Title: An Approach to the System of Emperors' Favours to Civil and Military Officials in the Northern Song Dynasty
Abstract: It was very popular to become officials by the emperors' favours in the Northern Song Dynasty. The descendents of the officials stepped mostly into the official circle not by the imperial examinations,but by the emperors' favours for various reasons.In this way they were replenished as the formal or appended officials,scholar officials collating books and compiling their dynastic history,officials on probation or got the same status as the successful candidates in the highest imperial examinations.During the Reign of Emperor Ren Zong,faced with the flood of emperors' favours,Fan Zhong Yan worked out a scheme restraining such favours.However,the Scheme restraining emperors' favours was in nature a measure of amelioration. According to its content, the scheme was based on patronizing the profits of the great bureaucrats and their relatives. So the Scheme was greatly characterized as compromise and concession.The revised methods of emperors'favours,made during the Cong Ning and Zheng He period, did not yet get out of the frame of Favouring the aristocratsand Favouring relativesin the guiding ideology. The result of the enperors'overflowing favours in Northern Song Dynasty made the malpraetice of redunant officials more heavier,brought out the decline of whole quality of officials and corrupted the social and political life.
Publication Year: 2002
Publication Date: 2002-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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