The Tang Dynasty inherited and carried forward the official system of three provinces and six ministries of the Sui Dynasty, and made remarkable achievements in Chinese history in terms of politics, economy and culture, and created a prosperous era for all nations.
So, in such an era of economic prosperity and social prosperity, was the salary of Tang Dynasty officials high?
Why did the nobles who were marquis of the clan not receive their salaries? Let's take a look at the official positions and salary system of the Tang Dynasty.
Characteristics of the Tang Dynasty's bureaucracy and official positions
When looking through the official materials of the Tang Dynasty, you will find a very interesting phenomenon, there are almost no officials in the Tang Dynasty who are ministers or military generals.
According to the "General Dictionary" of the Tang Dynasty, the official rank of the Tang Dynasty was formulated in the 25th year of the Kaiyuan Dynasty.
Zhengyipin's positions include Taishi, Taibao, Taiwei, Wangjue, etc., all of which are empty names of the three divisions and three dukes, and the title of the prince is an honorary title in name only.
The only real position he has ever held is "Admiral Tiance", and only one person has held it, and he is Li Shimin, Taizong of the Tang Dynasty.
However, this position was not included in the "General Dictionary", only mentioned in a sentence in the "Old Tang Book", and it was abolished in the ninth year of Wude.
How did this short-lived one-quality job come about? Li Shimin, who was still the king of Qin at that time, pacified the two hostile forces of Dou Jiande and Wang Shichong in one fell swoop.
Gaozu Li Yuan thought that he had made great contributions, and specially set up this position to commend Li Shimin's outstanding military exploits, and also published an article "King Qin Awarded Heavenly Ce General System" to talk about this matter.
In the ninth year of Wude, the famous "Xuanwumen Change" occurred in history, Li Shiming was named the crown prince, and General Tiance and Tiance Mansion were revoked together.
The deputy positions recorded in the "General Dictionary" are almost fictitious titles, such as the prince and the prince, the prince and the prince, the prince and the prince, the prince of the county, the duke of the country, etc.
Even if they enjoy a high title, they are idle positions with no real power.
The "General Dictionary" specifically summarizes a sentence: "There is no official in the second grade". Therefore, in the early years of the Tang Dynasty, the highest substantive position of the central government was Sanpin.
The official system of the Tang Dynasty was inherited and improved by Xiao Gui Cao from the Sui Dynasty, and the "three provinces" in the three provinces and six ministries were Shangshu, Zhongshu and Menxia provinces, and Shangshu Province was responsible for implementing specific government decrees and decisions, and the six ministries were all set up under Shangshu Province.
The Zhongshu Province is responsible for discussing decision-making and drafting edicts, while the Menxia Province is responsible for deliberation and review. The governors of the three provinces are Shangshuling, Zhongshuling and Shizhong, and the three governors are all prime ministers.
But in fact, Shang Shuling is a hot potato, and people with a little political acumen can't avoid it.
According to the "New Tang Dynasty Book", when Li Shimin was still the king of Qin, he concurrently served as the Taiwei monk Shangshu Ling, so the ministers did not dare to take over this position, and could only be replaced by the servant to carry out the Shangshu Ling, so later the servant shot and the Zhongshu Ling, and the servant were called the prime minister.
In order to improve administrative efficiency, the imperial court set up a government hall outside the office space of the three provinces, where the Zhongshu and the prefects under his door discussed politics together, and then submitted to the emperor for approval after the draft was obtained.
In the later period, the position of servant was gradually weakened, and he was not even allowed to enter and leave the political hall at will.
At that time, the Tang Dynasty implemented a system of nine grades and thirty ranks of official positions subdivided into positive, subordinate (deputy), upper and lower, as mentioned above, each grade had a detailed grade, and the treatment and promotion conditions were different.
Friends who like to watch costume detective dramas should remember the divine drama "Tang Di Renjie", in which the protagonists are Prime Minister Di Renjie and guard Li Yuanfang.
