再論唐代的使職和職事官——李建墓碑墓誌的啓示

本文認爲:在唐代,舉凡沒有官品的實職官位,都是使職,如史館史官、知制誥等。由於沒有官品,使職常以"他官充某職"的方式來委任。使職的特徵,主要有三:(一)使職與掌權者之間有一種信任,有一定的"私"關係;(二)使職的權力和享有的好處,遠多於類似職位的職事官,以致職事官以爲使職"侵奪"了職事官原本的權益;(三)使職常不載於正規的政典和職官志,乃正常現象。本文還認爲:使職遠遠早於正規的職事官制,在人類最簡單的"遊羣"(band)組織階段就已形成,乃人類最本能的發明之一。到了帝制時代,當掌權者發覺正規職事官無效率時,重新委派使職來替代職事官,以致在唐後半期,使職取代了超過一半以上的職事官。這是一種"革新",是推動唐代官制演化的一大動力。

Rethinking the Commissioned versus Bureaucratic Officials under the Tang

In the Tang dynasty,all those substantive officials without an official rank are "commissioned" (shizhi使職),as opposed to those bureaucratic officials known as the zhishiguan 職事官.Since these commissioned officials carried no rank,they were often "seconded" from bureaucratic officials with ranks.Three major features of commissioned officials are:(1) A strong "personal" relationship with the authority;(2) Enjoying far more powers and advantages than regular bureaucratic officials;(3) Usually not treated in the standard monographs on Tang officials,which is normal and to be expected.In the later part of the Tang,more than half of the regular bureaucratic posts were replaced by commissioned ones.It is argued here that this was a much needed "reform",so that the dynasty might function more efficiently.