China officials graded them when they were in Cao Wei. At that time, they started to set up nine categories, and each category was divided into two levels: positive and negative. Divided into upper and lower classes from the middle, it began in the Northern Wei and Northern Qi Dynasties. Sui and Tang dynasties inherited the system of Northern Wei and Northern Qi Dynasties, with four to nine grades, each of which was divided into positive and negative grades, and positive and negative grades were divided into upper and lower grades. In this way, the highest and lowest magistrate of a county in the Northern Wei Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty are third-class and twelfth-class, so there are so many grades that the salary is naturally very different.
During the Han Dynasty, the annual salary of county magistrate of more than 10,000 households was 1000 yuan, the lowest was 600 yuan, and the grade difference was 400 yuan. A county magistrate with less than 10,000 households has an annual salary of up to 500 stones, a minimum of 300 stones, and a grade difference of 200 stones. From the highest level of gyeonggi county magistrate to the lowest level of barren small county magistrate, the annual salary difference is 700 stones. In the Sui Dynasty, the special county was below the fifth grade, the Jing county was below the fifth grade, the upper county was below the sixth grade, the middle county was below the seventh grade, and the lower county was below the eighth grade. There is also a difference of four grades and twelve grades between the upper and lower counties. The annual salary is calculated in silks, the annual salary of five products is 150, and there are 25 horses between the two grades; Seven products and sixty horses, with fifteen horses as the difference between positive and negative; Bapin's annual salary is 36 horses, which is exactly the difference between nine horses. In this way, the five-product county magistrate and the eight-product county magistrate are seven products short of one hundred and twenty-three horses (silks). In the Tang Dynasty, the highest rank of Gyeonggi county magistrate was positive five, and the lowest rank of middle and lower county magistrate was seven, with a difference of three and eleven. After the Song Dynasty, the distinction between superior and subordinate was abolished, but there was a difference of three or four grades between the highest quality and the lowest quality of a magistrate. In addition, according to the actual situation of the county, wages are generally divided into several levels: the most lacking, the most lacking, the medium lacking and the simple lacking. In the absence of relegation, demotion, promotion and most promotion, the salary standard is standardized in the basic products.
Before the Han dynasty, the salary of the magistrate was arbitrary, but the treatment of the magistrate was really stipulated after the Han dynasty. In the Ming Dynasty, from the 13th year of Hongwu (A.D. 1380), it was stipulated that the official of the Zhengqi product should receive 60 pieces of stone and money per month. After the middle of the Ming Dynasty, rice was expensive and money was cheap, and rice was exchanged for money in Qipin County, and the monthly salary was less than two taels of silver.
In fact, since ancient times, the court has implemented a clean government system. In order to keep officials clean, the court also subsidized officials in different names, such as rice money. Rice money began in the Sui Dynasty and has been recorded since the Tang Dynasty. In addition to the monthly salary, officials also give a certain amount of rice and miscellaneous fees, which is called rice money.
In order to encourage officials, the ancient regulations of China on the treatment of the principal officials of county government stipulated, among other things, that a certain amount of miscellaneous money should be given to individuals, which were collectively called county magistrate funds. Among them, the bigger part is the difference between silver and money, that is, the county government collects taxes from farmers every year in copper coins, but it needs silver to pay the state. Under normal circumstances, every 700 copper coins can be exchanged for one or two pieces of silver; However, when the county government collects it, it is usually a penny or two, and the difference between the two is the extra-budgetary funds directly controlled by the county magistrate. County magistrate also enjoys professional field, public field and permanent field. As the name implies, the so-called vocational field is the land allocated by the state as part of the salary according to the official rank; The so-called public land, that is, the land directly owned by the first-level government agencies, is a kind of "official village". This part of the land is not privately owned, and ordinary people are designated by the government to cultivate it voluntarily. The proceeds are used by government officials for official miscellaneous expenses, which is actually a subsidy for government officials' office and life. This system has existed since the Zhou dynasty and has been followed until the late Qing dynasty.
Objectively speaking, according to the way of being an official, the salary of ancient officials was not low, which to a certain extent put forward a requirement for officials-obeying the law, that is, self-discipline, that is, "stressing politics."
Unique architecture in Yexian County
On the sub-line on the west side of the Yexian county government, there are special places for officials to reflect on themselves, that is, the virtual reception hall and the Si Bu Zhai. In today's county government, such a building is unique.
There are three rooms in the south of the virtual reception hall, decorated with sapphire paintings. It looks very elegant and simple There are walls on three sides and the courtyard is independent. There are wintersweet, bauhinia and other flowers and plants in the courtyard, which is very suitable for decorating the artistic conception of reflection.
As can be seen from the name, Xu Shoutang means a magistrate of a county. After receiving awards or supervision from the imperial court, he thinks about whether he has a clear conscience before honor, urges and encourages himself not to be humiliated in vain, and to make persistent efforts to serve the imperial court.
