The "non-mainstream" expropriation system: selecting talents for the Han Dynasty regime also caused various drawbacks
How to select talents for the country has always been an important topic for the ancient Chinese feudal dynasty to govern the country. From the conquest of inspection to the nine-pin Zhongzheng system, and then to the formation of the imperial examination in the Sui and Tang dynasties, the ancient Chinese talent selection system underwent a long process of continuous improvement. As the beginning of the selection of talents in the feudal dynasty, the two Han Dynasties have been in existence for more than four hundred years, which is not unrelated to the system of electing officials. As the saying goes, "For the most important of the government, only in the people." The conscription system and the inspection system were the two main systems of electing officials in the Han Dynasty, and were the products of the centralization of authoritarianism in the Han Dynasty. As far as the relationship between the two is concerned, the expropriation system is a supplement to the inspection system, and the inspection system is the main body of the official style of the Han Dynasty. Both are indispensable, and today we will mainly talk about an important supplement to the inspection system - the expropriation system.
Conscription was one of the main ways of selecting officials in the Han Dynasty, which was the product of adapting to the needs of the development of the institutional environment at that time, especially the transcendence and innovation of the way of selecting officials, and had a relatively unique connotation and character, strict standards and qualifications, and an indispensable examination mechanism.
First, how the expropriation system was established step by step in the Han Dynasty
The main way of electing officials in the early Han Dynasty
The selection of officials in the early Han Dynasty was mainly through four ways of selecting positions for military merit, appointment of sons, selection of credits, and accumulation of officials, and the selection of military merits refers to the appointment of different ranks according to the size of the military merits made by non-commissioned officers, and the appointment of officials because of military merits, which refers to the official selection and appointment system in which the children of bureaucrats can be awarded officials by virtue of the merits of mendi and their fathers and brothers, which is the remnant of the pre-Qin Shiqing Shilu system and the precursor of the Yin appointment system. In the Han Dynasty, any official who had served for more than 2,000 stones could be guaranteed to hold up one son to the capital as a Lang official for more than 2,000 stones, and if he had completed three years, he could appoint a son of the same birth as a lang. These bureaucrats generally first served as the emperor's court guards, and then they could be supplemented as officials at all levels, Fei Xuan, also known as Na Fei, that is, to enter the wealth and get officials, in the Western Han Dynasty, there were a certain number of assets and not merchants, they could rely on their assets as langs, when they were called "Zan Lang ordered the people to enter the border, six hundred stone lords were built, slightly increased to four thousand stones for five doctors, twelve thousand stones for the degree of length, each with how many levels are the difference" such as Zhang Shizhi's "take the fee as a riding lang", the fee is five million as a regular waiter, and the accumulation of long-term officials, that is, by the promotion of seniority, the accumulation of years.
Various types of official selection methods met the needs of the early Han Dynasty to stabilize the world and rule the world.
However, with the passage of time, fewer and fewer people were elected because of military merit, and the way renzi fei was elected and accumulated for a long time was difficult to meet the needs of the Han Dynasty to strengthen the centralization of power, let alone respond to the impact of the rise of the middle and lower classes, especially the scholar class, on the privileges of the powerful.
In 134 BC, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty issued an edict to raise a virtuous countermeasure, and Dong Zhongshu said:
"The chief officials are mostly from Langzhong and Zhonglang, and the two thousand stone disciples of the officials choose Lang more, and they are rich, and they may not be virtuous." ...... It is to do his best to know and to govern his business. Now it is not a matter of accumulating so much that the officials are incorruptible and chaotic, the wise are not confused, they have not obtained their truth, and the ministers are foolish to think that the princes, the sheriffs, and the two thousand stones will each choose the sages of their officials, and the two thousand stones will give each to the guards, and to see the power of the ministers... Do not take the sun and the moon as merit, test the meritocracy as the supreme, give officials according to their ability, record virtue and position, then be honest and shameful, and the virtuous are not different. ”
Dong Zhongshu held that there are many drawbacks in the system of electing officials who have been appointed on credit, and who have accumulated for a long time, and that this is an important reason for the "honesty and shame and trade chaos, and the meritocracy is not humble." So he put forward the good policy of "raising up the talents of the years and "appointing officials by their own ability, and began to implement the system of selecting officials with the system of inspection and selection as the main body."
