A Trial Analysis of the Government Office with Clerks Strong and Officials Weak in the Song Dynasty

Clerks strong and officials weak in the government office,is one of important characteristics of the social politics in the Song Dynasty.This phenomenon not only can be approached from the craftiness of clerks as emphatically noted by feudal scholar officials,but also should be considered from the part played in the social politics by clerks as a political stratum being instated with a ruling function.The common practice of clerks being powerful while officials feeble is,in the final analysis,the consequence of the centralized despotist politics of the Song Dynasty.Accordingly,painstaking analysis has to be made in terms of the politico economic aspect,so as to have a profound grasp of the characteristics of bureaucratic politics in the Song Dynasty and even in all the feudal societies.