Extra (II) Da Zhao's Guide to Being an Official

Shen Yuan had worked as the deputy temple chief of the Dali Temple for six years. For ordinary officials, there would be a major assessment every three years, but few people would move to another position after working for only three years, especially officials from the capital. If they didn't move, those who came after them would have nowhere to move even if they wanted to.

Besides, Shen Yuan is still young, and the court usually doesn't give priority to young people for promotions. There are still some old guys ahead of him. As the saying goes, even if there is no merit, there is still hard work. Moreover, if you work in one place for a long time, you will easily become lazy. It is definitely time to change his position to a new one.

And don't think that changing positions means promotion. There are monthly small assessments, annual year-end assessments, and major assessments every three years. If you don't perform well, do you still want to be promoted? Sorry, that's definitely not possible. Those who came up from the lower grades should just go back.

In places like the Dali Temple, what matters is how many cases you have handled, what you have done in a case, and how your superiors and colleagues evaluate you. These are not so bad, after all, as long as you work hard and get along well with your colleagues on weekdays, your colleagues will be lenient in their evaluations of you, and they will leave some room for you so that they can meet again in the future.

This is true for most official positions in the court and the country. For example, one of the criteria for evaluating the historians is how many people they have reported this month and how effective their performance is. If they report to the emperor in a certain month and their report is correct, they can rest easy that month. It is such an honor to "criticize the mistakes of the sage to his face" and it is the greatest pursuit of the historians in their official career.

Because of this assessment standard, usually at the end of the month, officials of Dazhao, big and small, would keep their tails between their legs, fearing that the group of censors would find evidence against them. At the end of the month, the major brothels and casinos in the capital were mostly spies of censors. Those who could become censors were either good at talking or fearless, and it was impossible for people to find their weaknesses. Usually, if they were reported, they could only blame themselves.

But there are also differences. For example, in a place like Jingzhao Prefecture, Jingzhao Prefecture often deals with the people, and the judgment of the officials in Jingzhao Prefecture naturally depends mainly on the people.

Whatever cases the Jingzhao Prefecture handled on a daily basis, even if they were trivial matters like catching cats and dogs, they would be recorded in the books. During the assessment period, the officials in the Ministry of Personnel who were specifically responsible for the assessment of the Jingzhao Prefecture would go to these people to ask how the cases were handled, whether the problems were properly solved, and whether they were perfunctorily handled.

In order to prevent officials in Jingzhao Prefecture from deliberately not recording cases they handled, the Ministry of Personnel also had a special department to receive "complaints" from the people. Don't think that the people will not file a complaint because they find it troublesome or don't understand. The people in the capital are kind-hearted. If someone complains on the street and passers-by hear it, someone will definitely stand up and take them to the Ministry of Personnel to "file a complaint."

Therefore, the salaries of officials in Jingzhao Prefecture would be one level higher than those of the same rank. After all, life there was really not easy.

Every time Shen Yuan heard Xie Hui talk about Jingzhao Prefecture, he felt that Dali Temple was a rare and good place. He didn't have to deal with too many people and could just focus on handling cases. After working in Dali Temple for a few years, Shen Yuan often forgot that he had the ability to "listen to people's thoughts". When he really started handling cases, he found that this ability was actually useless at the beginning. Even if he wanted to listen, he needed someone to do it.

Shen Yuan's abilities can indeed be of great use in the Dali Temple, but Shen Yuan also truly likes these things. After all, since she was a child, Shen Yuan often listened to her father telling her about various cases while eating, which can be said to be a "family tradition of learning."

When Xie Cheng was seven and Shen Zhouxing was twelve, Shen Yun decided to resign. He was not young anymore, so how long would he stay in office? It would be better to retire early and enjoy the days surrounded by his children and grandchildren. His sons and daughters were promoted one after another. Shen Su had been promoted from the former Wenxuansi Yuanwailang to Wenxuansi Langzhong, and his daughter was also the Dali Temple Shizheng. His nephew Shen Duan, who had been in Qianzhou for many years, was promoted to Qianzhou Zhizhou, and he was still with the people of Yunyang County, where he had devoted the most efforts, and there would be more in the future.

Therefore, Shen Yun resigned because he did not want to attract too much attention to the Shen family. After he resigned, the first thing he did was to take his mother, grandson and granddaughter back to Nanjing to live for a few months. After all, Nanjing is the root of the Shen family. After returning to Nanjing, Old Lady Shen did not want to go back to the capital. She was old and had lived in Nanjing for half her life. She was reluctant to leave no matter what.

Fortunately, there is more than just the old mother in Jinling. His brother Shen Si retired two years earlier than Shen Yun. With his brother and sister-in-law at home in Jinling, Shen Yun can feel more at ease.

On the second day after Old Lady Shen returned to Jinling, Old Lady Fang came to visit. The two old ladies were still bickering as usual. One said that your eldest grandson is so old and has not yet married. He will probably be a bachelor for the rest of his life. The other said that your grandson has been taking the imperial examinations for most of his life, but he is still a scholar now. He will never be an official...

It was really laughable, but both kids knew in their hearts that at such an old age, it would be a good thing to have someone to quarrel with.

Shen Yun took his two children to visit his wife. He couldn't come back often because of the capital, but he always felt that his wife was by his side all these years. This time, he specially planted a tree on the grave. When he passed away and returned here in the future, the tree should be very big, and then he and his wife could meet under the tree.

Before returning to Beijing, Shen Yun took his granddaughter to visit the Zhong family. At this time, Old Madam Zhong was already a little confused and her eyes could not see clearly. As soon as she saw Li'er, she hugged her and called her her daughter. The old lady seemed to have forgotten that her daughter was no longer there. Instead, the family felt fortunate. It was better that she didn't remember it, and they wouldn't be sad if they didn't remember it.

After living in Jinling for a few months, Shen Yun had to return to the capital, but when he arrived in Yanzhou, he went to visit his niece's family. Lu Ne was now the county magistrate and the parent official of Lingxi County. The girls' school co-founded by Shen Xi was also very prosperous. The school not only taught girls to read, but also taught martial arts, medicine, cooking, tailoring and embroidery, etc. Even if they were not good at studying, they could make a living with their skills in the future.

Their daughter, Mianhua, has been interested in medicine since she was a child and has determined to become a doctor and travel all over Dazhao in the future. The couple, who love their daughter dearly, not only let her learn medicine, but also found many martial arts masters. After all, without any martial arts skills, how can they feel at ease letting their daughter go out and have fun in the future?

After staying in Lingxi County for a few days, the three generations of grandparents prepared to leave. In a few days it would be August 15th, which was the Mid-Autumn Festival and the second day was Shen Yuan's birthday, so they couldn't delay the date.

As soon as they entered the city, Li'er couldn't help but lift the curtain.

"Grandpa, look! Mom and Dad are here to pick us up!"