The Female Official System In Tang Dynasty From The Epitaph

The female official system is one of the important systems in ancient Chinese courts.After a long development,it was relatively complete by the Tang Dynasty.Starting with epitaph materials,this article mainly reviews the selection criteria,settings and grade changes,duties and status of women officials in the Tang Dynasty,and discusses the development of the women officials system in the Tang Dynasty.The first chapter mainly discusses the selection criteria of female officials in the Tang Dynasty.The selection criteria for female officials in the Tang Dynasty basically followed the Sui Dynasty.They mainly involved considerations of external origin,physical appearance,internal morality,and talents.In addition to having a good family background and being pretty,outstanding virtue and ability were also the conditions for selecting female officials in the tang dynasty.Under the same selection criteria,different types of female officials will show slight differences due to differences in their status and responsibilities.There are also slight differences between the selection criteria and the actual situation of selection.The second chapter mainly deals with the setup and grade changes of female officials in the Tang Dynasty.On the basis of inheriting the Sui system,the setup and grade of female officials in the Tang Dynasty have changed,and there have been certain changes outside the history books.In terms of internal officials,during the early Tang Dynasty,the ranks of some internal officials were adjusted,and there was a name of "Guipin".However,Emperor Gaozong of Tang changed the old title of the internal post during Longshuo years,and the internal post title changed from reflecting the characteristics of women to the characteristics of ministry.During the Kaiyuan period,Emperor Xuanzong of Tang vigorously reformed the internal bureaucracy in order to eliminate the power of the Princess Taiping in the palace,abolished a large number of lower-level internal bureaucrats,and later restored some old system positions.To the late Tang Dynasty,with the political chaos,the appearance of giving the title of some External MingFu to internal officials.In thepalace officials,the grade of the palace officials at the beginning of the Tang Dynasty is relatively high,and the grade of Liu Shang is as high as the third grade.From the perspective of the unearthed epitaph,at least before April of the first year of Longshuo(661),the grade of the palace official had been adjusted to the fifth and eighth grades contained in the history books;in the late Tang Dynasty,it seemed to meet the actual needs of the royal family A new institutional setting-the Little Spittle Bureau.In addition,the emperor's nursing mother and other female officials do not have a fixed number and grade,and can be awarded honourable women's names for their merit.The third chapter discusses the duties and status of female officials in the Tang Dynasty.In addition to being responsible for routine internal affairs management and participating in national sacrifice rituals,female officials in the Tang Dynasty were sometimes assigned other tasks by the emperor,such as serving as emperor's messenger,condolences,and mourning.Their responsibilities are clearer and broader than those in the Sui Dynasty.While enjoying a high status,the status of female officials in the palace in the Tang Dynasty is still unstable.They may face different situations of promotion,dismissal,and even death due to the emperor's likes and dislikes,political struggles.