On the road to the traditional career path of "learning and excellence", many people exhausted their energy to get an official and a half-job, so they cherished this hard-won "happiness" even more, but in ancient times, they also faced the problem of retirement, so from the Song Dynasty onwards, they designed this system.
First, why did the ancient officialdom have two ages? Hide how mysterious.
In the ancient officialdom of seventy hanging cars, the old custom of returning to the hometown, however, after all, the road of learning and youzeshi is really difficult, and some people only become an official when their hair is gray, and they are naturally very fond of stacks. In this way, the natural physiological age of the official and the so-called "official year" were gradually formed.
Song Dynasty official
In the Song Dynasty, there was a saying that the real year and the official year were the actual age, and the official year was the age recorded when the official was official. Therefore, in order to be able to work for a few more years once they become an official, many people mostly falsely declare their age when filling in their age, so that they can have room for maneuver in the future. Due to the many appearances of older officials serving in important local positions, the Minister of Korea advised that he should not serve as a superintendent or county sheriff at the age of seventy. Eventually, the Song Dynasty further clarified the decision of the official year and the real year. Hong Mai, a scholar at that time, said indignantly: "The official year and the real year actually appeared on the Documents of the New Year, so that the people of the world would know, is this not an open fraud by the monarchs and courtiers?" "It is said that in the whole Song Dynasty, only Kou Zhun refused to reduce the number of years. At that time, there was a 28-year-old who became the Governor of Shaanzhou, "former official Wailang (正七品) Wen and Fu Yilong Tuge Zhixue Zhi Shaanzhou".
Related screens
This appointment has attracted a lot of attention, why? Because the official to be promoted is only 28 years old! Finally, it turned out that Wen Hefu was the son of Wen Lu Gongwen Yanbo, the emperor's master and Pingzhang Junguo' important minister Wen Lu, which caused the impeachment of the provincial counselor under the door, believing that the Zhongshu Shilang in charge of the official was not to cultivate young talents for the country, but to curry favor with the magnates to "use Wen Hefu in a non-secondary manner, and want to marry Wen Yanbo." "Another phenomenon is to make one's own file younger, why is that? Hong Mai of the Song Dynasty believed that there were two main points: First, once he became an official, there were rich and noble families vying to say goodbye, and the younger the son-in-law was naturally, the better. The second is to have an advantage in the age of the future career. At that time, there was a note, the resume of the scholar in the past thirty years, for example, reduced the age, and even some were reduced to more than ten years, even if the people with good relations were at a banquet together, no one told them their true age, otherwise they did not understand the rules, quite like the age of the lady who cannot be asked now.
Second, the official looks like an old city, and Yongzheng interrogates his age several times, so that the other party is quite embarrassed.
This historical phenomenon has not been effectively resolved, and it has become more and more intense in the Qing Dynasty.
One day in Yongzheng's five years, after reading the resume of Shaoyang Zhixian in Hunan Province, the age was 53 years old, and Yongzheng always felt that he was too old, "but not like fifty-three, like sixty outsiders." Asked again and again, I didn't dare to lie. Although it is only good looks old, in Yongzheng's view, this is related to the loyalty of subordinates and the use of official age norms.
After reading the title of the official in Dong'an Yingdu, Shandong, the age on the resume is 56 years old, Yongzheng commented "really fifty-eight" Sichuan bid before the battalion horse soldier Fei Qiyun, the resume is 44 years old, Yongzheng commented "really fifty-two years old", some even Yongzheng after many times of gaze, always feel that the resume and age gap is too big to make the subject look very embarrassed.
