The imperial secretariat in the Tang Dynasty was commonly despised by scholars for their inferior position. The secretariesingeneral and secretaries served only in administractive departments in the Tang court, taking the lowest five official ranks. The cabinet secretariat as fulltime office workers took charge mainly of dealing with official documents. The selection of members of the secretariat was carried out by publicly selecting and officially transferring and they had to pass normal and annual examinations before they were employed or continued to be employed. All the members of the secretariat were officially paid but by no means generously. They enjoyed little political privilege but had to bear very heavy responsibility. In a word, the cabinet secretariat as a whole was discriminated against in the court and had low social status.

the Tang Dynasty; secretaryingeneral; secretary; official not on the regular payroll