Official rank is an important part of the ancient Chinese official system and an important part of the ancient Chinese political system. Especially since the Sui and Tang Dynasties, it has played the role of official rank in state organizations, regulated the rank and salary of official positions, and is one of the important systems to maintain the operation of the state machine. However, when did such an important system originate? How did it come about? Since the literature does not clearly record and the lack of research by previous generations is an unsolved academic problem. Many scholars have focused on the Zhongzheng Nine-rank system and studied its functions from the perspective of talent selection; in the book "The Origin of Officials" (Commercial Press, October 2016), Professor Chen Changqi of , South China Normal University put forward many new views in his book "The Origin of Officials" (Commercial Press, October 2016). Regarding issues related to the ancient Chinese official system, a reporter from The Paper conducted an exclusive interview with Professor Chen Changqi. This article is the first article of the interview.
Professor Chen Changqi
The Paper: How were officials selected during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period? What developments have occurred during the Qin and Han dynasties?
Chen Changqi: The Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period were the most violent period in ancient Chinese history. With the changes in the political system and national structure of ancient China, the official selection and appointment system is also undergoing profound changes.
Before the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the dominant form of the official appointment system was the world official system, namely the so-called "king officials and officials in the world" and "official titles and officials in the world". Under the feudal system, not only are the princes and monarchs the managers of their own country and vassals for generations, but many positions of officials who exercise state management were also passed down from generation to generation within some families. As Sima Qian said, "As an official, the eldest descendant, and the official, the surname is given." Those families that passed down a certain official position for generations took officials as their clans. After the confluence of the surnames of , the surnames of of the Han Dynasty merged, they took the surnames of their clans and changed the official name to the surnames of their own family. For example, the ancestors of the surnames Situ and Sima, who are familiar with may have served as Situ and Sima. For those with the surname Cang and Ku, their ancestors may have served as officials who have managed warehouses and warehouses.
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, with the change of society and the intensification of competition among various vassal states, people realized the importance of talents, and the calls for selecting talents and appointing talents were rising. The recommendation system and military merits were becoming increasingly popular, breaking through the barriers of the world's official system. A group of scholars who did not have aristocratic status entered the state organization and assumed the responsibility of state management, which promoted the birth of a new, rather than hereditary, bureaucratic system characterized by appointment and removal. Under the recommendation system, fathers and brothers can recommend children, officials can recommend subordinates, and even "recommend themselves". After Shang Yang's reform, he was legalized. The so-called "If one is beheaded, he will be a rank of one rank, and the one who wants to be an official is a 50-stone official; if two ranks are beheaded, he will be a 100-stone official. The transfer of official titles is commensurate with the merit of beheading." ("Han Feizi•Dingfa") Although this military merit system has disadvantages, it undoubtedly greatly stimulated the middle and lower classes of society, providing a powerful impetus for breaking through the monopoly of the upper class of society over official positions and providing a powerful impetus for social change.
The development and changes of the official selection system during the Qin and Han dynasties were the most prominent of the establishment of the inspection system, and the implementation of the vocational system. The system of sects is a privileged system for senior officials to support their children, and is a relic of the official system of the pre-Qin period. It stipulates that "an official is considered to have a job of more than 2,000 stones for three years, and he can be appointed as a man of the same child." (Notes on "Han Shu Ai Emperor's Chronicles" quoting "Han Yi Notes") That is, officials with more than 2,000 stones for three years can be appointed as a man of their children. In the Han Dynasty, Ren Zi was born as a Lang, and then from Lang to state organizations and local governments, which was an important way for many powerful and noble children to enter the officialdom. The Yinren system is also a system that has a profound impact on future generations.
recommendation system belongs to a system of officials selection founded in the Han Dynasty. During the Han Dynasty, it went through three stages of development. The period of Emperor Gaozu's Wenjing was the introverted period, the period of establishment was the end of the Western Han Dynasty, and the period of development was the introverted period. Liu Bang Shortly after he ascended the throne, he issued an edict asking for the recommendation of talents. By the time of Wenjing, the subjects recommended by filial piety, honest officials, virtuous and honest officials had already taken shape, but they were unstable and had not been institutionalized.
Official rank is an important part of the ancient Chinese official system and an important part of the ancient Chinese political system. Especially since the Sui and Tang Dynasties, it has played the role of official rank in state organizations, regulated the rank and salary of official positions, and is one of the important systems to maintain the operation of the state machine. However, when did such an important system originate? How did it come about? Since the literature does not clearly record and the lack of research by previous generations is an unsolved academic problem. Many scholars have focused on the Zhongzheng Nine-rank system and studied its functions from the perspective of talent selection; in the book "The Origin of Officials" (Commercial Press, October 2016), Professor Chen Changqi of , South China Normal University put forward many new views in his book "The Origin of Officials" (Commercial Press, October 2016). Regarding issues related to the ancient Chinese official system, a reporter from The Paper conducted an exclusive interview with Professor Chen Changqi. This article is the first article of the interview.
Professor Chen Changqi
The Paper: How were officials selected during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period? What developments have occurred during the Qin and Han dynasties?
Chen Changqi: The Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period were the most violent period in ancient Chinese history. With the changes in the political system and national structure of ancient China, the official selection and appointment system is also undergoing profound changes.
Before the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the dominant form of the official appointment system was the world official system, namely the so-called "king officials and officials in the world" and "official titles and officials in the world". Under the feudal system, not only are the princes and monarchs the managers of their own country and vassals for generations, but many positions of officials who exercise state management were also passed down from generation to generation within some families. As Sima Qian said, "As an official, the eldest descendant, and the official, the surname is given." Those families that passed down a certain official position for generations took officials as their clans. After the confluence of the surnames of , the surnames of of the Han Dynasty merged, they took the surnames of their clans and changed the official name to the surnames of their own family. For example, the ancestors of the surnames Situ and Sima, who are familiar with may have served as Situ and Sima. For those with the surname Cang and Ku, their ancestors may have served as officials who have managed warehouses and warehouses.
