Chapter 3 3. Huge benefits for Beijing officials
Suburb gift is the heat provided by the imperial court to the majority of Beijing officials.
On the one hand, scholars become officials to honor their ancestors, and on the other hand, they can obtain superior material life. The popular saying is that "being an official for thousands of miles is only for wealth", and the official name is "the book has its own golden house".It can be seen that the primary goal of being an official is to obtain wealth first, and then to display political ambitions.The suburban gift is a good opportunity provided by the imperial court for officials to get money reasonably and legally.
The low official salary in the Song Dynasty was the highest in all Chinese dynasties. In the fourth year of Zhenzong Xianping (1001), Yang Yishang commented on the low official salary and said: "The left and right servants are the teachers of hundreds of bureaucrats, and their monthly salary is not as high as that of thousands of soldiers in the army." Handsome, don’t you mean ancient times?” The salary of a deputy prime minister is not as high as that of a mid-level military officer.From then on, civil servants in the Song Dynasty began to raise their salaries.
The salaries of officials in the Northern Song Dynasty roughly consisted of three major components: first, regular salaries, how much salary was paid for any official and at what level; Material (similar to car allowance, oil allowance), tea soup money, envoy money (similar to entertainment expenses), etc.; Rice noodles, cattle and sheep, etc. "History of the Song Dynasty Official Records" records: Bao Zheng (who was then the governor of Kaifeng, equivalent to the mayor of the capital) had an annual income of 2180 shi for rice, 180 shi for wheat, 10 silk, 34 silk, and 2 horses , 100 taels of cotton, 15 pings of charcoal (15 jins per ping), 240 bundles of firewood, and 480 bundles of hay.Converting these objects into money, Bao Zheng’s annual salary is about 21,878 copper coins, which is equivalent to more than 10 million yuan.
The salaries of officials in the Northern Song Dynasty were already very high, but every festival, emperor’s birthday, minister’s appointment or death, emperor’s death, etc., the imperial court would make additional representations, collectively referred to as “suburb gifts”, including rewards, favors, etc.There is no fixed amount of money, more or less, but Zhao Guan's family will never be shabby.
Zhao Kuangyin likes to hunt birds in the imperial garden, and he is having a good time. The minister has an urgent government report.Zhao Kuangyin hurriedly summoned him, but it turned out to be an ordinary matter, and Long Yan was not happy.The minister thinks this matter is far more important than hunting birds.Zhao Kuangyin took the jade ax he carried with him and knocked out the minister's two front teeth.The minister quietly found his front teeth and put them in his arms.Zhao Kuangyin asked him, are you going to sue me for picking up teeth?The minister replied that he could not sue His Majesty, and he had his own historian to write it down.Zhao Kuangyin "turned his anger into joy" and gave him some gold and silk.
This story recorded in "Sushui Jiwen" shows that the emperor's rewards to individual courtiers are full of randomness and uncertainty.However, large-scale suburban grants are given every three years, with a fixed time, and the money is very rich, just like the welfare of the unit.Privy envoys offering sacrifices to heaven in the suburbs rewarded four thousand taels of silver and silk, three thousand taels of slaughter, and so on.Li Fu was the envoy of the third division and gave three thousand taels of silver.Li Hang, Song Shi, and Wang Huajichu were You Suiyi (the emperor's advisor), and each gave three million yuan.Yang Huizhi moved to serve as the imperial envoy and gave him 300,000 yuan.Wei Tingwu gave 500,000 yuan as a transit envoy.Song Tuan was a doctor of Guozi, and he gave 300,000 yuan and so on.During the reign of Emperor Zhenzong, Lei You finally quelled the rebellion of King Jun in Sichuan, and rewarded him with two thousand guan.
In the history of the Northern Song Dynasty, there were seven financial records, three surpluses, three deficits, and one balance of profit and loss, among which the subsidy expenses accounted for a large proportion, as shown in the following table:
This is a reasonable and legal opportunity for officials to take money. They are not afraid of being interrogated by the supervisory agency, and they can take it with absolute peace of mind. No one will refuse the free gold and silver.As the saying goes, the world is bustling with profit coming and going, and the primary goal of a scholar entering an official position is to make a fortune.The prosperity of the capital, with its unique political advantages, attracts everyone to try their luck.Xinke Jinshi naturally understands this.I have seen many people, know a lot of people, have a broad mind, and have a new view on official career.For a new scholar, only by working in the central government can he catch up with the huge official benefits.Working in the local area, the organization will give a few buckets of rice at most during the New Year's Day, so it is difficult to get such a generous bonus.The above table shows that during Taizong's reign, the money bestowed on the suburbs had reached a quarter of the treasury's revenue.As a result, the big officials have a lot of money, and it is a drop in the bucket to be assigned to the Shinke Scholars, but this "salary" is enough to make the Shinke Scholars rejoice and make colleagues who are officials outside salivate.
Of course, some officials choose to be a chicken head rather than a phoenix tail. They would rather be a "chicken head" in a remote area than a follower with no real power in the capital. boldness.This sentence is completely unacceptable in the officialdom. After all, the head of a chicken is a chicken. When will it fly to the branches and become a phoenix?I am afraid that it is not the ideal of scholar-bureaucrats to benefit one party forever, let alone the ultimate goal of being an official.Although the phoenix tail is a tail, it grows on the body of the phoenix after all, and its status as a symbol of nobility will not change. The advantage of staying in the court is obvious.It's like the shooting guard on the basketball court usually chooses to break through, go to the basket and score a layup. The closer to the basket, the higher the shooting rate and the higher the score.Therefore, staying in the court has unique advantages both in politics and in life.
Therefore, Jiaoci is the primary reason why officials prefer to stay in the central government as "phoenix tail".
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