Officials are actually a combination of official and official. Although the two words often appear together, they are fundamentally two different things.
In the Qin and Han Dynasties, officials were the same as each other. Officials were officials, and officials were officials. There was no difference.
But by the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, officials and officials had completely drawn a clear line.
Officials, that is the top grade, superior to others, that is, "there are no low-grade people in the top grade".
As for officials, they are of lower rank and have a humble and lowly career. That is to say, "low rank has no high door".
During the Tang, Song and Ming dynasties, officials were essentially servants, also called subordinate officials. Some people joked:
Officials are like big fish and officials are small fish, and the people who have enough food are depressed. Officials are like tigers, and officials are like cats. They are specific and lick people's ointment slightly.
In the yamen of the Ming Dynasty, there were officials, bureaucrats, and officials.
Among them, Guan is the principal position, which is the chief officer; Liao is the deputy position, Zuer, that is, the subordinate of the official, and Li is the clerk.
Officials and bureaucrats are both officials, and they have levels, such as the seventh rank of county magistrate, the eighth rank of county magistrate, and the ninth rank of chief clerk. The power of appointment and dismissal comes from the imperial court, and what they receive is the imperial salary.
However, officials have no rank and are "not of the upper class". There is no such thing as a court salary.
All food and drink expenses come from the Yamen. For example, if a piece of the yamen's treasury is allocated to these people, it is common for the county magistrate to deprive you of salary for several months if he dislikes someone, has a bad temper, and is greedy.
In later generations, people often talked about bureaucracy, but no one ever talked about officialism.
The reason is very simple. Bureaucrats are all regular staff, while subordinate staff are just part-time workers and outside the staff. For example, those Zaoli, Ma Kuai, jailers, disciples, gangsters, grain messengers and patrol camp guards are all lowly servants.
When the magistrate is displeased, he always calls him "dog official".
There is a reason why the magistrate looks down on these people, because they can only be officials, themselves and their children. They are not even qualified for the imperial examination. If they want to enter the establishment from outside the establishment, there is no way to even think about it.
For these subordinate officials, orthodox officials sneered and shouted at them.
But here comes the problem.
No matter how much the county magistrate looks down on subordinate staff, he still needs these people to do his work.
You can't just stand guard by yourself, conduct autopsies to find out the perpetrators, and collect grain and judge cases.
Specialized people are required to take charge, and these people who are responsible for doing miscellaneous services are subordinate officials.
Subordinate officials rely on their expertise to serve the yamen. Although they have no official establishment, they still need to support their families.
Where does the money come from?
The county government comes out.
Where does the money for the county government come from?
The court gave.
How much will the court give?
Oh, seven shi meters a month.
The magistrate looked back at the rice vat. There were still about seven hundred kilograms left. How about you, the thirty or so subordinate staff, move it away and divide it?
The subordinates carried the sacks, weighing twenty kilograms each, and returned home with tears on their faces. The children cried out that they were hungry, and the wives clamored to go back to their parents' homes. When the father saw this little rice, he sighed and decided that today No more meals.
A big family can't survive on twenty kilograms of rice a month?
So, the subordinate officials got together and planned to create another tax item this year and collect it from house to house. The official did not agree? When the time comes, he will take the big head and we will take the small head. Why should he not agree?
Besides, the officials in the iron-clad yamen who work hard will quit after three years of service. We are going to stay here for generations to come, how can we starve to death here?
It is precisely because of this that the harm of subordinate officials in the Ming Dynasty was very serious, and corruption was even more rampant. No matter how many heads Zhu Yuanzhang killed, there were still people who were corrupt.
You can't live without greed.
You, Lao Zhu, know that you feel sorry for your son. The prince can easily earn tens of thousands of stones in salary, but what about us?
Dozens of households only have seventy or eighty shi of rice, how do you expect us to live?
If you are not greedy, you will be a beggar, your whole family will be beggars, and maybe a few children will starve to death.
If you are greedy, you can survive, your children can survive, and your subordinates can survive.
What do you think you should choose?
We can only exploit the people at the bottom, engage in corruption and accept bribes, what can we do!