Out of the virtual reception hall to the north, into another yard "want to fast".
Four unlike is located on the same axis behind the virtual reception hall, which is similar to the architectural function of the virtual reception hall. There are three rooms in the south, and the east and west courtyard walls and the back wall of the virtual reception hall form a closed courtyard. According to the architectural layout, it is not like a magistrate reflecting on his work mistakes and finding out the gaps and shortcomings in his work.
How can people not be at fault? Officials are not all saints. Although they are sitting in the high lobby with a psychological distance of tens of millions of miles from the people kneeling at their feet, they still live in this world. Inception, money and material are like flowing rivers, which flow before his eyes every day, and there is no guarantee that they will jump one day. Four unlike officials who make mistakes. But in the final analysis, this is also a decoration. Even if a gentleman sits in the lobby, he will still reflect on himself. He is a villain, even in prison, and he doesn't want to repent. In fact, it is not like a self-reflection place set up by a well-trained official for his unintentional mistakes.
Is the establishment of an ideological compensation hall for fasting and virtual reception a unique regulation of the Ming Dynasty or a whim of a magistrate? Looking for books about the Ming Dynasty has no basis until now, and even in the relevant historical materials of Yexian County, there are few records.
In ancient times, the investigation of misjudged cases and misjudged cases was very strict. If a case is misjudged and causes serious consequences, or the trial is delayed for more than three times, it will be punished by dismissal. It seems that the county magistrate who set up such buildings as virtual reception hall and thinking compensation hall must be an idealist with some romantic and kind nature.
"The building with this function is unique among the existing similar buildings in China. It is an important material basis for China ancient officials to carry out self-supervision. At least it shows that in ancient times, the state not only formulated laws and regulations to objectively restrain the words and deeds of officials, but also advocated the subjective introspection and consciousness of officials. " Wang, deputy director of the Propaganda Department of Yexian County Committee, said.
According to Ye County Records, in the eighth year of Tongzhi, Ouyang Lin, the magistrate of a county, built it. From the lobby to the west, there are three virtual reception halls and seven western group rooms. There is a tunnel behind the hall, three four-unlike rooms in the north and a compound room in the middle. It was repaired by He Nai, a magistrate of a county. At the same time, according to the "County Records" records that "the soldiers were exhausted in the Ming Dynasty, so they were scattered but incomplete" and the records of the magistrate of a county later, the virtual reception hall and Sibuzhai were built in the Ming Dynasty.
There is also a big fairy temple in Yexian County, which is only available in Yexian County.
Daxian Temple is located behind the sub-line on the west side of the county government. The ancestral hall sits east to west, with three rooms wide, three rooms in the north and three rooms in the south, each with its own courtyard. It is the place where the magistrate worships the fox fairy, who is the big fairy who keeps the seal, in order to prevent the seal from being stolen. A fox spirit is a fox spirit. According to folklore, foxes can be refined and become people. The fox is cunning, it is a thief's gift to God. The county magistrate worships the fox spirit to prevent thieves. Since thieves are afraid of fox spirits, it is inevitable that thieves will not steal easily.
Behind the county government building is the back garden. After handling official business, the public servants in the magistrate's county and yamen usually rest in the back garden with pleasant scenery and Jing Ya environment. The back garden of Yexian government covers an area of more than 3,000 square meters. Water and pavilion, flowers and grass, bamboo and trees set each other off. The lake in the park is densely covered, and two white marble arch bridges fly lightly over the lake, which looks like Changhong lying in the distance. The antique hexagonal pavilion with red columns and colorful roofs stands in the middle of the water. From time to time, ornamental fish in the lake jump out of the water to play, or wander together in the clear water, leisurely and carefree. On the island in the middle of the lake, a rockery rises abruptly, and a stream of Koizumi flows slowly in the crevices. The artificial lake is surrounded by bamboo and plum blossoms. It is really a garden path, fragrant orchids and the scenery in southern Jiangsu. The back garden has become a unique landscape in the solemn county government building. The way the ancients paid attention to relaxation can be seen.
Officials who evade institutional constraints
In the final analysis, attending virtual lectures and thinking about fasting are designed for officials who are relatively clean and have some self-cultivation. This kind of introspection and thinking needs the consciousness of officials to a certain extent. In fact, in order to prevent officials from violating discipline, there were also institutional constraints on officials in ancient times.
The system of official avoidance is one of the important contents, and it is also a very important personnel management system in the ancient official appointment system.