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, with the change of society and the intensification of competition among various vassal states, people realized the importance of talents, and the calls for selecting talents and appointing talents were rising. The recommendation system and military merits were becoming increasingly popular, breaking through the barriers of the world's official system. A group of scholars who did not have aristocratic status entered the state organization and assumed the responsibility of state management, which promoted the birth of a new, rather than hereditary, bureaucratic system characterized by appointment and removal. Under the recommendation system, fathers and brothers can recommend children, officials can recommend subordinates, and even "recommend themselves". After Shang Yang's reform, he was legalized. The so-called "If one is beheaded, he will be a rank of one rank, and the one who wants to be an official is a 50-stone official; if two ranks are beheaded, he will be a 100-stone official. The transfer of official titles is commensurate with the merit of beheading." ("Han Feizi•Dingfa") Although this military merit system has disadvantages, it undoubtedly greatly stimulated the middle and lower classes of society, providing a powerful impetus for breaking through the monopoly of the upper class of society over official positions and providing a powerful impetus for social change.
The development and changes of the official selection system during the Qin and Han dynasties were the most prominent of the establishment of the inspection system, and the implementation of the vocational system. The system of sects is a privileged system for senior officials to support their children, and is a relic of the official system of the pre-Qin period. It stipulates that "an official is considered to have a job of more than 2,000 stones for three years, and he can be appointed as a man of the same child." (Notes on "Han Shu Ai Emperor's Chronicles" quoting "Han Yi Notes") That is, officials with more than 2,000 stones for three years can be appointed as a man of their children. In the Han Dynasty, Ren Zi was born as a Lang, and then from Lang to state organizations and local governments, which was an important way for many powerful and noble children to enter the officialdom. The Yinren system is also a system that has a profound impact on future generations.
recommendation system belongs to a system of officials selection founded in the Han Dynasty. During the Han Dynasty, it went through three stages of development. The period of Emperor Gaozu's Wenjing was the introverted period, the period of establishment was the end of the Western Han Dynasty, and the period of development was the introverted period. Liu Bang Shortly after he ascended the throne, he issued an edict asking for the recommendation of talents. By the time of Wenjing, the subjects recommended by filial piety, honest officials, virtuous and honest officials had already taken shape, but they were unstable and had not been institutionalized.After Emperor Wu ascended the throne, he accepted the suggestion of Dong Zhongshu, institutionalized the recommendation of the recommendation, and gradually made clear provisions on the time, the allocation of quotas, the subjects and standards, and the identity and responsibility of the recommendation.
The Eastern Han Dynasty was a period of development of the system of recommendation and recommendation, with three main reforms and three changes. First, the Han Dynasty accepted Ding Hong's suggestion and implemented reforms on the quota allocation method for recommendation and recommendation. The method of enrolling two people in each county, regardless of the size and population of the county, was changed to the quota of two people per county, and the reference population ratio was based on the ratio of enrollment of one person per 200,000, and those who were less than 200,000 were admitted one person at the age of two, and those who were less than 100,000 were admitted one person at the age of three, and those who were less than 100,000 were admitted one person at the age of three ("Book of the Later Han Dynasty: Biography of Ding Hong"). Second, during the reign of Emperor Shun of Han, he accepted the suggestion of Zuoxiong and established an examination system for recommendations. This was a far-reaching reform. It stipulates that the filial and honest persons who are recommended to be Confucian scholars and civil servants. The examination method is "students test family rules and civil servants' lecture notes", that is, conduct cultural knowledge or administrative ability examinations on filial and honest persons, and "the deputy head of the door" to announce the examination results, "to observe extraordinary abilities and to use beautiful customs." (Book of the Later Han Dynasty • Biography of Zuo Xiong) Third, during the reign of Emperor Huan of Han, he accepted the suggestions of Huang Qiong and established four subjects for filial piety and integrity. "Qiong used Confucianism and civil servants to choose filial piety and integrity, and still had some consciences in the meaning of selecting scholars. He reported that those who can increase filial piety and brotherhood and those who can participate in politics were four subjects, and the matter was implemented." ("Book of the Later Han Dynasty: Biography of Huang Qiong") The reforms of Zuo Xiong and Huang Qiong made the inspection system more perfect, especially the establishment of the inspection system for filial piety and integrity, which set a precedent for the imperial examination system and had a far-reaching impact.
The Paper: You think the official selection system in the Wei and Jin Dynasties should be the "nine-rank official law", and the ", Nine-rank Zhongzheng system " we are familiar with is just the talent evaluation mechanism. Why is the "Nine-Rank Zhongzheng System" well known to people, but the "Nine-Rank Official Law" not?
Chen Changqi: The official establishment of the ninth rank official law was in the last year of the Eastern Han Dynasty, that is, from February to October of the first year of Yankang (220 AD) of Emperor Xian of Han. "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms: Biography of Chen Qun" says: After Cao Cao's death, Cao Pi ascended the throne as King of Wei. "When he ascended the throne, he was granted the title of Marquis of Wuting in Qunchang and moved to Shangshu. The method of establishing the ninth-rank official is built by Qun." This is a historical material that clearly talks about the establishment of the ninth-rank official law as seen in the literature. Cao Pi was the King of Wei in February of the first year of Yankang, and the deposed Han Dynasty and became emperor in October of the first year of Yankang. Therefore, it can be judged that the exact time when the Ninth-rank official law was founded was between February and October of the first year of Yankang. Since then, the Tang Dynasty scholar Du You's "Tongdian" and the Song Dynasty scholar Sima Guang's "Tongjian" both used the concept of the method of the ninth-rank official. In the existing documents of , the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, and even in the documents of the Tang Dynasty, we cannot find the concept of , the nine-grade Zhongzheng system. Around the Northern Song Dynasty, the concept of the "Nine-Rank Zhongzheng" system has been clearly revealed. The first person to propose this concept is currently found to be a famous writer of the Northern Song Dynasty, Su Shi . In a short article outlining the selection system of scholars in history, he mentioned: "Above three dynasties came from learning, from the Warring States Period to the Qin Dynasty, from the county officials after the Han Dynasty, and from the ninth rank Zhongzheng since the Wei and Jin Dynasties." (Su Shi: "The Disaster of the Debt of the Journey", "Dongpo Zhilin" Volume 5) I have not verified the specific writing time of this article, but Su Shi was born in December of the third year of Jingyou in the Northern Song Dynasty (1036), about the beginning of 1037 AD. It can be seen that the emergence of the concept of the ninth rank Zhongzheng system was more than 800 years after the emergence of the ninth rank official law.
