Genziguan" and "Genziguan". The ways to recruit and promote officials are more convenient than those of the official, and many officials are even several times more likely to be appointed by the official.

Third, gradually expand reference positions. In addition to the formal position system, the Tang and Song dynasties invented various reference positions, and included various quasi-bureaucrats who had no formal positions, no official offices, and no staff. This practice began as early as , the Han Dynasty . For example, the Han Dynasty implemented "comparison" for officials with no rank around the emperor. The so-called comparison means that it is equivalent to an official title of a certain level. The Tang Dynasty inherited the previous dynasties and implemented a "qualification" system for officials from the government below the royal family, including some informal bureaucrats in reference management, including the officials of the Sapbao Prefecture, the officials of the Prince, and the officials of the various governments, and included them in the office of the Ministry of Personnel. The Song Dynasty included auxiliary bureaucrats who performed administrative management functions, such as officials and yamen runners, in reference management, and had several ranks for officials and yamen. For example, officials from the state yamen, from the capital of the Confucius Officer to the grain and material officer, a total of 10 ranks, which was called the rank.

Fourth, it is generally set up arranged positions. During the Tang and Song dynasties, the court set up a large number of idle positions for political reasons. In the early Song Dynasty, a large number of old officials from the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, as well as royal families, relatives and honors, were retained, and they were generally granted high-ranking officials, with preferential salary increases and no real power was given. The Song Dynasty set up the temple and official , which was to allow the dismissed ministers to promote palaces, temples and a small number of temples to show their etiquette and hold food and fortune, which was called the sacred temple. The royal family, relatives, old ministers, dissidents and some demoted officials can all be placed here. The Song Dynasty also had a system of hiring counties, and senior court officials could apply to the place they were willing to go to as governors to rest. The Song Dynasty also placed a large number of officials who returned to the court, returned to the court, and those who "changed military squads" and "military merits".

Of course, the above four types are not clearly distinguished, but are crossed and can be transformed with each other.For example, many off-staff positions will gradually evolve into arranged positions. At the same time, with the increase of positions, many positions that identify the content of the duties have become only a order of determining the treatment and no longer have the meaning of the duties. In other words, the original official becomes a professional official. This phenomenon can be called the rank of the official, which the historical community calls it "the official of the official position of the official position." If the analysis framework of this article is applied, it can be regarded as a job level taste. In other words, many positions have been transformed into part of their taste, which is mainly reflected in the following aspects.

First, the taste of job separation. Many special positions established during the Tang and Song dynasties all undertake actual political affairs. Since the functions of traditional governments are quite stable, the work of these special positions will inevitably encroach on the responsibilities of the original officials to a considerable extent. Therefore, a phenomenon occurred in the Tang and Song dynasties. Various special positions assumed the actual responsibility for government affairs, while positions within the staff were gradually marginalized, and a large number of officials inside and outside the court were idle and became idle officials. In the local area, officials from Beijing were sent to the prefectures and county magistrates, while officials such as governors and county magistrates were false, becoming increasingly idle and tasteful.

The outstanding performance of the official in the Tang Dynasty was the prosecutor and the constitutional officer. After the special positions in the Tang Dynasty developed, the official titles of official titles, including Pushe and Shangshu, to Langzhong, Yuanwailang, proofreader , etc., can be added with the word "prosecutor" and become proofreader . Most bureaucrats with such positions do not serve in the department, but only hold ranks to express their respect for their status and promotion experience. For example, Du Fu is called Du Work Department . In fact, he has not held any official position in the Ministry of Work Department, but he is only a staff officer in the Nishikawa Jiedushi Yan Wu shogunate, and once held the title of "Unroku, the Ministry of Work Department of the School". Some governors also hold the title of "Ping Zhang" as "" , but they do not care about the Prime Minister's affairs. The outstanding manifestation of the rank of the official in the Song Dynasty was the official who was the official who was a scholar in the early Song Dynasty. After the generalization of dispatch in the early Song Dynasty, the officials led by officials only determine the rank, salary, seal and order of relocation, which is called the official of the Lu. Officials are determined according to the promotion of the official of the Lu. Even if they do not serve as the dispatch, they can still receive their salary. It can be seen that the original position level has been highly qualified.

Second, it is the taste of the job blurring. Many positions established in the Tang and Song dynasties were set up or retained in order to win over the hearts of officials and place officials, and became tasteful positions. There are mainly the following types. first, branch office officer. Tang Dynasty Gaozong and Wu Empress mostly live in Luoyang, the eastern capital. Although Xuanzong after , Luoyang was not omitted, and anyone who worked there was called the branch office. In the early Tang Dynasty, the branch offices were mainly engaged in service officials, while in the later period, they mainly arranged idle personnel. The duties of the branch officials in the Song Dynasty were further blurred on the basis of Tang , the Five Dynasties . The Northern Song Dynasty patriarchs all set up branch offices and branch office officials, but they had no actual responsibilities. second, the official of the Eastern Palace and the Wang Fu. The administrative functions of the officials of the Eastern Palace, such as the Prince Zhan Shi, the Prince Chaozi, and the Doctor Zanshan, gradually disappeared, and a considerable number of them became idle positions or local officials and additional officials, and there was no direct relationship with their actual duties. third, derogatory position. In the early Tang Dynasty, officials from outside the government could handle affairs like regular officials. Later, they basically became idle positions, mainly used to arrange for favoring royal families, military generals, demoted ministers, and idle officials, called left-down official . This kind of official only has an official name and does not serve. He is named a member of the official, but can only receive a small amount of living expenses.

