Palace system in Tang dynasty

The hierarchy of civil and military officials in Tang Dynasty

The administrative organs of the Tang Dynasty inherited the Sui Dynasty, with three provinces and six departments as the core. On this basis, according to historical practice and experience, some institutions with executive, supervisory, attendant or other functions were derived, which together constituted the official system in the Tang Dynasty.

The decision-making and execution institutions of political affairs in Tang Dynasty were Zhongshu, Menxia and Shangshu provinces. Generally speaking, Zhongshu Province is responsible for issuing imperial edicts. In the Tang Dynasty, Zhongshu Province was once called Neishu Province, Xitai Province, Fengge Province and Wei Zi Province, and its chief executive, Zhongshuling, usually served as an assistant minister and participated in the decision-making of military affairs. His subordinate assistant minister Zhongshu was the deputy of the book governor in the junior middle school of Tang Dynasty, and was appointed as the prime minister in the time of the marquis of Wu. This situation became a routine after the Anshi Rebellion, so the assistant minister of Zhongshu was actually divorced from the daily affairs of Zhongshu Province.

The drafting of the most important imperial edict in Zhongshu Province was mainly undertaken by the Zhongshu Sheren in Tang Dynasty. Zhongshu * * * has 6 members and is also responsible for the secretarial affairs of the Premier's Meeting. Because the drafting of imperial edicts is of great significance, actually participating in the military requires not only high literary talent, but also good political talent. Therefore, the Tang Dynasty attached great importance to the position of China Calligrapher, which was regarded as the highest position held by literary scholars. In addition, Zhongshu Province also set up two people to record the words and deeds of the emperor and the contents of the imperial edict; Appoint sixteen people to be responsible for the court etiquette and convey the imperial edict; There are two to six admonishers, namely, right riding a regular waiter, right admonishing a doctor, right filling a vacancy, and right gleaning, who criticize and make suggestions on state affairs.

Menxia Province was once called Dongtai, Luantai and Huangmen Province in the Tang Dynasty. Responsible for reviewing and refuting the imperial edict, that is, having the power to reply to the imperial edict and reject the official seal. In fact, this power was mainly exercised by provincial officials in the Tang Dynasty, and there were generally four people in the office. Assistant governors and assistant vice governors usually hold the post of prime minister. Although the imperial edicts were examined and signed as usual, they rarely exercised the right of criticism. During the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, Hengli was appointed Assistant Minister of the Yellow Gate. "When I was at the door, I refuted a lot of things. At the beginning of Kaiyuan, Yao Chong was appointed as assistant minister of Wei Zi, and I recommended him as assistant minister of Wei Zi. In fact, I led it myself, and I was deprived of the right to correct my rebuttal. " It can be seen that the assistant minister's exercise of the right of refutation, because of his high status, has a certain inhibitory effect on the promulgation of imperial edicts in Zhongshu Province (Wei Zi Province), so that the governor of Zhongshu Province has to be cautious. Like Zhongshu Province, there are also admonishers in Xiamen Province, each with two to six people, including Zuo Chang Shi, Zuo Jian's doctor, Zuo Bu Kui, Zuo Shi Yi, etc., who are responsible for commenting and suggesting the gains and losses of the court's various decisions. In addition, corresponding to Zhongshu province, there are two living lang in Menxia province, who are responsible for the record of government affairs and the record of emperor's words and deeds and imperial edicts.

In order to facilitate decision-making activities, Zhongshu and Menxia provinces have also set up some subordinate institutions and official positions respectively. Among them, the most important ones are: the Jixian Temple Academy saved by Zhongshu and the Hong Wen Pavilion saved by the door. These two institutions have a large number of books, which have the nature of royal libraries and can be used for reference by emperors, prime ministers and other officials. The History Museum, which belongs to Xiamen Province at the beginning and Zhongshu Province later, is responsible for the compilation of national history. Fu Baolang, who belongs to a province, is in charge of Jeff's various seals.

Following the Sui system in the Tang Dynasty, officials were divided into nine grades, each of which was divided into positive and subordinate grades, and * * * was eighteen grades. Civil servants are below the four standards, and officers are below the three standards, which are also divided into two levels. So there were actually 30 civil servants and 32 military attaché s in the Tang Dynasty. These ranks are always called officials in ranks, and they are official civil and military officials. In addition, there are nine outflow products, which actually belong to officials, not to the official scope of officials. The official titles of scattered officials roughly correspond to their ranks, indicating that their status and seniority are promotion sequences.