A Study On The Phenomenon Of The False Institution Of Family Status System In Tang Dynasty

The institution of family status system(called Men-yin)was one of the important ways of being an official.It had selected a large number of outstanding talents for the Tang Dynasty.By virtue of his birth,he was able to get a chance to enter officialdom.This way of getting an official opportunity attracted many speculators.For this reason,in order to get access to the elite,many people would not hesitate to break the law to enter the official ranks.These people were mainly through the following three ways:First,changed their own identity,and faked the high-rank of official that were non-direct family member's or other relatives.Second,ministry of official personal affairs in feudal China(called Li-bu)in charge of auditing accepted bribes.They helped the speculators to modify the contents of the document during the audit process,and passed the qualification examination.Third,some people purchased an official identification document from a dead person,changed their own name,and then obtained qualification for Men-yin,finally got the chance of Jia-yin.There were many reasons for the phenomenon of Jia-yin.First,it was profit driven.After entering the official career,they could obtain corresponding salary,and the privilege of being exempt from duty.There is a big gap between the social status and living standard before becoming an official.This interest drove some people Jia-yin.Secondly,the entering the official career route was flat.Compared with other ways,Men-yin was easy to become an official.The selection after evaluating qualifications test(Quan-xuan)was simple,standard was low,requirements were not strict,and the treatment was well.After becoming an official,the rank was higher,and there are great advantages in official career.Therefore,some people even if broken the law,they wanted through Jia-yin into official.Thirdly,Men-yin paid attention to the birth of the candidate.In order to ensure that the identity was correct,the documents handed by the candidates that needed to be strictly examined by Li-bu.There were fewer officials engaged in auditing work,so it was hard to avoid negligence in the audit process.After the Anshi Rebellion,the documents were seriously damaged because of the war,and the defected in the materials of the documents.Li-bu had no evidence to examine,that provide opportunities for some people who wanted Jia-yin.Fourthly,some officials colluded with those who wanted to enter the government through Jia-yin.These factors led to more and more Jia-yin in the Tang Dynasty.Faced with the increasing popularity of Jia-yin,in order to ensure the normal operation election of Men-yin,the Tang government had to take corresponding measures to stop it.Firstly,the law clearly stipulated the punishment of Jia-yin.Once found,it would be punished according to the law.Secondly,Jia-yin was mainly through the way of falsifying documents or impersonating others.In order to prevented forgery,the examination of the format of documents held by candidates was becoming more and more stringent.At the same time,the government attached great importance to the management of jia-ku's documents,for facilitate checking.Thirdly,the selections should also guarantee each other and proved their identities.In addition,the government also rewarded accusers to combat Jia-yin.Fourth,faced with the situation of more selections and fewer officials,the government was gradually limiting the number of Men-yin in a family.Even so,Jia-yin was still hard to suppress.The Tang Dynasty was not only the prosperous period of the development of the Men-yin,but also the period of decline.There were many reasons for the decline of the Men-yin,and the prevalence of Jia-yin was one of them.In the late Tang Dynasty,in order to suppress Jia-yin,the government had to reduce the number of people entering officialdom through Men-yin.It can restrain the Jia-yin in certain extent,but it also accelerates the decline of the Men-yin.Men-yin was no longer the best choice for scholars to enter official service.And it had certain influence on the change of the official of election method.The success of Jia-yin should not be separated from the help of officials,which had a great impact on the construction of the official system at that time.The prevalence of Jia-yin was also an indicator of the quality of official system construction in Tang Dynasty.