Five Directorates | |||||||
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Traditional Chinese | 五 監 | ||||||
Simplified Chinese | 五 监 | ||||||
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The Five Directorates were five service agencies in the central government of the Sui,Tang,and Song dynasties of China,apart from the Nine Courts.
The Five Directorates included:
The Tang dynasty,or Tang Empire,was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD,with an interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. Historians generally regard the Tang as a high point in Chinese civilization,and a golden age of cosmopolitan culture. Tang territory,acquired through the military campaigns of its early rulers,rivaled that of the Han dynasty.
The Sui dynasty was a short-lived imperial dynasty of China of pivotal significance (581-618). The Sui unified the Northern and Southern dynasties,thus ending the long period of division following the fall of the Western Jin Dynasty,and laying the foundations for the much longer lasting Tang dynasty.
The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period,from 907 to 979 was an era of political upheaval and division in 10th-century Imperial China. Five states quickly succeeded one another in the Central Plain,and more than a dozen concurrent states were established elsewhere,mainly in South China. It was a prolonged period of multiple political divisions in Chinese imperial history.
The Northern and Southern dynasties was a period of political division in the history of China that lasted from 420 to 589,following the tumultuous era of the Sixteen Kingdoms and the Eastern Jin dynasty. It is sometimes considered as the latter part of a longer period known as the Six Dynasties (220–589). Albeit an age of civil war and political chaos,it was also a time of flourishing arts and culture,advancement in technology,and the spread of Mahayana Buddhism and Daoism. The period saw large-scale migration of the Han people to the lands south of the Yangtze. The period came to an end with the unification of all of China proper by Emperor Wen of the Sui dynasty.
Luoyang is a city located in the confluence area of Luo River and Yellow River in the west of Henan province. Governed as a prefecture-level city,it borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the east,Pingdingshan to the southeast,Nanyang to the south,Sanmenxia to the west,Jiyuan to the north,and Jiaozuo to the northeast. As of December 31,2018,Luoyang had a population of 6,888,500 inhabitants with 2,751,400 people living in the built-up area made of the city's five out of six urban districts and Yanshi District,now being conurbated.
The imperial examination,or keju was a civil-service examination system in Imperial China,administered for the purpose of selecting candidates for the state bureaucracy. The concept of choosing bureaucrats by merit rather than by birth started early in Chinese history,but using written examinations as a tool of selection started in earnest during the Sui dynasty then into the Tang dynasty of 618–907. The system became dominant during the Song dynasty (960–1279) and lasted for almost a millennium until its abolition in the late Qing dynasty reforms in 1905. Aspects of the imperial examination still exist for entry into the civil service of contemporary China,in both the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Republic of China (ROC).
The nobility of China was an important feature of the traditional social structure of Ancient China and Imperial China.
Dynasties in Chinese history,or Chinese dynasties,were hereditary monarchical regimes that ruled over China during much of its history. From the inauguration of dynastic rule by Yu the Great in circa 2070 BC to the abdication of the Xuantong Emperor on 12 February 1912 in the wake of the Xinhai Revolution,China was ruled by a series of successive dynasties. Dynasties of China were not limited to those established by ethnic Han—the dominant Chinese ethnic group—and its predecessor,the Huaxia tribal confederation,but also included those founded by non-Han peoples.
Jin,known as the Later Jìn or the Shi Jin (石晉) in historiography,was an imperial dynasty of China and the third of the Five Dynasties during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. It was founded by Shi Jingtang with aid from the Liao dynasty,which assumed suzerainty over the Later Jin. After Later Jin's second ruler,Shi Chonggui,fell out with the Liao dynasty,the Liao invaded in 946 and in 947,annihilated the Later Jin and annexed its former territories.
The Book of Chen or Chen Shu was the official history of the Chen dynasty,one of the Southern Dynasties of China. The Book of Chen is part of the official Twenty-Four Histories of imperial China. It was compiled by the Tang dynasty historian Yao Silian and completed in 636 AD. The Chen Shu is a biographical history book with thirty-six volumes,recording the historical facts of 33 years from the accession of Chen Baxian to the last emperor Chen Shubao.
The Zhongshu Sheng,also known as the Palace Secretariat or Central Secretariat,was one of the departments of the Three Departments and Six Ministries government structure in imperial China from Cao Wei (220–266) until the early Ming dynasty. As one of the Three Departments,the Zhongshu Sheng was primarily a policy-formulating agency responsible for proposing and drafting all imperial decrees,but its actual function varied at different times. The department traces its origins back to the Han dynasty.
The Three Departments and Six Ministries system was the primary administrative structure in imperial China from the Sui dynasty (581–618) to the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368). It was also used by Balhae (698–926) and Goryeo (918–1392) and various other kingdoms in Manchuria,Korea and Vietnam.
Linghu Defen (582–666),formally Duke Xian of Pengyang (彭陽憲公),was Chinese historian and politician. He was an official of the Chinese dynasties Sui Dynasty and Tang Dynasty. During Tang,he was a major proponent for the compilation of the histories of Sui and its predecessor Northern Zhou and was eventually put in charge of compiling Northern Zhou's official history Book of Zhou,which was completed in 636.
The following is a family tree of Chinese emperors (420–1279),from the Northern and Southern dynasties period,of the first half of the fifth century AD,until the conquest of the Southern Song dynasty in 1279 by the Yuan dynasty.
The House of Li was the ruling house of the Western Liang dynasty and the Tang dynasty of China.
Kong Yingda,courtesy names Chongyuan (冲遠) and Zhongda (仲達),was a Chinese philosopher during the Sui and Tang dynasty. An amorous Confucianist,who is considered one of the most influential Confucian scholars in Chinese history. His most important work is the Wujing Zhengyi 五經正義,which became the standard curriculum for the Imperial Examinations,and the basis for all future official commentaries of the Five Classics. He was also "skilled at mathematics and the calendar."
The Shangshu Sheng,sometimes translated as the Department of State Affairs or the Imperial Secretariat,was one of the departments of the Three Departments and Six Ministries government structure. It was the primary executive institution of imperial China,head of the Six Ministries,the Nine Courts,and the Three Directorates. The Six Ministries consisted of the Ministry of Personnel,the Ministry of Revenue,the Ministry of Rites,the Ministry of War,the Ministry of Justice,and the Ministry of Works. The Department of State of Affairs existed in one form or another from the Han dynasty until the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368),but was never re-established in the following Ming dynasty.
The Office of the National Altars was a government agency under the Court of Imperial Sacrifices during the Sui,Tang,Song,Jurchen Jin,and Yuan dynasties. Between Sui and Tang it was known as Jiaoshe Shu,and between Song and Yuan it was known as Jiaoshe Ju. Its main function was to prepare for and participate in regular rituals at major sacrificial altars and temples in the dynastic capital.
The Palace Library was a central government agency in monarchical China and monarchical Korea,generally in charge of maintaining and archiving the collection of the monarch's documents.
Jiyin Commandery was a commandery in historical China from Han dynasty to Tang dynasty,located in what is now southwestern Shandong province.