The Moon in the Qin Dynasty

Chapter 706 Customization (Part )

These two booklets give detailed notes on many aspects such as the establishment of official posts, officials' duties, ranks and honors, salaries and benefits, rituals, music, and costumes.

Salary refers to the salary of officials, which is paid quarterly according to rank and is currently calculated only in terms of grain.

Salary is the welfare benefits of officials, which are determined according to their titles. On the one hand, it refers to the power that can be possessed and the standards that can be enjoyed. On the other hand, it refers to the money, cloth, silk, tea, salt, wine, treasures, etc. distributed during festivals and special holidays.

These treatments must be viewed in conjunction with the previous land system.

As for the salaries of officials, this part is relatively fixed, and the standard given by Ying Zheng is not low. At least it can allow officials to live a life of abundance and without worries about food and clothing.

As for the salary, it is definitely to allow officials to live a decent and glorious life.

In addition to the various incomes such as land that officials can obtain, as well as the generous rewards for senior officials, they are enough to allow them to live a life that matches their status.

High salaries may not necessarily lead to integrity, but low salaries certainly won’t.

It is human nature for people to become officials thousands of miles away just for money, to work hard all their lives, to gain a little wealth and enjoy themselves, and then to leave some property for their descendants.

Ying Zheng was not stupid enough to talk about serving the people in an era when the country was ruled by a family. This was too stupid and would lead to the destruction of the country and the dynasty.

Only when the noble officials have eaten and drunk enough can they avoid thinking about getting full in other ways.

Only by allowing aristocratic officials to live decently can moral norms and rules be formulated to allow them to maintain this decency instead of wantonly exploiting and tormenting the people.

Life will seek its own way to survive, and power will seek its own wealth and honor.

Ying Zheng also knew very well that no matter how much he gave, he could not prevent corruption and lawlessness from happening, but this was by no means a reason not to give.

If it is not given, corruption and lawlessness will only become more rampant.

Saints and wise men are always a minority, so rare that even one that appears deserves to be praised for all eternity.

The majority of people are ordinary people who drift in this world.

If we only talk about morality without talking about treatment, society will soon become a hypocritical society.

The people’s will is also human nature.

The only thing we can do is to give more on the one hand, and on the other hand, impose severe punishments and strict supervision to prevent it from becoming rotten.

Any regime will eventually become rotten, and Ying Zheng only hoped that it wouldn’t happen so quickly.

Needless to say, the nobility has not changed much, just the title has changed. The rights and interests enjoyed by the nobility are almost the same as the honorific title.

There are three types of inheritance of titles. One is simple conferment of title. When the person dies, the title cannot be inherited, but the descendants will generally be granted an official position as a sign of the emperor's grace.

The second type is hereditary succession with downgraded inheritance. If it is a first-class marquis, it will be passed on to his son as a first-class earl, and there is also the "two-son system".

The third type is hereditary and uninterrupted, from generation to generation. The son will have the same title as the father, and the "two-son system" does not apply, but other children will generally also receive the title through inheritance.

At present, the military nobles of the Qin Dynasty are mainly of the second type.

In addition, the nobles of the Qin Dynasty did not have actual fiefs, but mainly received food fiefs.

For example, if there are 10,000 households paying land tax in Lantian, then the total land tax of these 10,000 households will be divided by the number of households to get the average value, and then the average value will be multiplied by the number of fiefs awarded, and this is the actual fief obtained.

The entire process is done by the government. Every year, the nobles just need to go to the local government to collect it, and it will be distributed the following year.

Note that this method of calculating fiefdom has its merits.

There was a limit to the amount of land that an ordinary household could own, and the maximum amount of land a single household could own was not much. However, aristocratic households owned much more land. The Qin Dynasty collected taxes based on the amount of land.

Therefore, if we average it out in this way, the land tax paid by a single household with a fiefdom is actually more than that paid by an ordinary household, or even much more.

For example, among the 10,000 households in Lantian, 1,000 of them are wealthy households with status, each with an average of 200 mu of land; the other 9,000 households are ordinary people, each with an average of only 40 mu of land.