As for why the nine-grade Zhongzheng system later had an important influence and became a well-known concept? I understand three main reasons, namely, celebrity effect, literary charm, and scholars do not investigate. First of all, there is the celebrity effect. Su Shi became famous for his literature, and his literature was widely circulated under his name. The author searched the "Siku Quanshu". From the Song Dynasty to the early Qing Dynasty, in addition to the "Dongpo Collection of Literatures", there were nine books including "Quanshu Search", "Baibian", "Economics", "Song Wenjian", "Wenbian", "Emperors and Song Dynasty", "Editors and Collections of Articles", "Ancient Literature Yuanjian", and "Tang and Song Dynasty Wenchun" and other nine-rank Zhongzheng were transcribed by Su Shi's words "Three generations out of learning, more than three generations from the Warring States Period to the Qin Dynasty, and from the county officials after the Han Dynasty, and from the nine-rank Zhongzheng since the Wei and Jin Dynasties."Most of these books are essential books for students after the Song Dynasty. It is true that the name is made by literature, and the literature is made by reputation.
The second is the charm of literature. We know that history is a knowledge that compared with literature, a few people are engaged in, and more people read poetry and novels than those who read historical papers. After the Song Dynasty, the concept of "Nine-rank Zhongzheng" was able to replace the "Nine-rank official law" and widely spread. Just as the characters of the Three Kingdoms created by "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" exceeded the influence of "The Three Kingdoms" on people, it showed the great charm of literature. Famous words are easily famous quotes. An inadvertent sentence became an academic topic with far-reaching influence, which Su Shi probably did not expect.
Third, scholars do not investigate. Since the Northern Song Dynasty, many scholars have begun to use the concept of the Nine-rank Zhongzheng system to replace the concept of the Nine-rank official law. Apart from being influenced by Su Shi, many people did not pay attention to the differences between these two concepts and did not study the connotation of the law of the ninth-rank official. Later researchers also paid more attention to the role of Zhongzheng, studied how Zhongzheng manipulated the election, and criticized how the election manipulated by Zhongzheng lost the significance of talent selection. This is certainly an important part of studying the Nine-rank Official Law, but it ignores the Nine-rank Official Law as the overall system of selecting and appointing officials, as well as other important aspects and parts. This is what I mentioned in the article "Another Discussion on the Law of the Nine-Rank Officials in Wei and Jin Dynasties": "The old research mainly has two major shortcomings: First, the talent rank requirements stipulated by the Nine-Rank Officials Law for official positions - official ranks, which are mistakenly regarded as official ranks that distinguish the high and low levels of official positions; second, the scholars' own rank, the rank of the scholars, the rank of the Nine-Rank Officials, and the connection between the rank of the Nine-Rank Officials and the law of the Nine-Rank Officials is completely evaluated by Zhongzheng. Therefore, the connection between the official rank and the Nine-Rank Officials and Law was cut off, and the rural rank, the rank of the township is mistakenly regarded as the whole of the Nine-Rank Officials and Law." Many scholars have focused on the Zhongzheng Nine-Rank System, and studied its functions from the perspective of talent selection, thus ignoring the overall understanding and grasp of the Nine-Rank Officials and Law.
The Paper: Why was the "Nine-rank Official Law" proposed by Chen Qun at the end of the Han Dynasty and the beginning of the Wei Dynasty? What does it have to do with Cao Cao’s view of talents?
Chen Changqi: I want to understand the background of the emergence of the ninth-rank official law from two aspects: one is the social background and the other is the cultural background. The social background is mainly analyzed from the end of the Han Dynasty. Since the Han Dynasty, the official selection system has been adopted by the recommendation system. No matter how the recommendation system actually evolved later, it believes that the main criteria for selecting talents are both morality and talent, and morality is the first. Even if a person has talent that is outstanding in the world, if he does not have the reputation of a local court, he will not be qualified to act filial and honest in principle. This system can gain regular scholars, but it is difficult to gain talents. In a peaceful era, constant scholars can ensure peace, stabilize politics, and maintain peace in the world. In troubled times, we must rely on talents. Only talents can conquer the country and conquer the world.
In the practice of talent selection, Cao Cao opposed the talent concept of the Han Dynasty and believed that morality and talent could be separated. He advocated "governing peace and pursuing virtue, and rewarding functions for things when there is something to do" (Volume 1 of the Three Kingdoms "Book of Wei·Wu Emperor Wu" cited "Book of Wei"), and advocated promoting virtue during peace and rewarding people with meritorious and talented during war. In the late Han Dynasty, during the warlords' melee, Cao Cao was particularly eager to gain talents. When virtue and talent were not available, he strongly advocated "only talent is to promote" and issued a series of edicts. The introduction of the Nine-rank official law is a legalization of the talent identification and thinking that has been permeated with Cao Cao's idea of "only talent is to promote". The goal of this system is to select suitable candidates for positions at all levels, so that officials can choose and people can be called their positions.
In addition, a social atmosphere of evaluating people was prevalent in the villages in the late Han Dynasty. Under the leadership of some local sages, these towns discussed criticizing people and discussing the government affairs, forming a strong momentum. Cao Cao obviously felt the pressure of public opinion and believed that these chaotic public opinion had affected the implementation of his talent selection ideas. He criticized the local theory of the local people as A-Gang compared to Zhou and distorted the black and white: "A-Gang compared to Zhou, which was a sage from the previous sages. He heard about the customs of Jizhou, and the father and son were different from each other, and they were even more criticized.In the past, he did not doubt that he had no brother. People in the world called him a thief. The fifth man Yu married an orphan. He was called a woman. Wang Feng abused power. Gu Yong was Shen Bo . Wang Shangzhong discussed it, and Zhang Kuang called him the left path. These are all those who regard white as black and deceive the heaven and the king. I want to neat customs, but I don’t get rid of the four things, and I think I’m ashamed. ” (Volume 1 of the Three Kingdoms, "Book of Wei·Martial Emperor Wu")
In Cao Cao's view, those rural theories that are mixed, confused, and are inverted by the truth and falsehood are unfair. If he wants to neat customs and rebuild fairness, he needs to set up another agency to master fairness and guide rural theories. This agency should be the Zhongzheng founded by Chen Qun later.
