‘秩禄’ is a classical Chinese compound noun referring to the salary or emolument officially assigned according to one’s bureaucratic rank in imperial China. The character 秩 (zhì) means ‘order’, ‘rank’, or ‘hierarchical position’, especially within official systems; 禄 (lù) denotes ‘official salary’, ‘stipend’, or ‘emolument’, often paid in grain or silver. Together, they emphasize that compensation was strictly tied to rank—not individual merit, tenure, or performance—reflecting the rigid hierarchy of traditional Chinese administration.

This term appears almost exclusively in historical texts, scholarly discussions of pre-modern governance, or literary allusions to imperial bureaucracy. It carries formal, archaic register and is not used in modern spoken or administrative contexts. While 禄 alone survives in compounds like 福禄 (fú lù, ‘blessings and prosperity’), 秩禄 as a fixed pair belongs to classical vocabulary and signals precise historical or institutional reference.