Ancient Chinese officials received Tet bonuses, shocking numbers

Year-end bonus or Tet bonus becomes the amount of mone.y that many people look forward to every time Tet comes. Tet bonus is considered as a motivation to help workers in all fields stick with their work, ensuring a warm and prosperous Tet.

In recent years, the story of unique Tet bonuses such as super cars, houses, lotter.y tickets, etc. is no longer strange, especially in China. However, year-end bonuses are not only new in modern times, but thousands of years ago, Chinese officials received this mone.y.

During the Qin Dynasty (221 - 206 BC) and the Western Han Dynasty (202 BC - 9 AD), officials did not receive year-end bonuses. They had to sell cloth bags to have mone.y to spend during the Lunar New Year, according to the People's Daily.

The regulation of giving Tet bonuses to officials did not appear during the Qin and Western Han dynasties. However, to have mone.y to spend during Tet, officials during this period could still "manage" by selling cloth bags.

During the Qin and Western Han dynasties, characters were not written on paper but were carved on bamboo slips. The imperial archives office kept countless bamboo scrolls. When sending "official dispatches" to officials, they had to wrap the bamboo scrolls in leather, cloth, or, more luxuriously, silk or brocade bags. Each "official dispatch" bag was covered with clay on top and stamped.

Once the "document" is sent, the bag becomes "scrap".

At the end of the year, officials could order their servants to take the bags they had saved to the market to sell. This was their extra income during the Lunar New Year.

During the Eastern Han Dynasty (25 - 220), officials were given Tet bonuses for the first time, according to Sohu.

According to the Han Guan Li (a book recording the regulations and rituals of the Eastern Han Dynasty), in the twelfth lunar month, officials were rewarded twice by the emperor.

High-ranking officials such as the Minister of Justice and Minister of Justice were awarded 30 pieces of silk by the emperor. Officials of the rank of Nine Ministers were awarded 15 pieces of silk. Military officials were awarded double the amount of civil officials. This rewar.d was called "Xuan Tu".

In addition to "Xuan Tu", officials in the Eastern Han Dynasty were also rewarded with "Lap Tu". Accordingly, the emperor rewarded the officials of the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Grand General with 300,000 copper coins, 200 catties of beef and 200 bushels of rice. Lower-ranking officials were also rewarded with "Lap Tu", but less.

It can be said that the emperors of the Eastern Han Dynasty were very "generous" when it came to Tet rewards, but this also gradually depleted the national treasury, according to Xinhua.

During the Tang Dynasty (618 - 907), officials' New Year bonuses depended on lending mone.y at interest. The imperial court would provide localities with a certain amount of mone.y (local budget). Part of this mone.y was for spending, and part was allowed to be lent at interest.

At the end of the year, the interest will be collected by local officials. A small portion will be sent to the court, the rest will be used as a Tet bonus, according to the People's Daily.

King Song Shenzong (1048 - 1085) of the Northern Song Dynasty also applied this New Year rewar.d method of the Tang Dynasty.

The Song Dynasty (960 - 1279) is considered China's "high salary dynasty". Officials during this period were paid very high salaries, but their New Year bonuses were low, according to Xinhua.

According to the Song History, on the Winter Solstice (December of the lunar calendar), high-ranking officials such as prime ministers, generals, and secret envoys were rewarded by the emperor with five sheep, rice, and wine to celebrate Tet. Lower-ranking officials were rewarded less or not at all.

At current prices, five sheep are worth only a few thousand yuan (about 6-10 million VND, equivalent to the New Year bonus of many workers today). Therefore, the New Year bonus during the Song Dynasty mainly had spiritual value, according to Xinhua.

In contrast, the salaries of officials in the Song Dynasty were very high.

Bao Zheng (999 - 1062) was a famous honest official during the Song Dynasty. When he held the position of governor of Kaifeng, his annual salary was nearly 10,000 quan (approximately 6 million yuan - more than 20 billion VND at today's prices), according to the People's Daily.