Third, the position level is directly converted into the grade level. This transformation is typical of the upgrade of prefectures and counties in the Tang and Song dynasties. Du You said in the "Election Document": "At first, the prefectures and counties are mixed, and there is no difference in rank. Any awards that are given are either big and small, or they are close and far away, without customization. Since there are many people selected later, they are not given, so the difference in the county and county levels has been increased." It can be seen that solving the personal level of officials in the promotion of prefectures and counties is an important consideration.The prefectures of the Tang Dynasty were positioned according to three standards. First, the prefectures were determined, including Kyoto Prefecture and the governor's prefecture; secondly, other prefectures were determined by the local view, which were divided into "Four Auxiliary, Six Heroes, Ten Wangs, Ten Tight "; finally, the remaining 200 states were divided into three levels according to the number of households, with different ranks or relocation orders. For example, in the late Tang Dynasty, Yizhou, Qizhou and Liangzhou were upgraded to prefectures. After the promotion, the title of governor was changed to prefecture, and the official position was promoted, the position was increased, and the salary would also increase. The Song Dynasty also promoted the status of its superiors by elevating the state. For example, the state is divided into several levels such as Jiedu state, Observation state, Defense state, , Regiment and Lianzhou , and Governor state. That is, the rank differences based on the position can be "transferred" to mark the transfer of officials' taste.

Song Taizu once promoted Qingzhou , Suzhou , Shuzhou, Tangzhou, Huaizhou and other states, but this did not change the position of the prefectural chief, but improved his personal grade, which is actually a kind of promotion dispatch.

In summary, through the expansion and taste of positions, the position level in the Tang and Song dynasties has changed. First, the relationship between positions and positions has changed greatly. Through the establishment of ad hoc positions, reference positions, extra-staff positions, and arranged positions, the phenomenon of multiple positions and multiple positions has emerged one after another, and the position sequence has been greatly expanded. Second, with the increase of positions, many positions that identify the content of the duty are either separated from the actual position of the official, or become virtual, or directly become grades, thus becoming a certain order of determining the treatment to a large extent, and deviating from the original meaning of the duty and becoming tasteful content.

(II) The official hat is rolling: the diversification of taste

Although the position level achieved a certain expansion in the Tang and Song dynasties and made some positions taste, after all, positions belong to the category of "work", with limited functions and limited affairs, and the total number of positions is still greatly restricted. For example, during the 290th year of the Tang Dynasty, almost no new formal duties, official positions and government offices were added, all of which were inherited from the previous dynasty, and only a few were newly established. At the same time, the grade level has a strong internal expansion.

First of all, from the perspective of connotation, positions are single-dimensional, granted according to abilities, and can only be granted according to abilities, and taste has more aspects. In addition to abilities, there are also various qualification elements , such as family background, education level, military merit qualifications, etc., which contain more content. Secondly, from the perspective of scarcity, under the position level, if the position does not follow people and the position does not increase, the number of officials cannot increase. Under the taste level, the taste level follows people, is personalized and lifelong. Moreover, the taste sequence is not subject to quantity constraints, and various names can continue to increase. Again, from the perspective of flexibility, under the position level, qualifications, salary, privileges and courtesy can only be determined based on the position, and the sequence relationship between positions determines the superiority of an official; and at the level of the taste, the personal treatment of an official can be configured according to the position or the taste, and the position and taste can also be configured with a mix of positions and tastes. Through various combinations such as high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocational high vocation

Based on the expansion of the grade level, the grade level was constantly innovating in the Tang and Song dynasties. Overall, the Tang Dynasty formed a diverse hierarchical structure of positions, scattered, honored, rank, rank, rank, and rank, while the Song Dynasty formed a six-in-one hierarchical structure of official and rank (the position here is a literary position, such as the scholars of the Pavilion, etc., which is different from the "job" of the Tang Dynasty), dispatch, rank, rank, and rank, rank, and rank, rank, and rank, rank, rank, and rank, rank, rank, and rank, rank, rank, and rank, rank, rank, and rank, rank, rank, and rank, which was mainly manifested in:

, one is the abandonment of the traditional rank. The title level is a tool used in all dynasties.The Tang and Song dynasties inherited the practice of title titles, but the content changed a little, and title titles gradually became a symbol of honor from the fact that they could obtain actual benefits. The titles of the Tang and Song dynasties were divided into nine levels, mainly granted to officials, royal family members and relatives, political leaders in the surrounding areas, as well as descendants of the advanced dynasties and sages, and continued to play an important role in identifying identities. After the title of senior officials, there are many preferential treatments. The award of title and the promotion of title have a certain relationship with official rank, fief, and actual title. 2 is the determination of the benchmark level. A major breakthrough in the level of Tang and Song dynasties was to determine the rank sequence of scattered officials (rank officials). The san rank has existed since the Han Dynasty. In the Tang Dynasty, the title of san rank was sorted out and supplemented, and the rank was used as the title of an official. The Wensan official has a total of twenty-nine ranks from the third rank of Kaifu Yitong (from the first rank), special ranks (second rank) to the General Shilang (from the ninth rank). The Wusan official ranks are similar to this, and they are all named "Dawu", "Lang", "General", and "School Commander". scattered is the benchmark rank of an official in his career. When awarding a vocational officer, it is generally required that the rank of the position be equal to the corresponding rank of the scattered rank. The decision of the official's rank, rank, and uniform is the basic standard for maintaining the qualifications, remuneration and privileges of the official. The rank of officials is extremely stable, and it is a constant identity or even a lifelong identity during the bureaucracy's career, and it has become the main measure to define the identity of an official. In the Song Dynasty, the official of the Lu Lu was similar to this, becoming a "hard ruler" and "gold standard" for determining various treatments. is the inheritance of the expansion level. In the grade level, the honorary officials are another system that identifies the bureaucratic status rank. The honorary officials originated from Northern Zhou . At first, they were mainly awarded to people with military achievements. The Sui Dynasty used it to indicate the bureaucratic rank. During the Tang and Song dynasties, civil and military officers could receive honorary officials based on their political achievements or special rewards. During the Tang and Song dynasties, the honorary officials were divided into twelve transfers (i.e., the twelve levels), and honorary officials became an important level of qualities in the Tang and Song dynasties. Of course, the expansion level also develops in other aspects. For example, in terms of car clothes and clothing, the Tang and Song dynasties used fish bags to label officials' ranks with gold or silver. This system of wearing fish carried on the fish has been carried forward for more than 650 years and has become an important manifestation of grade treatment.

