When young people go to work, they often lament that they still have to work hard for 30 years to retire, and they always feel that they are very hard.
The current law has a clear age for retirement, and we often see that the ancients reached the age of 70-80 and are still in the post. Did the ancients have a retirement system, and what was their treatment after retirement?
In the ancient Chinese society dominated by agriculture for thousands of years, whether it was ordinary people or government officials, there was no "five insurances and one gold" such as endowment insurance. However, the ancients had a unique pension system.
The normal retirement of ancient officials was called "Zhishi", which originated in the Zhou Dynasty. "Zhi Shi", literally, is to become an official and take the road, in fact, the original meaning is to "return the official position to the king", that is, not to be an official, retired. In ancient times, the age of the general Zhishi was seventy years old. The Book of Rites records that "the doctor is 70 and the master". In terms of political treatment; according to the "Book of Rites", the Qing Doctor zhishi was called "the elder of the country", and the general official Zhishi was called "shu lao", and the respect for the old minister could be seen from the title.
"Zhi Shi" formed a system after the Han Dynasty and followed the retirement period of 70 years.
The Zhou Dynasty began to emerge as a large-scale pension system, which stipulated that those over 50 years old were the elderly. For how to provide for the elderly, the regulations are also very detailed. First of all, in terms of diet, according to the "Li ji wang system", the Zhou Dynasty required that the elderly over 50 years old should be given fine grains; For the elderly over 60 years old, they should be given meat, and meat is very precious at that time; For the elderly over 70 years old, add side foods to their meals; For the elderly over 80 years old, let them eat some delicious food. For the elderly over 90 years old, considering that the elderly are more inconvenient to move at this time, they should wait in front of the bed of the elderly to eat and drink. Of course, such a rule is mainly for the princes and nobles, and it is not easy for ordinary people to ensure that they have enough to eat.
In the Spring and Autumn Warring States, although there were frequent wars, the tradition of respecting the elderly remained unchanged.
According to the "Thirty Years of Zuo ChuanXianggong", in the Spring and Autumn Period, a 73-year-old man in the Jin Dynasty was conscripted to build the Great Wall, and after the doctor Yue Meng learned that the old man was the elder of one of his subordinates, on the one hand, he sincerely apologized, on the other hand, he took the old man back, distributed it to him, and removed the official who violated the pension policy.
During the Warring States period, the State of Qi stipulated that the elderly over the age of 70 should be exempted from the servitude and taxes of one of their sons; For an elderly person over 80 years of age, he is exempted from the taxation and servitude of his second son (two sons); For the elderly over 90 years of age, the whole family is exempted from taxation and servitude.
The Han Dynasty, which promoted the filial piety of "ruling the world with filial piety", paid more attention to the issue of old-age care and raised it to a higher level. A set of special preferential policies has been implemented, and a set of relatively complete systems have been introduced, especially for "family pension", which has extremely strict regulations and requirements.
The Han Dynasty stipulated that only high-ranking officials had "Zhi shi", and the Han Dynasty stipulated that high-ranking officials with more than 2,000 stones could receive one-third of the original Feng Lu in retirement, and a small number of officials with extremely outstanding merits could even enjoy the original feng.
Emperor Wen of Han stipulated that for the elderly over 80 years old, 1 stone of rice (pronounced "dan", 120 pounds is one stone), 5 buckets of wine, and 20 pounds of meat were given every month; for the elderly over 90 years old, each person was given two horses.
In addition, there are one-time rewards at retirement, such as money, gold, grain, houses, carriages and horses, etc. For example, in the third year of Emperor Yuanhe of Hanzhang, when the xianguan Wulun resigned, he was given "two thousand stones to die" by Emperor Zhang of Han, and gave him half a million yuan and a public residence.
The Han Dynasty stipulated that officials with an annual salary of more than 2,000 stones could receive one-third of the original Feng Lu as a pension.
The place where the Han Dynasty most allowed the elderly to have dignity and feel happy was to issue "old age certificates". Of course, this kind of old age certificate is not a small book like today, but a practical object called "dove staff".
