明代京官之朝参与注籍

Court Attendance and Registration for Ming Officials in the Capital

明代朝会分为大朝贺、朔望朝和常朝,除非皇帝传旨免朝,否则在京官员必须按时上朝。为了既能保证该朝参者皆入宫上朝,又能防止无朝参资格者借机阑入,明朝建立了两项制度:一是牙牌制度,凡朝参官皆给赐牙牌佩带,无牌者不得入宫;二是门籍制度,各衙门都要按月攒造朝参门籍,交存于长安左、右门守卫官处,以便点查是否有失朝官员。官员遇公差、患病等项不能朝参,必须先移文填注门籍;受到弹劾的官员,例应杜门不出,遂形成被论注籍的惯例。明代中叶以降,托病注籍者人数众多,大多数都是贪图逸乐逃避朝参,也有的是想借注籍躲避不愿出任的职差,还有一些官员是因官场失意注籍求去。注籍官员例应杜门不出,但有些注籍官员仍上疏言事,甚至还有在私宅办公者。

Ming Dynasty court gatherings were divided into three types-large court celebrations (dachaohe),seasonal court observances (shuowang) and regular court gatherings (changchao).Unless the emperor had issued edicts to the contrary,all officials in the capital had to attend these court gatherings.To guarantee that all attending officials could enter the palace and to exclude those not permitted to do so,the Ming Dynasty adopted two measures.The first was the system of ivory plaques (yapai) worn at the waist which were issued to all required to attend.Without an ivory plaque an official was not permitted to enter the palace.The second was the gate register (menji),whereby the yamen offices issued monthly registers to the gate keepers which were kept by the guards at the left and right entrances of Tian'anmen gate.These were used to check whether those officials required to attend court did in fact attend the court gatherings. If officials were unable to attend because they were engaged in duties that were government business (gongchai) or were seriously ill,they had to inform the gatekeepers in writing and have the reasons entered in the gate registers.Officials who had been impeached had to be stopped at the gate and prevented from entering and the details of the case entered in the register.After the mid-Ming years,the numbers of officials entered as ill in the register greatly increased,although the majority of these were officials who either wanted to indulge in pleasures,skip their duties or who had omitted to attend court.Although the registered officials might be prevented from entering,some still managed to present memorials and even to conduct their business from home.