There is something similar to the current ID card.

As early as the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the imperial court issued officials with "fish symbols" similar to ID cards, which were refined from wood or metal.

It is shaped like a fish, divided into left and right pieces, with small holes on it to tie it. The "fish symbol" is engraved with the official's name, official position and official rank.

At that time, the "fish symbols" used by princes and ministers above the third class were all made of gold, which shows their high grade and status.

The "fish symbol" of officials above level five is silver; The "fish symbol" of officials below level 6 is copper. Officials with more than five items also have bags for storing "fish symbols", which are called "fish bags".

The main purpose of the "fish symbol" is to prove the identity of the official, and it is convenient to enter and leave the palace gate and make a phone call to verify. History says: "Those who have the charm of fish should be required to show their superiority and inferiority." (See "New Tang Book Che Fuzhi").

By the time of Wu Zetian, the "fish symbol" was once changed to the "turtle symbol" shaped like a turtle, and its use was the same as that of the "fish symbol".

In the Song Dynasty, the "fish symbol" was abolished, but the "fish bag" was still worn. In the Ming dynasty, it was changed to "tooth plate", which was made of ivory, animal bones, wood and metal, and engraved with the name, position, resume and yamen of the holder. It is very close to the card ID card in the modern sense.

According to Lu Rong of the Ming Dynasty in Jiyuan Miscellaneous Notes, the dental plaque is not only hung by officials, but "all those who go in and out of the inner government, regardless of their rank, are listed to avoid suspicion." It can be seen that the use of identity cards in the Ming Dynasty was not limited to officials, but began to develop to the middle and lower classes.

The identity of all classes in the Qing Dynasty was proved by hat tops (hat beads), which were made of precious stones, corals, crystals, jade and metals. If you are a scholar, you can wear a bronze crown; If you are a senior official, you can wear a big ruby crown.

Ordinary people have no hats, so they can only tie a hat knot with satin. In order to gain high status, some wealthy businessmen and landlords often donate a crown with a considerable amount of silver, resulting in strange things such as "Danguan businessman" and "Danguan squire".

Ancient official identity card

Chapter 55 of Water Margin describes the encirclement and suppression of Liangshan by Daxing and Gao Qiu. Hu Yu, commander-in-chief of the former enemy, made great contributions and ordered Ling Zhen, who had served as a deputy gunner in Tokyo Depot, to rush to the front to serve. "Today, Ling Zhen came to see Gao Taiwei, received a diploma in marching orders, and taught him to pack up his pommel horse weapons and get up." It is well known that this "graduation certificate" is not a graduation certificate issued by the school to students; But some of them are interpreted as "official documents as evidence", which is too broad. To be exact, the term diploma here refers to Gao Qiu's showing his ID card to Ling Tong on the spot or his letter of appointment from a sergeant to a military attache (commander), borrowing the words of the Ming Dynasty to express the ideas of the Song Dynasty. This is a topic that few people pay attention to.

Generally speaking, the practice of issuing identity cards or letters of authorization to people who officially become state officials began in the Northern Zhou Dynasty, in which the official term is "confession", which can be understood as "informing identity". Fu Fu Chuan of the Northern Qi Dynasty: In the sixth year of Wuping (574), Emperor Wu of the Northern Zhou Dynasty conquered Bingzhou, and sent people to surrender Fu Fu, a famous Northern Qi Dynasty commander, and made him a general. Even the "confession" is done in advance. Later, this system spread from the Northern Zhou Dynasty to the Yang and Sui Dynasties, and then to the Tang Dynasty.

