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Text: Xiao Hei

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introduction

With the broadcast of various film and television dramas, many people have become interested in the ancient official system of the mainland. Since the system of officials in ancient times was different from that of modern times, it is difficult to make a quick comparison.

Take the prefect as an example, this is an official position that often appears in costume film and television dramas, and it basically belongs to the "local boss", so what level will such a position be now?

Because the system and power of feudal society are different from those of modern times, it cannot only be judged by the level of officials, but also from many aspects such as power and nature.

(Chifu)

1. The official system of the Qing Dynasty

Because the Ming and Qing dynasties both had the position of prefect, but the grades were different, so the system of the Qing Dynasty is compared here.

The official system of the Qing Dynasty was mainly maintained by two systems, the first was the familiar nine grades and eighteen levels, and the officials of the Qing Dynasty were divided into nine grades, and each grade had two levels: "Zheng and Cong"; and the second set was the two systems of the central and local governments, which were mutually restrained and relatively independent.

Because today's discussion is mainly about local prefects, the main reference object is the nineteenth grade and eighteenth level.

(Ancient Officials)

In the Qing Dynasty's nine-rank eighteen-level, the position of the prefect was from the fourth rank, relying on the subordinates of the Taoist and the Fucheng, but in terms of power, the prefect had independent administrative power: "the decree of the government".

Mainly responsible for dealing with all kinds of affairs in the house, belonging to the "parent official" level, power to the sky, and the prefect's promotion is very promising, if the political performance is excellent, basically can be promoted to the fourth grade of the Taoist and from the third grade of the salt transport history.

Second, the modern official system

In modern society, the mainland abolished the official system of the ancient feudal period and adopted a new official rank system, which is divided into 10 levels, from the first-level cadres at the national level to the 10-level cadres at the township level.

Among them, the first to fifth levels are senior cadres, which is a watershed in the mainland official system, and the mayors that we often have access to belong to the fifth level of senior cadres.

(Ancient Officials)

Compared with the classification of officials in ancient times, the official system is now more clear and concise, and at the same time more detailed, and there are many categories in charge of ancient officials, which is equivalent to the current education bureau, health bureau, public security bureau, etc., all under the management of one official, so the actual power and status of ancient officials are much greater than that of modern officials.

So what position is the prefect of the Qing Dynasty equivalent to now? This should be compared from many aspects.

3. What position is the prefect equivalent to?

First of all, the scope of power, that is, the scope of jurisdiction, the prefect is naturally "the land of one government", so how big was the "government" of the Qing Dynasty? The administrative division in ancient times was slightly different from that of modern times, and the scope of the jurisdiction of the ancient government was roughly equivalent to that of the current prefecture-level cities, for example, Guangdong Province had ten prefectures during the Qing Dynasty, so can the prefect be equal to the current mayor or secretary of the municipal party committee?

(Ancient Officials)

According to the "Qing Historical Manuscript", the scope of the prefect's power is: "to take charge of the county, to declare the doctrine, to promote the benefit and eliminate the harm, and to decide the lawsuit and prosecute the adulterer".

It can be seen that the prefect has very much power within the scope of a prefecture and can control almost everything, so the actual power of the prefect is far greater than that of the mayor and the secretary of the municipal party committee.

Therefore, to judge the specific situation of the prefect, it is necessary to refer to it from two aspects, the first is the upper level, the previous level of the prefect is the history of salt transportation, although the history of salt transportation is from the three products, but its target is the Shuntian Mansion Yin, according to the inspection of the special three products, these positions have a special status, and belong to the central officials.

(Ancient Officials)

Therefore, the history of salt transportation can actually be equivalent to the current governor, according to this logic, the status of the prefect is probably equivalent to the current vice governor, that is, the vice minister level (provincial and ministerial level deputy position), for example, the current vice governor of Anhui Province is the deputy stock level.

The second is promotion, as long as the prefect's political performance is enough, it can become a very "smooth" salt transportation history, that is, from the position of Sanpin, which means that the prefect in the Qing Dynasty official position is very large in terms of promotion mechanism and power.

On the other hand, looking at the current official positions in the mainland, even if an ordinary clerk has excellent political achievements, the mayor and secretary of the municipal party committee are basically the ceiling, so the prefect can completely benchmark the deputy ministerial level, not the department and bureau level, and reach the fourth level of official positions in the mainland.

(Ancient Officials)

However, what can really distinguish the power of the prefect is the conditions of office, according to the records, the prefect's conditions are: "Jingcha first-class, release the prefect". To put it simply, if you want to serve as a prefect, you don't want to rise step by step from a position such as a prefect, but now you are in the central government, and you can only serve as a prefect after a lot of inspections and the emperor's approval.

As a result, although the prefect is a local official, it actually belongs to the central faction, which leads to the prefect becoming a "chasm" that keeps all local officials firmly out.

Therefore, in many costume film and television dramas, there seems to be a heavenly curse between the fifth-grade officials and the fourth-grade officials, no matter what kind of prestige they have in the local area, it is even more difficult for a fifth-grade official to enter the fourth-grade official.

(Ancient Officials)

And the emperor will almost never appoint officials below the fourth rank, because the official positions below the fourth rank can go through the normal review process, but from the fourth rank, they must be directly appointed by the emperor.

Although the prefect of Sipin can be compared with the current vice-ministerial level, in fact, the power of the prefect is far greater than that of the current vice-minister, because the prefect is the position of commander, and other affairs can be directly decided except for national affairs. Finally, it is enough to report it upwards, which is why corruption was so serious in ancient times.

After all, a prefect can cover the sky with one hand, and the wealth of many prefects is even more than that of second-grade officials in the court.

(Ancient Officials)

epilogue

The gap between ancient officials and modern officials is very large, a small seven-grade official, will become a local "parent official", not to mention the prefect this kind of "big official", if we see the mayor on the road, the secretary of the municipal party committee and other officials, you can skip it directly without greeting, but in ancient times it was completely different.

It is necessary for civilians to kneel when they see officials, and it is difficult for civilians to refute anything the officials say, which can be said: "I say that you are guilty, you are guilty", so in ancient times, civilians often added the word "master" after the title of officials.

In areas that cannot be temporarily covered by the imperial power, the official is the sky, and he is better at speaking than the emperor's order, and in terms of deterrence, the deterrent power of a prefect is almost comparable to the current vice-state level.

(Ancient Officials)

Resources

Baidu Encyclopedia.Prefect (ancient Chinese official name). [OL].

Baidu Encyclopedia.Qing Dynasty Bureaucracy. [OL].

The most complete list of Chinese cadre levels and positions! (Collector's Edition). [OL]. 2022-04-19