The thin salary system has huge flaws. If this flaw cannot be solved, it will be impossible to fundamentally weaken and suppress the motivation of officials to commit corruption.
After all, what an official wants is not only a good life for oneself, but also for one’s parents, wife, children.
Now the imperial court wants to implement a whip method, and it also wants to move land and curb annexation. This will directly attack the officials and subordinate staff from the root, making it more difficult for these people to attack.
There is no way to create a clever name, and there is no way to recruit people's power at will.
If the people cannot be exploited, there will be no source of income. Without the source of income, these subordinate officials will starve to death, or simply go home to farm.
In order to stabilize the government, stabilize the morale of officials, and also to prevent the smooth implementation of land annexation, it is necessary to improve the thin salary system and take the lives of subordinate officials into consideration.
Huang Zicheng and Xia Yuanji only spent one night and compiled a new salary system, which was based on the salary of Hongwu for 20 years and increased by nearly 50%.
The monthly salary for the first grade was raised from eighty-seven stones to one hundred and thirty stones... The monthly salary for the seventh grade was raised from seven stones and five buckets to twelve stones... The monthly salary for the ninth grade was raised from five stones to seven stones and five buckets.
Except for the scribes who enjoy the ninth-grade treatment, the monthly salary for the subordinate officials in the government office ranges from seven to five stones.
The new salary establishment is not simply a 50% increase. It also needs to take into account national tax revenue, the total salary expenditures of court officials, and the living conditions of lower-level subordinates.
After the cabinet review, they unanimously believed that the new salary system was appropriate, and Huang Zicheng and Xia Yuanji delivered it to Wuyingdian.
Zhu Yunwen looked at the new salary system, frowned, and asked: "Is five stones for a subordinate official enough for his daily expenses?"
Xia Yuanji bowed and said: "Your Majesty, the income from five stones is not only enough, but also has a surplus. If converted into silver taels, his annual salary can reach thirty taels, which is similar to the income of ninth-grade officials in previous years."
Zhu Yunwen thought about it, agreed with Xia Yuanji's words, and asked Huang Zicheng: "How much does it increase by including subordinate officials in the imperial salary? Can the Ministry of Household Affairs sustain it?"
Huang Zicheng's mouth was a little bitter as he said: "Your Majesty, the number of subordinate staff is far greater than that of court officials. Today, the total number of civil and military officials in the imperial court is only thirty thousand, while the Ming Dynasty has 1,427 county offices, ranging from thirty to large. There are hundreds of people, which is equivalent to fifty people, which is more than 70,000. In previous years, the official salary support was 4.5 million dan. If subordinate officials are added, it will need to increase by 4.2 million dan, which is only the annual salary. At least nine million stones."
Nine million stones!
In previous years, the imperial court's total agricultural tax was only 3,279 dan!
In addition to officials, the clan also had to receive salaries, which cost at least more than one million dan a year.
This would mean that the court would need to spend more than one-third of its money on wages every year.
The Ministry of War needs to take away three hundred shi every year. This is still under the Wei system, and the military camp does not need much food from the court. With the promotion of the new army strategy and the research of new tactics, the expenditure of the Ministry of War will increase exponentially, and for the time being it will be calculated as eight million stones.
In addition to the three major items of royal family, official salary, and military expenditure, three million stones are needed every year to maintain water transportation, one million stones are used for relief, and there are a bunch of miscellaneous expenditures, such as rewards, harem expenses, shipbuilding, etc. Building palaces, mausoleums, etc. requires at least five to six million stones.
At the end of the year, there will probably be four million shi left in the central fiscal books.
If we want to fight a war and recruit an army of 300,000 people, we will need to prepare at least 800,000 shi of food and grass for four months. In order to support these armies, three times as many civilians need to be transported, and these people also need to eat...
After a battle, I looked at the ledger and realized, hey, I have no money, maybe I need a credit.
Where can I get money on credit?
Haven’t the monthly salaries of the courtiers been paid yet?
Deduct it...
Such was the miserable finances of the Ming Dynasty that there was a farce in the history of the Ming Dynasty of using peppercorns, star anise and other spices to deduct salary...