Sui-sying image
Age fraud has always been the main problem in the resumes of officials in previous generations, and because there has been an age-old retirement system in all generations, there are many problems of falsification and false reporting of age in the resume. Officials generally turn a blind eye to this kind of problem, and even form tacit understanding with each other, and Yongzheng discovers the seriousness of this problem. After that, he also made special instructions on the false declaration of age: "The resume of the civil and military officials is not true. Or the number of years is less and the increase is more, or the number of years is more and the decrease is less. At the same time, an edict was issued on the timely correction of false reports of age: "A special instruction is issued that all officials who are untrue in their previous years shall be corrected and registered with the enlightened age of the actual age." "Yongzheng attaches great importance to social age and psychological age, and it is not just because of slightly older age that it is no longer used, if there is talent, Yongzheng still makes an exception to retain it." The general soldiers of Taiyuan, Shanxi, reported to Yongzheng that Liang Yunian, the garrison of the Pinghuan battalion, was 68 years old, but his work was very prominent, and he was only included in the retirement range because of the problem of old age. Yongzheng opposed this, believing that talents were available, so he promoted Liang Yu to guerrilla. Records of emperors of the Qing Dynasty
Xianfeng period bills
Not only did Yongzheng pay attention to the age appearance of officials and the records of archives, but in the previous Tang and Song Dynasties, the age problem has always been an unavoidable problem for officials, and there are generally two extremes, that is, officials look too young, and the age of resume writing has reached the standard. Another situation is that officials look too old and their resumes are much younger. This phenomenon was basically the same in the Qing Dynasty, so there were many phenomena that did not match the age and appearance. Judging from the place of civil service and the average age of provincial officials at that time, the provinces with a small average age were relatively easy to obtain officials, the officials from the Eight Banners were the youngest, with an average age of about 40.8 years old, and the average age of intermediate officials in other provinces, such as general judgments, state judgments, prefecture tongs, county clerks, main books, and canonical histories, was 44.3 years old. Tongzhi, Zhizhou and Zhixian are at the intermediate level, with an average age of 44.6 years; the chief, Langzhong, prefect, and Taoist are the highest in the age group, with an average of 46.1 years old. A Study of the Bureaucracy of the Yongzheng Dynasty
THIRD, Why is being an official like walking in a caravanserai? From the Song Dynasty onwards, this problem could not be effectively solved in the Qing Dynasty.
From the Song Dynasty onwards, the qualification limits for officials became more and more numerous, and the avoidance system became more and more stringent. In order to prevent local officials from being officials in one place for a long time, the chair was transferred before it was hot. During the Qianlong period, it was believed that the county order must be longer than its appointment in order to govern one side. However, the disadvantage of this is that it gives local inspectors the opportunity to seize power and opens the door for state and county officials.
As far as a province is concerned, if your staff looks at the face of the inspector and acts, and the inspector is selfish and good, the subordinate staff must be good at greeting. The three-year plan decided to promote, and the lack of insurance problems that usually encountered the problem must first pay bribes, and the lack of the usual problem to introduce. As soon as there is a vacancy in the staff, and the money cannot be taken out for a while, he is required to return the favor every day, so that he can get a recommendation.
Qing Dynasty official
For the prefect who carries on from above to the bottom, because he is promoted to the next level, that is, he is a member of the superintendent, and then a member of the cloth and according to the aspect, so he regards the current as a passing union, and what he does is to even meet the superior in order to try to be promoted.
Because officials are like heirs, people have no long-term ambitions, so that those who are officials can get by, and they are stubborn and present, do not think of making progress, and even neglect their duties. When Qianlong was in Qianlong, Yartu was an inspector in Henan, and the official director was full of grass, and he did not repair it, let alone anything else. Xu Rong served as an inspector in Hunan, and even used paper scraps to paste the office, so angry that the emperor also said, "These are the so-called examples of officials as transmission." Yartu and Xu Rong were called provincial officials at that time, who were diligent in their ministry, and they were still like this, and other provinces could speculate what it would be like. When it comes to the state and county officials, "there is no difference between the officials and the ears", and being an official is like a caravanserai, just hurriedly passing by, so why should there be long-term plans. People are on the road, and so are officials, and if you want them to do things for the people, it is not a fool's dream.
The Qianlong Emperor said that although today's pro-people officials do not bribe the public and do not lack many conscientious and conscientious people, but their merits are strict, they are chased by examinations, and every day in the midst of the Wenshan and The Sea, who really thinks of the people? The original intention of Zhizhou Zhixian is to let them know about the affairs of one prefecture and one county, and the spirit must be paid attention to, there are things to be handled in the office, and there is nothing to visit the countryside, but the current state and county officials, who only rely on the exchange of official documents, sit in the office on weekdays, or run to the front of the office, run for official positions, and the original intention of the state and county officials has disappeared.