If 20 kilograms of grain were paid for every acre of land, then the ordinary people would pay a total of 7.2 million kilograms, while the nobles would pay a total of 4 million kilograms.

If the fiefdom has one thousand households, then the actual fiefdom obtained is 1.12 million jin.

But if there is tax evasion, for example, if these 10,000 households are only calculated based on the acreage of ordinary people, then this number will drop sharply to 800,000 jin.

Ordinary people have no opportunity to evade taxes, but nobles do. If nobles do, the ones who lose are the nobles who can obtain fiefs.

This move is to let the nobles rule the nobles, so that no one can try to evade taxes. Just like Lu Buwei, he is most concerned about the tax payment in Luoyang.

At the same time, this can also encourage the vested interests, those great nobles to find ways to develop their fiefs, so that all nobles and common people can develop as much land as possible. The more land a single household owns, the more fiefs they will get.

However, this tactic also has its drawbacks, which is that it may encourage vested interest aristocrats to find ways to reduce household registration and accelerate land annexation.

So Ying Zheng used a series of moves.

The increase in registered households and population is related to the performance of local officials, but the fiefs of great nobles will not be under his own jurisdiction, so he has no control over it!

This move is to let officials rule the nobles!
The great nobles who enjoyed fiefs were all in different regions and were never allowed to hold local posts. They could only supervise on their own initiative and then report and govern the local area. This could also greatly limit the collusion between local officials and nobles and form a three-party supervision.

The biggest problem here is that officials also collude with the corrupt, forming a three-party conspiracy. However, the probability of this is not high because household registration, population, amount of land, and payment of taxes are key assessment points. It is not only a question of whether or not one wants to make progress, but also a matter of life and death.

Coupled with the supervision within the court and Ying Zheng's monitoring methods, the three parties have completely different interests and the people involved are scattered and numerous, so it is difficult for the three parties to collude. Unity has never been that easy.

There has never been a perfect system in the world, and the most important thing is its implementation. Now that the empire has just been established, it will not corrupt so quickly.

As for the future, let’s talk about it later and believe in the wisdom of future generations.

As for the honorific titles, for civil officials the first rank was Guanglu Dafu and Ronglu Dafu, the second rank was Zizheng Dafu and Tongfeng Dafu, the third rank was Tongyi Dafu and Zhongyi Dafu, the fourth rank was Zhongxian Dafu and Chaoyi Dafu, the fifth rank was Fengzheng Dafu and Fengzhi Dafu, the sixth rank was Chengde Lang and Chengwu Lang, the seventh rank was Dengshi Lang and Zhengshi Lang, the eighth rank was Xiuzhi Lang and Xiuzhi Zuolang, the ninth rank was Xiuxian Lang and Xiuxian Zuolang.

The military officers were the first-rank General of the Cavalry and the General of the Auxiliary State, the second-rank General of the Zhenjun Army and the General of the Champion, the third-rank General of the Yunhui Army and the General of the Guide Army, the fourth-rank General of the Zhongwu Army and the General of the Zhuangwu Army, the fifth-rank General of the Xuanwei Army and the General of the Mingwei Army, the sixth-rank Lieutenant Dingyuan and the Lieutenant Ningyuan, the seventh-rank Lieutenant of the Youqi Army and the Lieutenant of the Youji Army, the eighth-rank Lieutenant Zhaowu and the Lieutenant Zhenwei, the ninth-rank Lieutenant Renyong and the Deputy Lieutenant Renyong.

Official positions and honorific titles do not have to be the same, nor do they have to be given at the same time. This is naturally for the convenience of rewarding or punishing.

As for the most important official position, Ying Zheng directly took it in one step and abolished the prime minister.

It’s more convenient to use the cabinet.

As for the administrative and official system, it was a system of one capital and four capitals, divided into three protectorates and fifty-eight counties. The central government had two agencies, eight ministries, twelve departments, five academies, three prefectures, three forbidden armies, and three protectorates. All of these were directly managed by the central government, and the various departments checked and balanced each other. The departments and academies were not directly controlled by the eight ministries.

Overall regulation: Taiwan = Ministry > Department (Supervision) ≥ Office ≥ Agency ≥ Bureau ≥ Division > Section.

