The Book of Rites is an important anthology of the canonical system in ancient China. The image is from the official website of the Palace Museum
As early as the pre-Qin period, there was already a relatively perfect retirement system in China. The Zhou Dynasty ruled the world with etiquette, and there is a saying in the Book of Rites that "the doctor is seventy and causes trouble". The ancients believed that 70 years old was a dividing line, and the Book of Rites said: "Seventy years old, and passed on". "Passing on" refers to "passing on family affairs and appointing children and grandchildren", that is, the elderly entrust the family to the management of their children and grandchildren. By analogy, when officials reached the age of 70, they had to return their official positions to the monarch. Of course, this is not a mandatory requirement, and for those officials who are still "virtuous and strong and can be in charge" at the age of 70, the monarch can ask them to stay in office and give them a few rods to show preferential treatment, which is equivalent to the current "extension" or "re-employment".
After retirement, Dr. Qing is called "National Elder" and after retirement, he is called "Elder Shu", and can enjoy certain treatment. The Book of Rites records that "the Yin people raise the country to learn from the right, and raise the old from the left." The Zhou people raised the country to grow old in Dongjiao, and raised the old in Yu Yu, and Yu Yu was in the western suburbs of the country. The "Right School", "Left School", "Dongjiao" and "Yu Yu" here are all government-run educational institutions. Retired officials live in it, I am afraid that it is not only a pension, but also to undertake certain teaching tasks and impart rich experience.
In the Han Dynasty, the retirement age was basically set at 70 years old. The Han Dynasty Ban Gu's "White Tiger Tongyi" explains: "The subject of the seventy hanging cars to the shi, the subject to the deacon tends to leave as the official, the seventy yang dao pole, the eyes and ears are not smart, the genus of the toddler." This means that after the minister reaches the age of 70, his physical condition is no longer suitable for work. Whether to retire at the age of 70 depends first on individual application, and if the individual does not apply, he can continue to work. For example, the Book of Han records that there was a man named Cai Yi, who was "more than eighty years old when he was a minister." People who voluntarily apply for retirement also vary greatly in age. The famous inventor Zhang Heng applied for retirement when he was serving as a minister of rivers, but was not approved, and became a shangshu in the dprk until his death at the age of 62. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, there was a man named Zhang Quan, "Qianzhuo Commandery Taishou, who was eighty years old at the time, did not serve as soldiers and horses, begged for the body, and commanded Xu Zhi" ("Dongguan Han Ji"), and only applied for retirement at the age of 80. It can be seen that the 70-year-old retirement of the Han Dynasty was not mandatory.
During the Western Han Dynasty, most of the retired officials in the Imperial Court gave one-time rewards, and there was no standardized institutional guarantee. During The reign of Wang Mang, in order to win the hearts and minds of the people, it was stipulated that "those who are older than 2,000 stones in the world, participate in the old Lu, and live with one with them" (Book of Han), which means that after retiring, senior officials with more than 2,000 stones can enjoy one-third of the Feng Lu as a pension. However, this system was not preserved in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and what kind of treatment officials enjoyed after retirement depended entirely on the will of the emperor.
During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, political changes were frequent, and the retirement system was difficult to guarantee, and there were very few elderly officials. According to the Book of Wei, the Northern Wei chancellor Luo Jie "was one hundred and ten years old, and the edict was returned to the old age." After that, "whenever there is an important event in the imperial court, the stagecoach inquires about the visit" until "one hundred and twenty years old, died". He officially retired at the age of 110, and he advised the imperial court for another 10 years, which can really be called a high life. Although Emperor Xiaoming of Wei had decreed that at the end of the term of office of a local official, "those who have reached the end of their term of office have reached the end of their reign, and those who ask for more recounting may not perform according to the order", and "they may give this official half a lu for the rest of their lives." However, this edict was not really implemented with the division of the Northern Wei Dynasty.
In the Tang Dynasty, the official retirement system was formally established. The Tongdian records: "The Great Tang Order, the officials of the ministry, listened to the Seventy Zhishi." "Officials under six pins of retirement must apply through Shangshu Province, and will generally be approved." Officials with more than five pins are required to report directly to the emperor and be examined by the emperor himself. Officials of the Tang Dynasty could enjoy certain economic benefits after retirement, as recorded in the former "General Code": "Those who are seventy or more grades of service officials in the year of 70 and 5 products or more are given half Lu." That is, officials with more than five pins enjoy half of the pension of Feng Lu. Retired officials are also managed by special personnel. Retired officials in Beijing were managed by the Tongshishe of Liupin, "and the same is true of the ministers of the zhishi and the elders of the state." (Old Book of Tang). Retired officials outside Beijing are managed by local state and county governments.
The Song Dynasty still retained the system of retiring officials at the age of 70 and changed the voluntary application to compulsory retirement. The "History of Song" records that there was a letter from the imperial attendant Who suggested that "those who are more than seventy years old and do not ask for a letter from a civil and military official, Xu Yushitai should be impeached to hear." Physical condition has also become an important criterion for the retirement of officials, if it is true that they cannot serve for physical reasons, they can apply to the imperial court for early retirement, "although they are not yet seventy, but they are not old enough to do their duty, they also play it" ("The Class of The Government and the Wild"), similar to the current "sick retirement".
After the retirement of Song Dynasty officials, they generally enjoyed half of the Feng Lu, and a few meritorious ministers could still retain all the Feng Lu. In addition to enjoying the "pension", Song Dynasty officials would also be promoted to a higher rank when they retired, and the children of close relatives could also directly grant official positions, called "yin supplements". In addition, retired officials could also ask the imperial court to raise the ranks of their relatives in the imperial examination, known as the "Grace Case" policy, but there were still some officials who were obsessed with power and refused to retire, and some even "eighty years have not yet resigned" ("Song Hui To Be Compiled"). For this reason, the chancellor Lü Gongshu once wrote to the imperial court: "However, since this dynasty, although all those who have served have changed their official qualifications or promoted their children, there have always been few who are willing to retire at the age of old. In order to postpone retirement, some officials of the Song Dynasty did not hesitate to change their age, called the "official year". Song Ren Hongmai's "Rong Zhai Essays" recorded such a phenomenon, such as some people "although the spring and autumn passed seventy, but the official year lost five", some people "the actual year is seventy, and the official year is sixty-seven." ”
During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the retirement system for officials was more perfect and standardized, and the age basically followed the standard of 70 years old, but it would be adjusted according to the actual situation. For example, the Ming Dynasty stipulated that the year of beijing officials and civilian officials was seventy, the local officials were sixty-five, and the military attaches were sixty years old. In the "Retirement System" entry of the "New Decree of the Great Qing Dynasty and Guangxu", it is stipulated that the deputy general will be limited to sixty years old, the staff will be limited to fifty-four years old, the guerrilla will be limited to fifty-one years old, the capital division and garrison shall be limited to forty-eight years old, and the general and general will be limited to forty-five years old.
As for retirement benefits, the Ming Dynasty allocated corresponding grain and money every month according to the official rank, while the Qing Dynasty divided it into four grades according to the rank and meritorious service, such as "full feng", "half feng", "quarter feng" and "no feng". The Ming and Qing court generally encouraged retired officials to return to their hometowns, that is, to "tell the old people to return to their hometowns", and then wrote books and said that they would open academies and send love to landscapes and rivers... It can be said that it is a new stage of life.
(Source: Beijing Evening News, March 26, 2021, 32nd edition; author: Liu Jiang; source: The official website of the Palace Museum)