At this point, through the continuous expansion of position level and grade level, the diversified hierarchical structure of the organic combination of job products has been formed. Its biggest feature is that the bureaucratic organization has become an identity organization in general, with a personnel structure that is significantly larger than the position structure, and the number of officials is much larger than the number of positions. This structure makes the number of officials almost unrestricted, achieving a great expansion of the bureaucratic team.

(two) All methods are unified in order of superiority and inferiority: the integration of positions and tastes

With the development of the hierarchy sequence, especially the continuous expansion of the hierarchy level, a new look has appeared in the Tang and Song dynasties level management. For various levels of officials, positions, assignments, ranks, honors, titles, etc., it is necessary to establish unified standards, and to melt various position levels and grades into one furnace to achieve "a ruler to measure the world." The centralized effort of

is first from the throne. The Han Dynasty used the "chao position" to distinguish the official position, and the official position was determined in order of the past and later. The class system continued to develop during the Tang and Song dynasties. In the Tang Dynasty, official rank was the basic basis for determining the class. In the early Northern Song Dynasty, the ranking level and class developed into a very complex complex, with the ranking of the official rank as the "measurement benchmark", and a series of "insert items" were superimposed, including assignments, job titles, appointment order, degree of qualifications, and other personnel factors. The throne is essentially a sort of identity rank, which ranks the relative position of various official positions (i.e., multiple identity elements) in the hierarchical order.

And this kind of holistic master should be the invention of official quality. The ninth rank official rank originated from the Cao Wei period, which has been used for more than 1,600 years. It is the most common sign of the status of an official in the traditional official system. The civil officials in the Tang Dynasty had the ninth rank, and there were some regular and some followers. From the fourth rank, they were divided into upper and lower levels, with a total of thirty ranks. In the Song Dynasty, they changed to the ninth rank, and the eighteenth rank.The role of "official rank" in level management is similar to the equivalent of money in the field of economic circulation. If an official rank is used to his official position, there is a yardstick for measuring the difference. The structure of the ninth-rank official rank in the Tang Dynasty was the official rank of officials, civil and military officials, titles, and honorary officials. This is a unified multi-sequence framework, with multiple sequences contained in a unified framework, and they are clear and clear in comparison with each other.

It can be seen that in the level management of the Tang and Song dynasties, after the Chaozhou position and official ranks were connected through multiple rank sequences, the greatest inclusiveness and widest coverage were achieved, forming an organic unified and even integrated unified multi-sequence hierarchy system. The nine-rank official rank is a big framework, and officials, officials, honorary officials, and titles are melted into one furnace, arranged various position levels and grade levels, and accommodate all bureaucrats in the system. If we carefully analyze this structure, we can find that among the various hierarchical sequences, there is always only one sequence belonging to "thing", which is determined by the exclusiveness of "thing", which means that the position level is always limited, and the grade level can continue to expand. As Lu Zhi said in the Tang Dynasty, there are officials, officials in charge, officials in charge, officials in charge, and officials in charge. "The only thing that is to be a minister is to be a official, to be able to describe his talents and be good at position and virtue. The so-called real profit and to be a false reputation. Honors, scattered titles are limited to the patriotic and color, to control the noble and to save the credit." As a result, the structure of has become a structure that dominates the level of grade, comprehensively crushes and swallows the position level, and all officials have the absolute standard of superiority and inferiority. After the official rank is connected to each level sequence, it has the important function of "rule" and can realize "a ruler to measure the world". The superiority and inferiority between officials and the people, and the corresponding rights that can be obtained, can have the standard of "objective and fairness" through the division of official ranks.

