So what was his position in the Tang Dynasty and which department did he belong to? The secretary supervisor in Tang Dynasty was the chief executive of the secretary province, mainly engaged in book collection and book compilation. Its function and social status have also experienced some ups and downs, and the fate of the secretary province has also developed from stability to decline, and then from trough to peak. What exactly happened? Today, we will talk about the functions and experiences of the secretary province and the secretary supervisor in the Tang Dynasty.
1. The staffing, responsibilities and division of functions of the secretary province in the Tang Dynasty 1. What is this organization and what does it do?
The secretary supervisor was originally a royal institution, not an official position. In the second year of Yan Xi in the Eastern Han Dynasty (AD 159), a secretary supervisor was set up to manage and proofread ancient books. However, the secretary supervisor at this time belongs to Taichang Temple and is not an independent institution. It was upgraded to a secretarial province in the Southern and Northern Dynasties and abolished in the 13th year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty (AD 1380), which lasted 6540 years.
Secretary Province is one of the important institutions of the National Library of Tang Dynasty, and is known as the "book house". Literally, it seems to be related to the secretary. In fact, this ancient government agency has nothing to do with modern secretaries. Let's first look at the people in the secretary's province.
The personnel of the Secretariat Province have a specific division of labor and perform their duties. According to "Six Classics of the Tang Dynasty" for ten years: "The secretary saves one person, supervises one person, and follows the three principles; Less supervision of two people, from four products; Cheng one person, from five products. The post of secretary in charge is responsible for the country's classics. There are two bureaus: one is Zhongshu, and the other is Taishi. Both bureaus are subordinate to themselves and perform their respective duties. Less supervision is two different things. It's easy to accept the verdict. Four divisions, from six products; There are eight school booksellers. In the ninth grade; One person is responsible, from doing; There are four ministers, nine ministers, eight canon writers, eighty regular script writers, six pavilion directors, eight calligraphers, ten paper makers, ten decorators and six pen makers. The secretary lang holds four books in his hand, which are stored in the library. The titles are A, B, C, D ... The proofreader lang holds the book records and publishes the orthography, and all of them distinguish their mistakes. Take the history of Siku books as an example. "
What is said here is that the function of the Secretary Province is mainly to take charge of national books, as well as the responsibilities of historians, astronomers, almanacs and timekeepers, such as participating in the revision of history books, recording the daily life of the emperor and observing astronomical phenomena. However, the functions and responsibilities of the secretary province and the secretary supervisor were weakened after the middle and late Tang Dynasty, but the responsibility of taking charge of the national books has been as steady as Mount Tai.
Yu Shinan
Since the Tang dynasty, the internal staffing of the secretary province has been very complete, and the number of people needed has also been clearly defined, from secretary supervision to paper making, decoration and pen making. Who has served as a secretary supervisor as the leader of the secretary province? There are Linghu Defen, Yu Shinan, Yan Shigu, Wang, Wang Shaozong, Zhou Simao, Ma Huai Su, Xu Jian, He, Chen Xilie, Yan Zhenqing, Yan, Li Yi, Liu Taizhen, Li Sui and Liu Zhongying.
It can be seen that the secretary province in the Tang Dynasty was led by the secretary supervisor, and all the functional personnel worked together to ensure the collection, arrangement, development and even utilization of the books of the Tang government, which provided a reference template for the later book management, especially the national book management.
2. The secretary changed her name several times, and her function gradually weakened.
In the Tang Dynasty, the Secretary Province was renamed as "Lantai" or "Lintai". In the second year of high school, I changed my secretary to Mrs. Lan's teacher, Shao Jian's secretary to Mrs. Lan Taizhu, Cheng's secretary to Dr. Lan Taifu, and Lang's secretary to Mr. Lan Taro. In the first year of Wuhou's hanging arch, the secretary saved Lin Tai, the secretary supervised Lin Tai, the secretary supervised Lin Taishao, and the secretary Lang was Lin Tailang. In the first year of Taiji, it was changed back to the secretary province.
The collection of books in the early Tang Dynasty mainly inherited some books from the Sui Dynasty. In November of the 13th year of the Great Cause (6 17), when Tang Jun captured Chang 'an, Li Yuan ordered his master Lang Songgong to collect library books, including 80,000 duplicate books of Jiazetang in addition to the archives and documents of the Sui government. With these books, the secretary province was established in the Tang dynasty, which was the supervisor and the secretary.
The secretary provinces in the Tang Dynasty followed the Sui system, and both of them had secretary provinces in the Tang Dynasty. The former secretary province of the Sui Dynasty is located in Chang 'an, Xijing, the imperial city. In the second year of Emperor Gaozong's reign (657), Luoyang was re-established as the eastern capital, and after the reign of Emperor Qianlong, the secretariat province of the eastern capital was established.
