Study On Exciled And Demoted Officials In Tang Dynasty

The punishments which were used to banish or demote officials in Tang Dynasty,were not only related to institutional change of the bureaucracy, but also related to political movements and officials'moral orientation. The Tang dynasty in Chinese is often thought to be the important period when a ancient society approached to a middle one in many fields.That the ways of excelling and demoting officials changed shows that feudal law became stricter and crueler.When more and more inllectects tried to change the situation,they are punished and often drived to magin districts.Just because of that, officials could recognize the real world.In order to learn the punished officials, This paper firstly researches the history of the Exciling and Demoting punishment and their new characateristics in Tang Dynasty.Then, analyzes evidences by which the government punished criminal officials.In the end,inspecting the course of officials being driven,their mental changement,their lifestyle in the excelling districts and their promoting ways.The whole paper has seven parts.The introduction part, mainly definites some concepts and puts forward to the main research topic of this paper. Banished officials means the criminal officials who were exiled by law,and demoted officials means the officials who are degraded and driven out of the capital because of their mistakes.The two kind of punished fficials has commons as well as differences in many fields.These ommons and differences and the changes of their political position and life, makes the paper valuable to research the special official group.In this paper, the main part is divided into six chapters:The first chapter, mainly expounds institutional rules of exiling and demoting officials. Before the Northern Dynasties, exile was used to punish crime as a auxiliary punishment. After becoming one of five principal penalties in Northern Wei Dynasty, excile played an important role and had new characteristics,especially having more kinds such as Life Exile,Exile without remitting,Exile with heavier labour etc.in Tang Dynasty.Demoting officials began in ancient time,and changed all the time.In pre-Chin, the government degraded one's title of nobility while Han Dynasty Emperor demoted officials' position and aristocratic status. In Tang Dynasty, with more official ranks appearing and central government taking back the right appointing low ranking officials, the system of demoting officials was more complicated including demoting position, removing aristocratic identity, degrading rank.These factors are one of the reasons why there were more punished officials.The second chapter, analyzes the reasons that officials were demoted and exiled. Reasons for exiling and demoting is complicated, but mostly related to the political struggles, therefore, the political affairs that caused demoting and exiling officials are the first emphasis in this section,and then studying other non-political reasons. Based on these analyses,this part also discusses bureaucracy system related to exile and banishment and the relation between the law ande rulers' personal arbitraryChapter 3, inspects the course of exiling and demoting and distribution where the punished officials were sent. When the government of the dynasty decided to exile and banish officials, they need the legal procedures deciding arresting,trialing,sentencing and resettlement place. From a regional perspective, the distractions of Lingnandao, Qianzhongdao, Jiannandao are the main places where resettled exiled and demoted officials. This distribution situation shows that Tang government obeyed the rules of punishing by law, filling local offical blanks,identifying the official ranks and appointing the serious crimal officials in the faraway soutyern states.These rules are also very important to the systems of Breaucracy of Tang Dynasty.The fourth chapter, studies the exiled and demoted officials' Daily life and Mental changes.The demoted officials had better political and economic treatment than the exiled ones because of different identities,though they were both punished officials. The exiled officials' treatment was very bad and often died in the resettled place because of their serious crimes,while demoted officials still had the officer's identity and official's salary though they suffered physical and psychological blow as well as exiled officials. Facing life setbacks,some of these punished officials became depressive and despaired,some tried to adjust their frustrated psychology by writing and touring.Chapter 5, mainly inspects the approaches of getting freedom. Though having to accept lower official positions in the faraway districts after doing something wrong or breaking the government law,the demoted officials in Tang Dynasty still have opportunities to be promoted when meeting the Emperor's amnesty or ending their periods of office. But because of their special identity and demoted record, the government sets up some restrictions when they want to regain their positions. In the pre- period of Tang Dynasty,the imperial government change the demoted officials mainly by calling back them to the central government when necessary or giving them a proper positions as soon as their office period expires. However,in the middle and post period of the empire,the government delay the demoted officials' office time and only allow them to be another officials in the distict which is still far from the politic center of the empire.Chapter 6, summarized the influence and status of the group of the driven officials. Flow celebrated in were sent fallen Due to their pre- noble and cultural literacy identity, exiled and demoted officials exerted influence on remote areas in economy,sociatyand culture, especially their elegant articles promote cultural and educational development. More than that,the punished officials' historical remains in the remote area become the valuable tourism resources nowadays.