2 - The central administration

Summary

All Han officials, whether belonging to the central or local administrations, were ranked on an arbitrary scale. Each man's place on it depended solely on his current office, not on his bureaucratic seniority. The scale must originally have expressed the salary in kind which was due to the officeholder. It ceased to do so and became simply a tool for the ranking of office and their incumbents, and for the determination of privileges and protocol. Salaries were fixed in relation to the scale, in the sense that these increased (although not proportionately) with each higher step. HS 19A: sporadically, and the HHS treatise, more fully, record the ranks of offices, providing an overview not only of the vertical chains of authority but also of the horizontal levels of status. Sixteen of the ranks are identified by the ancient measure of shih, which here stands for capacity and therefore should be translated as ‘bushel’. Below the sixteen ranks, there existed two further ranks which were not expressed in shih:

1. 10,000 shih

2. Fully 2000 shih

3. 2000 shih

4. Equivalent to 2000 shih

5. 1000 shih

6. Equivalent to 1000 shih

7. 600 shih

8. Equivalent to 600 shih

9. 400 shih

10. Equivalent to 400 shih

11. 300 shih

12. Equivalent to 300 shih

13. 200 shih

14. Equivalent to 200 shih

15. 100 shih

16. Equivalent to 100 shih

17. Officials Whose Salaries Are in Terms of Tou

18. Accessory Clerks