The Paper: Why is the "Nine-rank Official Law" set to the third-rank ninth rank? Does this "rank" refer to the official rank? Under the system of "Nine-rank Official Law", what links do an official have to go through?
Chen Changqi: divides people's dependence on talents and good and evil into nine types The practice of level originated from a long-standing idea. This idea initially divided people into three levels: in the traditional Chinese understanding world, the distinction between heaven and earth was probably the original view of the universe, the sky is the upper and earth is the lower, and people living between heaven and earth are naturally regarded as middle. In this way, upper, middle and lower become three levels of people's understanding of the world. This concept of cognition of upper, middle and lower is extended to different fields of nature and human society, and thus formed a model of cognition for people to judge values of different things. By the late Spring and Autumn Period, the evaluation of people formed three levels of view of upper, middle and lower. Confucius When talking about the classification of human beings, he said: "Only the wisdom of the upper and the foolishness of the lower are unchanged. "And said: "Above the middle-aged man can speak the above. If you are below the middle-aged person, you cannot speak the above. "Confucius divided people into "the wise man", "the middle man" and "the foolish man", that is, the upper, middle and lower levels.
The theory of dividing humans and things in nature into three levels is too macro, and it is unrestrained in discussing some specific things. As people's understanding deepens and refines, in order to make more detailed and accurate value judgments, people further subdivided each level in the original cognitive model into three levels, upper, middle and lower levels, that is, three levels evolved in each level, forming a judgment model of third-class and ninth grade.
In terms of evaluation of people, the understanding of the ninth-class distinction may have emerged a little later, but it was late to . Volume 7 of the Western Han Dynasty, "Spring and Autumn Fanlu" "Testing for Fine and Fame" in Dong Zhongshu's "Spring and Autumn Fanlu" proposed:
" The method of examining the title and salary, and the rank of the exam, accumulate the day, and describe the actual, calculate the merit and crime, use the more to eliminate the less, and determine the reality by name. First, the inner brother is compared with two or three points, and the upper and middle and lower part are considered to be the upper and lower part, and then the outer part is the general name is the advance and retreat, and then the outer part is the general name is the advance and retreat, and the increase and decrease, and there are the younger ones, nine threes, and there are also the upper and middle and lower part, one is the best, five is the middle, and nine is the hall. "
The concept of this examination system proposed by Dong Zhongshu is that the grades of the examination courses are first divided into three grades, upper, middle and lower, and then "9 points are listed in three three, and there are also upper, middle and lower", that is, the three levels of upper, middle and lower are distinguished in each level, that is, the three levels of upper, upper, upper, middle and upper are distinguished in the upper, middle and lower are distinguished in the middle, middle and lower, and the three levels of lower, upper, lower, middle and lower are distinguished in the lower, upper, lower, middle and lower, and finally form the nine-level distinction and evaluation form from top to bottom.
Ban Gu of the Eastern Han Dynasty was deeply influenced by this nine-level distinction and thinking and methods of evaluating talents. He compiled them in "Han Shu" A copy of " Ancient and Modern People's Commentary ", which says that he plans to arrange all the celebrities from ancient times to the Western Han Dynasty in the format of third-class Nine-grade . The third-class 9-grade people's thoughts and forms are a hot topic in the discussions of intellectuals in the Han Dynasty's criticism of people. Chen Qun, as an intellectual who grew up under this cultural background, was obviously deeply influenced by this idea. Sun Chu, a native of the Wei and Jin Dynasties, believed that the sample draft of Chen Qun's Nine-grade official law design was directly derived from Ban Gu's Ancient and Modern People's Commentary. Sun Chu was born in Wei, and his grandfather was Chen Qun's colleague, a powerful minister during the reign of Emperor Wen, and the Secretary of the Secretariat. He said: "The Han family originally had no ninth rank.Ban Gu wrote the "Book of Han", and first went to the wisdom of the generations, thinking that it was nine points. This is probably the order of recording ghosts, and Chen Qun followed it to give birth to a person. "
The "rank" under the Nine-rank official law is not the official rank, not the official rank, but the character of a person. Its goal is to find qualified candidates for positions of officials at all levels. Therefore, the design of this system is divided into two parts. First, based on the importance of the position, determine the character level required for each position; second, determine the character level of the candidates for official positions. In actual operation, it is specifically manifested as two important links: Nine-rank appraisal person and Nine-rank appraisal person.
Let's look at the first link, Nine-rank appraisal person. In the past research, scholars paid the most attention to the step of appraisal of others, and most of them focused on the role and status of Zhongzheng's appraisal person in the ninth grade, so they mistakenly believed that the talent identification procedure operated by Zhongzheng-Nine-rank appraisal-Nine-rank appraisal-Nine-rank appraisal procedure-Nine- The rank of the rank of the official law of the ninth rank of the official law, and the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank As the competent agency for the process of appraising other people's talents, the qualities that Zhongzheng evaluates must be reviewed and confirmed by the Situ Mansion. The Situ Mansion can reject the qualities that are only valid if recognized by the Situ Mansion. Therefore, the Situ Mansion is the state organ that determines the rank of talents.
Second link, the rank of ninth rank of people. The ultimate goal of the rank of ninth rank of people is to serve the rank of ninth rank of people. The rank of ninth rank of official people is designed for the rank of ninth rank of people. The most important and pioneering point of the rank of officials is to distinguish the rank of officials and mark the rank of each official. Determine what kind of person each official needs to take on. This rank marked by the rank of officials is accustomed to calling it an official, that is, the rank required for the rank of officials, but since the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the nature of the official rank has changed from a person to an official rank, and people are used to Looking at the official ranks of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties from later and have evolved into official ranks, we have become accustomed to excluding the research of official ranks from the law of the ninth rank official ranks, and solidifying the research of the ninth rank official rank into the study of the Zhongzheng system. In this way, we have gradually moved away from the correct understanding of the nature of the official ranks of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties.
For the convenience of research, we call the ranks marked for official positions and required to serve officials as official ranks; the ranks owned by scholars and obtained by different channels are actually the same.
Specifically, if a certain official position is marked with the second rank of official ranks, it means that such official positions require the second rank of official ranks, and if the third rank is marked with the third rank, it means that such official positions require the third rank of official ranks. At the same time, if someone obtains the second grade of qualification, it means he is qualified to be a second grade official. If he obtains the third grade of qualification, it means he is qualified to be a third grade official.
