Safeguarding Imperial Palace In The North Song Dynasty Imperial Guards Problems Research

In ancient China, with the advent of powerful monarchs, there appeared professional security guards. Security guard mechanism had always existed throughout every dynasty. On the surface of the concept, the guard covered the extent roughly from trusted followers of the monarch to ordinary military officials. In fact, the safeguarding dependents around imperial palace accounted for only part of the military forces in various dynasties. Before Song Dynasty, imperial guard forces did present some common characteristics, though they differed in names and compositions.The ultimate goal of the Guard Forces of the Imperial Palace was to defend the emperor and the imperial palace. During Northern Song Dynasty, the imperial palace and the palace city were the same castle in the capital of Dongjing, which, called Danei by Song people, continued and developed the formation of previous dynasties.. In that time, there certainly would be a number of the guards because of so many Palaces in the castle; the safeguarding system was quite strict, which was partially demonstrated by some imperial guard law at that time. The emperors generally took much count of their guard forces, which was manifested in guard forces selection, promotion, law constraint. In theory, the guard forces in Northern Song Dynasty were all imperial guards. However, the guard forces of Dianqian and Huangcheng department, including the Banzhi, Kuanyitianwu,Qincong and Qinshi of Huangcheng department, undertook the duties of safeguarding the imperial palace actually. Yuqianzhongzuojuntou and Qiji department didn't belong to the ranks of the guards' forces of the imperial palace. The three commands(SAN YA) in Northern Song Dynasty were responsible for safeguarding the capital and the palace in the scale.In Northern Song Dynasty, the guard force of Dianqian department was one of the main safeguarding forces of the imperial palace. Its origin could be traced back to the middle of Tang Dynasty, and gradually became regular emperor guarding forces after the evolution and development in Five Dynasties. Both in the form and content, the guard force of Dianqian department, such as the Banzhi, was deeply affected by the troubled society in the late Tang and Five Dynasties. The guard forces of the emperors were managed, organized and designated in "Ban" and "Zhi", which started in the late Tang and Five Dynasties.After Northern Song Dynasty was founded, the Banzhi of Dianqian inherited mostly the guard force system of Later Zhou Dynasty-as it was said "the closest emperor's dependents were named by Banzhi." The primary function of Huangcheng department lied in the martial character of safeguarding the emperors and their imperial palace. The guard force of Huangcheng department, including Qincong and Qinshi, was also one of the main safeguarding forces of the imperial palace. Kuanyitianwu, which played an important role in the safeguarding imperial forces, should be associated with the sequential characteristic and duplicated characteristic of history.The emperors in Northern Song Dynasty paid attention to their imperial palace safeguarding, and concerned about the quality of the guards safeguarding imperial palace very much, and they recruited the most satisfied talent under the regulation as far as possible. The regulation contained related policy about guard recruitment, training exercises, laws and obligation, and salary treatment of of.the guard forces of the imperial palace. Yet in practice it always went beyond the regulationAs the elite forces of the guard forces, the safeguarding army of the imperial palace was one of the national forces and therefore influenced by the traditional and typical policies of Song Dynasty, that is "the policy of advocating culture and restraining military operation". Thus, in this special political atmosphere, the safeguarding forces of the imperial palace presented some distinctive characteristics of the times.