元代“让荫”现象探析:官僚家庭对荫叙资格的调节与分配

The adjustment and distribution of family to the qualification of yin privilege in Yuan Dynasty

荫叙作为一种入仕渠道,其两端将官僚系统与个体、家庭紧密地联结在一起。本文认为金元之际荫叙制在员额限制、亲疏限制上发生较大变动是元代官僚家庭内部普遍发生调节并出现大量“让荫”现象的直接原因。从参与荫叙的家庭对荫叙资格的再次分配、主事家长及承荫人所发挥的作用上可见:元代荫叙制度和参与荫叙的个体、家庭之间存在着相当弹性的关系,荫叙制发展到元代并非“衰落”而是更为“灵活”了。

The system of Yinxu(荫叙yin-hsü),i.e.yin the Protection,allows particulr offsprings of certain officials to obtain civil posts directly,that is,to inherit the privilege of“yin”.Serving as a path to officialdom,it connects the bureaucratic system together with the individuals and their families at the other.The Yuan Dynasty witnessed widespread adjustment in the candidacy for“yin”within bureaucratic families where the original legitimate successor transferred the privilege to another offspring of the family(rangyin).This special phenomenon frequently happened during the end of Jurchen-Jin and the begin of Mongol-Yuan era that is because the Yinxu system underwent major changes in the measurement of“posts”and“affinity”.The reassignment of the candidacy within such families governed by the system,as well as the roles played by the head of the family and the recipient of“yin”reflected a rather“flexible”relationship between those individuals and their families governed by the Yinxu system.It means the Yinxu system did not decay in the Yuan Dynasty but it changed only.