著者

髙村 武幸

出版者

東洋文庫

雑誌

東洋学報 = The Toyo Gakuho (ISSN:03869067)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.97, no.1, pp.1-31, 2015-06

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In the administrative system of ancient China, the decisions were made about various administrative matters and were communicated by means of typical official documents. There are, however, many points that remain unclear about the process whereby decisions were made and the documents that were used during this process. I accordingly examined the administrative decision-making process in local government during the Qin-Han period and the documents that were used during this process.First, I examined administrative matters that required their own decision-making at the county level during the Qin, and as a result I show that the greater part of such matters concerned judicial judgements. It is known that during the process leading up to the county head’s making a decision when judicial and other decisions were made, discussions were held in which several officials would exchange views orally, that is, their views were solicited in a meeting format. But because it is thought that such meetings would have been held by assembling the officials concerned who were under the jurisdiction of the county head, frequent meetings would have interfered with their administrative duties. Accordingly documents were used in lieu of the direct oral expression of views, and in such cases documents with the characteristics of correspondence were used instead of typical official documents. It is to be surmised not only that the “unofficial” nature of correspondence would have been preferred because such documents were used during the process before a final decision was made, but also that another quality of correspondence—as a substitute for direct conversation—would have been favoured as a substitute for meetings and discussions in which views were expressed orally directly to the county head and other officials.In view of the above points, it is to be surmised that during the Qin-Han period a method in which decisions were made after the officials concerned had expressed their views orally was considered desirable in administrative decision-making. This could be described as a remnant of the system in earlier times in which men with the right to speak on political matters gathered to discuss state affairs (jiyi 集議). It has also become clear that documents with the characteristics of correspondence that were used in an administrative context could be regarded as a vestige of the conduct of administration through the medium of the spoken word.

著者

髙村 武幸

出版者

東洋文庫

雑誌

東洋学報 = Toyo Gakuho (ISSN:03869067)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.104, no.3, pp.1-35, 2022-12-16

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It is widely known that there are “two-line” (lianghang 兩行) slips among bamboo and wooden slips from the Han period. Among these “two-line” slips dating from the second half of the Former Han and unearthed in the Hexi 河西 region, there exist two types: one type has a ridge down the centre of the writing surface which divides the two lines, while the other type has a flat surface with no ridge. However, in the past there has been no examination of this difference. In this article, I focus primarily on the “two-line” slips among the Dunhuang 敦煌 Han slips, unearthed in former Dunhuang Commandery in Hexi, and compare them with the “two-line” slips among the Juyan 居延 Han slips unearthed in former Zhangye 張掖 Commandery, also in Hexi. By this means, I clarify the fact that there exist various differences, starting with the shape of slips of the same type, between regions and government offices, and I also gain leads for adding further depth to research so that it extends to regional differences between slips. There was found a clear-cut difference between the Dunhuang Han slips, which include roughly the same number of “two-line” slips with a ridge and without a ridge, and the Juyan Han slips, which include almost no “two-line” slips with a ridge. In the case of the Xuanquan 懸泉 Han slips from Dunhuang, wood from the tamarisk (hongliu 紅柳; Tamarix ramosissima) is used in more than 70% of the “two-line” slips with ridges, and few of them have been made from spruce (song 松; Picea neoveitchii or Picea crassifolia), used in many of the “two-line” slips without a ridge. In addition, the “two-line” slips with ridges are narrower than those without a ridge. In view of these facts, it is to be surmised that in order to make effective use of the branches of the tamarisk, which, properly speaking, are unsuitable for making “two-line” slips because they are comparatively narrow, and produce “two-line” slips, the branches were processed in the same way as “two-line” bamboo slips so as to add ridges to them. It was for this reason that regional differences in shape arose among slips of the same type. When one examines the reasons for these differences, it is to be surmised that differences in regional conditions lay behind them. That is to say, the Juyan region belonged to Zhangye Commandery, where a transportation route had been established to the Qilian 祁連 Mountains where spruce suitable for making wide “two-line” slips were produced, whereas Dunhuang Commandery did not have a large supply of spruce because it was a long way from the Qilian Mountains and use could not be made of transportation by water or some other means.