The embryonic form of challenge system originated from a restrictive way of holding office in grass-roots elections in the Eastern Han Dynasty. In order to prevent local forces from colluding for personal gain, it is stipulated that the marriage room and the people of the two States shall not alternately serve as officials, that is, the "three mutual laws." The evolution of later generations has gradually formed a relatively complete system of official avoidance. The challenge system generally includes: local challenge, teacher-student challenge, job challenge, relative challenge and criminal trial challenge.
Local avoidance, inflow officials are not allowed to be officials in their hometowns and relatives, and some even stipulate the avoidance distance. According to the regulations of the Sui Dynasty, all county-level officials' deputies must also avoid local conditions, that is, Xian Cheng and County Commandant; And its subordinates, because officials are not inflow officials, do not have to avoid it. In the Tang dynasty, it was forbidden to be an official in the local and neighboring counties. In the sixth year of Song Zhenghe (A.D.116), it was stipulated: "The choice of magistrate of a county is far away, but it does not exceed 30 stops." In ancient times, thirty miles was a post station, and thirty miles was 900 miles. The scope of avoidance is government, country, army and prison. In the Ming dynasty, regional avoidance was changed from state capital to province. In the Qing Dynasty, in addition to stipulating that "this province cannot be an official of this province, even if it is within 500 miles of the origin of other provinces, it must be avoided." Qianlong nine years (AD 1744) even stipulated that 500 Li was calculated as a "shortcut path", and those who should avoid and hide should be punished, which is stricter than previous dynasties. According to the records in Ye County Records and the Official History of Kangxi in Qing Dynasty, geographical avoidance is mainly aimed at the official and assistant ministers, but the requirements for geographical avoidance in teaching and admonition are not strict. Take Ye County as an example, most of the incumbents are from neighboring counties, such as Yang Sangang instructed by Ye County in Ming Dynasty and Ma instructed by Qing Dynasty, all of whom are from Ruzhou.
The avoidance of teachers and students has been stipulated since the Tang Dynasty. For example, in the imperial examination, candidates who have an old relationship with the examiner should also take a "different head test" like the relatives of the examiner. The avoidance of teachers and students in Qing dynasty was more severe than that in Ming dynasty, and it was stipulated that the relationship between teachers and students formed in imperial examinations should be avoided in the future.
Job avoidance is a supplement to the above two systems, and the provisions of each dynasty are different. In the eleventh year of Kaiyuan in Tang Dynasty (AD 723), it was clearly stipulated: "If you want to be the son of an official, you are young and inexperienced, and you must not be a county official and be close to the people." It was stipulated in the Song Dynasty that neither local governors nor central officials were allowed to hold a certain post for a long time. The Qing Dynasty stipulated that there were more than three kinds of officials in Beijing, and the governor and the governor's children were not allowed to serve as censors, in case they used their powers to accuse and impeach each other, or to disclose secrets and manipulate supervision.
Avoidance of relatives means that relatives cannot work in the same province (region) or county. During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the scope of relatives expanded from the initial in-laws to ordinary relatives, and from local officials to central officials. After the Ming Dynasty became the ancestor, it was clearly stipulated for the first time in history that imperial clan could not be an official, could not participate in the imperial examination, and could only be supported by titles.
The challenge of criminal trial requires that all officials and litigants who have served relatives (that is, the clan relationship has not lasted for five generations) and in-laws, teachers and students, or have feud relations should avoid it.
It also stipulates the term of office of the county magistrate. In ancient times, the term of office of county magistrate was limited and could not stay anywhere for a long time. From the Qin and Han Dynasties to the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the term of office of county officials was generally three years, and only the Ming Dynasty stipulated that the term of office was longer, which was nine years. Although there is a time limit for the appointment of county officials, in fact, due to various reasons such as Ding You's resignation, temporary promotion or demotion, the specified appointment time is often not reached, and the appointment is generally transferred outside the province. Liu, the magistrate of Ye County in Jin Dynasty, "Learn from getting off the bus, promote good and suppress evil." The traitor is a villain. He turned over a new leaf after seeing the wind ... Soon he was called ... and gave Hanlin handwriting. "Because officials in different dynasties have different levels of incorruptibility in history, the scale of implementation of this system is also very different.
According to the Records of Ye County and the Official History of Tongzhi in Qing Dynasty, Bai Zhimo, a native of Fengtian ningyuan county, was the magistrate of Ye County in the 43rd year of Kangxi (A.D. 1704) and left office in the 54th year of Kangxi (A.D. 17 15), which lasted1. In the 9th year of Yongzheng in the Qing Dynasty (A.D. 173 1), Yang Chungong, a native of Yinxian, Zhejiang, Yang Wei, a native of Tongzhou, south of the Yangtze River, and Shi Li, a native of Yibin, Sichuan, successively served as county magistrates in Yexian. The average term of office of the three county magistrates is four months. Of course, there are also officials who do many good deeds and benefit the people. People write more books and ask for leave, and superiors allow exceptions for re-election.