The official system of the Song Dynasty has always been known for its disorder, and if nothing else, just the name of the prime minister can make people dizzy, and today it will be broken and crushed, and it will be explained thoroughly.
The first thing that needs to be clarified is that "prime minister" is only a general name, not a single name for the official name, and the single name of the official name is left and right, and there is no such thing as the prime minister.
Throughout the history of the two Song Dynasties and 319 years, the name of the prime minister has undergone a total of six major changes:
At the beginning of the founding of the people's republic, Song Taizu inherited the Tang system, with "six shilangs, Shang Shu above to the governor of the three provinces" with "Tong Zhongshu Menxia Pingzhangshi" as the prime minister.
It can be seen from this that the official official of the Prime Minister of the Early Song Dynasty was called: Tongzhongshu Menxia Pingzhangshi, referred to as Tongping Zhangshi for short. "Six-part attendants, Shang Shu and above to the three provincial governors" refers to the qualifications of the rank of prime minister.
[In the early period of the Northern Song Dynasty, ministries were replaced by ranks, and the six shilangs, Shangshu, and the governors of the three provinces were only rank officials, and did not really do their own thing, and what was really done was the dispatch of various names and tasks, and this chaotic phenomenon continued until after the reform of the Song Shenzong Yuanfeng system. 】
The three provincial governors refer to the governor of the province under the door, the governor of Zhongshu Province, the zhongshu commander, and the governor of Shangshu Province.
By the way, the second chiefs of Menxia and Zhongshu Provinces are Menxia Shilang and Zhongshu Shilang respectively, while the second chief of Shangshu Province is left servant and right servant respectively, in addition, Shangshu Province also has Shangshu Zuocheng and Shangshu Right Servant who are ranked behind the left and right servants. Note that the Shang Shu left and right here are not beggars, they are just archons like Zhongshu Shilang and Menxia Shilang!
In the early Song Dynasty, there were generally three prime ministers, the first of whom was the prime minister: Tongping Zhangshi with zhaowenguan university scholar, referred to as Zhaowenxiang; the second was Yaxiang: tongping zhangshi and xiuguoshi, referred to as shiguanxiang; the third was the last phase: tongping zhangshi with jixian hall bachelor, referred to as jixianxiang.
The second change was in the fifth year of Emperor Yuanfeng of the Song Dynasty: "Shangshu Left Servant Shooting and Menxia Shilang" as the left phase; "Shangshu Right Servant Shooting and Zhongshu Shilang" as the right phase.
After this time, the chancellor was divided into left and right phases, and the official official of the left phase was called: Shangshu Left Servant Shooting and Menxia Shilang; And the official official of the Right Phase was called: Shangshu Right Servant Shooting and Zhongshu Shilang. The Song Dynasty respected the left, although they were all prime ministers, but in the order of miscellaneous pressure, the left phase was higher than the right phase, just like the prime minister and the sub-phase and the last phase, there was a distinction between high and low primary and secondary.
The third change was in the second year of Emperor Zhenghe of Song Hui: the change was changed to "Shangshu Left Servant Shooting to Dazai, And Shangshu Right Servant Shooting to Shaozai". With "Dazai and Menxia Shilang" as the left phase, and "Shaozai and Zhongshu Shilang" as the right phase.
This change is actually to change the soup without changing the medicine, just to change the name, the official official of the left phase is called: Dazai and the door attendant; the official name of the right phase is: Shaozai and Zhongshu Shilang.
The fourth change was in the first year of the Song Dynasty: the names of Dazai and Shaozai were abolished, and the official system of YuanFeng was restored, that is, the shangshu left and right servants were also subordinates and zhongshu shilangs as the ministers.
There is nothing to say about this, it is equivalent to changing it again, and the name of the prime minister is exactly the same as that of Yuanfeng after the reform.
The fifth change was in the third year of Emperor Gaozong's reign in the Song Dynasty: "Shangshu Left Servant Shooting and Tong Zhongshu Menxia PingzhangShi" as the left phase; "Shangshu Right Servant Shooting and Tong zhongshu Menxia Pingzhangshi" as the right phase.
This time, the official title of the prime minister changed relatively largely, and the official official of the left phase was called: Shangshu Zuo Shu Jie and Tong Zhongshu Menxia Pingzhangshi; the official official of the Right Phase was called: Shang Shu Right Servant Shooting and Tong Zhongshu Menxia Pingzhangshi.