著者

髙村 武幸 TAKAMURA Takeyuki

出版者

三重大学人文学部文化学科

雑誌

人文論叢 : 三重大学人文学部文化学科研究紀要 (ISSN:02897253)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.30, pp.57-71, 2013-03-30

著者

髙村 武幸

出版者

東洋文庫

雑誌

東洋学報 = The Toyo Gakuho (ISSN:03869067)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.99, no.3, pp.1-34, 2017-12

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This article examines the kinds of people who passed through Jianshui Jinguan 肩水金關, a Han period garrisoned checkpoint in the northwestern frontier region, in order to clarify the mobility of commoners and the actual relationship between frontier and interior commanderies (jun 郡), utilizing mainly the Han period bamboo slips unearthed at Jianshui Jinguan.Although carrying a passport (chuan 傳) was required when travelling during the Han Period, there were no strict institutional restrictions on long-distance travel, even in the case of commoners on the road for personal reasons. The author’s examination of the Han bamboo slips from Jianshui Jinguan reveals that not a few people from the interior commanderies passed through this checkpoint, a considerable number of whom had obtained passports for the purpose of “private commerce for family business,” and shows that many people were transporting goods from the interior to the frontier commanderies to sell and then returning with cash that had been originally sent as taxes from the interior commanderies. Thus, not only did frontier commanderies obtain from the interior goods that the state alone could not distribute in sufficient quantities, but they were also sending back money to the interior. Such transactions reveal one more link between the interior and frontier commanderies separate from the state-controlled distribution of goods between the two regions.That being said, the majority of the people of the interior commanderies did not directly traded their products with the frontier commanderies of Hexi 河西 and elsewhere, but chose either to stay at home to sell their wares locally, or to commission agents to carry and peddle them in the frontier commanderies. Therefore, most of the private-sector interaction between interior and frontier commanderies was in fact conducted by professional merchants and transport agents acting on behalf of commoners of the interior, passing through Jianshui Jinguan with passports obtained on the pretext of “private commerce for family business.” In the case of Hexi, the overwhelming majority of these agents were from the nearby commanderies of Henan 河南, where commerce had traditionally flourished. In other words, the actual interaction that occurred between the northwestern frontier commanderies, starting with the four commanderies of Hexi, and the interior commanderies was characterized by formal state-operated commodity distribution and military service, on the one hand, and by merchants and transport agents from the commanderies of Henan travelling to and from the interior and the frontier on behalf of clients.

著者

髙村 武幸

出版者

東洋文庫

雑誌

東洋学報 = The Toyo Gakuho (ISSN:03869067)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.91, no.1, pp.1-34, 2009-06

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Within the study of the history of the Han Dynasty, a subject that relies on excavated historical sources, official documents constitute the main body of primary sources, particularly in the study of government administration. Correspondence, on the other hand, which exists in lesser quantity than official documents, has in the past been considered to be unrelated to administration and the legal system, and consequently, very little research has been done to date on the subject. However, as indicated in even some of the related research to date, there are examples of connections of correspondence to the activities of the government bureaucracy. Hence, this paper examines a selection of correspondence from the Juyan and the Dunhuang Han wooden documents (居延・敦煌漢簡) containing content related to the public sector and considers how correspondence should be placed within the stud of documents related to Han Dynasty administration.There is a surprisingly large and varied amount of correspondence related to many different aspects of public affairs. A survey of the correspondence reveals that documents known as guanji (官記) and fuji (府記), previously thought to be forms of official document, are in fact fundamentally forms of correspondence. It also becomes clear that there are missives that, despite having a correspondence format and style, performed the same function as public records submitted from higher to lower (下行) and lower to higher (上行) organizations. Thus, “official correspondence” was widely used in administrative settings, in the same manner as documents.In most instances, “official correspondence” was used to handle matters that had not yet reached the stage of official document production, or to deal with problematic matters that would be inappropriate for official documents. This correspondence was written in the simple, private writing style of the time and was used when there were matters that needed to be resolved in a “private or secret” fashion. By adroitly dividing their affairs between formal official declarations and private correspondence, Han Dynasty bureaucrats were able to nimbly and organically manage the administrative matters of state.The author concludes that research on this type of dual “document administration” should be turned to the content of government-related correspondence and how this body of documentation functioned, in order to gain a better understanding of the real state of Han Dynasty affairs. Furthermore, the viewpoint taken in this article will hopefully prove effective in studying the large body of correspondence found among the excavated materials related to the late Eastern Han, Wei and Jin Dynasties.

著者

髙村 武幸 TAKAMURA Takeyuki

出版者

三重大学人文学部 考古学・日本史学・東洋史学研究室

雑誌

三重大史学 = The Journal of history and archaeology, Mie University (ISSN:13467204)

巻号頁・発行日

no.14, pp.29-85, 2014-03

著者

髙村 武幸 TAKAMURA Takeyuki

出版者

三重大学人文学部 考古学・日本史学・東洋史学研究室

雑誌

三重大史学 = The Journal of history and archaeology, Mie University (ISSN:13467204)

巻号頁・発行日

no.14, pp.29-85, 2014-03