Principal counsels and ceremonial departments

The Principal Counsels (列卿, rjat-khrjang) are the Themiclesian emperor's highest-ranking advisors apart from the chancellor and vice chancellor(s). As a characteristic, they and their departments are all based in the capital city and receive a salary of 2,000 bushels. Despite their high rank, the development of politics around the Inner Court, particularly the Council of Correspondence, has deprived them and the chancellor and vice chancellor(s) of policy authority during the 4th century. Some retain a degree of official function today but are for the most part ceremonial.

List of principal counsels

President of Tribunes

Main article: Tribune (Themiclesia)

The tribunes are a group of officers in Themiclesia primarily concerned with the maintenance of law and order amongst the Civil Service. They possess the power to investigate independently, but the President has the additional power to request assistance from other government agencies. The President of Tribunes is also honoured as the first of the principal counsels.

• Secretary of Tribunes
  • Tribune of Invigilation
  • Naval Tribune
• Royal Secretary of Tribunes
  • Attendant Tribune
  • Tribune of Security
  • Tribune of Seals
  • Tribune of Correspondence
  • Tribune of the Hall

Inner Administrator

The Inner Administrator (内史, nups-srje) manages the finances of the gwians-kwal (縣官), the region directly administered by the government, as opposed to that under feudal titles.

Great Exchequer

The Great Exchequer (邦大內, prong-dais-nups) is the official responsible for overseeing the collection of agricultural revenues in the form of grains. The Inner Administrator, who controls household records, which is the basis of taxation, issues taxation quotas to local authorities and the Great Exchequer; local authorities submit the revenues to the Great Exchequer, which checks that the amount and quality matches with the dictates of the Inner Administrator. Though subordinate to him, the Great Exchequer in practice has independent access to the Emperor, to prevent collusion with other officials. The Great Exchequer is named in opposition to the Minor Exchequer, which receives other revenues.

Minor Exchequer

The Minor Exchequer (邦少內, prong-stjawh-nups) is the official responsible for overseeing the collection of revenues other than grains. The early Themiclesian state collected two principal forms of revenue, grains from farmland (termed the "male" product) but also textiles from households (the "female" product). Additionally, local bodies were responsible for submitting a number of peculiar products according to the needs of the court; these could be non-staple agricultural products, aquatic products, game and/or their products, mineral extracts, precious and base metals, or other things or a combination of them. Later, a poll tax was added, collected in the form of money (bronze coins), assessed on each person but still collected from the household as a unit. As with agricultural revenue, the Inner Administrator issued quotas for collection and instructed the Minor Exchequer to receive and scrutinize the deliveries.

Great Chamberlain

The Great Chamberlain (奉常, bjong'-djang) is primarily invovled in conducting ceremonies, especially for the state cult, of public importance. He also controls the subordinate Departments of Oracles, Clairvoyance, and Worship. Professions once perceived to have some sort of spiritual significance, such as the Departments of Medicine, the Outer Symphony, and Histories are also superintended by the Great Chamberlain. It was once customary for the mausolea of deceased emperors to be created counties in their own right, and a number of households would be forcibly moved to the vicinity to accompany the mausoleum; rather than paying taxes to the government, their residents instead would be charged with maintenance of the mausoleum. Their residents were also exempt from participating in the local militia before it was limited. Due to exemption from taxation and corvée service, these counties became favoured places for merchant families, who could travel more widely without being summoned for local works projects; the duties of maintaining the mausoleum were early commuted to payment for those who did not wish to participate. Maintenance work on mausolea typically lapsed into negligence after several generations passed, while taxation exemption remained; this exemption was considered the "residual grace" of the deceased emperor entombed there. Such "mausolea county" were under the control of the Great Chamberlain.

Court Justiciar

The Court Justiciar (廷尉, ding-'wjeis) is the senior-most judicial officer in Themiclesia and the chief justice of the Exchequer Chamber.

Marshal of the Capital

中尉

Marshal of Guards

衛尉

Master of Embassies

大行

Master of Associated States

屬邦

Marshal of the Corridor

郎中令

President of the Privy Council

中大夫令

Master of the Horse

大僕

Master of the Ancestry

宗正