However, there are differences between qualifications and official qualities, and the qualifications and actual positions are not the same. Generally speaking, after obtaining the materials, people cannot obtain official qualities that are consistent with the materials at the same time. It is hard to predict whether the goods can be converted into official ranks of the same rank and when they will reach the same level as the official rank. Because a person's career development and official promotion are restricted by various social factors. However, after grasping the unity of the goods and official qualities, we can master some basic laws of the relationship between the goods and official qualities in the complex changes.
The grade of official rank is the minimum requirement for the incumbent, and the grade of qualification is the highest limit for the promotion of official rank by the owner of the qualification. If an official position is marked as the fifth rank of official position, then we know that the minimum qualification of the person in charge of this official position is the fifth rank.Although those with a fifth grade or above may not be able to serve as a fifth grade official, those with a fifth grade or above are qualified to hold this position, while those with a fifth grade or below will not be able to hold this position even if they strive for life. At the same time, if we know the certain products of a certain person, we can predict the maximum limit of his career development in his life.
So, does the job of the owner of the product also have the lowest limit? That is, is there a certain pattern between the qualifications and the official qualities in the beginning, and there is a rough correspondence?
We examined that there is indeed a certain regularity between specific products and official qualities in the beginning, and there is a rough correspondence. This correspondence initially was the difference between the two and the three grades. Over time, the gap between some of the materials and the official ranks in the beginning expanded from the third grade to the fourth grade. Some swayed between the third to fourth grades, while others always maintained the distance between the third grade.
During the Cao Wei period, when the ninth rank official was founded, the official rank of a certain established product was three grades different from its product. That is, if the quality of the qualifier is the first grade, the official qualifier is the fourth grade; if the quality of the qualifier is the second grade, the official qualifier is the fifth grade. This correspondence can be listed as follows:
In the ninth grade official law, the nine grades of the materials and the official grade are evolved from the traditional three levels: upper, middle and lower. In the talent theory of the Han Dynasty, the first, second and third ranks belong to the best talents; the fourth, fifth and sixth ranks belong to the middle talents; the seventh, eighth and ninth ranks belong to the lowest talents. Under the influence of the Han Dynasty's talent level distinction and the official probation system, the Nine-rank Official Law obviously adopted rules that were roughly equivalent to probation. This rule is that even a top-ranked talent cannot be an official that a top-ranked talent can be immediately. It needs to start from an official that a middle-ranked talent with a lower level; the medium-ranked talent must first start from the corresponding lower-ranked official. Because every three grades are divided into three grades, the starting official qualities of each established qualities form a three-grade pattern different from their qualities. According to the form of third-class distinction, the difference between the two is one level. After the Western Jin Dynasty, the correspondence between the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of This correspondence can be listed as:
The Paper: How effective is the "Nine-rank Official Law" implemented? What is the relationship between the "arist politics" or "arist politics" in the Wei and Jin Dynasties and the "nine-rank official law"? Why did the phenomenon of "the top-grade no poor family, and the lower-grade no powerful family" appear in the late Wei and Jin Dynasties?
Chen Changqi: After the establishment of the ninth rank official law, the first thing to do is to evaluate the current officials' information based on determining the official rank, that is, determining the requirements for various official positions. Volume 23 of "Biography of Wei" "Biography of Changlin" quotes "Biography of Wei Lue·Qing Jie·Jimao": "The country started to create nine ranks, and each county was selected to select Zhongzheng, and the sub-districts were divided into two parts, as for the officials, and the merits were carried out." This shows that after the establishment of the Nine-rank official law, on the basis of determining the required materials for various officials, the materials of current officials in the court were first reviewed to confirm whether their materials matched the official positions they held. This review is actually a confirmation of the officials selected under the guidance of Cao Cao's talented people. All the current officials should have passed the review of the Ninth-rank Official Law, and no one found that the review was not passed and was dismissed. But in the subsequent implementation, it gradually became a tool of aristocratic politics and was aristocratic.
The so-called aristocratic clan is the family of literati and officials who have been officials for generations. A family of literati and officials who have been officials in the court for generations, belongs to the aristocratic clan. In addition, as Ban Gu said, "Donal and Marquis pass on the country, it is called a family." The one who inherited the title of Duke and Marquis from generation to generation is a natural aristocratic clan. Regarding the relationship between the Nine-rank official law and aristocratic politics, we can get a glimpse of the first and second from the specific operating procedures of the Nine-rank official law.As we have mentioned earlier, scholars designed by the Nine-rank Official Law have diverse ways to obtain gifts, but there are three main ones: one is the evaluation of Zhongzheng; the second is the award of official titles and the inherited titles; the third is the examination of the examination of the Imperial College and the Imperial College. Except for the third type, the acquisition of the first two products is related to family background.
Let’s look at Zhongzheng’s reviews first. First of all, Zhongzheng is a member of officials of a certain status and status. Many of them are from aristocratic families, and their interests are self-evident. Secondly, when evaluating, we should not only examine the talent and virtue of the person being rated, but also consider the family background of the person being rated. In this way, family background becomes an important condition for the quality of the person being rated.
Second, let’s look at the award of official titles and the inherited titles. Giving an official is the act of the emperor granting the children of ministers to be officials, because under the Ninth-rank official law, each official position stipulates the qualifications for the appointment of an official. Therefore, when the children of ministers who obtained the official obtained the official position, they also obtained the qualifications for the appointment of the official, and obtained the qualifications for the official. Giving titles is the act of the emperor granting titles to his subjects, and inheriting titles is the inheritance of titles. Whether you obtain the title of the emperor or inherit the title of the ancestors, the title owner can obtain the corresponding title at the same time, and can use his or her qualifications to become an official in accordance with the rules of the Ninth-rank Official Law. Scholars have not paid enough attention to this and have mostly understood the rank marked by the title as official rank. In fact, it has nothing to do with the rank. Officials and titles were separated during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. Those with officials may not necessarily have titles, and those with titles may not necessarily be officials. The rank marked by the titles are actually the ranks of titles. This is the most important way for the ninth-rank official to become aristocratic. It can be said that this is an important inheritance and development of the pre-Qin official system and the Qin and Han dynasties system, and it is also an important source of the Yin Ren system in the Sui and Tang Dynasties to the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
Because of this, the ninth-rank official law has undergone aristocratic transformation during its implementation, becoming a tool for aristocratic politics, forming a "high-rank no poor family, low-rank no powerful family", and the situation of "there are public servants and the nobles have their families" is not surprising.