The confession system in the Tang Dynasty was more complete than that in the previous generation. The granting of titles and titles, as well as awards and honours, can be divided into five categories, of which more than three are called book awards, more than five are called system awards, and less than six are called reward awards. The appointment procedures are all instructed by Zhongshu Province. In the tone of the emperor, the word of appointment, commonly known as "ambassador", was written by the provincial government. The words of civil servants are handled by the official department, and the words of military attache are handled by the Ministry of War. Both departments have specialized agencies to make statements. Generally speaking, the production method is to copy my hometown, background, year and appointment on fine linen paper. From the copywriter to the leader who reviews step by step, I have to sign and seal, and affix the special seal of "Confession Seal of Shangshu Official Department", and then use brocade to mount it into a scroll. High-grade ones even have gold, silver, shellfish and jade inlaid, so there are other nicknames in the advertisement, such as hinge shaft and brocade shaft. When an official receives a confession, he has to pay a large sum of money, commonly known as the official accusation fee. Some new employees can't afford the money; There are still some people who are "constantly transferring officials", that is, they always transfer their positions within one level, and they have to pay a fee for handling job certificates when changing institutions. It is really not acceptable. That's all right, as long as it is replaced by a written official document issued by Shangshu Province, which is equivalent to the recent appointment letter, collectively referred to as the imperial edict or imperial edict. There are several details that cannot be ignored here: first, anyone who receives a confession will also receive an order; Secondly, if you work part-time outside the position of this product, such as being a five-product officer instead of a four-product officer, or being a five-product officer and getting a six-product officer, you will only be sentenced to death without applying for a confession; Third, senior officials, as usual, their official fees are given by the emperor, and they don't have to pay for them themselves.

During the Five Dynasties, the habit of "the poor can't lose money, but they often have to report their deaths without confessing" gradually evolved into the general principle of "those with humble official positions don't have to report their confessions" (The New Five Dynasties History Zazhuan Liu Yue). At that time, the administrative power of Shangshu Province had been incorporated into Zhongshu, and the officials with low quality and humble positions were recorded by Zhongshu Province and numbered for the record, which was called "Jia Jia". Officials report to subordinate organs with urgent documents, and the heads of organs or superiors (for example, the person with urgent documents is the head of the county government and the government at the next higher level is the boss) will return the urgent documents to the central organs for verification within the specified time, because there are some differences in the writing of the appointment system for everyone. If someone forges a dispatch to deceive officials, they can check it immediately.

At first glance, the confession and the execution order are documents for officials to prove their personal identity, which look the same. In fact, there are still many differences in practice. The law is equivalent to the power of attorney, and the confession also has the auxiliary proof function of proving that the complainant is the person in the power of attorney, which can reduce some troubles. For example, it is reported in "Yutang Gossip" that during the Yuanhe period in Tang Xianzong, a new Huzhou clerk joined the army (grade seven to grade eight) and was robbed by bandits on his way to his post. "I reported it, pressed it, wrote a book, and there was no trace of him." If you still have a confession, or you can continue to work, or you can apply to the official department for a new paper, but now you don't even have a certificate to prove that you are an official. It is troublesome and expensive to make up from scratch. As a result, you can only stay in the hotel and sigh. Just as Premier Pei Du came to this hotel for a nap on vacation, they chatted. Pei Du sympathized with his experience, but there were so many petty officials who could identify him. The unlucky man said, there are worse things than this. I have a fiancee who is not married and is hard-won by the governor of my hometown. She gave it to Prime Minister Pei Gong as a gift. Hearing this, Pei Du asked who the woman's surname was, and called the girl named Huang E back to Xiangfu for careful inquiry. Sure enough, they all match the numbers. The junior officials informed that the Prime Minister's office had ready-made goods. Pei Du immediately sent someone to the hotel to call this person, filled in his name and position on the spot, gave him a gift, returned Huang E to him, and gave him "a thousand bags, let him go."

Second, the report is related to the appointment, which is temporary and should be handed over to the local authorities for the record, but the confession is kept permanently. If an official resigns due to illness or other reasons and later seeks to reassign his work, the confession is the basis for applying to the organization department (director level). Traditionally, people call the official's title "official title", and its etymology is that when the organization department invites the person who intends to hold a certain post to the emperor, "there is an old official name first, and then two books are proposed to be officials, so that the old and new titles are continuous, so it is called official title" (Feng Family Biography). Those who can serve as irrefutable evidence of "old officials" naturally have to confess.

