Pre-reform civil service of Themiclesia

The pre-reform civil service of Themiclesia was the bureaucratic system and organization that governed metropolitan Themiclesia and other imperial holdings abroad prior to the Great Reform Act of 1886

History

Rang reforms

In 492, King Ngwyan of Rang issued an edict stating that that seating order of "commissioners" (諸矦吏第次灋) should be determined based on their emoluments, with barons outranking officials and officials receiving higher salaries outranking those receiving less. The earliest list of ranks in this sense is found in an appendix to this edict, elaborating it and probably written by ushers responsible for seating courtiers when they came. It says,

• 尚設席四重、小帳、戟帷、大帳、畫帷、眔珠幕流蘇在後，東鄉
• 青公、舒公、薶公，律四重，率帳、帷、幕，東鄉，以次在畫帷之左
• 又次相邦，東鄉，在畫帷之右
• 徹矦，位次公，南鄉，尚公子
• 徹吏，位次相邦，西尚，北鄉，最丞、次卿、次大夫，同延別席；次千石吏，次八百，次七百，次六百，次五百，次四百，次三百，同席，北鄉
• 屬吏眔粟失弗眔三百，乃于舍人屬臣客人從，勿之內庭戶，聽自錯席戶之外眔廊中

Mengh reforms

The restored Meng dynasty altered the bureaucracy's personnel structure in the second half of the 6th century by introducing several laws, starting with the Nine Classes Law (九品灋), which had been in force in Menghe but was greatly tailored to Themiclesia's less centralized royal government. The laws have been deemed an important progression in the maturing Themiclesian bureaucracy with the injection of historical and political experience grafted from the Menghean court.

The Tsinh and Sungh system, according to the understanding of Lichtkin (1975), divides the entire royal bureaucracy (defined as all public offices within the appointment authority of the crown that are not heritable) into baronial and non-baronial offices; as the name suggests, baronial offices were only given to barons. Yet in the course of centralization, the Rang administration created offfices that were of equal rank to barons but were not barons themselves; and the latter were, evidently, conflated with those offices reserved for barons by about 530 during the height of royal authority. Both were comprehended under the label of gwreps-gwa (位矦), i.e. "of baronial rank".

Traditionally, barons had a strong voice in determining major policy questions (e.g. war and peace), but the day-to-day administration of the central government was carried out without much input from ordinary barons (but a select few worked closely with the crown), and such administration could deviate from policies considerably. In adapting the Nine Class Law to Themiclesia, the Meng dynasty may have intended to harmonize the aristocratic and bureaucratic segments of Themiclesian politics. While the bureaucracy has been understood as the standard-bearer of royal authority against aristocracy, Litchtkin also said that a binary division of the Rang royal court (and possibly its predecessors) into aristocracy and bureaucracy is probably too broad-stroked to be quite useful in explaining the affinities of the Meng dynasty in Themicesia.

The Election and Appointment Law (選銓灋), issued in 563, has clearer vision of putting the aristocracy in line with the bureaucracy, according to prevailing analysis. It does so by giving the children of barons an automatic entry to the bureaucracy at a given class and forbidding the promotion of officials more than one class above the current class. Thus, a baron could not be appointed to a "baronial rank" office but must be promoted there instead. Considering that most of the crown's major ministers were of baronial rank, a baron hoping to become an influential minister would invariably have to start participating in the bureaucracy from a relatively young age. The incorporation of friendly barons into bureaucratic life seems to have correlated with the decline of deliberation in open court as the locus where major policies were made.

The Assessment Law (中正人灋) of 571 has been thought a foregone conclusion that makes it possible for individuals who were not barons to enter the bureaucracy in an orderly manner. While barons and their children had an automatic starting rank, others had their starting rank determined, curiously, by an impanelled jury of a kind, consisting of the major lineages in the city.

Recruitment and promotion

Law of Officials in Nine Classes

Main article: Civil ranks and vestments of Themiclesia

The Law of Officials in Nine Classes (九品官人灋, ku-prum-kwar-ning-pap) was a general reform issued in 548 by the first Meng monarch to rule Themiclesia, Emperor Wŏn of Chŏllo, dividing major royal offices into nine classes numbered from 1st class (第一品) to 9th class (第九品), the 1st being the highest. A similar law had been in force in Menghe and was the antecedent of the Themiclesian law in spirit, though the exact contents of the law was not promulgated without serious alterations to meet Themiclesian political realities. Emendations were issued in 550, 557, and again in 563; afterwards, most of the emendations were additions.

The class to which an office is assigned

The class to which an office is assigned determines only part of the emoluments which the office provides to its holder; more importantly, it sets forth restraints on how much of land, retainers, serfs, and petty officials the person holding the office could have.

• 中正人灋
• 銓選灋

Law of Succession

The Law of Succession is an exception to the Law of Determination and provides automatic classifications to members of royalty and nobility.

By the mid-600s, the entry of imperial princes to the civil service had become routine enough that a rule was necessary to govern their classification results, since it was impolitic for an official to "classify" the ruling dynasty as such. In this case, the rule was completely based on consanguineity with the monarch: princes who were once removed from a ruling progenitor were given the 2nd class and therefore began their bureaucratic careers as a 6th-class official; those twice removed were given 3rd class, etc. Exceptionally, legitimate princes born of the Empress-consort were appointed to the 1st class, which was otherwise not used.

• 蔭襲灋
• 考成灋