"The Origin of Officials" by Chen Changqi, Commercial Press, October 2016
Most of these books are essential books for students after the Song Dynasty. It is true that the name is made by literature, and the literature is made by reputation.The second is the charm of literature. We know that history is a knowledge that compared with literature, a few people are engaged in, and more people read poetry and novels than those who read historical papers. After the Song Dynasty, the concept of "Nine-rank Zhongzheng" was able to replace the "Nine-rank official law" and widely spread. Just as the characters of the Three Kingdoms created by "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" exceeded the influence of "The Three Kingdoms" on people, it showed the great charm of literature. Famous words are easily famous quotes. An inadvertent sentence became an academic topic with far-reaching influence, which Su Shi probably did not expect.
Third, scholars do not investigate. Since the Northern Song Dynasty, many scholars have begun to use the concept of the Nine-rank Zhongzheng system to replace the concept of the Nine-rank official law. Apart from being influenced by Su Shi, many people did not pay attention to the differences between these two concepts and did not study the connotation of the law of the ninth-rank official. Later researchers also paid more attention to the role of Zhongzheng, studied how Zhongzheng manipulated the election, and criticized how the election manipulated by Zhongzheng lost the significance of talent selection. This is certainly an important part of studying the Nine-rank Official Law, but it ignores the Nine-rank Official Law as the overall system of selecting and appointing officials, as well as other important aspects and parts. This is what I mentioned in the article "Another Discussion on the Law of the Nine-Rank Officials in Wei and Jin Dynasties": "The old research mainly has two major shortcomings: First, the talent rank requirements stipulated by the Nine-Rank Officials Law for official positions - official ranks, which are mistakenly regarded as official ranks that distinguish the high and low levels of official positions; second, the scholars' own rank, the rank of the scholars, the rank of the Nine-Rank Officials, and the connection between the rank of the Nine-Rank Officials and the law of the Nine-Rank Officials is completely evaluated by Zhongzheng. Therefore, the connection between the official rank and the Nine-Rank Officials and Law was cut off, and the rural rank, the rank of the township is mistakenly regarded as the whole of the Nine-Rank Officials and Law." Many scholars have focused on the Zhongzheng Nine-Rank System, and studied its functions from the perspective of talent selection, thus ignoring the overall understanding and grasp of the Nine-Rank Officials and Law.
The Paper: Why was the "Nine-rank Official Law" proposed by Chen Qun at the end of the Han Dynasty and the beginning of the Wei Dynasty? What does it have to do with Cao Cao’s view of talents?
Chen Changqi: I want to understand the background of the emergence of the ninth-rank official law from two aspects: one is the social background and the other is the cultural background. The social background is mainly analyzed from the end of the Han Dynasty. Since the Han Dynasty, the official selection system has been adopted by the recommendation system. No matter how the recommendation system actually evolved later, it believes that the main criteria for selecting talents are both morality and talent, and morality is the first. Even if a person has talent that is outstanding in the world, if he does not have the reputation of a local court, he will not be qualified to act filial and honest in principle. This system can gain regular scholars, but it is difficult to gain talents. In a peaceful era, constant scholars can ensure peace, stabilize politics, and maintain peace in the world. In troubled times, we must rely on talents. Only talents can conquer the country and conquer the world.
In the practice of talent selection, Cao Cao opposed the talent concept of the Han Dynasty and believed that morality and talent could be separated. He advocated "governing peace and pursuing virtue, and rewarding functions for things when there is something to do" (Volume 1 of the Three Kingdoms "Book of Wei·Wu Emperor Wu" cited "Book of Wei"), and advocated promoting virtue during peace and rewarding people with meritorious and talented during war. In the late Han Dynasty, during the warlords' melee, Cao Cao was particularly eager to gain talents. When virtue and talent were not available, he strongly advocated "only talent is to promote" and issued a series of edicts. The introduction of the Nine-rank official law is a legalization of the talent identification and thinking that has been permeated with Cao Cao's idea of "only talent is to promote". The goal of this system is to select suitable candidates for positions at all levels, so that officials can choose and people can be called their positions.
In addition, a social atmosphere of evaluating people was prevalent in the villages in the late Han Dynasty. Under the leadership of some local sages, these towns discussed criticizing people and discussing the government affairs, forming a strong momentum. Cao Cao obviously felt the pressure of public opinion and believed that these chaotic public opinion had affected the implementation of his talent selection ideas. He criticized the local theory of the local people as A-Gang compared to Zhou and distorted the black and white: "A-Gang compared to Zhou, which was a sage from the previous sages. He heard about the customs of Jizhou, and the father and son were different from each other, and they were even more criticized.In the past, he did not doubt that he had no brother. People in the world called him a thief. The fifth man Yu married an orphan. He was called a woman. Wang Feng abused power. Gu Yong was Shen Bo . Wang Shangzhong discussed it, and Zhang Kuang called him the left path. These are all those who regard white as black and deceive the heaven and the king. I want to neat customs, but I don’t get rid of the four things, and I think I’m ashamed. ” (Volume 1 of the Three Kingdoms, "Book of Wei·Martial Emperor Wu")
In Cao Cao's view, those rural theories that are mixed, confused, and are inverted by the truth and falsehood are unfair. If he wants to neat customs and rebuild fairness, he needs to set up another agency to master fairness and guide rural theories. This agency should be the Zhongzheng founded by Chen Qun later.
The Paper: Why is the "Nine-rank Official Law" set to the third-rank ninth rank? Does this "rank" refer to the official rank? Under the system of "Nine-rank Official Law", what links do an official have to go through?
