The happiest day of every month is the day of payroll, and whenever we see our pay slips, we seem to be full of motivation to continue to struggle. Today's social prices are soaring, and when the year is approaching, it is always afraid to buy New Year goods. Just buy a few things and pay it is gone!
The ancients, like us, needed wages to live on, but what about their wages?
In ancient times, there were not only wages, but also the implementation of the "annual salary system" for a long time, modern people feel that the "annual salary system" is much higher than the "monthly salary system", which is the high-level, prestigious and status of famous enterprises. In fact, the "annual salary system" was also a helpless move in ancient times.
Today's social salary settlement is more flexible, according to the hour, by the day, by the week, or by the project settlement, but in ancient times there was no such flexible settlement method, from the imperial court ministers to the rich merchants of the long-term workers are in accordance with the "annual salary system" to settle.
Different classes also call wages differently, low-status workers and guys mainly eat to make a living, generally called "rations" and "wages", and people with higher status are called "Feng Lu" and "Nian Feng".
In terms of the speed at which today's society spends money, the "annual salary" is unsatisfactory, and now that the "moonlight clan" is rampant, you let them wait for a year to pay their wages? This is certainly unrealistic, and people nowadays even crave "weekly salary" or "daily salary".
In ancient times, heavy agriculture and business, people have fewer choices for work, either to work for the landlord for a long time, to go to the workshop to help, or to go to some service places as a waiter, such as the hotel 'buddy', these people's work is not very stable, at any time may face the risk of dismissal. And the real fixed salary are the people who have taken the meritorious name to enter the official field, and the cold window of ten years is to one day be able to change the fate of themselves and their families across the class, and to honor their ancestors.
Nowadays, if you are admitted to the civil service, most people will look up and say that they are "eating imperial food", which is also from the ancient officialdom.
The ancient "wages" are also different from the current wages
In ancient times, unlike direct money now, most of the time it was real "grain", and the title of "eating imperial grain" was not wrong at all.
According to research, in the Eastern Han Dynasty, all that Feng Lu distributed was food, and as for how to exchange it for money, that is a problem you need to consider.
The first feudal dynasty, the Qin Dynasty, did not establish a complete "Feng Lu" system at that time, but followed the military merit system of the Shang Martingale Transformation Law, different levels of Feng Lu, once a year, the grain issued is mainly "corn", which is now millet.
The lowest knighthood of 50 stones of corn a year, the highest title of Che hou 1000 stone corn a year, a stone of the Qin Dynasty is equivalent to about 31 kilograms now, the millet issued by the official family is of course a superior product, if according to the current price of high-quality millet 10 pieces a pound to calculate. The lowest-ranking duke of the Qin Dynasty had a salary of 31,000 yuan a year, and the highest knighthood could get 620,000 yuan a year, and with such a high salary, the soldiers naturally fought bravely to kill the enemy, which was also an important factor for Qin to unify the six kingdoms.
After the establishment of the Han Dynasty, it was also the Qin system, just like a change of skin, the difference is that the Han Dynasty established a formal "Feng Lu system", based on the size of the official rank as the standard for the issuance of Feng Lu. The Han Dynasty was basically divided into three files:
The first gear: Wanshi level - sangong, the salary is not as much as Wanshi, about 4200 stones
Second gear: Jiuqing and some county guards, Taishou, and county orders. Their salaries range from two thousand to a few hundred.
The third gear: Dou Shi and Zuo Shi, they were the lowest paid officials in the Han Dynasty, and their annual salaries were less than 100 stones.
The Book of Han and the Table of Hundred Officials and Secretaries of State Yan ShiGu Zhuyun: "The Book of Han Officials' Names and Ranks, Yundou Yue Feng Eleven, Zuo Shi Yue Feng Eight Hu. It is said that the eaters, who are not satisfied with the hundred stones, count the days and eat one bucket and two liters, so the cloud bucket eats also.
