萧梁官班制的形成考论——以流外七班、三品勋位及蕴位为中心

The Rank System of Officials in the Xiao Liang Dynasty:Focusing on the Seven Ranks for Scholars of Humble Origins and Three Merit-based Ranks for the Commons

宋齐勋位具有二重性——起初具有乡品的性质,后来发展为官阶,它有七个等级。北魏流外七等、萧梁流外七班与宋齐勋位的诸多相似性,证明二者都由后者继承发展而来。梁流外七班继承了宋齐勋位的官阶数量,三品勋位承袭了宋齐勋位的名称。士族依靠门第从流内十八班入仕,寒微士人凭借才学从流外七班起家,一般庶民从军人或胥吏做起,积累军勋、吏绩或年劳到一定程度才得以从三品勋位或蕴位起家;三品蕴位及勋位迁流外七班,流外七班迁流内十八班,三者等级分明。因此,三品蕴位及勋位位居流外七班之下。

Divided into seven ranks, the meritbased official titles in the Song and Qi Dynasties＇ bureaucracy were originally honorary in nature and outside the bureaucratic hierarchy, but all later developed into paid offi cial ranks. The similarities between the seven rank systems for the commons in the Northern Wei and the Southern Xiao Liang Dynasties and the meritbased ranks for the commons in Liu Song and Xiao Qi Dynasties strongly suggest that the former developed from the latter. The seven ranks for the scholars of humble origins and the three meritbased ranks for the commons of Xiao Liang respectively inherited the rank number and the name of the merit system from Liu Song and Xiao Qi. In the Xiao Liang Period, noblemen started their career as officials through directly entering the eighteenranked system designated for the class they belonged to, and talented scholars from humble origins through entering the sevenranked system designated for the commons. But others could only start from working as soldiers or servants in the government, and after many years＇ excel lent performance it was possible for some of them to be promoted to the three meritbased ranks. Before a per son of the third type was entitled to enter the bureaucratic system for the noblemen, he had to first obtain a meritbased title and then be promoted into the sevenranked system for common scholars. That is to say, the whole bureaucracy in that period consisted of three major categories with the three meritbased ranks at the bot tom and the eighteen ranks for the noblemen at the top.