qing 卿きょう, ministers, dafu 大夫たいふ, grand masters, and shi 士し, servicemen

Qing 卿きょう "ministers" and dafu 大夫たいふ "grand masters" belonged to the highest titles of state officials (ranking just below the Three Dukes) in the Zhou kingdom 周しゅう (11th cent.-221 BCE) and were the leading administrators in the territories of the regional rulers (zhuhou 諸侯しょこう).

The holders of the posts of qing and dafu were usually also conferred a territory as a hereditary estate (fenfeng 分封ぶんぽう) inside a regional state which was called jia 家いえ (in contrast to bang 邦くに or guo 國くに, which was the territory of the regional ruler). The posts of qing and dafu were therefore hereditary. Most occupants were relatives of the ruling houses.

The lowest of these three ranks of officials (sanji 三さん級きゅう) were servicemen (shi 士し), which were not endowed with an estate. The expressions qing shi 卿きょう士し, qing dafu 卿きょう大夫たいふ or qing shi dafu 卿きょう士し大夫たいふ (in this order!) refer to the whole administrative staff of the Zhou kings or that of a regional ruler.

Qing 卿きょう "ministers"

The function of qing was to directly support the king and the regional rulers, respectively, in daily administration. The word can therefore be translated as "minister". During the Western Zhou 西にし周あまね (11th cent.-770 BCE) and the Spring and Autumn 春秋しゅんじゅう (770-5th cent. BCE) periods ministers could occupy three ranks, namely senior minister (shangqing 上うえ卿きょう), ordinary minister (zhongqing 中ちゅう卿きょう), and junior minister (xiaqing 下しも卿きょう). During the Spring and Autumn period these were reduced to two, namely senior ministers (shangqing) and *lesser ministers (yaqing 亞あ卿きょう).

The fact that qing were often relatives to the regional rulers gave them a position to claim the right of obtaining an own "regional state". This was the case in several states during the Spring and Autumn period, mainly Chen 陳ちん, Lu 魯, and Jin 晉すすむ.

In the political system of the Qin 秦はた (221-206 BCE) and Han 漢かん (206 BCE-220 CE) dynasties ministers ran the agencies of the central government. They were subsumed under the designation "nine ministers" (jiu qing 九きゅう卿きょう). Each of them was aided by a vice minister (shaoqing 少しょう卿きょう). Examples for such imperial ministers are Chamberlain for Ceremonials (taichang qing 太ふと常つね卿きょう) or Chief Minister of the Court of Judicial Review (dali qing 大だい理り卿きょう). The title was informally used until the end of the imperial period.

In late imperial China the title qing was conferred upon meritorious persons, as a kind of honorary title (xuxian 虛きょ銜 "vain rank", rank 3-5), for instance, as jingqing 京きょう卿きょう "metropolitan minister". In official correspondence, Grand Ministers (dachen 大臣だいじん) were sometimes called with the antiquated title of qing.

During the Han period, qing was also used as a polite address to a male person (like jun 君きみ "sir"), both by males and by females.

Dafu 大夫たいふ "grand masters"

Dafu had subordinated or specialized duties, like chamberlain or steward. This term is usually translated as "grand master" (Hucker 1985: 5939). Some grand masters served in the central administration (chao dafu 朝あさ大夫たいふ), but a large number in the territorial administration, and were therefore named xian dafu 縣けん大夫たいふ (township), xiang dafu 鄉さと大夫たいふ (district in the royal domain), zhong dafu 冢大夫たいふ (surveying tombs), duyi dafu 都邑とゆう大夫たいふ (several townships around a city), sui dafu 遂とげ大夫たいふ (district outside the royal domain), or gongzu dafu 公おおやけ族ぞく大夫たいふ (surveying the family affairs of a duke). All these duties were carried out for official domains (gongyi 公おおやけ邑), while the administrators for private domains (siyi 私わたし邑, later also for "princedoms", wangguo 王國おうこく) were called zai 宰おさむ.

Some texts like Guanzi 管かん子こ (ch. Kuidu 揆度) discern between "senior grand masters" (shang dafu 上うえ大夫たいふ), a designation which included also the qing and shi, and "adjunct grand masters" (lie dafu 列れつ大夫たいふ). The latter again were divided into ordinary and junior grand masters (zhong dafu 中ちゅう大夫たいふ, xia dafu 下しも大夫たいふ). Dai Wang 戴望 (1837-1873), commenting on the Guanzi, says that lie dafu and zhong dafu was the same.

The book Hanfeizi 韓非子かんぴし (ch. Wai zhushuo zuo xia 外そと儲もうか說せつ左下ひだりした) explains that senior grand masters had the right to use two state coaches (yu 輿こし) and two carriages (sheng 乘の), the ordinary grand masters two coaches and one carriage, and the junior ones one carriage.

The ranks (and thus the salaries) of qing and dafu depended on the size of the regional state. The chronicle Zuozhuan 左ひだり傳でん (Chenggong 成なり公こう 3) explicates that a senior minister (shangqing 上うえ卿きょう) in a smaller state had the same rank as an ordinary minister in a greater state; an ordinary minister in a small state was as much as a junior minister in a larger state; a junior minister in a small state finally had the same rank as a senior grand master in a large state. In very small states, the level of ranks was accordingly lower.

A sentence in Zuozhuan, Xianggong 襄じょう公おおやけ 15, lists a few more estate holders than the known five ranks of nobility, namely dian 甸 (territory among the royal domains), cai 采さい (owner of a territory outside the royal domains), wei 衛まもる (owner of a stronghold?), and dafu. This would mean that dafu was the lowest rank of nobility that was still granted a tract of land to live on.