Chen Changqi: divides people's dependence on talents and good and evil into nine types The practice of level originated from a long-standing idea. This idea initially divided people into three levels: in the traditional Chinese understanding world, the distinction between heaven and earth was probably the original view of the universe, the sky is the upper and earth is the lower, and people living between heaven and earth are naturally regarded as middle. In this way, upper, middle and lower become three levels of people's understanding of the world. This concept of cognition of upper, middle and lower is extended to different fields of nature and human society, and thus formed a model of cognition for people to judge values of different things. By the late Spring and Autumn Period, the evaluation of people formed three levels of view of upper, middle and lower. Confucius When talking about the classification of human beings, he said: "Only the wisdom of the upper and the foolishness of the lower are unchanged. "And said: "Above the middle-aged man can speak the above. If you are below the middle-aged person, you cannot speak the above. "Confucius divided people into "the wise man", "the middle man" and "the foolish man", that is, the upper, middle and lower levels.
The theory of dividing humans and things in nature into three levels is too macro, and it is unrestrained in discussing some specific things. As people's understanding deepens and refines, in order to make more detailed and accurate value judgments, people further subdivided each level in the original cognitive model into three levels, upper, middle and lower levels, that is, three levels evolved in each level, forming a judgment model of third-class and ninth grade.
In terms of evaluation of people, the understanding of the ninth-class distinction may have emerged a little later, but it was late to . Volume 7 of the Western Han Dynasty, "Spring and Autumn Fanlu" "Testing for Fine and Fame" in Dong Zhongshu's "Spring and Autumn Fanlu" proposed:
" The method of examining the title and salary, and the rank of the exam, accumulate the day, and describe the actual, calculate the merit and crime, use the more to eliminate the less, and determine the reality by name. First, the inner brother is compared with two or three points, and the upper and middle and lower part are considered to be the upper and lower part, and then the outer part is the general name is the advance and retreat, and then the outer part is the general name is the advance and retreat, and the increase and decrease, and there are the younger ones, nine threes, and there are also the upper and middle and lower part, one is the best, five is the middle, and nine is the hall. "
The concept of this examination system proposed by Dong Zhongshu is that the grades of the examination courses are first divided into three grades, upper, middle and lower, and then "9 points are listed in three three, and there are also upper, middle and lower", that is, the three levels of upper, middle and lower are distinguished in each level, that is, the three levels of upper, upper, upper, middle and upper are distinguished in the upper, middle and lower are distinguished in the middle, middle and lower, and the three levels of lower, upper, lower, middle and lower are distinguished in the lower, upper, lower, middle and lower, and finally form the nine-level distinction and evaluation form from top to bottom.
Ban Gu of the Eastern Han Dynasty was deeply influenced by this nine-level distinction and thinking and methods of evaluating talents. He compiled them in "Han Shu" A copy of " Ancient and Modern People's Commentary ", which says that he plans to arrange all the celebrities from ancient times to the Western Han Dynasty in the format of third-class Nine-grade . The third-class 9-grade people's thoughts and forms are a hot topic in the discussions of intellectuals in the Han Dynasty's criticism of people. Chen Qun, as an intellectual who grew up under this cultural background, was obviously deeply influenced by this idea. Sun Chu, a native of the Wei and Jin Dynasties, believed that the sample draft of Chen Qun's Nine-grade official law design was directly derived from Ban Gu's Ancient and Modern People's Commentary. Sun Chu was born in Wei, and his grandfather was Chen Qun's colleague, a powerful minister during the reign of Emperor Wen, and the Secretary of the Secretariat. He said: "The Han family originally had no ninth rank.Ban Gu wrote the "Book of Han", and first went to the wisdom of the generations, thinking that it was nine points. This is probably the order of recording ghosts, and Chen Qun followed it to give birth to a person. "
The "rank" under the Nine-rank official law is not the official rank, not the official rank, but the character of a person. Its goal is to find qualified candidates for positions of officials at all levels. Therefore, the design of this system is divided into two parts. First, based on the importance of the position, determine the character level required for each position; second, determine the character level of the candidates for official positions. In actual operation, it is specifically manifested as two important links: Nine-rank appraisal person and Nine-rank appraisal person.
Let's look at the first link, Nine-rank appraisal person. In the past research, scholars paid the most attention to the step of appraisal of others, and most of them focused on the role and status of Zhongzheng's appraisal person in the ninth grade, so they mistakenly believed that the talent identification procedure operated by Zhongzheng-Nine-rank appraisal-Nine-rank appraisal-Nine-rank appraisal procedure-Nine- The rank of the rank of the official law of the ninth rank of the official law, and the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank As the competent agency for the process of appraising other people's talents, the qualities that Zhongzheng evaluates must be reviewed and confirmed by the Situ Mansion. The Situ Mansion can reject the qualities that are only valid if recognized by the Situ Mansion. Therefore, the Situ Mansion is the state organ that determines the rank of talents.
Second link, the rank of ninth rank of people. The ultimate goal of the rank of ninth rank of people is to serve the rank of ninth rank of people. The rank of ninth rank of official people is designed for the rank of ninth rank of people. The most important and pioneering point of the rank of officials is to distinguish the rank of officials and mark the rank of each official. Determine what kind of person each official needs to take on. This rank marked by the rank of officials is accustomed to calling it an official, that is, the rank required for the rank of officials, but since the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the nature of the official rank has changed from a person to an official rank, and people are used to Looking at the official ranks of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties from later and have evolved into official ranks, we have become accustomed to excluding the research of official ranks from the law of the ninth rank official ranks, and solidifying the research of the ninth rank official rank into the study of the Zhongzheng system. In this way, we have gradually moved away from the correct understanding of the nature of the official ranks of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties.
For the convenience of research, we call the ranks marked for official positions and required to serve officials as official ranks; the ranks owned by scholars and obtained by different channels are actually the same.
Specifically, if a certain official position is marked with the second rank of official ranks, it means that such official positions require the second rank of official ranks, and if the third rank is marked with the third rank, it means that such official positions require the third rank of official ranks. At the same time, if someone obtains the second grade of qualification, it means he is qualified to be a second grade official. If he obtains the third grade of qualification, it means he is qualified to be a third grade official.
However, there are differences between qualifications and official qualities, and the qualifications and actual positions are not the same. Generally speaking, after obtaining the materials, people cannot obtain official qualities that are consistent with the materials at the same time. It is hard to predict whether the goods can be converted into official ranks of the same rank and when they will reach the same level as the official rank. Because a person's career development and official promotion are restricted by various social factors. However, after grasping the unity of the goods and official qualities, we can master some basic laws of the relationship between the goods and official qualities in the complex changes.