Third, one of the ways to be an official in feudal times is that future generations rely on the generations of their ancestors to "shadow attack." If an official dies when his son is still young, or even his son dies first, and his grandson is still in his infancy, or even in his stomach, and he wants to take this road to enter the officialdom in the future, the confession of his ancestors is proof. Que Shi said that Li Hui, the prime minister of Tang Wuzong, lost his talent in his early years, often traveled and was in mourning. One day he passed by a farmhouse and wanted to have a plain meal. The owner's surname is Wang. He was "a humble official in the past, and his descendants supported themselves by strength". He respected him as a scholar and "killed chickens and boiled millet to prepare for daily wages" and treated him to an unforgettable lunch. Later, I was admitted to Jinshi and made great progress all the way. This official is the Prime Minister. The master's son found out the confession of his ancestors, came to Chang 'an, inquired about the route of the Prime Minister's trip, and knelt by the roadside to ask for an audience. Li looked back for a long time and finally remembered that this was the child of the family who had been eating rice. He said happily, "old friend!" Although I don't know when this confession was an antique, the policy was successfully "implemented" with the instructions of the Prime Minister.

Confession may have many other uses. The above items are only summarized by the author when browsing leisure books, but the inconvenience of lack of confession can already be seen. Therefore, the system of "inferior officials, no confession in reply" in the Five Dynasties will naturally arouse the dissatisfaction of the majority of "grassroots cadres". At the end of the Tang Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty, he was appointed as the deputy director of the organization department (assistant minister of the official department), and specifically put forward the mistake of "officials don't give confessions", "because all officials give confessions, from the beginning [Liu] Yue" (Miscellaneous Biography of the New Five Dynasties History).

The historical materials of confession system in Song Dynasty are much richer than those in Tang Dynasty. According to the Official History of the Song Dynasty, when Zongshen Yuanfeng was restructured, it was stipulated that "those who enter the product should be frank, and those who have no product should be given Huang Die". When Fu Yuan, a philosopher, took office, the scope of the charges was broadened to Cheng Xinlang (eight-pin emissary, which was not included at that time). The confession was made by the official court affiliated to the official department, and the brocade and other materials used were "implements" produced and supplied at fixed points. It is illegal for private enterprises to "imitate manufacturers and buyers". The silk paper, several colors, mounting tape, mesh shaft and other decorations used for advertising are classified into 12 grades according to official positions. For example, the first-class official newspaper is used for the appointment of three officials, three junior officials, middle school teaching assistants and middle school secretaries. 18 pieces of golden flower silk paper are sold with color on the back, and the golden flower is covered with a large rhinoceros shaft, ribbon and halo brocade; The second category is used for left and right servants, envoys, kings, silk paper 17 paper, medium rhinoceros shafts and ribbons. 12, etc. It's five small pieces of silk paper, inlaid with yellow flowers, equiangular axis and green ribbon. All curtain officials, state and county officials, privy council history of the three provinces, book history, book history, foreign officials, state drivers, long history, Sima, literature, department, teaching assistants and technical officials all give this minimum. Fan Chunren's confession, now in the library adjacent to Fujii, Kyoto, is the original confession issued by Zhezong Yuanguan in the third year (1088) when Zhongshu Fan Chunren visited the right servant and served as assistant minister. According to "History of Song Dynasty", it belongs to the second category, and it is made of 17 pieces of Jinhua silk paper, with a total length of 635 cm and a width of 25.4 cm. The discovery of this precious historical site was first seen in an article published by Japanese expert Ichiro Kondo in the special issue of1March, 986. In the first issue of Journal of Shaoxing Teachers College, Mr. He Zhongli made a detailed translation on the topic of "Introducing a Confession of Japanese Song Dynasty", and the article also said:

