Three Ducal Ministers
The Three Ducal Ministers (Chinese:
Overview
[edit]Each minister was responsible for different areas of government, but the boundaries were often blurred. Together, the Three Ducal Ministers were the emperor's closest advisors.
Starting in the late Shang dynasty and Zhou dynasty, the top three were:
- Grand Preceptor (Chinese:
太 師 ; pinyin: Tàishī); - Grand Tutor (Chinese:
太 傅 ; pinyin: Tàifù); - Grand Protector (Chinese:
太 保 ; pinyin: Tàibǎo).
During the Western Han dynasty, the three positions were:[1]
- Chancellor (Chinese:
丞相 ; pinyin: Chéngxiàng) - Grand Secretary (Chinese:
御 史 大夫 ; pinyin: Yùshǐ Dàfū); - Grand Commandant (Chinese:
太 尉 ; pinyin: Tàiwèi).
In the Eastern Han dynasty, the names of the Three Ducal Ministers were changed to:
- Minister of War (Chinese:
大 司馬 ; pinyin: Dà Sīmǎ) until 51AD, then Grand Commandant;[2] - Minister of the Masses (Chinese:
司 徒 ; pinyin: Sītú); - Minister of Works (Chinese:
司 空 ; pinyin: Sīkōng).
Because all three titles contain the word "
Rank
[edit]During the Han dynasty, civil service officials were classified according to twenty grades (reduced to sixteen after 32 BC), expressed by the official's annual salary in terms of number of dàn (
See also
[edit]Notes
[edit]- ^ probably of wheat, the core of the Chinese Empire at that time being mainly on the North China Plain, above the Yangzi River. Rice came later to the area.
References
[edit]Citations
[edit]- ^ Wang 1949, p. 150.
- ^ de Crespigny 2007, p. 51.
- ^ "Official Titles of the Han dynasty: A Tentative List Compiled for The Han Dynasty History Project" (PDF). University of Washington. p. 31. Retrieved March 21, 2013.
- ^ Wang 1949, p. 137.
Sources
[edit]- de Crespigny, Rafe (2007). A biographical dictionary of Later Han to the Three Kingdoms (23–220 AD). Leiden, South Holland: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-15605-0.
- Wang, Yü-Ch'üan (June 1949). "An Outline of The Central Government of The Former Han Dynasty". Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies. 12 (1/2). Harvard-Yenching Institute: 134–187. doi:10.2307/2718206. JSTOR 2718206.