The Systematic Studies On The Material Rewards Of The Notrhern Wei Dynasty

The rewards are given to the person who are praised for their meritoriousservices that was always by the ruler of ancient China to his subject. The rewardswere an important part of political system of the Northern Wei Dynasty, which alongwith the major historical events. This paper tries to research the object, kind, reasonand feature of the reward of Northern Wei Dynasty, promulgates the effect of thereward. In accordance with the wording of the order, the main content and argumentsare summarized as follows:The introduction explains the significance of choosing subject and researchvalue, then summarized the research before related to this subject of the paper fromtwo aspects. On this basis, it shows the problems which this paper tries to resolve,and expounds the research approach and the writing thought.Chapter One is the premise of this paper, which explains the basic comprising ofthe object of the rewards. First, it reviews the ruling and intellectual elites. Because ofthe special kinship, imperial clan and the Queen’s family gained the most rewards.Other officials received the reward by the battle achievement, political achievements,specially trust and so on. Second, it discourses the rewards of the masses, whichmainly concentrated on the elders, filial piety, industrious in the field and so on. Last,it shows the rewards of the minority and surrender. The object of the rewards coveredevery field of the society, it reflects the purpose of the rulers to maintain the regimeby the rewards.Chapter Two discusses the type of goods of the rewards. They were divided intofive sorts: first, the agricultural and animal products including the corns and animalproducts; second, the handicraft articles including the textile, clothing and luxurygoods; third, money; fourth, immovable property; five, the population. Among them,the rewards of the prior period of the Northern Wei Dynasty were mainly the agricultural and animal products, which of the later period of it were mainly thehandicraft articles.Chapter Three discourses the cause of the rewards of the Northern Wei Dynasty.The behavior of rewards was influenced by the historical tradition of Tuoba Xianbei.Then, the first reason of the rewards was to urge the soldiers; the second reason wasto attract the talents; the third reason was to solve the basic livelihood of the officialsin the early Beiwei Period. The fourth reason was to be close to the people. The coreof the material rewards was to maintain the regime of the Northern Wei Dynasty.Chapter Four takes over the feature of the rewards. Because the salary system ofEmperor Xiaowen had a deep impact, this paper takes the enthronement of EmperorXiaowen as a boundary, which on the basis of existing materials analyses andcompares the prior period and last period of the Northern Wei Dynasty. The rewardsof the prior period were to carve up the War captured material, the objects weremainly heroes. The rewards of the last period were significantly reduced which werein favor of the handicrafts. The reward was a political behavior, but it must base onthe economy, which reflected the situation of the society and economy.Chapter Five expounds the two aspects of influence, positive and negative. Quiteas much, it was divided into two parts, the prior period and last period. The rewardsof the prior period promoted the victory of the war and strengthened the contact withother minorities, but due to the boundedness, it cannot replaced the salary system atall. The last period, it issued the salary system in484, the rewards made for attractingthe talents, spreading the morals and maintaining its own rule. But, the rewards of thelast period overflowed, increased the national finance spending and accelerated thecollapse of the Northern Wei Dynasty.