During the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644) and Qing Dynasty (1636 - 1912), the imperial court did not give Tet bonuses, so officials who wanted to have mone.y to spend at the end of the year had to "manage" it their own way. Officials in the capital forced local officials to be "filial". Local officials directly exploited and plundered the people.

To gain favor from the officials in the capital, near the Lunar New Year, local officials had to send a sum of mone.y to the capital, under the pretext of giving mone.y to buy heating coal - also known as "Than Kinh", according to the People's Daily (China).

In the late Ming and Qing dynasties, corruption was rampant, and people were heavily exploited by officials to collect "Than Kinh" mone.y.

There are rewards and there are punishments. There are many terrible punishments in ancient China, when you read it will make your hair stand on end.

However, there are also some milder punishments, one of which is even considered "too gentle for the guilty person", which also does not cause physical harm to the body.

However, this punishment was specifically for women. It was not because the ancient Chinese "pityed the flowers and cherished the jade" or "saw that women were weak and showed mercy", but because of the nature of the violation that the woman committed. It was said to be "gentle" and not cause physical harm, but this type of punishment caused women to "shed tears like rivers", automatically finding a way to end their lives.

That is: Shaving the head.

Men who were punished by this method were considered to have "escaped the disaster", while women were "worse off than dead". Because it did not provide much of a deterrent to men, this punishment was later only applied to women.

Because the ancients attached great importance to "teeth and hair are the root of a person", especially in China at that time, there was also the concept: "This body belongs to the parents". Therefore, cutting hair and shaving the head was a very important matter. That is also the reason why feudal Chinese people often kept their hair long, regardless of gender.

Throughout Chinese history, it was only during the late Qing Dynasty that men were allowed to shave half their heads and wear long braids.

During the Qing Dynasty, there was a very famous event. That was when Queen Na La cu.t her hair.

According to historical records, Empress Ke fell out of favor with Emperor Qianlong after her tour to Jiangnan. In 1778 (12 years after Empress Ke died), Emperor Qianlong recalled and explained that on that night, Ula Na La had shaved her head, committing a major taboo.

The Manchus considered hair a sacred part of the body. Hair cutting was only allowed during the Emperor's or Empress Dowager's funeral, to show their condolences to the deceased. Therefore, this action of Empress Ke was considered a great disrespect when both the Emperor and the Empress Dowager were still alive. On the other hand, growing long hair was a privilege for Manchu women after marriage. They said goodbye to the mischievousness of their youth to become more dignified and polished, also to "save face" for their husbands. So when Empress Ke blamed the Emperor and cu.t her own hair, it was also to sever the relationship with her husband, Hongli.

Because of the matter of Empress Ke cutting her hair, Qianlong treated her extremely cruelly afterwards. When he heard the news of her deat.h, Qianlong continued to hunt and have fun. Moreover, Empress Ke's funeral was extremely simple, even the coffin containing her ashes was casually placed in the tomb of the concubine.

Through this, we can see that even men, who enjoyed privileges in the patriarchal ideology, did not dare to go against this custom and law, let alone the lowly women of that time.

For women in feudal times, having no hair was like "going out without clothes", which was a disgrac.e to the family, making parents unable to go out, and being ridiculed by others.

Women who were subjected to this punishment of shaving their heads were often those who had an affair with another man. At that time, men could have five wives, but women had to follow their husbands. There were even many customs such as if the husband died, the wife had to di.e with him or stay in mourning for the rest of her life. Therefore, women with bad behavior were always hated by the world, shunned by their families, and could not raise their heads and live wherever they went.

Previously, women who committed this crime were often humiliated at the village gate, tied up or locked in a cage, and then people gathered around to watch and throw things at them until they collapsed. As a result, most of the female prisoners died from the pai.n.

Later, the law changed and the punishment of shaving one's head was implemented. Just seeing a woman with a shaved head on the street was considered a crime of "not keeping her virtue". But whether or not she dared to go out on the street after having her head shaved was another matter!

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