A Study Of The System Of Jiajing Dynasty In Ming Dynasty

Content：The official retirement system can be traced back to a long time ago.During its development, it completed the transition from rites to laws. In the MingDynasty, the official retirement system came to maturity. Jiajing period is oneimportant stage in the middle Ming Dynasty. Jiajing Revolution in the early Jiajingperiod eliminated the deficiencies and malpractices which were accumulated from theprevious dynasty to some degree. Besides, it re-stimulated Ming Dynasty’s vigor. Inthe later period, due to Jiajing Emperor’s contentedness with the obtainedachievements, he showed the sign of negativity and indifference to governance.Besides, such a negative attitude was more and more obvious. He put all his heart intothe pursuit of immortality and longevity, which resulted in the dynasty’s going towarddeterioration again.When implementing new policies in the early period, the official retirementsystem made some adjustments as one supplement to the revolution policy. It exertedsome positive effects on revolution. However, due to the changes of Cabinet Systemand Chief Minister System, the status of cabinet was promoted above the sixministries. At the same time, the cabinet possessed greater rights. In particular, thechief minister owned the greatest power, which led to more and more fiercecompetitions for obtaining the status. In the early period, the competition amongdifferent parties was under control. In the middle and later period, due to JiajingEmperor’s increasing indifference to governance and obstinacy, the social ethosbecame deteriorated day by day; and the competition among different partiesworsened. As a result, many officials resorted to retirement in order to escape fromthe complicated official circle. The author analyzes that the implementation of officialretirement system reflects whether the emperor-and-official relationship and politicswere stable or not at that time to some extent. After the retirement, due to thedifference in personal attitudes, environment and other factors, the officials’ choicesalso varied from each other.The paper adopts the combination of macro-and micro-analysis method tosummarize the characteristics of official retirement system in Jiajing Dynasty. Thepaper also concludes the distinctiveness of official retirement system during thisperiod. The paper is mainly divided into three parts: introduction, main text andconclusion. The introduction part mainly explores the significance of the topic, status quo of the studies, methods and framework of the study. The main text part is dividedinto three chapters. Chapter1mainly introduces the inheritance and development ofofficial retirement system before Jiajing period in the Ming Dynasty. First of all, thischapter introduces the stage and degree of the development of official retirementsystem before the Ming Dynasty. Second, it introduces the evolution of officialretirement system before Jiajing period in the Ming Dynasty which witnessed thematurity of official retirement system. Before Jiajing period in the Ming Dynasty, theofficial retirement system had been basically shaped. It simply made someadjustments in Jiajing period. Chapter2mainly delves into official retirement systemin Jiajing period. First, this part introduces the background of the adjustment ofofficial retirement system in Jiajing period. Second, it explains which adjustments thatofficial retirement system made during this period. Then, this chapter classifies theofficial retirement into active and passive type and conducts analysis on these twotypes. Finally, this part studies the post-retirement life and analyzes their private lifeand socialization. Chapter3concludes and elaborates on the characteristics,significance and limitations of official retirement system in Jiajing period. Besides,this part makes a summarization on the whole paper. The conclusion part mainlycarries out some supplements to the main text part.The author hopes to provide some references for the current retirement systemthrough the study on the official retirement system in Jiajing period.