During the Tang and Song dynasties, official rank was the standard for demarcating internal officials and external officials, noble officials and low officials. All the privileges enjoyed by a rank official are determined by the level of the official rank. In the Tang Dynasty, the first to third grades were the best grades, the fourth to fifth grades were the middle grades, and the sixth to ninth grades were the lowest grades. During the Song Dynasty, the sixth rank was used as the boundary line and divided officials into noble and low-ranking officials. The first to fifth ranks are noble officials, and the sixth to ninth ranks are low-ranking officials. With the iron ruler of official rank, you can use it to determine the treatment of officials. For example, the third-rank scattered officials in the Tang Dynasty were an important threshold. Although the prime minister was honored, the scattered officials were not as high as the third rank, and they were still given the purple rank. That is to say, even if they were appointed as the prime minister, if the scattered officials were not as high as the third rank, they would not be given the purple rank. The fifth grade is also an important step. Taking the Tang Dynasty as an example, all civil and military officials held a tablet, and were above the fifth rank, and used horns and teeth, and below the sixth rank, and used bamboo and wood. Tang Dynasty Funeral Order stipulates: monuments above the fifth rank and steles above the seventh rank and steles above the seventh rank. A monument with a fifth rank or above is erected, with a dragon head and a tortoise tilt, which is less than nine feet high. The stele is erected at the seventh rank or above, with the head of the gui, and the height of the foyer is four feet high. The officialdom of the Song Dynasty took the fifth-rank upper rank (Zhongsan Dafu) as the goal of progress in the career path. In addition to wearing red and peeping fish, there were still ten privileges, such as the official position of the monk, riding a horse and riding on a road, and the confession behind him.

In short, the system designers are not afraid to ponder the order of each official position, which is far more than considering the matching of people and positions and the proportion of functions, but rather to make bureaucrats have their own advantages, and comprehensively consider the factors such as duty, rank, qualifications, titles, honors, origins, and age, and balance the treatment of fief, actual title, seal, uniformity, quality, salary, and class.

▍ level functional fusion—Free choice and Wanfang Convergence

(I) The heroes of the world come to me: absorbing all elites

The unified multi-sequence complex hierarchical structure constructed by the official products not only accommodates all bureaucrats, but also relies on the expansion characteristics of the grade level to continuously break through the internal framework of the system, gradually penetrate into the people and society, and encapsulate a large number of social elites into this hierarchical structure.

First, it absorbs the families of political elites and forms a strong backyard for the regime. Tang and Song dynasties awarded titles to the families of officials and nobles, including parents, wives, and other relatives, as the most representative gift was given. The official positions granted by the emperor shall be given a formal imperial decree when awarding the official title, and wax seals are also given when awarding the official title. There is a complete set of procedures. The mother or wife of an official will also be given various titles of different levels. This arrangement of absorbing officials and noble families can not only ensure that officials have the son, the father, the husband, the wife, and the family can benefit from it, but also improve officials' loyalty to the court.

The second is to absorb intellectual elites and create a loyal and reliable "bureaucratic reserve". During the Tang and Song dynasties, officials who had already studied but had not yet obtained official positions were "quasi-bureaucrats" or "bureaucrats' reserves". During the time of studying at school, students of the Tang and Song dynasties enjoyed various quasi-bureaucratic treatments. Students of the Northern Song Dynasty's Imperial Academy, Law and Martial Arts can also enjoy the treatment of reading books, medical care, etc., and the sacrificial school and martial arts students are also exempt from provincial examinations and exemption from disciplinary examinations. Through these bureaucratic institutional arrangements, scholars can enjoy various tasteful treatments before they enter the officialdom, thus becoming supporters and defenders of the system.

The third is to absorb wealth elites and form a mutually beneficial community. During the Tang and Song dynasties, the court continued to alleviate financial difficulties by awarding official titles to wealthy people, and at the same time absorbed wealth elites into the system. After the Anshi Rebellion broke out, people from all over the country summoned people to pay money, proclaimed their names, and awarded official titles; the Song Dynasty "Admission of Officials" was abbreviated for various ways to obtain official positions through admission and assistance, and people with financial strength could replenish their official positions by raising millet, hiring workers, and directly paying for them. As the Song Dynasty stipulated that one thousand stones would be awarded one level; five thousand stones would be awarded the imperial examination "born"; seven thousand stones would be awarded the title of a different leader.

Fourth, absorb the elites of virtue and improve the moral legitimacy of the regime. There was a system of respecting the elderly in the Tang and Song dynasties. For example, during the reign of Emperor Gaozong of Tang, he was awarded the title of the governor of Xiazhou, Sima, and county magistrate of women, and county magistrates; from seventy to eighty, he was awarded the title of the ancient title of first level. The Song Dynasty gave various virtue elites the title of "Doctor" and "Prince", which were generally folk models who were talented and learned reputation, possessed some skills, and were dedicated to their righteousness. A servant title is not only a kind of honor, but also can bring certain practical benefits, such as giving fertile land, grain, and silk, edicting local prefectures and counties, and giving their descendants official positions. The award of titles such as civil and military officials and public officials is not an important matter, but such seemingly trivial matters are an important means for the empire to maintain rule and establish cohesion, and are related to the stability and continuation of the empire.

5 is the absorption of other important groups in society. During the Tang and Song dynasties, monks and Taoist priests were important social groups, and the court granted many Taoist priests and monks as monks and Taoist priests. There was a Tang Dynasty, and many Taoist priests were given scattered officials. For example, during the reign of Emperor Gaozong, Yin Wencao Yinqing Guanglu Dafu (the third rank), and Niu Hongman, the head of Xuandu Temple, was given the first rank (Kaifu Yitong Sansi). The Song court advocated Taoism and specially set up a hierarchy for Taoists - Taoist ranks, such as Yuanshi (fifth grade), High ranks (fifth grade), Great ranks (fifth grade), Supreme ranks (fifth grade), Supreme ranks (fifth grade), Alchemist (fifth grade), Patriarchs (fifth grade), and Patriarchs (fifth grade).