The term shang dafu was from time to time revived in imperial times. The usurper Wang Mang 王おう莽 (r. 8-23 CE) for instance, re-adopted the title in 9 CE, likewise the Northern Wei dynasty 北きた魏たかし (386-534) and its successors.

The term dafu was used through imperial times for the designations of the leaders of institutions in the central administration, like Censors-in-chief (yushi dafu 御ご史し大夫たいふ), Grand Masters for Splendid Happiness (guanglu dafu 光ひかり祿ろく大夫たいふ), Superior Grand Masters of the Palace (taizhong dafu 太ふと中なか大夫たいふ) or Grand Masters of Remonstrance (jianyi dafu 諫議大夫たいふ). In the Qin/Han period system of twelve official ranks, they occupied rank 5-9: dafu 大夫たいふ (5), guan dafu 官かん大夫たいふ (6), gong dafu 公おおやけ大夫たいふ (7, therefore also called qi dafu 七なな大夫たいふ), and wu dafu 五ご大夫たいふ (9).

In late imperial China the designations XY dafu were sometimes conferred as honorary titles (fengzeng 封ふうじ贈おく).

During the Song period 宋そう (960-1279) the highest court physicians were called dafu, subordinates had the titles he'an dafu 和かず安やすし大夫たいふ, baohe dafu 保ほ和わ大夫たいふ, and the like. For this reason the word dafu (today read daifu) is colloquially used to refer to a doctor.

Shi 士し "servicemen"

Servicemen often belonged to the households of grand masters and were not seldom relatives of them. During the Han period (refence in Baihutong 白虎びゃっこ通どおり, ch. Jue 爵) the word shi was explained with the homophone shi 事こと "to serve". Zheng Xuan 鄭てい玄げん (127-200), commentator on the Confucian Classics, said that servicemen were the administrators of domains (yi zai 邑宰). Confucius' disciple Zilu 子こ路ろ, for instance, was an administrator of the house of Jisun 季き孫まご. A commentary of Zheng Xuan to the Liji 禮れい記き (ch. Shaoyi 少しょう邑) indicates that servicemen lived from the income of the domain, and therefore did everything to raise the agricultural output.

Like the grand masters, the rank of shi was divided into three, namely senior serviceman (shangshi 上士じょうし), ordinary serviceman (zhongshi 中ちゅう士し), and junior serviceman (xiashi 下士かし). Below the rank of shi was that of zao 皂, a member of the menial staff (Zuozhuan, Zhaogong 昭あきら公おおやけ 7).

Shi was also used as a designation for an unmarried male or bachelor (for instance, in the ritual Classic Yili 儀禮ぎれい). The earliest reference for the term shi used with the meaning of "scholar", "learned person", is in Guliangzhuan 穀こく梁りょう傳つたえ (Chenggong 成なり公こう 1), where the four classes of the people (simin 四民しみん) are first mentioned (in this order!): scholars (shimin 士民しみん), merchants (shangmin 商しょう民みん), peasants (nongmin 農民のうみん), and craftsmen (gongmin 工こう民みん). The commentator Fan Ning 范寧 (339-401) explains that shi were persons studying the way and the arts (xue xi dao yi zhe 學習がくしゅう道どう藝者げいしゃ) and also persons of virtuous conduct (de xing zhe 德行とっこう者しゃ). The last statement can be confirmed from a sentence in the "Confucian Analects" Lunyu 論語ろんご (ch. Zilu 子こ路ろ).

Apart from this "Confucian" meaning, the term shi was also used for judicial officials (liguan 理り官かん, sishi 司つかさ士し, dashi 大だい士し), and for elite troops (bingshi 兵士へいし, wushi 武士ぶし).

Estates

Qing and dafu were either granted caidi 采さい地ち or lutian 祿ろく田でん. The latter only served to "pay out" (in the form of grain) a state official his salary, while the former was in hereditary possession and combined with a hereditary residence (caiyi 采さい邑) and troops of a certain size. In the late Warring States period 戰國せんごく (5th cent.-221 BCE), a qing or dafu had a domain with an army of 100 chariots.

This "estate" was also called shangtian 賞田しょうだ (in case the owner could not dispose of the local workforce), shangdi 賞しょう地ち or fengdi 封地ほうち. Its revenue served as a kind of salary to the estate-holder. In imperial times therefore, such hereditary domains were called shiyi 食しょく邑 "domains to live on". One third of the harvest was to hand over to the central government, as a kind of tax. In some cases the king conferred "additional fields" (jiatian 加田かだ) as an expression of extraordinary appreciation.

The arrangement of the fields followed in ancient times the so-called well-field system (jingtian 井田いだ), and the estates were therefore also called jingyi 井い邑. The domains also included the right to dispose of the peasant folk living on it, to use the forests and waters, as well as the gardens on it. With the progress of administrative reforms and the replacement of hereditary domains by centrally administered commanderies (jun 郡ぐん) and districticts (xian 縣けん), state officials were properly salaried, and the revenues of the domains were converted into regular taxes.

"Salary fields" (lutian) were only granted to an official as long as he served, and are thus also called zhitian 職しょく田た "fields of post". The size depended on the rank of the official, and the territory was not inheritable. The system was abolished with the introduction of the regular salary, but was sometimes revived, for instance, during the Northern Wei period, but also during the Tang 唐とう (618-907) and Song periods. A metropolitan official during the Tang, for instance, was given between 2 and 12 qing 頃ころ of land (see weights and measures), a provincial official between 2.5 and 12 qing. It was strictly forbidden to sell the fields. The official lived on the rent (zhizu 職しょく租 "rent paid to government officials") paid by tenant farmers, but the Song dynasty restricted the land rent to no more than 6 dou 斗と per mu 畝うね of land. The system was abolished by the Ming dynasty 明あきら (1368-1644).