China has been a country with a large population since ancient times, but the phenomenon of aging of the social population is also becoming more and more serious, in the traditional virtues of the Chinese nation, the spirit of respecting the elderly has been engraved in the hearts of Chinese since ancient times, accompanied by the birth of the younger generation, there will inevitably be a group of people entering the old age, the emergence of a large number of elderly people has brought a heavier burden to the society and the family, therefore, how to treat the support of the elderly population has become a standard to measure whether a country and social development is perfect or not. It is also the criterion of whether a country is strong.
Therefore, in China's dynasties and dynasties, the pension system has become the most important part of national construction, among them, the pension system of the Tang Dynasty has gradually formed a set of relatively complete social pension system and social pension welfare after absorbing the experience of the previous dynasty, which better solved the aging of the population in society at that time, met the material and spiritual needs of the elderly, and promoted the development of the country and society.
First, in the Tang Dynasty, what kind of age is counted as the elderly and the basic pension situation
In order to make it easier to collect taxes, the ancient ruling class divided the population into different groups according to different age groups, and the Han Dynasty policy stipulated that the legal working age was reached at the age of twenty, and by the age of sixty, they could no longer engage in agricultural work, and the state would also exempt them from the tax of servitude.
The Tang Dynasty basically continued the standard vertebrae of the division of the elderly population in the previous dynasty, for ordinary civilians, basically the elderly population is based on sixty years old as the main criterion, for government workers, it is seventy years old as the retirement standard, which is also the biggest difference with civilians. There is also a detailed division of the objects of the elderly.
In the Tang Dynasty, there were two basic division views, one of which was four classification methods, that is, the representatives of the elderly who were congratulated by the emperor, the elderly family members of those who sacrificed their lives for the country, the retired government officials and the ordinary elderly, and the second classification method had two classifications, that is, according to the level of status, the higher status was the national elder, and the lower status was the elderly.
According to the relevant information, the number of elderly people in the Tang Dynasty is not much, the pressure of old-age care is not large, so the corresponding old-age measures and welfare are relatively perfect, the Old-age care in the Tang Dynasty belongs to a kind of etiquette norms, specifically by the local competent government agencies for the elderly to hold a kind of respect for the elderly ceremony activities, activities mainly include pension ceremonies and township drinking ceremonies, followed by the state ruling class issued by the relevant pension edicts, in order to meet the requirements of the elderly for material rewards and spiritual condolences.
1. In the Tang Dynasty pension system, there were government pension officials who were specifically responsible for the implementation of social pension measures
In order to better implement the emperor's pension order and the pension system, the Tang Dynasty government set up a special official responsible for this matter, and the establishment of the government pension official, which has appeared since the Zhou Dynasty, is called "Great Situ", which is mainly responsible for the affairs of social pension disaster relief.
According to the "Tang Six Classics", the pension official of the Tang Dynasty government is the county order, and the establishment of this position is to cooperate with the better implementation of various national pension measures, mainly responsible for entertaining the elderly who come to the banquet at the township drinking ceremony, and the filial piety of respecting the elderly and loving the elderly is better publicized in the society, and it is necessary to always pay attention to the pension problems in the areas under their management and the quality of life of the elderly.
For those who live in poverty, widows and widows should implement corresponding welfare measures such as pensions, solve the basic material needs of the elderly in life, and the perfection of these aspects is directly linked to the performance appraisal of officials, there are strict reward and punishment measures, in addition to the government pension officials who are specifically responsible for the pension problem, Tang Xuanzong also proposed that pension and pension is the job of local officials, which is something that all people who hold official positions must care about.
And it shows that the pension work is a serious work that local officials must take seriously, and it is precisely because there are many serious and responsible government pension officials that the elderly can fully enjoy the government's pension benefits.
2. The Tang Dynasty had different pension models and corresponding legal provisions for the elderly of different classes
In addition to the various ceremonial activities held by the government, the most important thing is the children of the elderly to support them, Tang Dynasty also has a detailed specification for this, first, the family is its most important part of the society, so the family pension is the most important, the son is the main bearer of the family pension, the Tang Dynasty government in order to let more people know filial piety, vigorously encourage those who have outstanding performance in the pension of filial piety, in order to cultivate the social pension atmosphere, because the son is its main obligation bearer, Therefore, the Tang government tried its best to maintain that every household had a young and strong labor force.
In addition, for the elderly who have no offspring, they are allowed to adopt a protégé and buy a child to prevent the elderly, and the sons in both cases have the obligation to support the elderly. In addition to men, women in the Tang Dynasty were also an important part of the family pension, many women were well known to the world because of supporting the elderly, and the concept of women's pension has been transformed into an inherent moral requirement.