The system of "giving staffs" to the elderly was formally established in the Han Dynasty. The dove staff, also known as the "king staff", as the name suggests, is a crutch given by the emperor to the elderly, and it is a symbol of special rights. Judging from historical materials and archaeological findings, Liu Bang, the founding emperor of the Western Han Dynasty and the ancestor of Han Gao, once made a dove staff to give to the elderly, setting a precedent for the Han Dynasty to give a staff. Emperor Xuan of Han made it a system, stipulating that all people over the age of 80 were granted a staff by the imperial court. However, judging from the relevant laws in the Zhangjiashan Han Jian, the Han Dynasty was earlier the "Seventy Scepters".
In order to ensure the authority of the dove staff, the Han Dynasty issued corresponding regulations. From 1959 to 1981, 8 Wang Wands (鸠杖) were excavated from the tomb of Mozuizi Han in Wuwei, Gansu, and the "Ten Janes of the Wang Staff" and the "Book of The Edicts of the King's Staff" were also unearthed.
The full text of the "Wang Cane Edict Book" is nearly 600 words, stipulating the life and political treatment that the elderly over 70 years old should enjoy, and some scholars call it the earliest "law on the protection of the elderly" in China. One of them stipulates that even if an elderly person over the age of 70 violates the criminal law, he can be exempted from prosecution as long as he is not the first offender, inheriting the system of "although guilty, he does not add punishment" to the old man in the pre-Qin period.
Retired officials during the Wei and Jin dynasties were simply appointed by the imperial court to an idle post such as a "consultant" and provided for them. 、
In order to ensure that the elderly have children and grandchildren to live and die, the Northern Wei Dynasty pioneered the system of retaining and adopting relatives, and it was used until the Qing Dynasty. Surviving and adopting relatives means that when the immediate family members of the prisoner are old, but there is no one else in the family who can support the elderly, for the prisoners who are not committing the ten most serious crimes in the feudal era (the ten most serious crimes in the feudal era, including treason, filial piety, etc.), they are allowed to receive lenient punishment through certain procedures, the exile can be exempted from dismissal, the sentence can be suspended, let them stay to take care of the elderly, and then continue to serve the sentence after the death of the elderly.
The Tang Dynasty inherited many practices such as "giving staffs" and "tax exemptions" to the elderly in the Han Dynasty. According to the "Collected Edicts of the Tang Dynasty", Tang Taizong specifically proposed in the "Pardon on the Throne" that "each person above eighty shall be given two stones of rice and five paragraphs of cotton; Over 100 years old, each person is given four stones of rice and ten pieces of cotton; Still add editions to teach, in order to honor the teeth. The so-called "shang teeth" means to respect the elderly.
The Tang Dynasty law stipulates that when parents are alive, their children and grandchildren cannot go far away, cannot separate their families, and cannot save money for private houses, otherwise they will be punished. This provision is to let the children and grandchildren do their best to take good care of the elderly, and this provision better solves the "empty nest" phenomenon.
In the Tang Dynasty, there was even a saying of "spiritual old-age care". At that time, a popular term was called "color yang". The so-called "color maintenance" is to be pleasant when serving parents, and not to make the elderly unhappy. Tang Chu's name Xiangfang Xuanling can be described as a typical example of this aspect, he not only abided by filial piety to his biological parents, but also "raised with color and honored people" to his stepmother.
The laws of the Tang Dynasty also stipulated that not raising an in-laws could even be a reason for divorcing their wives. Li Xiangxiu, the hongqing of Emperor Ruizong of Tang Dynasty, was extremely filial to his mother, but his wife often insulted her mother-in-law, and Li Xiangxiu did not hesitate to dismiss his wife in the name of not being able to raise her mother-in-law. In fact, scolding elders is also a felony in Tang law, and it is punishable by hanging.
Emperor Renzong of the Northern Song Dynasty had ordered that the parents of the war dead be given three buckets of rice each month.
Officials of the Yuan Dynasty could be promoted before retirement, so that they could take more feng lu after retirement.
