Promotion is the wish of most officials since ancient times, and one of the reasons is poverty. The ranking system of official positions has been going on. What kind of treatment you get at what level, what kind of transportation, medical care, security, housing and salary you can get are all stipulated-even clothes are strictly limited. If you can't reach this level, you are a grass-roots civil servant. This hierarchical system encourages officials to go up desperately, even if they don't want to live in a high-rise compound or seek fanfan, they have to save face. Take the Song Dynasty as an example. Bachelor degree or above, you can have a servant in red to lead the horse, and your belt can be gold, but you can't hang goldfish. However, once you enter the two governments (Xifu under Zhongshumen, Dongfu under Privy Council, and the two governments are the core administrative departments of the government), the number of red servants leading horses can be increased to two, which is the so-called "double citation". In addition to the gold belt, you can also hang goldfish, which is called "heavy gold". People who want to be single say every day, "When are your eyes red?" ? How yellow is the waist? "When he became a bachelor, he said," When are your eyes red? How many days does waist yellow weigh? "

Dong Xuan records a man named Xiahou Jia Zheng, who had two great ideals in his life: burning silver and making patents. He often says to people, "If I can make a penny in my life, I will have no hatred for being an official." Unfortunately, the ideal of a chemist and an official fan has not been realized in the end. Another more famous person is money. He was the highest envoy of the Tang Dynasty, and he was called the envoy. He has great power, but he is still not qualified to sign the imperial edict on the appointment and removal of officials. Qian Wei Yan always sighed: "If I can become a real prime minister, it is enough to put a sentence at the end of that yellow paper."

These two actually get along very well, so they are among the ruling classes. Can enter the professional officialdom, desire is always stimulated, there is no end.

Have a strong desire and do whatever it takes to get promoted. Not to mention all kinds of flattering lines, and sometimes they are unconventional. Feng Shiwen and Ji Jian contains the first year of Wu Zetian's wishful thinking to elect a group of officials. There is a square and a king on the list. Following the advice of the insider, the two brothers changed their surnames to Ding and Shi, and changed back after they got the official position. Why? Because these two surnames were relatively rare at that time, the strokes were concise, conspicuous on the list and easy to see. Who guarantees that the officials in charge of selection will not rub sand in their eyes? After reading the list, they say, "I read the list of civil servants, and there are probably tens of thousands of people, but there are no salaries and stones." These two men must be surnamed Fang and Wang. "Although do sth unconventional or unorthodox, but the technical content is not high, being caught, the road to promotion is blocked.

There are also people who have a particularly good life. Somehow, they stepped on the tail of fate and somehow reached the sky. For example, Yuan Yao Gan was the prime minister in Xuanzong period of Tang Dynasty. I don't know why I like him very much, and I promoted him from an official position to assistant minister and Jing of the Ministry of Finance until the prime minister, as fast as a rocket. One day, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty chatted with Gao Lishi and asked, "Do you know why I promoted Gan Yuan Obsidian so quickly?" Gao Lishi certainly doesn't know. Tang Xuanzong said mysteriously, "Nothing else, just because his appearance and voice are particularly like Xiao Zhizhong."

Gao Lishi is even more don't understand. Who is Xiao Zhizhong? He was also a prime minister, but he was once an opponent of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty. He was Princess Taiping's best friend, and later Emperor Xuanzong was killed together when he was cleaning up Princess Taiping. Gao Lishi asked, "Isn't Xiao Zhizhong a person who failed your majesty? Why does your majesty still miss him? " Tang Xuanzong said: "He was a fool when he was old, but he was a wise man when he was in power in his early years."

This passage was recorded in "Old News of the Second Liu Family" to praise the thirst for wisdom, tolerance and generosity. It's just-is anyone so strict about asking for work? At that time, Gan Yuan Obsidian probably never dreamed why he became prime minister. However, this prime minister is very good, honest and cautious, not so arrogant, and became the longest-serving prime minister in the Tang Xuanzong era.

There is a better life-Zhang Jianji, the magistrate of Donghu County, Hubei Province in the Qing Dynasty, finally became the envoy of Hubei Province because of the recommendation of Governor Hu Linyi. Why did you recommend him? "Wan Yong Notes" said that the unjust case occurred in East Lake because Zhang County magistrate was observant and found a flaw in the clue, and finally the female murderer who was about to be executed was acquitted. Hu Linyi heard about it, thought Zhang County was good, and highly recommended it. Unexpectedly, after the promotion, he was "greedy" and was finally ordered to return to the field. So some people are curious about Hu Linyi. After investigation, they found a big joke: Zhang Jianji's predecessor, surnamed Zhang, was rehabilitated, and Hu Linyi confused them and promoted the wrong person. When people went to find their predecessor again, unfortunately, he had passed away.

Promotion is too difficult, and the difficulty lies in the impermanence of fate. Some people can't get promoted if they go all out, while others can get it as easy as blowing off dust.

Because there are many senior officials and few opportunities for promotion, a special profession-selling shortage-has been born. Back to "Return to Heart and Miscellaneous Knowledge", there are records of capable people in this field. It is said that the official Shen is "all counties in the world are short of officials, and they are all in sight", which is even worse than the organization minister of Dasong. He can show the way according to people's needs. Some departments are obviously full, and there will be no vacancies in five or ten years. He is expected to go there. Sure enough, someone will be worried soon, or someone will be transferred. It is precisely because of this ability that he "always has shoes outside the door." The person who asked him must pledge the money or even make a written agreement before the official will confirm the full payment. This is his way of making a living. What a master.

According to estimates, the proportion of civil servants who can be promoted to the provincial or ministerial level is about 4/10000, and most civil servants are grass-roots clerks all their lives (People's Daily Online 65438+1October 23rd quoted Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security Gazette). The competition is fiercer than that of ancient officials. Of course, the objects they serve are different and the nature of being an official is different, but the channels for rising have not changed much.

Perhaps this is the reason why civil servants want to raise their salaries. After the salary increase, they still feel thirsty. Promoting ranks is one way. You can raise your salary without promotion, but it may mean staying up late for a long time. For thousands of years, the system has not been smooth, and everything can only be regarded as a stopgap measure.