In order to provide better protection for the family pension, the Tang Dynasty law stipulates that the elderly over the age of eighty in the family must have special young people to support, and the older they are, the more young people are matched, this system is called the service system, the waiter, that is, the waiter, refers to the young people who support a specific elderly person, and the person who becomes a waiter can be exempted from many labor taxes.
Whether it is a child in the family or a waiter, for those who do not fulfill their old-age duties, they will be severely punished by the law, and the law also has other care for the elderly, such as the elderly will not be punished too harshly after breaking the law, and the elderly can inherit the same family property as the young people.
Second, for the retirement pension of government officials, it is called the Zhishi system, seventy years old to reach the age of Zhishi, the elderly officials can also apply, in advance to tell the old people to return to their hometowns, these people have outstanding contributions to the country before Zhishi, so the Tang Dynasty government for the zhishi people's pension benefits are more abundant, the emperor will implement the reward for the promotion of the zhishi people, although there is no real power, but also has a fairly high status and economic treatment, and can still enjoy the Feng Lu, so the zhishi people after retirement, With these benefits, the pension life is basically relatively leisurely and self-sufficient.
3. The Establishment of official pension institutions carried out by the Tang Dynasty government in order to better guarantee social old-age care
However, there are still some homeless homeless elderly people or poor orphans who have lost their ability to work and have no one in their homes, for this reason, the Tang Dynasty government has carried out a series of welfare measures, the most important of which is the construction of related rescue institutions, known as "sick workshops", the Tang Dynasty's sick workshops were originally only built near the monasteries in big cities, and county officials and supervisors jointly managed the relevant affairs of the sick workshops, there were officials responsible for the daily operation of the sick workshops, and there were also officials responsible for supervising the sick workshops. The main role of the sick house is to help those poor homeless orphans.
In particular, the elderly who have lost their ability to take care of themselves in daily life and the elderly who have no one to take care of them provide them with basic material living conditions free of charge, a bit like today's nursing home institutions, but nursing homes need the elderly to pay their own money, and the main economic source of this sick workshop institution is from government funding.
In the later gradual development, the sick workshop is no longer limited to a few specific locations, but gradually to the country's cities and towns and townships, the formation of a relatively perfect social pension welfare system, the elderly in the Tang Dynasty is basically in a state of "being packaged", but some of the elderly who are rescued must also engage in some simple labor according to the situation, on the one hand, a little to reduce the pressure of the ward institution, on the other hand, it is also to enrich the daily life of the elderly, so that their old age life is not so boring.
Therefore, in general, the establishment of the sick workshop institution enabled the elderly in the Tang Dynasty to live a better and stable life in their old age, so that they were old and dependent, so that at that time it was a relatively complete government charity pension institution.
Because the comprehensive national strength of the Tang Dynasty was extremely strong at that time, the country and social development had good achievements, so the ruling class of the Tang Dynasty paid more and more attention to the problem of pension in society, and successive emperors attached great importance to the development of the national pension security system, of which Tang Taizong and Tang Xuanzong issued pension edicts far more than other emperors, and attached great importance to the welfare security of the old-age pension.
The Tang Dynasty inherited the previous pension policy of the previous dynasty, on this basis there has been a certain development and progress, the most direct of which is the emphasis of the ruler, due to the environment of Guotai Min'an, the Tang Dynasty rulers attach far more importance to the pension problem than the previous dynasty; followed by the relevant provisions of the pension system and the formulation of laws in more detail.
The Tang Dynasty for the different classes, different ages of the elderly, the formulation of material rewards and related measures are more detailed, and the implementation of the pension policy is more specific and effective; and the scope of the implementation of the old-age welfare is wider, basically so that the elderly in the country have been better guaranteed on the issue of old-age care.
In addition to the guarantee of material life, more attention is paid to the care of the spiritual life of the elderly, and the elderly life is improved; thus gradually making the old-age measures more institutionalized, orderly and legal, so that the old-age system becomes more mature.
Under the rule of the rulers of the Tang Dynasty, social stability, the country is strong, and various welfare measures have gradually emerged, improving and developing on top of the pension system of the former dynasty, forming a set of mature pension system system for the whole society, which can take care of the old age of the elderly from all aspects, so that the elderly in the Tang Dynasty do not have to worry about the old age in their later years, so that the filial piety culture is inherited and publicized in society and in various families, although the Pension System of the Tang Dynasty is also flawed, but it is still the progress of that era. There is still a certain enlightening effect on the construction of China's current social old-age security system.