A Study On Shengzuo System In Bamboo Slips Of Han Dynasty In The Northwest Of China

Due to the long defense line of Hexi Han Fortress,there existed limited personnel serving in the border counties together with small and fixed number of personnel assigned to each garrison organizations.When large-scale emergency tasks occurred,garrison organizations could do nothing but apply to the higher authorities for reinforcement.During the normal operation of each beacon,senior commandant government ordered officials who qualified people from the nearby beacons to go out in turn to engage in assistance labor.Shengzuo laborers belonged to internal personnel of garrison system and the main undertakers of the labor were the officials,expatriated border criminals and servants of each beacon.Additionally,the families of the officials were recruited to participate in the labor.After calling in personnel,the officers re-compiled the name list and sent special personnel,with the name list,to escort Shengzuo laborers to work in the Shengzuo labor place on time.The temporary labor,various and mostly miscellaneous,were issued by the government with clear labor division and quantitative tasks.Shengzuo labor existed in the entire Hexi Han Fortress with unfixed time and places,and its contents records increases with the changes of Shengzuo labor places.The Shengzuo officials,during the Shengzuo labor,had the right to take leaves,adopting rotation or centralized rests according to the actual situation.Daily rations,labor tools and medical services were supplied by the Shengzuo labor departments for laborers.Besides,the whole Shengzuo labor was under the real-time supervision of the superior departments of the corvee labor units with those who violated the rules punished.After completing the Shengzuo labor,the Shengzuo laborers,with their account books,returned to the original corvee service units to continue their original work with the Shengzuo labor records reported to senior commandant government for filing.Based on the above analysis,the Shengzuo labor whose attribute was temporary was one of the daily labor ways in the frontier garrison organizations in the Han Dynasty.With a set of specialized,effective and independent management modes operated in northwest frontier garrison system,the Shengzuo labor solved personnel shortage in garrison organizations.