The central area is divided into:

Ministry of Personnel: selection, assessment, appointment and removal, promotion and demotion, honors and salaries of officials, etc.

Ministry of Household Registration: Household registration, land, population management, etc.

Ministry of Rites: etiquette, diplomacy, imperial examinations, sacrifices, etc.

Ministry of War: daily management of the army, logistical support, appointment and removal of military officers, troop deployment, etc.

Ministry of Justice: judicial administration, criminal and prison review, lawmaking, case trials, prison management, etc.

Ministry of Industry: engineering construction, water conservancy management, transportation, handicrafts, supervision of measurement standards and equipment manufacturing, etc.

Ministry of Finance: fiscal budget, tax collection and administration, treasury management, and material allocation.

Ministry of Commerce: Determine commercial taxes, commercial tax collection, domestic and foreign trade, and customs and market affairs.

All of the above have one Shangshu (second rank) and two Shilang (third rank).

Each ministry has various departments, offices and divisions under its jurisdiction, with ranks ranging from the fourth to the ninth rank, as well as related officials. Those directly under the jurisdiction of the ministry are under the direct management of the ministry, but the following are not.

The Five Military Commandery: Responsible for military decision-making, commanding troops and armaments, appointment and removal of military officers, strategic planning, etc. It has one left and one right Grand Commander (first rank), and one left and one right Commander (second rank).

The Ministry of War and the Five Military Commandery were both under the command of the emperor. The Ministry of War had the power to mobilize troops but not to command them, while the Five Military Commandery had the power to command them but not to mobilize them. The two controlled each other and were not subordinate to each other. Local county military commanders were jointly governed by the Ministry of War and the Five Military Commandery, and were not directly governed by local governors.

The Imperial Censorate: It was responsible for supervising all officials at the central and local levels. It had one left and one right Imperial Censor (rank 2) and two Deputy Imperial Censors (rank 3).

It was divided into Taiyuan (central supervision), Dianyuan (palace supervision), and Chayuan (local supervision). The "censor avoidance system" (censors were not allowed to supervise their hometowns) and "inspection system" (local inspectors rotated to a different region every two years and would not return to serve) were implemented. Local censors were not managed by local governors, but directly managed by the Censorate and supervised by the Tongzhengsi.

Dalisi: Responsible for the trial of criminal cases. It has one Dalisi Qing (rank three) and two Shaoqing (rank four).

Court of Criminal Justice: Final review of death penalty cases, reporting directly to the emperor. It has one Court of Criminal Justice Commissioner (rank 4), one Court Assistant (rank 4), and four Judges (rank 5).

Major cases were tried by the Ministry of Justice, the Supreme Court, and the Censorate. Death penalty cases and above had to be tried by the Court of Criminal Justice, with the emperor's personal approval.

Sitiantai: in charge of the calendar, observing the astronomical phenomena, and issuing the calendar. There is one astronomical supervisor (rank three), one astronomical supervisor (rank four), and one official in charge of the five official positions (Qingyang, Zhuming, Ribei, Jintian, and Xuanying) in spring, summer, mid-autumn, and winter (rank five).

Tongzhengsi: in charge of internal and external memorials and sealed appeals from subjects.

Department of Agriculture: agricultural management, livestock breeding, and granary storage.

Du Shui Si: water conservancy projects and river management.

Ordnance Department: weapons research and development, production, and storage of military equipment.

Honglusi: diplomatic etiquette and vassal state affairs.

Taichangsi: in charge of ancestral temple rituals.

Guanglu Division: in charge of sacrifices, court gatherings, and banquets.

Taifusi: Responsible for all matters concerning the carriages and horses of the royal entourage when traveling.

Yuanmasi: in charge of the national horse affairs.

Tianlusi: in charge of national religious belief affairs.

At all department levels, there is one Qing (third rank) and two Shao Qing (fourth rank).

Each department has jurisdiction over various offices, divisions and departments, with ranks ranging from the fifth to the ninth rank, as well as many clerks. Some departments are in charge of relevant officials in local counties and are directly managed by both local chiefs and the central government.

The Sitian Observatory is special in that it is only deployed in the central area and is relatively small in scale.

(End of this chapter)