As mentioned earlier, "Tongzhongshu Menxia Pingzhangshi" is referred to as "Tongping Zhangshi", and in the early Song Dynasty, "Tongping Zhangshi" was already the prime minister, so why did the Southern Song Dynasty add "Shangshu Left and Right Servant Shooting" in front of it?
In fact, in addition to the three provinces, the early Song Dynasty set up a separate institution called "Zhongshu Menxia" (without provincial characters), referred to as Zhongshu, which is not comparable to the Zhongshu Province in the three provinces, it is the real highest power center, so just take "Tongzhongshu Menxia Pingzhangshi" to represent the position of prime minister.
Emperor Gaozong of Song intended to emulate the ancestral system and merge the two provinces of Zhongshu and Menxia into one, that is, Zhongshu Menxia Province, so the three provinces became two provinces, namely Zhongshu Menxia Province and Shangshu Province. Since the prime minister claims to be omnipotent, it is not okay to only take "Tong zhongshu menxia Pingzhangshi" in charge of "Zhongshu Menxia Province", and he also has to manage Shangshu Province, so he added "Shangshu Left and Right Servant Shooting" to the official title.
The sixth change was in the eighth year of Emperor Xiaozong's Qiandao: he changed the name of the left and right servants to the left and right ministers of the Tongzhongshu Menxia Pingzhangshi to the left and right ministers; in March, the names of the governors of the three provinces were dismissed.
This time the change was relatively clean and sharp, and the official title of the prime minister was directly changed to: left and right ministers. In addition to the omission of the left and right servants and Tongping Zhangshi, even the official names of the three provincial governors (Zhongshu Ling, Shi Zhong, and Shang Shu Ling) were also banned.
As can be seen from the above, the official titles of the two Song Dynasties (in the order of generation) are: Tong zhongshu menxia Pingzhangshi; Shangshu left servant shooting and menxia shilang, Shangshu right servant shooting and Zhongshu shilang; Dazai and menxia shilang, Shaozai and Zhongshu shilang; Shangshu left and right servants and Tongzhongshu Menxia Pingzhangshi; left and right chengxiang.
In addition to the above official titles and the three types of titles of prime minister, left phase, and right phase, there are such names as Xiang Gong, Tang Lao, Xuan Xiang, Truth, Gong Xiang, and Xiang Xiang, of which Xiang Gong is the most vulgar colloquial language, as long as the official title is slightly larger, it is called Xiang Gong by the inferior people, it can be said that the street is rotten; Tang Lao is a more formal daily colloquial language, generally used for the mutual title between the prime ministers or the honorific title of the hundred officials to the prime minister; Xuan Xiang is the exclusive honorific title for the xuanfu envoy; the truth is the real prime minister, which is relative to the public minister and the envoy.
Let's focus on the public phase and the ambassador, which are the two most difficult to understand.
The Minister of Ministers and the Ministers are not really prime ministers, but only a high-ranking rank. Any prince, privy councillor, envoy of Jiedushi, stay-behind, Jing Yin, and inspector of the school, as long as they are concurrently serving as any of the four four of Zhongshu Ling, Shizhong, Shangshu Ling, and Tongzhongshu Menxia Pingzhangshi, can be called envoys, for example, Song Taizong once served as Kaifeng Yin and Tongping Zhangshi, that is, the position of envoy.
Among them, the inspector refers to the three dukes of the inspection school (太師, 太傅, 太保) and the three orphans (少師, 少傅, 少保), if the three dukes or three orphans concurrently serve as Zhongshu Ling, Shizhong, Shangshu Ling, and Tongzhongshu Menxia Pingzhangshi, it is called Gongxiang.
It can be seen from this that the rank of the public phase is above the ambassador and is the highest honor. In fact, whether it is a public minister or an envoy, it is only used to "wait for the old man and the prime minister to strike the government for a long time", which means to give the honor of the emperor's relatives and nobles, the old sages, and the prime minister who have retired to the second line, although there is the name of the prime minister, there is no fact of the prime minister, at most in addition to the worship of the general, the end of the edict of the equal system, sign a "messenger" word, enjoy the corresponding Feng Lu, and that's all.
Finally, it should be added that Shou Shu or Shou Fu should be the name of the Ming Dynasty, and the Song Dynasty only had Duan Shu (Governor of Shangshu Province), Zuo Fu (Governor of Menxia Province), and Right Bi (Governor of Zhongshu Province).
Finally finished speaking, exhausted me, patience to see the last can see the end can see clearly, labor driving a thumbs up? If you have any doubts, please leave a word in the comment area, and you must know everything in the next sentence.