The Study On Gongbu Shangshu In The Ming Dynasty

This thesis’s research topic is the appointment situation of Gongbu Shangshu in the Ming Dynasty. On the basis of fully reading historical materials, author makes every effort to have a comprehensive and systematic analysis of this topic. Except for introduction and epilogue, main content of the article is as follows.Chapter I discusses institution evolution and function of Gongbu in the Ming Dynasty. Jiang zuo Department is set up at the beginning, and then it is abolished; The names of four affiliated departments change. At first, they are Zongbu, Yubu, Shuibu, and Tuntianbu. Afterwards, they are Yingshan Department, Yuheng Department, Dushui Department, and Tuntian Department. Originally, Towel and Cap Bureau and Needle Work Bureau belong to Gongbu. Afterwards, they are subordinate to Imperial Storehouse. The location of Yizhou Hill Plant changes constantly, such as Pingshan, Mancheng, Yizhou, Shayukou, Qingxian, and so on. All of those are manifestations of institution evolutions Gongbu in the Ming Dynasty. Functions of Gongbu in the Ming Dynasty are various, and responsibility for construction business is the most basic duty of it.The purpose of Chapter Ⅱ is to sort a table of Gongbu Shangshu, whose number is 122, in the Ming Dynasty. This is the basis of following studies.Chapter Ⅲ probes birth structure. Categories of the Ming Dynasty’s Gongbu Shangshu’s birth are as follows:submission, clerk, recommendation, student of the Imperial College, and Jinshi. Successively, their number are:7,2,10,10, and 87. It is worthwhile to note that, after the early Ming Dynasty, status of Imperial Examination rises gradually. Correspondingly, Jinshi is more and more important. From the view of Gongbu Shangshu, after Hongzhi Dynasty, all of them are Jinshi.Chapter IV inspects transfers in official career. Among ingoing official positions of Gongbu Shangshu in the Ming Dynasty, the most are capital officials, whose proportion is 64.7%. However, Nanjing officials and local officials are in the minority. Successively, their proportion is 16.5% and 8.3%. This is reflection of phenomenon of "valuing the interior but looking down on the external" and "valuing the north but looking down on the south" in the Ming Dynasty’s officialdom. In 36 cases of Gongbu Shilang’s promotion to Shangshu, the number of left Shilang is 26, and the number of right Shilang is only 10. This is manifestation of phenomenon of "left officials stay inside but right officials go out" in the Ming Dynasty’s bureaucracy. Among 11 times of local officials’ promotion to Gongbu Shangshu,9 times happen in Hongwu Dynasty. This is mainly attributed to Zhu Yuanzhang’s ways of making use of personnel, which are not limited to one style. In ingoing official positions of Gongbu Shangshu in the Ming Dynasty, the form of handling by proxy appears 10 times.7 times take place in the late Wanli, and this is exemplification of court abandoned and position vacancy at that time. After appointment, the Ming Dynasty’s Gongbu Shangshu has two ways:being transferred to another government post; or retire, depose, die, and so on. The quantity of transferring to another government post is 47, among which, the number of transferring to other Shangshu is 25. This indicates that other Shangshu is the most major direction in which Gongbu Shangshu has gone. The feature of strict administration of officials in Hongwu Dynasty contributes to 40% Gongbu Shangshu’s bad endings. They are either dismissed, or banished to border area, or punished to death by using rod. Except for Hongwu Dynasty, in other periods of the the Ming Dynasty, post of Gongbu Shangshu is not very risky, and it is still relatively safe.Chapter V explores tenure of office and working age. In Hongwu Dynasty, Gongbu Shangshu changed frequently and their tenure of office is short.25 Gongbu Shangshu are formally posted in 31 years. On the whole, from Jianwen period to Wanli period, tenure of office of Gongbu Shangshu is relatively stable. For up to 220 years, there are only 68 Gongbu Shangshu. However, in some dynasties, change frequency of Gongbu Shangshu is still high. For example, in Jiajing Dynasty, the length of which is 45 years,24 Gongbu Shangshu are formally appointed. In turbulent Tianqi and Chongzhen Dynasty, change frequency of Gongbu Shangshu tends to be frequent again. In 24 years,20 Gongbu Shangshu are appointed. There are 95 Gongbu Shangshu, whose tenure of office is knowable. Among them, tenure of office of 65 people, whose proportion is 68.4%, is within 3 years, which means that they don’t accomplish the first test; Tenure of office of 16 people, whose proportion is 16.8%, is between 3 years and 6 years, which means that they complete the first test; Tenure of office of 9 people, whose proportion is 9.5%, is between 6 years and 9 years, which means that they accomplish the second test; Tenure of office of 5 people, whose proportion is 5.3%, is 9 years and more than 9 years, which means that they accomplish the entire test. Consequently, from the view of long term, the number of the Ming Dynasty’s Gongbu Shangshu, whose tenure of office can be regarded as long term, is only 14. The number is very little. Among Ming Dynasty’s Gongbu Shangshu,53 people’s birth year and death year are both knowable. Their average lifespan is 74.79 years old. Compared with average lifespan, which is between 30 years old and 33 years old, of the Ming Dynasty’s people, Gongbu Shangshu can be said to be longevity group. Among working ages of the Ming Dynasty’s Gongbu Shangshu, the youngest is 36 years old, and the oldest is 76 years old. The average working age is 60.9 years old. Working age is mainly concentrated in sixties, and the number of which is 24.Chapter VI analyses accomplishment and performance of Gongbu Shangshu in the Ming Dynasty. There are 54 Gongbu Shangshu, whose achievements are not recorded. More than half of them are in Hongwu Dynasty. The reason why historical materials don’t record their achievements may be that their tenure of office is short and they have inadequate time to perform. For 32 people, who have briefly recorded accomplishments, their achievements are mainly embodied in the following two aspects:taking charge of construction; saving work and retrenching funds. For 27 people, whose performance are detailedly recorded, their achievements can be summarized as following aspects:building; system construction; river regulation; retrenching expenses, saving work, cherishing the people; supervising to manufacture firearm. What’s more, some of them are temporarily ordered to do things, which are unrelated to Gongbu. Such as supervising soldier’s pay and provisions, leading troops to put down a rebellion, and so on.