With the development of the times, the various regulations for officials to be sent to the people have become more and more specific and clear, especially in the Ming and Qing dynasties, the official retirement system has been very perfect.
Retired officials of the Ming Dynasty were still respected in etiquette and still enjoyed the courtesy of their original ranks when they participated in banquets, sacrifices and other activities.
Zhu Yuanzhang, the Ming emperor of the Ming Dynasty, issued an edict: As long as the old man has good character and good deeds, he must record it in the government archives for state financial subsidies and subsidies. Among them, for poor elderly people over the age of 80, the local government will give away nearly 100 kilograms of rice, 5 kilograms of pork, and 60 kilograms of wine (low-grade wine) every month; For those over 90 years old, they will be given a horse and a pound of silk wool every year.
Zhu Yuanzhang also held a nationwide activity to give knighthoods to the elderly, in the capital at that time, Nanjing, and Zhu Yuanzhang's hometown of Fengyang, Anhui, to the elderly aged 80 and over 90 years old, respectively, two grades of knighthood, so that they can sit on an equal footing with the local county magistrate and make the elderly
By the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the respect for the elderly had reached a new height: for the elderly over the age of 100, the state should customize him high-grade and gorgeous formal clothes, give him great national awards and honors, and establish a fashion and atmosphere of respecting the elderly, loving the elderly and providing for the elderly in the whole society.
During the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, it was stipulated that the capital would increase the number and scale of nursing homes (that is, nursing homes similar to today's). Officials are also regularly rotated to inspect whether the poor and the elderly have food to eat and whether there are any institutional shortcomings. The state spends money to directly buy daily necessities for the elderly, forming an extremely good old-age atmosphere in society.
Officials of the Qing Dynasty still returned to their hometowns for the elderly, and a very small number of officials could stay in the capital, which was a great gift. Usually the salary after retirement is half of the original salary, but officials with special merit, such as those wounded in war, can get the full salary.
The Qing Dynasty also rewarded the elderly with money from time to time.
For the retirement age, the Tang Dynasty stipulated: "The year of the official and 70, the energy is depleted, and the routine is given to the shi".
Although the Song Dynasty also stipulated the seventy zhishi, it was not actually implemented, so it led to the appearance of many old and decaying people above the court. Because Song Dynasty officials could only get buckets when they retired, officials did everything possible to drag on and not retire.
The Ming and Qing dynasties changed the retirement age to 60 years. From the Ming Dynasty onwards, the retirement age was advanced by more than ten years, and as long as the age of sixty was reached, retirement was encouraged. For example, in the thirteenth year of Hongwu (1380), The Ming Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang issued an edict: "Those who are more than sixty years old of the civil and military attaches listen to Zhishi."
The Qing Dynasty also imposed different retirement age regulations according to different official positions: 54 generals, 51 guerrillas, 48 dusi garrisons, and 45 thousand generals and generals. That is, the younger the official, the earlier he retires.
Although there are specific rules on age, there are also those who are still in office at retirement age. For example, Ji Xiaolan, who was born in the second year of Yongzheng, achieved the Rebbe Shangshu during the Qianlong period, and by the first year of Jiaqing, he was already a 72-year-old man and was also appointed as the Bingbu Shangshu; in the tenth year of Jiaqing, he was already 82 years old, and he was still serving as an assistant university scholar, Rebbe Shangshu, and Prince Jia.
The ancient government's attention and investment in the elderly had an almost natural duty and consciousness. This kind of responsibility and self-consciousness is undoubtedly closely linked to China's filial piety culture. Filial piety culture is the core and support point of traditional Chinese culture, and one of the important contents of filial piety is to respect the elderly and provide for the elderly.
In the modern society with a developed division of labor, the old-age pension is increasingly solved by relying on a sound social security system, but throughout the ancient and modern times, whether it is the national system, or the support and filial piety of children, the spiritual core of filial piety culture and respect for the elderly has not changed.
With the development of the economy in modern society, people's quality of life after retirement is getting better and better.