In short, through the absorption of the above five groups, the bureaucracy of the Tang and Song dynasties formed a hierarchical structure, with the center part being various officials with positions and levels, the middle part being owners of various qualities without officials, and the third level is the owners of court names in the folk, which greatly expands the scale of the hierarchical organization.

(II) One entry into the public office is like a sea of ​​gratitude: absorbing social resources

provides preferential treatment and guarantee for bureaucracy to exercise their duties, which is a prominent feature of bureaucracy. The various treatments enjoyed by the bureaucrats of the Tang and Song dynasties were mainly provided with various social resources to "officials" with taste levels after the level system was determined and spread, so that they could enjoy various treatments. This absorption of social resources includes but is not limited to the following.

first, draw political resources. The children of officials have the priority to serve as officials. During the Tang and Song dynasties, the imperial examination was the main channel for civilians to enter the officialdom, but for the children of officials, there was another channel - Menyin, which refers to the system in which the court granted official positions to their descendants and relatives according to the political identity of the powerful. Officials above the fifth rank and above in the Tang Dynasty were descendants, officials above the third rank and above in the great-grandson, grandchildren were surrendered to their sons first, and great-grandsons were surrendered to their grandsons first. The rank of the first-rank official is the seventh rank, and the second-rank official is the seventh rank. There is a distinction between the third rank, and the rank described by the son is the seventh rank. The rank described by the son is one level lower than the seventh rank. In the Northern Song Dynasty, the way to enter the officialdom was second only to the imperial examination. Most officials' children did not go to the imperial examinations, but obtained official positions, ranks, positions in the hall, examination titles or granted birth through various names. Although the imperial examination has always dominated the electoral system, in terms of the number of people who entered the officialdom, the number of people who entered the officialdom during the Northern Song Dynasty was almost the same as the number of people who took the imperial examinations. At the same time, officials have legal immunity. Tang Law implemented eight discussions. After high-ranking bureaucrats committed crimes, general judicial officials had no right to hear the case and had to submit a memorial to the emperor for advice. The emperor decided whether the punishment was reduced or not based on the criminal's relationship with the royal family and the degree of the official position. Neighbors of eighth-rank, ninth-rank officials and officials above the seventh-rank can enjoy the privilege of atonement for bronze. During the Tang Dynasty, the "official" system for using officials to pay for crimes was also more complete and systematic. Any official with a ninth rank or above was generally sentenced to imprisonment and was allowed to use his official position to pay for his punishment. Officials of the Song Dynasty also enjoyed such privileges.

Second, draw economic resources. In terms of salary, in addition to receiving salary for officials, officials from Tang and Song dynasties can receive treatment from their rank positions. Many rank officials in the Tang and Song dynasties received salary without any trouble. The Song Dynasty had political restrictions on idle officials, but they were given preferential treatment in terms of economics. The treatment was almost the same as the incumbent officials, and they enjoyed salary in various names. There are a large number of officials who have been detained for more than ten or even twenty years, but they still have to wait for their positions to be appointed before they can take office. There are many types of salary, such as materials, clothes and gifts, food and food for attendants, food and food, tea, wine, kitchen, ingredients, firewood, artemisia, charcoal, salt, rice and flour, sheep and horses, post materials, etc., various additions, coupons, ministerial money and various rewards. At the same time, exemption from service is also an important economic benefit. The bureaucrats of the Tang and Song dynasties generally enjoyed the privilege of exemption from service. The "crowned households" that could be exempted from service in the Tang Dynasty refer to the households with formal officials and those who have a Jinshi background but have not yet been released from the brown family. The "Clothing House" gradually evolved into "official House" by the Song Dynasty. Officials and their descendants were allowed to enjoy a certain amount of exemption from service according to their rank. The official's death could be reduced by half. The privilege of exemption from service can bring considerable economic benefits. In terms of retirement benefits, officials who retired during the Tang and Song dynasties enjoyed better economic and political benefits. Officials above the fifth rank of the Tang Dynasty can enjoy half a salary for their lifetime, and the special case can be given full salary. Those who retire at the sixth rank or below will be given a lifetime salary of half a lifetime. Those who retire at the third rank or above can also enjoy the New Year and Days. The train is above the current official of this rank to show respect and can even go to the official again. Those who were over 70 years old in the Song Dynasty who were seeking retirement could retire and usually received half a salary after retirement, but those who retired with the emperor could receive full or half a salary.If you retire with a position, you can receive a double salary for retirement, which means that the retired officials of the Song Dynasty during their tenure were promoted to the same as those of the Chang Dynasty.

Third, enjoy social treatment. The rank and courtesy of officials and nobles enjoyed according to their ranks and ranks, which also ranks the daily life. All areas of daily life, such as weddings, funerals, carriages, crowns, etc., strictly follow the order determined by the hierarchy and form a comprehensive and comprehensive social arrangement. In terms of education, the two highest schools in the Tang Dynasty were Hongwenguan and Chongwenguan. In the early days, they were the children of high-ranking officials and high-ranking ranks, and enjoyed the best educational resources. There are also official schools such as Imperial College, Imperial College, Law School, and Four Schools, which are mainly aimed at the children of bureaucrats. Before the students have entered the school, they are already divided into three or six grades according to the level of their parents. During the Northern Song Dynasty, the rank restrictions of the central government's schools decreased, but the children of officials still had great priority. In daily life, the hierarchical etiquette system covers all kinds of matters from birth to death, including name, flag seal, talisman, pet, rank and fortune, crown and shoe, clothing, belt, ring and wear, carriage and horse, wives and concubines, bed mats, utensils, food, sacrifices, and mourning. The requirements of hierarchy have long exceeded the boundaries of the officialdom and are all in life.

