The Double Ninth Festival is coming. Because the homonym of “Jiu Jiu” on the ninth day of September is “Jiu Jiu”, which means “Jiu Jiu Jiu”, it has a long meaning, so it is often used to offer sacrifices to ancestors and promote activities to respect the elderly on this day.
I am old and I am old. In the Han Dynasty of China, the system of providing for the aged and respecting the elderly was very perfect, and the elderly had legal treatment. As long as the elderly who are over 70 and have no moral problems enjoy the treatment of department level in “politics”, they don’t have to bow down when entering the government with a king’s staff, and can be on an equal footing with local officials. Those who abused the elderly were executed by “abandoning the city” in the Han Dynasty.
Throughout ancient and modern times, the practice of supporting the elderly varies greatly from Dynasty to generation, and the best one is the Han Dynasty.
The emperor issued “pension edict”
In the early Western Han Dynasty, when the country had just recovered its stability, the emperor issued an old-age edict. All old people over the age of 80 could enjoy the treatment of “raising old people, giving them a few sticks, and eating millet porridge”.
Emperor Gaozu of the Han Dynasty decreed that if people over 50 years old have good character and can lead them to good deeds, they can take the post of “three elders” from the township to the county, and “teach each other by doing things” with the county magistrate Cheng Wei. No corvee, and wine and meat are given every October.
Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty issued an imperial edict: “the old man is not warm without silk, nor full of meat. At the beginning of this year, people ask the elder from time to time. Without the gift of cloth, silk, wine and meat, how can he help his son sun Xiaoyang to support his relatives? Today, I heard that the official should accept him, or use Chen su. How can it be called the meaning of providing for the aged? It is an order.”
During the founding years of emperor Cheng, the minimum age for the elderly to enjoy such legal treatment was reduced to 70. Every autumn, the local government conducts a census of the population, registers the elderly, and holds a grand staff ceremony.
For example, according to the etiquette records of the later Han Dynasty, “in the middle of autumn, the county and the Taoism are all engaged in the comparison of families and people. At the beginning of 70, people are given jade sticks to feed rice porridge. At 80 and 90, gifts are given. The jade sticks are long and decorated with doves. The doves do not choke, and the old people do not choke.” According to this record, the old-age care and respect in the Han Dynasty were not only pragmatic, but also good health wishes.
According to the wooden slips of the imperial edict of the Imperial Staff of the Western Han Dynasty unearthed in 1959 in the Han tomb at No. 18, zumozi, Wuwei County, Gansu Province, and a wooden slip of the imperial edict of the Imperial Staff of the Western Han Dynasty unearthed in 1981 in the Han tomb at the same place, the laws and regulations for the elderly in the Han Dynasty have always been the same, without interruption, and the emperor has issued an imperial edict to the world every once in a while.
The most intriguing thing is that the imperial edict of the Western Han Dynasty clearly wrote: “the king’s staff (that is, the jade staff in the preceding article) was given in the high years. There were doves on it, so that the people could see it and compare it with the festival.” “The king’s staff, over seventy years old, is more than sixhundred stones. He will not follow the government.” At that time, the official posts of “600 stone” were health workers’ orders, county mayors and small county magistrate, which were equivalent to the current department level cadres.
Old people can follow the emperor’s “galloping path”
The “political” treatment of the elderly in the Han Dynasty was also reflected in the “riding on the road and bypassing the road”. Chidao is designed for the emperor to ride horses and chariots. It is absolutely forbidden for others to walk. Even the prince is not allowed. It can be seen how special the old people in the Han Dynasty were!
The imperial edict also clearly stipulates that officials at all levels are strictly prohibited from recruiting, detaining, abusing and beating the elderly without authorization. Violators should “abandon the city”.
It is recorded that ZHANGAO, the chief of Yunyang Baishui Pavilion in Runan region, beat and humiliated the person who received the king’s staff and took him to repair the road. This matter had a great impact. The Taishou could not make a judgment, and Tingwei (equivalent to the president of the Supreme Court today) could not make a decision, so he had to ask the emperor to make a decision.
The emperor said, “compared with the imperial edict, the city should be abandoned.” Zhang Ao was sentenced to death. It seems incredible today.
Maybe it was influenced by the Han Dynasty. Later, the treatment of the elderly in all dynasties was reflected in varying degrees, and gradually formed the traditional virtue of respecting and providing for the elderly of the Chinese nation. Old I am old and old people are good advice.