According to the records in Song Yao Hui Zhi Guan, the confession should not only copy the full text of the words or life words, but also indicate the three generations, hometown and year, and be signed and sealed by the chief executive and the undertaker. For example, in the confession of Fan Chunren mentioned above, there is a record that on April 5th, three years ago, Shang Shu Zuo Servant shot and served as assistant minister [Lu] guarding things. On April 6th, a confession was made, which was signed by Huang Lian, Zuo Si Langzhong, Cheng Zhi, Shu You Cheng Cun, and Assistant Minister Jue. According to the principle, the ministers and the left and right servants should also sign, but they told me that the position of the ministers was vacant. Lu Dafang, the left servant, and Fan Chunren, the right servant, just arrived on April 5th. They were "ungrateful", so they didn't sign. Su Song, official department minister. In addition, the confession also contains the names of specific contractors, such as Shang Shuding and Wei Zongshi of the official department. It can be seen that the production of a confession has to go through many procedures. The appointment of such a prime minister-level official (in the Song Dynasty, ministers were mostly in vain, and the left and right servants were actually responsible) made confessions by making books, which was first-class because it was so fast that I signed the confession granted to me before I could thank him. If it is a confession at the level of state and county officials and foreign officials, although it is simpler to make, it is a large amount, and these procedures must be much slower.

Among the Hui people, there are also official court compilations. In addition to the two officials in charge, there is also a master, an official, three officials, five officials, seven people who paste books, twelve people who use regular script, as well as craftsmen and soldiers who read officials. It sounds like a large number of people, but all kinds of documents, such as confessions of civil and military officials, sealing the king's concubines, and sealing the domestic and foreign maids (that is, the "power of attorney" for officials' families), are produced by the institute. According to the historical materials cited by Mr Miao, the total number of officials in the Northern Song Dynasty alone was more than 28,000 in the Yuan Dynasty and 43,000 in the Zheng He period. Apart from the confessions of other imperial concubines and maids at home and abroad, only the ID cards issued to officials are an amazing number, and they are all hand-made. This kind of work efficiency should be said to be quite high. The affiliated institution of the official court has a silk paper library, and one of its duties is to "write all kinds of silk paper needed by the government". The format of confession distributed to "grassroots cadres" is written by them in a unified way, and the monthly food allowance for officials who copy words is also the same. According to the statistics of the society, there were 635 musicians playing various musical instruments under the government (Central Orchestra) at that time. It takes 100 words to eat every day, and there must be more lead singers and dancers, because you know that calligraphy art is far less than song and dance art, which has been the case since ancient times, but it has not yet formed a world of difference. At present, the market price of a famous star's song is tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands, and the work of a contemporary calligrapher is 800 thousand. However, the confessional calligraphy handed down from ancient times, such as Zhu Juchuan's confession to Li Zhongshi, the magistrate of Haozhou County (written by Xu Hao, now Taiwan Province Province), and his later confession to China's calligraphy (written by Yan Zhenqing, compiled in Sanxi Hall Fa Tie), are now national treasures.

When the officials in the Song Dynasty received the confession, they had to pay Zhu Jiaoling paper money, and only after they got the receipt from Lingzhi Library could they get it from the official department. Current officials participate in the civil service elections for restoration, promotion, transfer and filling vacancies. It is a very complicated process, from filing a case (that is, submitting resumes, letters of recommendation, and original oral confession documents), preliminary examination, civil service examination, taking vacancies, to pre-drafting, civil service assessment, "going through the door" and getting a new confession. A low "humble position" means getting a confession. For example, someone told me that his rank was below nine grades and he was awarded the county commandant. In fact, the term of the former county commandant has not yet expired. When his term ends and he goes to Beijing to explain the election, you can take over. If he suddenly retires or even dies suddenly, or gets injured accidentally, or demotes, resigns or even dismisses because he has made a guilty mistake, it is your accident.