The grade of official rank is the minimum requirement for the incumbent, and the grade of qualification is the highest limit for the promotion of official rank by the owner of the qualification. If an official position is marked as the fifth rank of official position, then we know that the minimum qualification of the person in charge of this official position is the fifth rank.Although those with a fifth grade or above may not be able to serve as a fifth grade official, those with a fifth grade or above are qualified to hold this position, while those with a fifth grade or below will not be able to hold this position even if they strive for life. At the same time, if we know the certain products of a certain person, we can predict the maximum limit of his career development in his life.
So, does the job of the owner of the product also have the lowest limit? That is, is there a certain pattern between the qualifications and the official qualities in the beginning, and there is a rough correspondence?
We examined that there is indeed a certain regularity between specific products and official qualities in the beginning, and there is a rough correspondence. This correspondence initially was the difference between the two and the three grades. Over time, the gap between some of the materials and the official ranks in the beginning expanded from the third grade to the fourth grade. Some swayed between the third to fourth grades, while others always maintained the distance between the third grade.
During the Cao Wei period, when the ninth rank official was founded, the official rank of a certain established product was three grades different from its product. That is, if the quality of the qualifier is the first grade, the official qualifier is the fourth grade; if the quality of the qualifier is the second grade, the official qualifier is the fifth grade. This correspondence can be listed as follows:
In the ninth grade official law, the nine grades of the materials and the official grade are evolved from the traditional three levels: upper, middle and lower. In the talent theory of the Han Dynasty, the first, second and third ranks belong to the best talents; the fourth, fifth and sixth ranks belong to the middle talents; the seventh, eighth and ninth ranks belong to the lowest talents. Under the influence of the Han Dynasty's talent level distinction and the official probation system, the Nine-rank Official Law obviously adopted rules that were roughly equivalent to probation. This rule is that even a top-ranked talent cannot be an official that a top-ranked talent can be immediately. It needs to start from an official that a middle-ranked talent with a lower level; the medium-ranked talent must first start from the corresponding lower-ranked official. Because every three grades are divided into three grades, the starting official qualities of each established qualities form a three-grade pattern different from their qualities. According to the form of third-class distinction, the difference between the two is one level. After the Western Jin Dynasty, the correspondence between the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of the ranks of This correspondence can be listed as:
The Paper: How effective is the "Nine-rank Official Law" implemented? What is the relationship between the "arist politics" or "arist politics" in the Wei and Jin Dynasties and the "nine-rank official law"? Why did the phenomenon of "the top-grade no poor family, and the lower-grade no powerful family" appear in the late Wei and Jin Dynasties?
Chen Changqi: After the establishment of the ninth rank official law, the first thing to do is to evaluate the current officials' information based on determining the official rank, that is, determining the requirements for various official positions. Volume 23 of "Biography of Wei" "Biography of Changlin" quotes "Biography of Wei Lue·Qing Jie·Jimao": "The country started to create nine ranks, and each county was selected to select Zhongzheng, and the sub-districts were divided into two parts, as for the officials, and the merits were carried out." This shows that after the establishment of the Nine-rank official law, on the basis of determining the required materials for various officials, the materials of current officials in the court were first reviewed to confirm whether their materials matched the official positions they held. This review is actually a confirmation of the officials selected under the guidance of Cao Cao's talented people. All the current officials should have passed the review of the Ninth-rank Official Law, and no one found that the review was not passed and was dismissed. But in the subsequent implementation, it gradually became a tool of aristocratic politics and was aristocratic.
The so-called aristocratic clan is the family of literati and officials who have been officials for generations. A family of literati and officials who have been officials in the court for generations, belongs to the aristocratic clan. In addition, as Ban Gu said, "Donal and Marquis pass on the country, it is called a family." The one who inherited the title of Duke and Marquis from generation to generation is a natural aristocratic clan. Regarding the relationship between the Nine-rank official law and aristocratic politics, we can get a glimpse of the first and second from the specific operating procedures of the Nine-rank official law.As we have mentioned earlier, scholars designed by the Nine-rank Official Law have diverse ways to obtain gifts, but there are three main ones: one is the evaluation of Zhongzheng; the second is the award of official titles and the inherited titles; the third is the examination of the examination of the Imperial College and the Imperial College. Except for the third type, the acquisition of the first two products is related to family background.
Let’s look at Zhongzheng’s reviews first. First of all, Zhongzheng is a member of officials of a certain status and status. Many of them are from aristocratic families, and their interests are self-evident. Secondly, when evaluating, we should not only examine the talent and virtue of the person being rated, but also consider the family background of the person being rated. In this way, family background becomes an important condition for the quality of the person being rated.
Second, let’s look at the award of official titles and the inherited titles. Giving an official is the act of the emperor granting the children of ministers to be officials, because under the Ninth-rank official law, each official position stipulates the qualifications for the appointment of an official. Therefore, when the children of ministers who obtained the official obtained the official position, they also obtained the qualifications for the appointment of the official, and obtained the qualifications for the official. Giving titles is the act of the emperor granting titles to his subjects, and inheriting titles is the inheritance of titles. Whether you obtain the title of the emperor or inherit the title of the ancestors, the title owner can obtain the corresponding title at the same time, and can use his or her qualifications to become an official in accordance with the rules of the Ninth-rank Official Law. Scholars have not paid enough attention to this and have mostly understood the rank marked by the title as official rank. In fact, it has nothing to do with the rank. Officials and titles were separated during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. Those with officials may not necessarily have titles, and those with titles may not necessarily be officials. The rank marked by the titles are actually the ranks of titles. This is the most important way for the ninth-rank official to become aristocratic. It can be said that this is an important inheritance and development of the pre-Qin official system and the Qin and Han dynasties system, and it is also an important source of the Yin Ren system in the Sui and Tang Dynasties to the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
Because of this, the ninth-rank official law has undergone aristocratic transformation during its implementation, becoming a tool for aristocratic politics, forming a "high-rank no poor family, low-rank no powerful family", and the situation of "there are public servants and the nobles have their families" is not surprising.
"The Origin of Officials" by Chen Changqi, Commercial Press, October 2016