At that time, Di Renjie held the position of Zhongshu Ling, even if he was the prime minister above 10,000 people under one person, he was still a good third product.
And Li Yuanfang was promoted to the general of Qianniuwei for his meritorious service, and he was one of the generals of the Sixteen Guards, and belonged to the three grades in the military attache system. However, in terms of real power, it must be Di Renjie's Zhongshu Ling.
The income and benefits of officials in the Tang Dynasty
Looking at these complicated official systems, everyone may be more concerned about a question, that is, what was the salary of civil servants in the Tang Dynasty?
The salary of officials in the Tang Dynasty was called "Yulu", which included both physical goods and silver money, and the real thing was Lu rice, that is, rice.
There are also several other unexpected contents, that is, the vocational field, the defense cabinet and the Luli, which are supplements to the main income for land and labor, similar to the current welfare benefits.
The annual salary system formulated during the period of Tang Gaozong stipulated that only officials in the capital had "Lu", and in the Zhenguan period, the system was fully implemented, and officials who served outside the city could also receive Lu money.
However, in the early years of the Tang Dynasty, the standard for the payment of Yulu was based on the official rank rather than the actual position, until the Tang Gaozong period, the standard was changed to pay according to the service.
In the Tang Dynasty, the place where the Beijing officials received their salaries was called "Jingcang", also called "Taicang", according to the "General Dictionary", the officials of the Taicang Department had Taicang Ling and Taicang Cheng. The place where foreign officials receive their salaries is called "Zhengcang", which belongs to the financial and logistics departments of local prefectures and counties.
If there is no "main warehouse" in the area, it is necessary to allocate funds from neighboring counties, or directly use taxes and grain to offset the funds.
In the Tang Dynasty, the "vocational field" only had the right to use and could not be inherited and transferred, and the officials could obtain tenant income on it during their tenure, while Luli was incorporated into the Yuecheng from the Kaiyuan period.
The defense cabinet is a close-fitting guard, and officials above the fifth rank can enjoy this treatment. Below the sixth grade, there are only servants, that is, servants.
In addition, officials also have a special treatment, if they commit cane punishment, flogging, etc., they can pay a ransom to avoid the suffering of flesh and skin.
There was a watershed in the wage system of the Tang Dynasty was the Anshi Rebellion, before which the implementation of the dual-track system of Nianlu and Yuelu, the people who were officials in the capital were 700 stone Lu rice per year, 600 stone from the first product, and the lowest was only 40 stone from the ninth grade, and 30 stone from the ninth grade.
However, the overall salary level of officials outside Beijing is one level lower, and sometimes there is no rice payment, and salt can be used instead.
In addition, all officials have year-end evaluation awards, and outstanding civil servants can receive a reward equivalent to one year's salary at most.
In the Tang Dynasty, there was a situation of the salary of knightly officials
Seeing this, you may have noticed that there is one type of person missing from these regulations, that is, the prince of the prince with a title.
The wage system of the Tang Dynasty stipulated that those with titles were not paid salaries, because the titles of the Tang Dynasty had a fixed number of households, and those with the lowest rank could be divided into 300 households, that is, they could get a share equivalent to 300 households paying taxes every year.
According to the "New Tang Dynasty Book", the Tang Dynasty clan titles are divided into nine grades, the first class is the same as the Zhengyi product, and there are 10,000 households, which are the king, the prince of the country, the prince of the county, the prince of the county, the prince of the county, and the prince of the county.
Therefore, the imperial court should stipulate that once there is a knighthood, the issuance of Lumi and Zhitian will be suspended. The twenty-four ministers of the famous Lingyan Pavilion basically lived on food because they had knighthoods.
Although these titles are all fictitious positions and cannot contribute to society as productive forces, and giving them wages is similar to a high salary, people who like history know that the Tang Dynasty had serious internal fighting.
Especially in the middle and late Tang Dynasty, there were many bloody coups d'état, and there were not many remaining titles, and the government could barely support this expenditure.
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