In contrast to this situation, those who have just stepped into the officialdom, such as those who have been admitted to Jinshi, those who have criticized their ancestors' qualifications, or those who have entered official positions by virtue of military service, have no specific position on their bodies for the first time. They have to wait until the job is arranged, and then give them a letter, which is similar to a work permit or a military officer's card in the general sense. There is a historical event in the fact garden of the Song Dynasty, which can explain the details well: after the scientific examination in a certain year, all the newly admitted scholars have received confessions and a full set of official uniforms, dressed up one by one, and gathered in xingguo temple for drinking to celebrate. I'm afraid someone was accused of cheating in this exam before. After discussion, I decided to brush off some people. The list was decided, and the official department sent someone to catch up with xingguo temple. According to the list, the confession and official robes were recovered on the spot. Everyone who called the roll began to cry. The famous poet Shi Yannian is one of them. He immediately took off his clothes and boots and returned them to the messenger together with his confession. Then, naked and wearing a hat, he sat strangely on the table and continued to drink and laugh. The next day, there was a "grace" on it: anyone who was deprived of the qualification of Jinshi this time was granted a third-class loan. He was a junior military attache with no official position, but at least he was squeezed into the establishment of "civil servants", which was a comfort after joy and sorrow. Shi Yannian also wrote a poem to laugh at himself: "If you have no talent, you can borrow Class 3, so please strive to be a secretary." . "From then on, don't call it a tribute to the countryside, and walk the line. This writer, who later became a famous minister in the Northern Song Dynasty, was originally a confession of Wu Zhi sent by the Ministry of War, which sounded funny.

In order to encourage officials to retire, the Song Dynasty gave preferential treatment to those officials above the rank of doctor who volunteered to be senior officials, and gave them a confession after the increase. In this way, the "starting point" for future generations to handle shady attacks will be high. "Tale of Sushui" records that one day during the reign of Emperor Zhenzong, ministers retired from the DPRK and passed by the pavilion gate. "I saw a golden cloud in the box:' the assistant minister of the household department confessed to be an official'". It's like a retirement card. When you report yourself, you should add "Shi Zhi". There are also officials who leave their posts for rest due to illness, but they can still be promoted according to their seniority. The confession of this upgrade is also very important, not just saving a sum of paper money. Zhao Yuxinzhi said that after Tang Ju took the first place, he worked as a county and county, from Qipin to Cheng Yilang as an official. Later, he returned to his hometown in Jinyun to recuperate and eventually died of illness. At this time, the king of Jinyun County had probably learned the news that Yuan Wailang had been boiled into seven products from the Imperial Newspaper, but he had not yet entered the confession procedure. The king county magistrate quickly informed the Tang family: Don't mourn, don't mourn, the old man will stop at Qipin. Thankfully, the Tang family sent people to Beijing to spend money, and soon made a new confession, saying, "You will arrive in ten days, and then send people out to mourn." This time, the extra confession of going out urgently made Tang Ju's son an official. Who is his son? It was Tang Shitui, who later attached himself to Qin Gui and urged him to climb to the position of Prime Minister, and was called "treacherous and wrong country".

According to records in Danglu, since the Five Dynasties, in order to prevent confessions from being fraudulently used, apart from the age of the person who issued the certificate, they also mentioned the appearance, such as the cloud "long body with purple Tang (skin color), large moustache and several marks on the face" or the cloud "short moustache, small eyes and no spots on the face" because you know. When Song Shenzong Yuanfeng was restructured, the system of "talking about appearance" was abolished. After the demise of the Northern Song Dynasty, many people took other people's confessions as impostors and went to the new government of the Southern Song Dynasty to register for civil service elections. "We can't take the exam, but some of them are really officials. Because "many people lost their confessions after the chaos", they had to try their best to restore their identity. Therefore, Lao Anxue's notes said, "Officials are proud of exams, but their writing style is not down. "

It's a long story how many loopholes and drawbacks the official departments have in the process of confession. On April 1st, 8th year of Tang Zongyuan (8 13), news came from Zhongshu: adjust the business strategy, and let Fang Qi be the business observer of Guangxi, and be promoted from the state-level chief to the road-level chief. Fang Qi was overjoyed to learn the news of the appointment from Di Bao, and was busy asking the state government (namely Yongzhou Beijing Office) to go up and down to the official department, handle the confession of the new position as soon as possible, and then send it to him by express. According to historical records, it was not until the end of May or the beginning of June that eunuchs representing the emperor declared the imperial edict came to Yongzhou. The hidden rule of officialdom, the messenger of "good news", is to give gifts to "magpie" as usual. Fang Qi was afraid that the eunuch would charge him too much money, so he said, I received the order five days ago. The eunuch coaxed him into producing evidence, and he produced a confession. When the eunuch went back to report, Xian Zong was furious and made an investigation on the monkey. As a result, the official department was punished as a scapegoat, and the specific confession was spanked (by the staff). Fang Qi was reduced to a servant and a young lady, but the laurel failed, and the confession was withdrawn and invalidated. However, Fang Qi is still under review. After reading this comment, Xian Zong's anger rose. After verification, the eunuch was executed and letters were sent to Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian and Yunnan-Guizhou. Trafficking in human beings is forbidden, and Fang Qi has become a pious ruler. In fact, it is controlled. As a result, Fang Qi finally got depressed there. It doesn't sound worthwhile to end up like this in order to confess quickly, but I think there must be a reason why Fang Qi is eager to confess. In a word, prosecution must involve many practical interests.