Officials in ancient times did not support their families solely on their dead wages, and those who did well were rewarded by the imperial court.
The government of the Western Han Dynasty was very generous, and if the work was done well, it could be rewarded with money, wine, meat, carriages and horses, and even houses and slaves.
The ancient "Feng Lu system" really changed from annual salary to monthly salary from the Liu Song Dynasty during the Southern and Northern Dynasties!
The emperor Liu Yu, who almost unified the whole country, carried out a drastic reform of the wage system - from the annual salary system to "monthly distribution", which is the prototype of the modern monthly salary system.
With the gradual development of the times, the civil servants after the Tang Dynasty are really too happy, not only have a stable income but also have a lot of consumption coupons to receive. And in the Song Dynasty, the richest dynasty in China, it was really hi, and it could even be said to be a paradise for intellectuals. The civil servants of the Song Dynasty were the most generous, and their salaries were about 10 times that of the Han Dynasty and 26 times that of the Qing Dynasty. The monthly salary of a Song Dynasty member was 150 stones of rice, 120,000 yuan per month, 20 horses of Aya, and 1 horse of Luo. If these are converted into cash, at least more than 100,000 yuan. And the Song Dynasty also had various subsidies, including tea money and charcoal burning money. It is even possible to reimburse the money of hiring a maid. In fact, the daily expenses are not much money, and the salary is still so high, can it not be hi?
Yue Fei of the Southern Song Dynasty was appointed as an envoy to Jiedu at the age of 32, and at that time his monthly salary was much higher than that of Qin Ju, the current chancellor.
After introducing the highest-paid dynasty, the Song Dynasty, let's also look at the lowest-paid dynasty, the Ming Dynasty
Zhu Yuanzhang grew up in poverty and did not even have enough to eat, and when he overthrew the Yuan Dynasty and became emperor, he believed that the reason why the government was corrupt was because the Feng Lu was too high, so the Ming Dynasty had the most stringent salary standards - it was simply sad.
The Ming Dynasty Zhengyipin official's monthly rice is only 87 stones, the lower the official's grade, the less the rice, to the Jiupin official's monthly rice is only 5 stones, you say how to live this day? Compared with the Song Dynasty, it is a world of difference. The harsh monthly salary did not make the Officials of the Ming Dynasty have a clean wind in their sleeves, but the wind of corruption became more and more crazy, and the days could not go on, what could be done? Then you can only use power for personal gain and embezzlement! The corrupt officials of the Ming Dynasty killed wave after wave, and went forward to succeed each other, which is also a very important reason for the decline of the Ming Dynasty.
The ancient emperors held the power of life and death in the world, and the whole world was the emperor's. But the emperor also had a salary, and it was paid on a monthly or annual basis. This is mainly to make the emperor not spend money indiscriminately, although the world is his own, but what to do after the loss of the family property? From the beginning of The Song Taizong Zhao Guangyi stipulated that the emperor's monthly salary was 1200 yuan, the consistent money was about 1000 yuan, and 1 text was about 2-4 yuan, which was converted out to a lot, that is, I didn't know if the emperor was enough!
The emperor's salary in the Qing Dynasty was called "Ti Zi Silver", which was distributed monthly by the Household Department to the Administration of internal affairs, and these money were used to reward some people around them who did a good job, such as guards, eunuchs, or spoiled concubines, which were used for entertainment and recreation. It is probably equivalent to the local tycoon who pays the anchor now.
In general, the ancient "Feng Lu system" is the result of the development of feudal dynasties, the distribution situation and specific amount of wages reflect the economic level of the dynasty at that time and the will of the rulers, and the development of the current era has derived a variety of wage types and settlement methods.
"The tide of the world, the mighty, the smooth will prosper, the contrary will perish", the level of wages should be formulated in line with the economic level and social development at that time, and should not be imposed by personal will, otherwise it can only be counterproductive.