First of all, there were many forms of paying wages in ancient China. The forms of paying wages mainly depended on different dynasties, and there were certain differences. Generally speaking, every place has branches of the national treasury, so some officials can get their salaries directly from the local branches!
However, the payment of wages is not only in the form of money, but also some things like grain or silk, as well as some land, to solve the salary problem of officials. However, the remuneration of land is mainly determined according to the location and fertility of the land, and the wages represented by different locations and different fertility levels are different. If your salary is high, you only need to take a piece of land with a better location as your salary, but for people with low wages.
However, in the Song Dynasty, the earliest paper money in China was handed over. In this way, in addition to distributing food, the burden caused by paying wages is greatly reduced. The imperial court only needs to give officials something similar to the current paper money, so they can pay their salaries, but the imperial court will still distribute actual materials from time to time to meet the living needs of officials!