System Of Hugh Mu Tang Dynasty Officials

A vacation system for officials started early in Chinese history. As far back as the early Han dynasty we started seeing a simple vacation system for officials, which later became the basis for the vacation system for officials in the Tang dynasty.This paper relies on traditional historical sources such as TangHui Yao唐会要,Tang Ling Shi Yi唐令拾遗,Tai Ping Guang Ji太平广记,Taiping Imperial Encyclopedia太平御览,Ce Fu Yuan Gui册府元龟,New History of the Tang Dynasty新唐书,Old History of the Tang Dynasty旧唐书,Tang Liu Dian唐六典,Full Collection of Tang Poems全唐诗,All the Proses Written in Tang Dynasty全唐文, and Grand literary sketches in tang and five dynasties唐五代笔记小说大观,as well as memorial tablet inscriptions, to carry out a comparison and statistical analysis of the vacation and holiday system of Tang dynasty officials, and to clearly sort out the vacation and holiday conditions.The author believes that Tang dynasty officials didn’t simply just attend to official business all day every day, but rather attended to business on every other day. Central officials of the Tang dynasty usually attended to matters for only half of the day, but every official would be on duty for an early shift or a late shift, called on night duty or on the duty. State and prefecture officials would be on duty for an early shift called or a late shift called. When it was time to come on duty, the sound of the drum would signify it. Additionally, the hours of operation of the office of the commanding officer, would also be split into an early shift called or a late shift called.The Tang dynasty vacation system for officials inherited and carried on many practices from previous dynasties, and developed gradually as the legal system changed. The Tang dynasty vacation system for officials was first established in the Wude era. From the time of Zhenguan era to the time of Kaiyuan era, as the legal system was revised, the vacation system was also regulated. After the Kai Yuan era, the vacation system for officials became much more stable, but still underwent subtle changes.Officials’ vacations can be categorized into three types, the ten-day holiday, festival holiday, and the dropping-out vacation. The ten-day holiday was a ten day vacation. The festival holiday was a vacation that not only covered traditional and common holidays, but even birthdays as well. The dropping out vacation came about when the emperor dissolved court which allowed ministers, officials, to have a covert vacation. Many other vacations were based on agricultural production, household life, and events that happened in one’s personal life, some of which included field leave, preparation of clothes leave, sacrificing leave, homecoming leave, twenties leave, marriage leave, bereavement leave,dressing-up leave, and temporary leave.When the relatives of Tang officials passed away, this article will only discuss the passing of the officials’ parents, the rules of etiquette demand that an official observe mourning for his parents. Even though this was observing mourning, the official would have to leave his post and receive a vacation. Mourning would affect officials most directly as it could alter their careers and fate as officials. Other than a small number of officials who retained their original positions after their ding you leave, the majority would have to comply with whatever position the court reassigned them. As a result, many officials would cut short their mourning times, cutting short their bereavement and resume their official posts and duties. Some of the reasons for this would include military matters and imperial orders. There are many examples of the types of officials who would cut short their bereavement time, including court officials, military officers, provincial governors, state or prefecture governors, as well as some eunuchs, who enjoyed special powers and privileges.