What is touting? What is the origin of touts?

This article is very long, but it is about the origin of "assistant". I hope it will be useful for you.

Talk nonsense and ask questions: putting on airs is bigger than the emperor

Author: Guo Jian

When Xie An visited Huan Wen, Zhichao was ordered to take notes behind the scenes. Xie An found him and laughed that he was a guest in the curtain. The aides and teachers in the shogunate have always been hidden behind the scenes and classified.

In the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Huan Wen, the powerful minister, monopolized the military and political power and wanted to depose the royal family and become emperor himself. One of his men joined the army, named Kuaichao, who was smart and capable. He was the first to persuade Huan Wen to "make a big difference" and won the trust of Huan Wen. Everyone in the Huan Wen family said that Fei Chao "can make Gong (Huan Wen) happy and make Gong angry". Huan Wen wanted to be emperor himself, and the biggest resistance came from the Jiangnan family who supported the royal family in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. One day, Xie An and Wang, clan leaders in the south of the Yangtze River, came to visit. In order to understand their purpose carefully, Huan Wen sent Zhichao to ambush behind the scenes to record the conversation. Unexpectedly, the two sides only talked about half, and a direct airflow blew, which opened the curtain. Zhichao had to get up awkwardly and say hello to Xie An and Wang. Xie An, who is far-sighted and shrewd, just smiled and said, "Zhai Sheng is really a guest in the curtain." (Book of Jin, Volume 67)

The word "guest on the curtain" is a pun.

Xie An's "guest in the curtain" can be regarded as a pun here. "Curtains" can refer to curtains that are too hidden. In ancient China, it was customary to use textiles such as curtains to separate the indoor space. This kind of curtain, which acts as a partition, is collectively called "curtain". Strictly speaking, "hanging on the screen and hanging on the side" is generally called "screen". Inside the curtain is the privacy of the room. Guests who can enter the curtain naturally have an unusual relationship with their hosts, so we are used to calling "guests who enter the curtain" confidants and close friends. On the other hand, the "curtain" in Xie An's sentence can also refer to Chao Zhai's official position of "joining the army", because this official position was called "adjutant" and "curtain post" at that time.

The origin and evolution of assistants

At least from the legend that one family built a house, Han people have been used to living in houses built by civil engineering. The only exception is that when the army goes out to war, it has to rest in a temporary tent set up in the wild. In ancient times, this kind of tent was called "screen".

In the Han dynasty, when the commander-in-chief led the army to war, he had the right to recruit and select civil servants, and set up a government office to assist in handling military and political affairs, which was called "opening the government." Because this kind of government office is located in the shogunate, it is also called "shogunate", and the subordinates of the commander-in-chief are also called "aides" and "curtain posts". There are many kinds of aides, which are equivalent to the "long history" of the modern chief of staff and commander-in-chief; Participate in military aircraft to help direct military operations to "join the army"; There are "main books" and "archives" similar to modern assistants and secretaries, managing documents and various files, and so on.

By the time of the Three Kingdoms, the Jin Dynasty and the Southern and Northern Dynasties, wars were frequent and war zones were everywhere, and martial law was imposed. The local governor is concurrently a military attache, and the family around the general has changed from a simple officer to a civil and military official who helps the general "get on the horse and govern the people", and the proportion of civilians often exceeds that of Wu Zhi. This habit spread to the Tang and Song Dynasties: in the Tang Dynasty, the highest local administrative organs, counties, and government offices all had official positions such as long history, joining the army, and recording affairs, which were called "aides"; In the Song Dynasty, the states also set up "curtain officials". However, these official positions have long been unrelated to military operations and do not serve in the narrow sense of the shogunate.

Civil servants working in military institutions

Until the Ming and Qing dynasties, the narrow sense of aides still refers to civil servants serving military institutions. For example, the "adjutant" in the novel Surprise in the Early Ming Dynasty (Volume 26) and Breaking the Prison with the adjutant who died in a village woman refers to the judge (military judge) under the commander-in-chief of Sichuan Province (the highest military commander in a province and his command organization), who was acting as the county magistrate of Wenchuan County, Chengdu, Sichuan Province at that time.

In short, the main characteristics of aides are: mainly serving in government agencies related to the military or transformed from military agencies; Their duties are mainly to provide advice and consultation to the Chief Executive, assist in handling documents and archives, and manage civil administrative affairs; They are closely related to the Chief Executive and advance and retreat together with the Chief Executive. Even if they are not personally appointed by the Chief Executive, at least their personnel transfer and promotion should consider the views of the Chief Executive. More importantly, they have the status of government officials and enjoy the salary paid by the government. Even at the end of the Qing Dynasty, in the three informal military systems of Hunan, Huai and Chu set up to fight against the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the aides in the shogunate were all commanders-in-chief, or officials who sponsored military aircraft appointed by the special armor, and their salaries came from various military bureaus. There are many senior officials in the shogunate of Xiang and Huai armies. For example, there are ten governors in the Huai army shogunate, and only four Huai army generals are promoted to governors. (See chapter 7 of Wang's Huai Jun Zhi)