(III) But if you get an official, you don’t envy the immortals: shape the level worship

official rank is used to determine the hierarchical relationship between officials and officials within the bureaucratic system, and to determine the hierarchical relationship between officials and the people outside the system, and even the people and the people, allocate political resources, economic resources and cultural resources, thereby forming a broad and profound hierarchical worship.

allocates resources at levels, and worship of level has an extremely solid foundation of interests. Under the official-centered system, the level has a strong connection with the interests of individuals and their families. The level is the dividing point between officials and citizens. Once you become an official, your family will be included in the legal official family, thereby gaining a higher social status, and you can enjoy the privileges of contributing to future generations as officials, exempting some taxes and service, and redeeming punishments. You may even have the opportunity to enter the officialdom if you are young. Wang Yanan once made a profound analysis on this: "The Chinese traditionally regard being an official as important. We have reason to say that it is because Confucian ethical and political science taught us a set of principles of cultivating uniform and governing peace. We have reason to say that it is because of the implementation of the imperial examination system, which encourages us to "learning to be a cadre" and be keen on official careers; but the more basic reason is that long-term bureaucratic politics gives officials, those who are ready to be an official, and even those who withdraw from the officialdom, various social and economic benefits, or various privileges that are not clearly determined but very real." In fact, those who enjoy these privileges include not only those who are officials, those who are ready to become officials, those who withdraw from the officialdom, but also those who have various qualities of official positions and their families. It is precisely because of such a large-scale interest connection that the official-centered system has a broad social foundation.

takes level as the ruler, and level worship is a strong value symbol and cultural gene. The level has become an important yardstick for values ​​and social life. For bureaucrats, there are endless steps to climb in all dimensions of the rank, position, official, official, title, honor, fief, meritorious officials, courtesy and courtesy he has experienced. For the people, the title of the court's official title greatly influenced their concepts and psychology. The prevalence of official identities made many official titles later become folk titles, such as painters, chess players, bookmakers, rapists, and jugglers in the Song Dynasty. Some were called officials, some were called officials, doctors, doctors, and preachers. In social life, the official position means that the official position becomes the identity standard of the entire society. The concept of taking official positions as the most important and rank as the most respected person has been unanimously recognized by the entire society, and gradually condenses and internalizes into group psychology. One person becomes an official, and benefits the whole family and the whole family.

In short, although there has been a level of absorption of social elites before the Tang and Song dynasties and the society feeds back the resources of level, after the Tang and Song dynasties, with the maturity of the official system, the official system has achieved the advancement from system to culture. Its degree of systematization and establishment has been significantly improved, and its penetration and dominance in social life has been greatly enhanced, and the level has become the value yardstick of society. As a result, the level becomes the subsidiary system for confirming the social pyramid.

▍ Conclusion: Level dispersion and the mature system of official system

Level dispersion is the transformation mechanism of the traditional bureaucracy moving towards a mature official. The bureaucratic level management of the Tang and Song dynasties evolved along the following context. In terms of position level , through the establishment of ad hoc positions, reference positions, extra-staff positions, and arranged positions, one person, multiple positions, one position, and multiple positions have appeared one after another, and the position sequence has been greatly expanded. At the same time, the position level is constantly tilted towards taste through direct transformation, job separation, and job blurring. In terms of grade level , in terms of traditional levels, benchmark levels, expansion levels, etc., the bureaucratic team has achieved great expansion through multiple sequences of levels. With the development of various hierarchical sequences, especially the continuous increase in the qualifying sequences, the ranks and official qualities have melted various positions and qualities into a furnace, not only to accommodate all bureaucrats, but also their implementation targets have been continuously exceeded the scope of the rank officials and gradually penetrated into the society, encompassing a large number of social elites into this hierarchical structure. Subsequently, various social resources were drawn by exchanging tastes for identity treatment. This system became an important dominant force in traditional society, and the whole society developed a worship of rank, thus building a highly complete official-oriented system. Some scholars say that traditional Chinese institutional planners have rich experience in hierarchical management. In addition to job management, they also implement complex identity management through various qualities; numerous sequences and rich qualities have their own uses, and they cooperate with each other to complement each other. Various ranks jointly support a hierarchical pyramid, and the entire society appears as a hierarchical continuum, and the rank rank has become the identity pillar of the entire society. This is a highly administrative world order. As an important means of political regulation and social regulation, it has shaped an official society.

Level management and officialism are an important perspective for understanding Chinese politics and society over a long period of time, but this issue is highly complex. The research in this article only raises questions initially, and further exploration is needed for its evolutionary laws and institutional mechanisms. For example, why did the dispersion of levels form during the Tang and Song dynasties? What role did the maturity of the official system in the Tang and Song dynasties play in the long history of the ancient Chinese official system? Why can this official system develop and continue to play a role? These questions urgently need to push the understanding of this issue from labeling and symbolization to academic, physicizing and rationalizing.

This article was originally published in "Sea of ​​Learning" 2022 No. 5, 2022, the original title is "Level Diffusion and the Maturation of the Official-Based System: An Investigation on the Level Management of Bureaucratic System in the Tang and Song Dynasties". welcomes personal sharing. Please contact the copyright owner for reprinting in the media.