Establishment of the expropriation system
In 196 BC, Han Gaozu issued an edict that "the Magi and the Doctor have the willingness to travel from me, and I can honor it." Recruiting the world and recruiting talents to govern the world through the country was the beginning of the recruitment system in the Han Dynasty. In 178 BC, Emperor Wen of Han issued an edict requesting that "the virtuous and virtuous party can speak out to the extreme, so that Kuang Shuo will not be caught." In 165 B.C., he also decreed that "the princes, the secretaries of state, and the county sheriffs are able to speak out and speak to the extreme, and the superiors are close to the strategy, and Fu Na is to speak", and the system of observing and electing officials was implemented. Emperor Wu of Han listened to Dong Zhongshu's countermeasures and suggestions and decreed that the county and the state should raise filial piety and honesty, and the inspection system became the main way to elect officials in the Han Dynasty. In 130 BC, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty listened to Dong Zhongshu's words: "The conscripts of the people have the business of the time, and the practitioners of the sacred arts." Large-scale conscription began, then customized, and in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the inspection and conscription became the main way of selecting officials in the Han Dynasty, known as the "right way" for the selection of officials in the Han Dynasty, while Renzi (Yin Ren), Election and Shangshu Worship of Officials, etc. were called "miscellaneous roads". For the virtuous and highly respected people, the emperor often sent special personnel and special cars to greet them with generous gifts. For example, "Emperor Wu first ascended the throne... The messenger was bundled with a bundle of cloth and a chariot wrapped in a wheel, and the donkey was driven to welcome The Duke of Shen, and the two disciples were passed on by the wheel." The doctor bus conscription, not to the end, the Heng Emperor is to prepare xuan gifts, in order to install the car to hire. However, under normal circumstances, the conscripts still need to prepare their own cars and horses to serve in the DPRK.
Second, the way the expropriation system was implemented in the Han Dynasty
The conscription system is a top-down system of electing officials, that is, the emperor or high-ranking officials directly hire talented civilians or low-level officials to give or promote them. Those hired and appointed by the emperor are called "requisitions", and those hired and appointed by high-ranking officials are called "kai". It can be seen from this that requisition is a combination of "conscription" and "expulsion", including "conscription" and "expulsion" in two ways.
Conscription, also known as recruitment, special edicts or characteristics, refers to the election system in which the emperor selects celebrities to serve as senior officials in the name of the edict. Those who are recruited are called "recruits" and have the freedom to apply for and not apply. In the Han Dynasty, the targets of conscription were social celebrities, including masters and confucians, famous hermits, etc., who had considerable influence on local affairs although they were not officials. For example, Han Kang's family name is written, and Emperor Heng took the gift of Xuan and prepared a car to hire him. The other category is mainly retired officials or low-level officials with certain talents and prestige, and once the conscripts are accepted, they are often entrusted with high posts, but most of them are mainly virtual positions such as policy consultants such as councillors, doctors, and counselors.
Removal, also known as the summons, the opening of the bureau or the removal of the move, is the Han Dynasty central deployment or local prefectures and counties to select the selection of subordinate officials system, the conscription of subordinate officials is called the lord, including the three dukes and nine secretaries, the governor of the prefecture and county, etc. The expropriation system includes two types: the central government's deployment and the removal of local prefectures, and the central deployment and removal is also known as the "removal of the public government". In the Han Dynasty, there was a narrow sense and a broad distinction, and the narrow sense of the public government was the "Three Gongfu Also", including the Xiang (Situ) Fu, the Tai (Sima ) Fu, and the Yushi Dafu (Sikong) Mansion, referred to as the Three Provinces. The three dukes of the Han Dynasty were able to raise officials, and the central government's power to set up offices was originally only in the hands of the "three dukes", but later gradually expanded, and the taifu and the general could also carry out the power of the office, and the broad public office should be the collective name of the three gongfu plus the Taifu mansion and the general's mansion. Therefore, in the historical books, there are often records of "five governments and offices". During the Eastern Han Dynasty, jiuqing and other central officials other than the three dukes could also remove subordinate officials. The central government's deployment and elimination includes the two ways of "removal of the gongfu" and "elimination of the nine secretaries", because the status of the gongfu is more important, and those who are expelled are recommended by the master, and once they are examined, they can be supplemented by the central officials or foreign main prefectures and counties.
