The Study Of Retirement System In Northern Song Dynasty

Retirement is an important part of ancient Chinese political system, and is necessaryrequirement of government officials replacing of old. Scholar-official politics is oftenused to express Song Dynasty’s political characteristics，i.e. scholar officials andemperors jointly govern the country. When officials retired, there were correspondinglegal systems to give them special treatment or to restrict them. In the process ofretirement system development, these system had been initially established in Taizu(太祖),Taizong（太宗） and Zhenzong（真宗） reign, and Renzong（仁宗） focused tobuild, and basically completed in Shenzong（神宗） reign. The system covered manyaspects, which mainly included procedures of retirement, a variety of treatment,constraints of political activities space of retired officials, and so on. This article onstudy of retirement system in Northern Song Dynasty consists of the following aspects:Introduction mainly discusses the concept of “Zhishi”(致仕) and “Zhishiguan”（致仕官）, research review, the original intention and features of this study.Chapter one mainly discusses the atmosphere of retirement, the reason of officersrefusing retirement, and the measures taken by the government.Chapter two analyzes the retirement program of application and command.Chapter three focuses on the treatment of retired officials, which includes thefollowing aspects: the official rank change, the issuance of an official’s salary, Yinbu(荫补)，Fengzeng(封赠) and emperor’s Lindian(临奠).Chapter four mainly studies the political space of retired officials, which consists ofconsultant, participate in government and political affairs and coming out.