In ancient times, officials were basically a radish and a pit.

Radishes without pits are called loose officials, which are equivalent to today's inspectors and researchers. Individual emperors, because they attach special importance to a certain pit, also have special cases of uneasy turnips. But more emperors like to dig an extra pit for their favorite turnips.

"I am the Duke of Zhou, as a Zhou ceremony, writing the six officials, and saving the governing body", the six officials of the "Book of Rites" mentioned in the "Three Character Classic" are "Tianguan (Otsuka Zai), Diguan (Da Situ), Chun Guan (Da Zongbo), Xia Guan (Da Sima), Qiu Guan (Da Sikou), Winter Guan (Da Sikong)". The functions and positions correspond to the six ministries of the Later Dynasty: the Ministry of Officials (Heavenly Officials, in charge of the appointment and dismissal of officials, Quanxu, performance appraisal, and promotion), the Ministry of Household (the local officials, in charge of land, household administration, taxation, and finance), the Ministry of Rites (the Spring Official, in charge of ceremonies, imperial examinations, schools), the Ministry of War (Xia Guan, in charge of military affairs), the Criminal Department (the Autumn Official, in charge of criminal law, prison litigation), and the Ministry of Industry (the Winter Official, in charge of engineering, construction, tuntian, and water conservancy).

During the Warring States Period, the princes and monarchs set up generals to take charge of civil and military affairs. In addition to the Prime Minister's Mansion and the Taiwei Mansion, the Qin Dynasty set up the Imperial Shi Dafu Temple, which was the emperor's secretary general and was also in charge of supervision, aiming to decentralize the power of the minister. By the time of Qin II, this trick failed, and Xiangquan controlled the imperial power, which was one of the reasons for the early days of the Qin Dynasty. Later dynasties learned a tragic lesson and treated the weakening of the prime minister's power as a top state matter. Cao Pi (Emperor Wen of Wei) changed Shangshu into a peripheral executive body, and set up a central book supervisor to take charge of central secrets, similar to today's Secretariat. The emperors of the Northern and Southern Dynasties were worried that Zhongshu Province would become bigger and stronger, so they set up a province under the door with their close attendants as the team, forming a system of division of duties among the three provinces of Shangshu, Zhongshu and Menxia.

Most of the old history of Chinese officials is the history of the intrigue between the emperor and the prime minister. Li Shimin's method of restricting the power of the prime minister is relatively flexible and creative. He himself served as Shang Shuling, and it was in this position that he won the world, so his position was vacant for a long time. In addition to the Zhongshu Order and the Servant, mobile positions are randomly set up. He was the inventor of "secretarial politics" and "consultative politics". The specific method is to give officials with strong ability but low positions such titles as "senator on government affairs", "gains and losses in senatory", and "senator on political affairs", so as to grasp the actual post of prime minister. Today's ** institutions also have such a position as "counselor", but it is only a political treatment, and it is a vacant position. In the Tang Dynasty, counselors really participated in the formulation and implementation of national policies. It is equivalent to the US president's "national security adviser" and "Asia policy adviser", even if it is not a one-size-fits-all story, there are still four or five tripods.

Taiwanese officials and counselors were also at the heart of China's old politics. Taiwan officials are supervision officials, and they correct hundreds of officials. The chief is called the Imperial Historian, or the Imperial Historian, and the supervisory body of the Ming and Qing dynasties is called the Metropolitan Procuratorate. Yushitai is also known as Xiantai, Suzheng Tai. The officials admonished the emperor, and the Western Han Dynasty was called the Counselor, and the Eastern Han Dynasty was called the Counselor. After the Song Dynasty, the Taiwan admonitions converged, and the muzzles of the guns were unanimously directed towards the hundred officials, and the constraints on the emperor no longer existed.

The Song Dynasty was a watershed moment in the old Chinese politics, and before that, weak imperial power could be shaken, such as Zhao Gaozhi for Qin II, Wang Mang for Emperor Ping of Han, and Li Shimin for Li Yuan. After the Song Dynasty, the imperial power covered the sky and the sun, and no matter how incompetent the emperor was, he could sit back and relax.

There is a sentence in the "Book of Rites": "If you can't be courteous, you can't punish a doctor." In modern interpretations, there is a misunderstanding, which is misinterpreted as contempt for the common people and privileges for officials. The original meaning of the "Book of Rites" is that the form of ritual should not be emphasized for the common people, and the poor people should not pay so much attention to it; the form of punishment should not be emphasized for officials who violate the law, and they should be withdrawn and killed. However, it is already approved, and it is not appropriate to criticize the smell. The body can be defeated, but the name does not have to be broken. Revealing the bad deeds of officials who have violated the law will hurt the trust of the people in the national system.

What kind of people can be appointed to the top office, and who should be handed over to the power of a country, is the first priority of the country. The previous good dynasties did a good job in this major event, which was the foundation of the prosperous era. In the past, the old method of selecting talents was the system of probation, the system of clear discussion, and the system of imperial examination. Today it is an electoral system, and there is also a civil service examination system. It's one thing to have a system, but it's another thing to implement it well. In the previous good dynasties, the definition of the tenure, qualifications and qualifications of the old officials was relatively clear and clear, what kind of person was the county magistrate, what kind of person served in the state capital, basically transparent, and kept a big standard. Today's society is prosperous, and the level of civil servants is high, so they don't pay attention to this, and they don't care too much about this. In the old days, officials were commonly known as "parent officials", but today they are humbly called servants of the people, and from this point of view, the difference is really big enough.