Third, the main characteristics of the Han Dynasty conquest system
The conscription system does not have certain rules in terms of methods, appointments, and procedures, but it has the following distinctive characteristics:
First, from the perspective of the types of talents selected, erudites and serving or former officials are both targets of recruitment. As mentioned above, Han Kang, Zhang Heng, etc., of course, this also determined that conscription could not develop into the main election method at that time.
Second, the selection of conscripts is usually the result of a combination of direct conscription by the emperor and the recommendation of subordinates, generally combined with the recommendation of local officials, and the quota is approved by the prefecture and county.
Third, the conscripts are all professionals in a certain field and are prestigious. For example, Zhang Hengsi is calculating in the astronomical calendar.
Fourth, as a supplement to the probation system, the scale of expropriation is generally small. Conscription is generally only the selection of a small number of people for a certain matter, and the scope of the matter is small. In the history of the Two Han Dynasties, only in the fifth year of Emperor Yuanguang of the Han Dynasty and during the reign of Wang Mang, there were relatively large-scale conscription activities. By the Eastern Han Dynasty, especially at the end of the Han Dynasty, with the rise of local tyrants, the wind of elimination was increasingly popular and larger. In the first five years of the Hanping Emperor's conquest of the world, he informed the Yijing, the Ancient Records, the Astronomy, the Almanac, the Zhong Law, the Primary School, the History Chapter, the FangShu, the Materia Medica, and the Five Classics, the Analects, the Filial Piety Classics, and the Erya Teachings, and sent thousands of people to the Capital Division.
Fifth, judging from the relationship between the central government's expulsion and the local expulsion, the central expulsion master can not only appoint prefecture and county subordinate officials as assistants, but also appoint the local officials as filial piety.
Sixth, from the perspective of the promotion of the objects of requisition, whether it is the removal of the public government or the removal of the prefecture and county, the promotion through inspection is the ultimate way. Therefore, people also usually refer to the "inspection system" and the "levy system" as the inspection and expropriating system.
IV. Conclusion
As a relatively mature top-down system of electing officials between the two Han Dynasties, the conscription system conformed to the needs of the Han Dynasty's authoritarian centralization of power in selecting the best and the most capable, and governing the world through the country, and played an important historical role. It not only created a new way for China's ancient system of selecting officials, but compared with the pre-Qin System of Shiqing Shilu and the selection of posts in the early Han Dynasty, the appointment of sons and the accumulation of officials; secondly, as a supplement to the system of inspection and examination, the conscription system selected a large number of talents for the two Han Dynasties, and the probationary system of the public government and prefectures and counties also ensured the quality of the selection of officials; finally, with morality and talent as the main selection criteria, innovation and practice in the avoidance of appointment and the evaluation of officials also had important significance for the social trend at that time and the official system in later generations.
The main drawback of the expropriation system lies in the lack of objective selection criteria, especially in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, which gradually became a tool for local clans to compete for power and profit and develop individual forces, and its talent selection function was constantly alienated, and often the income was not human. "Show talent, don't know the book." Filial piety, fathers do not dwell. Han Su is as white as mud, and Gaudilian will be like a chicken. ”
In its essence, the expropriation system was only a privilege phenomenon that could not be eliminated under the feudal autocratic system, and by the end of the Han Dynasty, it was no longer in line with the law of talent selection and social development.