Historical Studies (Chinese Edition)

No.5, 2015

 

The Division and Correspondence between Officials and Their Positions in the Tang and Song Dynasties: A Dynamic Study of Institutional History

(Abstract)

 

Gong Yanming

 

Traditional research on institutional history usually focuses on fixed bureaucratic institutions. In the course of their implementation, however, such systems constantly give rise to expedient or “flexible” systems. Fixed and static systems collide with and complement expedient and flexible systems, constituting the two major elements in bureaucratic development. In studying bureaucracy, we need to combine the two, and here we can make the division and correspondence between officials and their posts in the Tang and Song dynasties the subject of our research. The division between officials and the duties of their posts started in the Tang Dynasty in the reign of Emperor Gaozong. During the middle and later Tang Dynasty, a “chaotic” situation arose in which officials’ titles did not match their duties with officials with fixed duties were replaced by officials specifically appointed. The Song Dynasty inherited this system from the Tang and increased the distance between officials and the positions they held, making the separation of official, his duties and his assignment an unwritten norm. It was not until the Yuanfeng Era that the institutional reforms of the Song Emperor Shenzong ended this chaotic situation, allowing “officials to return to the duties of their positions” with the establishment of a new bureaucratic system under which they were to perform their respective duties according to their titles and positions. The 430-year history of the division and correspondence between officials and their official duties is a representative example of the interaction between the fixed official system and its flexible counterpart.