A Study On Political Demoting And Re-employing For The Officials In Northern Song Dynasty

because of power struggling, another was demoting because of making policy in Northern Song Dynasty. The measures of demoting included mainly fining, stripping sb of one's literary title, lowering one's position, suspending immediately somebody from one's duties, suspending somebody from one's duties, dismissing from office, lowering one's qualifications, being relieved of one's post by order, expelling, dwelling, installing, keeping in custody, keeping strictly in custody, debarring clique from holding office and so on. There were three models for re-employments then. The first was to re-employ according to the special order of pardon given by the emperor; the second was to re-employ according to the order of pardon, and the third was to re-employ according to certain period. There were three characteristics on political demoting and re-employing for the officials in Northern Song Dynasty. First, the measures of political demoting for the officials grew from single to vary, and the degree of political demoting grew from light to heavy. Secondly, in spite of those exhaustive laws of demoting and re-employing, they were not observed in fact. Last, political demoting was often made by law or morals'name.The degree of political demoting for the group of prime minister was lighter in earlier stage and middle period, and heavier in later stage according to the quantitative analysis in Northern Song Dynasty. The reason of demoting for the group of prime minister was monopolizing power in earlier stage, being impeached by the supervisors or opposing reform in middle period, acting in collusion in later stage. The condition of re-employing for the group of prime minister was the best in earlier stage, was better in middle period, bad in later stage.The degree of demoting was lighter and the condition of re-employ was better for the officials who were in charge of criticism and suggestion according to the quantitative analysis in earlier stage in Northern Song Dynasty. So the stage of freedom of speech was better in earlier stage in Northern Song Dynasty. And the officials who were in charge of criticism and suggestion acted in an important role. By contrast, the degree of demoting was heavier for the officials who were in charge of criticism and suggestion in later stage in Northern Song Dynasty. And the officials fell into factional strife. They lost freedom of speech and became insignificant.There was a restraining mechanism of imperial power, prime minister's power and critical power one another in politics in period of the emperor of Song Ren Zong. There were three qualifications on which the restraining mechanism formed. The first was that Song Ren Zong governed by noninterference. The second was that Song Ren Zong was good at accepting criticism and suggestion. The third was that the officials had integrity. The restraining mechanism was broken with the three qualifications losing at last.The positive significance of the literati's clique viewpoint consisted in accepting legitimacy of clique in Northern Song Dynasty. The limitations of the literati's clique viewpoint consisted in doing not break the moral argument. The emperors banned all cliques in Northern Song Dynasty. The clique did not get legitimacy at last. The literati criticized opposite side evil each other. Therefore, it appeared debarring clique from holding office in later stage in Northern Song Dynasty.The literati trampled well Confucian reputation and integrity viewpoint, so the general mood of literati was good. Since the period of Song Shen Zong, Confucian reputation and integrity viewpoint had been sternly criticized, and the literati with integrity had been sternly demoted, so the general mood of literati became bad.The literati should been given preferential treatment according to imperial ancestors'instructions. It was very valuable, because it proved that the politics was tolerant in Northern Song Dynasty. But the tolerance was broken in later stage in Northern Song Dynasty. The reason was that Confucian literati insisted on governing by morals. Morals problem could not been solved by morals oneself. Not only could not advocating excessively morals make the officials into superior men, but also make it worse in politics.