In short, through the absorption of the above five groups, the bureaucracy of the Tang and Song dynasties formed a hierarchical structure, with the center part being various officials with positions and levels, the middle part being owners of various qualities without officials, and the third level is the owners of court names in the folk, which greatly expands the scale of the hierarchical organization.

(II) One entry into the public office is like a sea of ​​gratitude: absorbing social resources

provides preferential treatment and guarantee for bureaucracy to exercise their duties, which is a prominent feature of bureaucracy. The various treatments enjoyed by the bureaucrats of the Tang and Song dynasties were mainly provided with various social resources to "officials" with taste levels after the level system was determined and spread, so that they could enjoy various treatments. This absorption of social resources includes but is not limited to the following.

first, draw political resources. The children of officials have the priority to serve as officials. During the Tang and Song dynasties, the imperial examination was the main channel for civilians to enter the officialdom, but for the children of officials, there was another channel - Menyin, which refers to the system in which the court granted official positions to their descendants and relatives according to the political identity of the powerful. Officials above the fifth rank and above in the Tang Dynasty were descendants, officials above the third rank and above in the great-grandson, grandchildren were surrendered to their sons first, and great-grandsons were surrendered to their grandsons first. The rank of the first-rank official is the seventh rank, and the second-rank official is the seventh rank. There is a distinction between the third rank, and the rank described by the son is the seventh rank. The rank described by the son is one level lower than the seventh rank. In the Northern Song Dynasty, the way to enter the officialdom was second only to the imperial examination. Most officials' children did not go to the imperial examinations, but obtained official positions, ranks, positions in the hall, examination titles or granted birth through various names. Although the imperial examination has always dominated the electoral system, in terms of the number of people who entered the officialdom, the number of people who entered the officialdom during the Northern Song Dynasty was almost the same as the number of people who took the imperial examinations. At the same time, officials have legal immunity. Tang Law implemented eight discussions. After high-ranking bureaucrats committed crimes, general judicial officials had no right to hear the case and had to submit a memorial to the emperor for advice. The emperor decided whether the punishment was reduced or not based on the criminal's relationship with the royal family and the degree of the official position. Neighbors of eighth-rank, ninth-rank officials and officials above the seventh-rank can enjoy the privilege of atonement for bronze. During the Tang Dynasty, the "official" system for using officials to pay for crimes was also more complete and systematic. Any official with a ninth rank or above was generally sentenced to imprisonment and was allowed to use his official position to pay for his punishment. Officials of the Song Dynasty also enjoyed such privileges.

Second, draw economic resources. In terms of salary, in addition to receiving salary for officials, officials from Tang and Song dynasties can receive treatment from their rank positions. Many rank officials in the Tang and Song dynasties received salary without any trouble. The Song Dynasty had political restrictions on idle officials, but they were given preferential treatment in terms of economics. The treatment was almost the same as the incumbent officials, and they enjoyed salary in various names. There are a large number of officials who have been detained for more than ten or even twenty years, but they still have to wait for their positions to be appointed before they can take office. There are many types of salary, such as materials, clothes and gifts, food and food for attendants, food and food, tea, wine, kitchen, ingredients, firewood, artemisia, charcoal, salt, rice and flour, sheep and horses, post materials, etc., various additions, coupons, ministerial money and various rewards. At the same time, exemption from service is also an important economic benefit. The bureaucrats of the Tang and Song dynasties generally enjoyed the privilege of exemption from service. The "crowned households" that could be exempted from service in the Tang Dynasty refer to the households with formal officials and those who have a Jinshi background but have not yet been released from the brown family. The "Clothing House" gradually evolved into "official House" by the Song Dynasty. Officials and their descendants were allowed to enjoy a certain amount of exemption from service according to their rank. The official's death could be reduced by half. The privilege of exemption from service can bring considerable economic benefits. In terms of retirement benefits, officials who retired during the Tang and Song dynasties enjoyed better economic and political benefits. Officials above the fifth rank of the Tang Dynasty can enjoy half a salary for their lifetime, and the special case can be given full salary. Those who retire at the sixth rank or below will be given a lifetime salary of half a lifetime. Those who retire at the third rank or above can also enjoy the New Year and Days. The train is above the current official of this rank to show respect and can even go to the official again. Those who were over 70 years old in the Song Dynasty who were seeking retirement could retire and usually received half a salary after retirement, but those who retired with the emperor could receive full or half a salary.If you retire with a position, you can receive a double salary for retirement, which means that the retired officials of the Song Dynasty during their tenure were promoted to the same as those of the Chang Dynasty.

Third, enjoy social treatment. The rank and courtesy of officials and nobles enjoyed according to their ranks and ranks, which also ranks the daily life. All areas of daily life, such as weddings, funerals, carriages, crowns, etc., strictly follow the order determined by the hierarchy and form a comprehensive and comprehensive social arrangement. In terms of education, the two highest schools in the Tang Dynasty were Hongwenguan and Chongwenguan. In the early days, they were the children of high-ranking officials and high-ranking ranks, and enjoyed the best educational resources. There are also official schools such as Imperial College, Imperial College, Law School, and Four Schools, which are mainly aimed at the children of bureaucrats. Before the students have entered the school, they are already divided into three or six grades according to the level of their parents. During the Northern Song Dynasty, the rank restrictions of the central government's schools decreased, but the children of officials still had great priority. In daily life, the hierarchical etiquette system covers all kinds of matters from birth to death, including name, flag seal, talisman, pet, rank and fortune, crown and shoe, clothing, belt, ring and wear, carriage and horse, wives and concubines, bed mats, utensils, food, sacrifices, and mourning. The requirements of hierarchy have long exceeded the boundaries of the officialdom and are all in life.

