明代官员升迁路径述论

Ways of Promotion in Ming Dynasty

在我国古代,官僚是亲民治国的主体。这批人能否进行有效的治理与他们的经历密切相关。合理的升迁路径有助于官员积累治理经验。明代官员的升迁已成规律,其突出特点有二:其一,内外皆历,即低级中央官流向地方,高级中央官员须有地方任事经历;其二,行政与监察轮历,也就是行政官迁向监察官,监察官流向行政官。明代官员流向也有两大问题:一是内重外轻局面的加剧,从而妨碍了内外皆历制度的有效发挥;二是由翰林累官升尚书入阁者因缺少地方任事经历,故其治理能力大打折扣。

In ancient China, bureaucrats were the carrier of political system of loving people and governing country. Whether these officials can effectively govern the country is closely related to their experience. Reasonable ways of promotion for officials help them accumulate governing experience. In Ming Dynasty, officials moved up regularly, which had two characteristics. Firstly, flow occurs both bottom-up and top-down. That is to say, local officials have opportunity to be promoted to central government, while low officials in central government flow to local government and high local officials in central government must have local office experience. Secondly, administration and supervision take turns:Administrative officials flow to supervision while supervisory officials flow to administration. There also exist two problems in the flow of officials in Ming Dynasty. First, the phenomenon of heavy central and light local gets serious, and thus impedes the effectiveness of the system of officials flowing both bottom-up and top-down.Second, officials in the Imperial Academy who are promoted to be ministers and go into the cabinet have little local office experience, their governing ability, because of lacking local practice, is discounted largely.