The military attache in charge of the Ministry of War confesses that he is more flexible than the civil servants in the official department. After the Anshi Rebellion in the Tang Dynasty, the warlords became independent, and our envoys gave up a lot of false names in their hands on the grounds of rewarding meritorious military service, so as to appoint subordinates at will. During the war, it was an empty confession. In the thirty-first year of Shaoxing, Emperor Gaozong of the Southern Song Dynasty (A.D.11), Jin Jun invaded the south, and when the vanguard troops crossed the Huai River from Zhengyang, Chizhou of the Southern Song Dynasty controlled Li Xianzhong to "lead hundreds of confidants to ride around the mountain to take the road" and ambush, which was historically called "leading the general to intercept and gain several people", also known as "[Li]. If you think about it again, officials are all within the commander's "confidant", and its essence is highlighted. However, compared with the letter of appointment, the confession is much more precious. In the Tang Dynasty, the warlord Zhu rebelled, and the general Xiongnu was ordered to suppress the rebellion. The author of Painting Spectrum said that he had seen Dezong give it to the Huns? Imperial edict: "I will give you a pen, a tube, and fill a thousand pieces of paper in an empty name." "Soldiers who have made meritorious deeds can be given with books, and they don't have to be killed in the middle." Qiu, as a military commander at the beginning of this paper, can do a good job in promoting Ling Zhen on the spot, and the same is true. There is a sentence in Hu Sansheng's annotation "Zi Zhi Tong Jian": "According to the inspection, you will get temporary benefits." It can be inferred that the benefits of confession are not "temporary". Meng Qian wrote that when Zhang Yong came to Yizhou in the Northern Song Dynasty, he was angry with his subordinates because of official etiquette. Subordinate "to seek official positions" means to take out the letter of appointment and ask for retirement. As for the official position, the main content is basically the same as the imperial edict, and he knows the truth of "taking it off as a foreign dish".

Similarly, the state's punishment of officials also reflects the difference between confession and funeral order. Dismissal or dismissal on the spot is light and has nothing to do with confession. If you even pursue confession, it will be heavy. For example, there is an example of "trying to recover words from Feng, the secretary and secretary of provincial studies" in Huijiguan. In addition, in the Tang and Song Dynasties, officials committed crimes and were redeemed as "officials", that is, they were downgraded or even disqualified in exchange for reducing or exempting their imprisonment. At this time, confession played the role of atonement. For example, "A Brief Introduction to the Law of the Tang Dynasty" explains that officials with more than five grades can be sentenced to three years' imprisonment, and officials with more than nine grades can be sentenced to two years' imprisonment. If a five-product official commits the crime of being sentenced to two years' imprisonment and takes out his confession as a crime, it is that there are still official products left after atonement. After a year of "listening to the narrative" (that is, "staying in school for observation"), I will give you a six-product confession; If you sue for three years in prison with five products, you will be called "a person who is an official." After that, you can still "listen to the narrative for three years", that is, observe it for three years, and then "reduce one product to two products", that is, give you a seven-product confession; "Don't sue yourself for improper handling of crimes", and so on. The text is too complicated to record. In short, people who commit the same crime have an advantage over those who don't, and people who say they are tall have an advantage over those who say they are tall. After a person's career is successful, there will be many different grades of confessions at home. When necessary, taking an appropriate confession to be an "official" will require a lot of technical attention. It is unimaginable that modern people are divorced from that era and are not proficient in the laws, policies and customs of that era.