Study on the Phenomenon of Conferring Official Title Belt upon Newly Appointed Officials in the Song Dynasty
The newly appointed officials of the Song dynasty could be called"a newly appointed official"after receiving Shengzha(省札),which was a very common phenomenon.On the one hand,it highlighted the authority of the central government and on the other hand,conferring positions to officials in advance and allowing them to have official titles would help stabilize the increasingly expanding bureaucratic team.Logically speaking,after taking office,a new official should get rid of the words of"newly appointed",and be directly called"an official".But local officials usually took office within six months.In their correspondences with the central government during this period,they were still called"newly appointed officials".This period of time was similar to the"probationary observation period".On the one hand,the new official needed to use the time to adapt to the new position and enjoyed the preferential treatment of liability exemption.On the other hand,the supervising institutions would screen and eliminate the newly appointed officials based on their performance,which was an amendment to the selection and appointment system based mainly on documents and seniority.
Song DynastyOfficial TitleNewly AppointedDocument of Xu WeiliShengzhaGaoshen
万方数据
