What kind of official is a waiter? This question does not need to be thought about, many people know that Shilang is the official of the six ministries, and his status is second only to that of Shangshu. So what is the difference between the left waiter and the right waiter? It is estimated that many people are not so clear about this problem. This section will carefully talk about the difference between the left and right attendants in the Qing Dynasty.
The origin of the waiter
The official position of Shilang has a long history, and during the Western Han Dynasty, it belonged to a kind of Langguan and was a close attendant of the inner court. After the Eastern Han Dynasty, Shilang became a subordinate official of Shangshu, but there were some regulations on the name. Officials who serve as waiters for the first time are called "Zhongling", and after one year of service, they are called "Shangshulang", and only after serving for three years can they be called "Waiters".
Before the Sui and Tang dynasties, Shangshu was not a high-powered position, and then with the continuous rise of Shangshutai's status, the rank and power of Shangshu and Shilang also increased day by day. After the Ming Dynasty, especially after Zhu Yuanzhang abolished the beggar system, the six departments became the central institutions directly managed by the emperor, Shangshu and Shilang also became members of the imperial court, and the Ming Dynasty fashion book was Zheng Erpin and Shilang was Zheng Sanpin.
The Qing Dynasty basically followed the Ming Dynasty in terms of official system, but under the basic national policy of "first promoting Manchuria", the "Manchu-Han dual-track system" was implemented, and the six Shangshu and Shilang were all Manchu and Han, that is, Shangshu Manchu and Han were each set up, and the left and right Shilang were Manchu and Han, so that there were six officials in one department.
In the early years of Hongwu, Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang reformed the System of Shangzuo, according to the Ming Shi Taizu Benji record: "Bing Wu, order the hundred officials to be left in etiquette. Changed Li Shanchang to Left Xiangguo and Xu Da to Right Xiangguo. Since then, an official system of "left respect and right inferiority" has been formed.
The setting of the Qing Dynasty waiter
The six parts of the Qing Dynasty set the time is not the same, there is a distinction between priority. In the fifth year of Tiancong, Emperor Taiji followed the Ming system to set up an official department, which was the first of the six departments. Taking the officials as an example, during the Tiancong period, there were no Shangshu and Shilang, but one person as "Belle" (prince and county king) as the prime minister, and there were three Manchu, Mongolian, and Han Chengzheng, eight people participating in politics, and one Qixinlang.
In the first year of Shunzhi, the ministry of Prime Minister Belle was suspended, and the government was changed to Shangshu and the politician was changed to Waiter. Shunzhi for five years, Dingman and Han Shangshu each, Manchu, Han left and right waiters each one, after which became customized in the compilation. During the Yongzheng period, the Shangshu of each ministry was set as from one product and the waiter as the second product, and this system did not change until the reform of official positions at the end of the Qing Dynasty.
What is the difference between the left and right waiters?
As mentioned above, during the Zhu Yuanzhang period, an official system of "respecting the left" was formed, so from the perspective of status, the left waiter was higher than the right waiter. However, from the perspective of grade, they are the same, the difference is not big, but it is reflected in the upper dynasty station.
The division of labor between the left and right attendants is not mentioned in many historical materials in the Qing Dynasty, and from the trivial records, it roughly conforms to such a law - left inside, right outside. That is, the left waiter is mainly responsible for internal affairs, and the right waiter is mainly responsible for external affairs.
In fact, it is also very general to say so, unlike the current official positions, such as the mayor has executive vice mayor and general vice mayor, the same deputy mayor has the economic division, there are also in charge of agriculture, education, which is a good distinction.
Among the six ministries of officials, households, ceremonies, soldiers, criminals, and workers, there are errands for internal and external affairs. For example, the official department is responsible for the selection of officials and the evaluation of officials, of which the selection of officials belongs to the internal affairs and is responsible for the left waiter of the official department; while for the assessment of foreign officials, the external affairs are responsible for the right attendant.
The situation in the Criminal Investigation Department is generally the same, and the trial of major criminal cases and major criminal cases in the capital belongs to the internal affairs, that is, the court trial and the autumn trial, which are generally responsible for the left shilang; while the criminal prisons in other provinces belong to the foreign affairs and are responsible for the right shilang.
Taking the Ministry of Ceremonies as an example, those who preside over sacrifices, pilgrimages, and celebrations belong to internal affairs; presiding over the examinations of the provinces and townships, and going to the various vassal states to proclaim edicts and canonizations belong to foreign affairs, and the left and right attendants do their own thing. Similarly, the household department, the military department, and the work department all have internal and external affairs, and the left and right attendants are responsible for each other. It should be pointed out that the situation of the household department is relatively special, in addition to the left and right waiters, there is also a warehouse waiter, which mainly manages the major granaries of the household department.
In addition, the Li Fan Yuan does not belong to the six departments, but its establishment also has Shang Shu, Left and Right Shilang, and unlike the other six Departments, the Li Fan Yuan is an institution that manages the affairs of ethnic minorities, and the Shang Shu and Shi Lang are all held by the banner people, and no Han people are used.
There is a slight difference in career advancement
In the Qing Dynasty, there were fixed procedures and principles for the promotion of large and small officials. Usually, there are vacancies in Shangshu, such as shilang, cabinet bachelor, left deputy envoy, and general envoy, but shilang is in the first order.
However, the shilang mentioned here refers to the left shilang rather than the right shilang, such as the Hubu Shangshu is vacant, if it is a flat transfer, it is served by the Shangshu of the Bingbu, the Punishment Department, the Ministry of Works, etc.; if it is promoted, it is the Left Shilang of the Hubu Or the left Shilang of other departments. The right attendant, according to the procedure, was promoted to the left attendant.
According to the promotion mechanism of officials in the Qing Dynasty, officials such as Sheng Shilang were also right shilang, and rarely promoted to left shilang, which roughly conformed to the principle of step-by-step. In addition, after Qianlong, a system was formed, and the candidates for the military aircraft minister were selected from among the cabinet scholars, the shangshu of various ministries, and the waiters. Under normal circumstances, most of the waiters here are left waiters, and the probability of right waiters is relatively low.
In fact, in essence, the difference between the left and right attendants of the Qing Dynasty is not big, it is by no means the relationship between the executive vice minister and the deputy minister, at most, the seniority of the left attendant is deeper, and the ranking is a little higher. In terms of the nature of the work and the power, there is almost no difference.
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