Some Issues On The System Of Xunguan In The Tang Dynasty

This thesis is on the system of xunguan 勋官 in the Tang dynasty, which is composed of three chapters.Chapter Ⅰ : the origin of xunguan in the Tang dynasty .This part mainly discusses the origin and development of xuanguan in the Sui and Tang dynasties through the evolution from rongzhi 戎秩 to xunguan .Chapter Ⅱ : the attainment of xunguan in the Tang dynasty.With the epitaphs and the Dunhuang and Tulufan documents, the chapter supplies the shortage of the traditional records. It also gives a look on the procedure of the giving of xunguan , the progression of xunguan , and the reward for the battle achievement.Chapter Ⅲ: the rights and duties of xunguan in the Tang dynasty. This part mainly focuses on the privileges of xuanguan in the law,the entrance to the office for xunguan and their sons and the important influence of xunguan on the civil offical. It also briefly inquires into xunguan as local forces who have returned their native land in the end.From the above we draw the conclusion: the system of xunguan in the Tang dynasty, has a cardinal difference from rongzhi in the Zhou and Sui dynasties,although the former originated from the later. This difference is that xunguan can be conferred to the common people 白丁 in Tang dynasty, which was the continuing of bawei 八尉 in the Suiyangdi period. The officials who gains xunguan carries on the traditional rights of the rongzhi in the Zhou and Suiwendi period becomes the first beneficiary. As the result of magnification of xunguan in the Tang dynasty, the common people get parts of the rights of rongzhi such as the exemption of taxes and corvee, the entrance to the office,etc.Although these rights are limited, the common people still eagerly join the army in order to gain xunguan.The evolution from rongzhi to xunguan shows that the system of xunguan in the Tang dynasty is the distortion and variation of the traditional rongzhi system in the new era. There is a great gap for xunguan in the ling 令 and the reality in Tang dynasty, with the aim to adjust the gap between tradition and reality and the huge disparity between the common people with xunguan 百姓带勋者 and the officials with xungan 职事官带勋者 , the system of xunguan is made in the Tang dynasty. The former is the inheritance of Daye Reform 大业改革 in the Sui dynasty, and the later is the continuing of rongzhi system in the Zhou and Sui dynasties.