(III) But if you get an official, you don’t envy the immortals: shape the level worship

official rank is used to determine the hierarchical relationship between officials and officials within the bureaucratic system, and to determine the hierarchical relationship between officials and the people outside the system, and even the people and the people, allocate political resources, economic resources and cultural resources, thereby forming a broad and profound hierarchical worship.

allocates resources at levels, and worship of level has an extremely solid foundation of interests. Under the official-centered system, the level has a strong connection with the interests of individuals and their families. The level is the dividing point between officials and citizens. Once you become an official, your family will be included in the legal official family, thereby gaining a higher social status, and you can enjoy the privileges of contributing to future generations as officials, exempting some taxes and service, and redeeming punishments. You may even have the opportunity to enter the officialdom if you are young. Wang Yanan once made a profound analysis on this: "The Chinese traditionally regard being an official as important. We have reason to say that it is because Confucian ethical and political science taught us a set of principles of cultivating uniform and governing peace. We have reason to say that it is because of the implementation of the imperial examination system, which encourages us to "learning to be a cadre" and be keen on official careers; but the more basic reason is that long-term bureaucratic politics gives officials, those who are ready to be an official, and even those who withdraw from the officialdom, various social and economic benefits, or various privileges that are not clearly determined but very real." In fact, those who enjoy these privileges include not only those who are officials, those who are ready to become officials, those who withdraw from the officialdom, but also those who have various qualities of official positions and their families. It is precisely because of such a large-scale interest connection that the official-centered system has a broad social foundation.

takes level as the ruler, and level worship is a strong value symbol and cultural gene. The level has become an important yardstick for values ​​and social life. For bureaucrats, there are endless steps to climb in all dimensions of the rank, position, official, official, title, honor, fief, meritorious officials, courtesy and courtesy he has experienced. For the people, the title of the court's official title greatly influenced their concepts and psychology. The prevalence of official identities made many official titles later become folk titles, such as painters, chess players, bookmakers, rapists, and jugglers in the Song Dynasty. Some were called officials, some were called officials, doctors, doctors, and preachers. In social life, the official position means that the official position becomes the identity standard of the entire society. The concept of taking official positions as the most important and rank as the most respected person has been unanimously recognized by the entire society, and gradually condenses and internalizes into group psychology. One person becomes an official, and benefits the whole family and the whole family.

In short, although there has been a level of absorption of social elites before the Tang and Song dynasties and the society feeds back the resources of level, after the Tang and Song dynasties, with the maturity of the official system, the official system has achieved the advancement from system to culture. Its degree of systematization and establishment has been significantly improved, and its penetration and dominance in social life has been greatly enhanced, and the level has become the value yardstick of society. As a result, the level becomes the subsidiary system for confirming the social pyramid.

▍ Conclusion: Level dispersion and the mature system of official system

Level dispersion is the transformation mechanism of the traditional bureaucracy moving towards a mature official. The bureaucratic level management of the Tang and Song dynasties evolved along the following context. In terms of position level , through the establishment of ad hoc positions, reference positions, extra-staff positions, and arranged positions, one person, multiple positions, one position, and multiple positions have appeared one after another, and the position sequence has been greatly expanded. At the same time, the position level is constantly tilted towards taste through direct transformation, job separation, and job blurring. In terms of grade level , in terms of traditional levels, benchmark levels, expansion levels, etc., the bureaucratic team has achieved great expansion through multiple sequences of levels. With the development of various hierarchical sequences, especially the continuous increase in the qualifying sequences, the ranks and official qualities have melted various positions and qualities into a furnace, not only to accommodate all bureaucrats, but also their implementation targets have been continuously exceeded the scope of the rank officials and gradually penetrated into the society, encompassing a large number of social elites into this hierarchical structure. Subsequently, various social resources were drawn by exchanging tastes for identity treatment. This system became an important dominant force in traditional society, and the whole society developed a worship of rank, thus building a highly complete official-oriented system. Some scholars say that traditional Chinese institutional planners have rich experience in hierarchical management. In addition to job management, they also implement complex identity management through various qualities; numerous sequences and rich qualities have their own uses, and they cooperate with each other to complement each other. Various ranks jointly support a hierarchical pyramid, and the entire society appears as a hierarchical continuum, and the rank rank has become the identity pillar of the entire society. This is a highly administrative world order. As an important means of political regulation and social regulation, it has shaped an official society.

Level management and officialism are an important perspective for understanding Chinese politics and society over a long period of time, but this issue is highly complex. The research in this article only raises questions initially, and further exploration is needed for its evolutionary laws and institutional mechanisms. For example, why did the dispersion of levels form during the Tang and Song dynasties? What role did the maturity of the official system in the Tang and Song dynasties play in the long history of the ancient Chinese official system? Why can this official system develop and continue to play a role? These questions urgently need to push the understanding of this issue from labeling and symbolization to academic, physicizing and rationalizing.

This article was originally published in "Sea of ​​Learning" 2022 No. 5, 2022, the original title is "Level Diffusion and the Maturation of the Official-Based System: An Investigation on the Level Management of Bureaucratic System in the Tang and Song Dynasties". welcomes personal sharing. Please contact the copyright owner for reprinting in the media.