Before the middle of the Tang Dynasty, the secretariat province was also affiliated to two bureaus, namely, the Works Bureau and the Taishi Bureau. At this time, the Secretariat Province was not only an institution to collect and sort out books, but also an institution to repair national history, astronomy, almanac and timing, and it was a very important departmental institution. Because of the importance attached to the revision of history in ancient times, historical revision institutions like the Works Bureau were also highly valued and favored by the emperor. However, in the third year of Zhenguan, the responsibility of the Works Bureau was suspended, leaving only the responsibility of "compiling epitaphs, speeches and tributes". The Taishi Bureau, which is in charge of astronomy, almanac and timekeeping, was renamed Taishi Supervisor in October (742) of the first year of Tianbao, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, and became independent from the secretariat province. In this way, the work of the secretary province leaves a very simple responsibility of taking charge of the national books, and it has become a clear water government, and the secretary supervisor has also become a "pure" academic official.
Secondly, as a national library, the Secretary Province of Tang Dynasty learned about the organization and responsibilities of the Secretary Province of Tang Dynasty. Next, I will talk about the main business of the secretary province in the Tang Dynasty, that is, book collection and management.
Earlier, we said that the Tang Dynasty took over more than 80,000 volumes of books in the Sui Dynasty, and many of these books were repetitive. Because of the war at the end of Sui Dynasty, the classics were lost, and the minister was absent. In the fifth year of Emperor Gaozu's Wude (622), Minister Linghu Defen invited to buy books and increase the number of people to copy books. After several years, the collection of books is relatively complete. There are books, but Hu didn't organize them, so this task was given to him. However, Wei Zhi is a household name. He dared to make faces in front of Emperor Taizong, but his experience as a secretary supervisor should be little known.
Wei Zheng once expressed the meaning of collecting books in this way: "One can learn from his classics, grasp the wonderful purpose of God, and be able to do things in a sage way. Therefore, through the study of heaven and earth, the use of Yin and Yang, discipline and virtue, showing benevolence is enough to benefit things, and hiding is enough to be good. People who learn will breed, and those who don't learn will degenerate. " Therefore, he actively sorted out and corrected the incomplete and wrong books saved by the secretary. "Old Tang Book Wei Zhi" contains: "After three years of Zhenguan, I moved to the prison and participated in the political affairs. After the funeral, laws and regulations were mixed, and scholars wrote four books. In a few years, the books of the secret government were suddenly ready. " This is an affirmation of his work, which shows that Wei Zhi has also made great contributions to the compilation of provincial books in the Secretariat. During the Kaiyuan period, Chu Wuliang, Ma Huai Su and others, who served as the secretary supervisor, divided the national library into four subsets, namely classics and history, which were stored in four stacks respectively, and the collection reached its peak, reaching 54,000 volumes.
Wei Zhi
1. How to collect the books of the secretary province in the Tang Dynasty?
In the Tang Dynasty, the collection of books in the secretary province mainly appeared in the form of scrolls. In the Sui Dynasty, the methods of distinguishing books were further improved, and books were distinguished by the color, material and shape of the axis, belt, label and rank of book binding. Secretary Tang's provincial books implement a strict system of collecting books, originals and copies, which are used for collection, entry and reward respectively. From the point of view of book management, the collection of books in the Secretariat Province is very particular about the form of books because of its official status. Selecting people with excellent calligraphy, writing with paper and ink that distinguish social circulation, and stamping the official books, and adopting special binding methods, on the one hand, distinguish social books, on the other hand, prevent the loss of books, which was also inherited by the Song Dynasty.
According to the classic four-part classification, the collection of Secretarial Province in Tang Dynasty is divided into four parts: Classics, History, Zi and Ji, which are stored in different libraries and marked with the names of A, B, C and D. "For every four books, three books must be made, which are original, copied, stored, supplied and given to others. Don't write to anyone who writes a book. The secretary has no copy. " At present, many ancient books are difficult to be included in the classification system of China Library Classification (China Library Classification revised in 1990s), so the collection and retrieval of many ancient books libraries still follow the traditional four-part classification.
The so-called "original" is for the emperor's imperial view, and the book seam is covered with Xiao Zhuan; "Copy" can be used to give gifts to courtiers and royalty, to borrow from departments and officials, and to give gifts to foreign guests during friendly exchanges with foreign countries. "Book storage" is inventory, which is equivalent to library books in the modern sense.
During the Emperor Gaozong's reign, there were some fallacies and mistakes in the biographies and writings of four groups of books, such as Wu Min, Master Zhao of Lantai, and Li Huaiyan, Assistant Minister of Lantai. Collect Confucian scholars, publish them in Lantai, and then edit them. At the beginning of Wu Zetian's accession to the throne, she made strict regulations on book management. "Don Yao Hui" contains: "October of the first year of civilization (684): the book of two capitals and four warehouses. Every year in the first month. According to old books. Once every three years. Bibi has the official code. And the day when the photographer replaced him. According to the number. If there is any shortage. That is, to levy future generations. "