著者

福永 善隆

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.1, pp.1-29, 2022-06-17

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After the reign of Wudi 武帝 of the Former Han Dynasty, Censorate (yushitai 御史台) whose chief was the Middle Aide to the Imperial Secretary (Middle Aide) (yushi zhongcheng 御史中丞) was formed as an inspector organization. Up to now, that process has been discussed in the context of the formation of the Inner Court (neichao 內朝) and its growing importance. However, the relations between the Secretary of the Censorate (yushi 御史) and the Inner Court, or its core the Office of Palace Writers (the Office) (shangshu 尙書), was not fully elucidated. The traditional view of the Han Dynasty’s political and institutional history that the Inner Court take over the authority of the existing bureaucracy in the Outer Court (waichao 外朝) and the latter declined as its result has recently come under doubt. This study explores the relations between the Secretary of the Censorate and the Inner Court or the Office and demonstrates the evolution of the former in the bureaucratic structure in the latter half of the Former Han Dynasty, which is being reexamined from a new perspective. Attendants in the Inner Palace, who were the members of the Inner Court officials, had the same authority of inspector and impeachment as the Middle Aide. The “Meeting of Officials in the Inner Court,” the general meeting of the officials involved with the Inner Court, had a role as a kind of inspector to denounce the illegality of the Chancellor (chengxiang 丞相) and the Imperial Secretary (yushi dafu 御史大夫), who were in charge of the Outer Court. The authority of inspection is understood to have originally belonged to the Inner Court as a whole. However, the Middle Aide had no direct relation to the Imperial Court (jinzhong 禁中), which was the space where the Inner Court officials worked. On the other hand, the Office, the core of the Inner Court, also inspected and impeached. This study therefore focused on the consideration through the Office, which had the office space in the Imperial Palace, like the Middle Aide. At the end of the Former Han Dynasty, the Office became involved in the personnel matter of officials higher than the 600 picul level (liubai dan 六百石). We can regard this as the consequence of the improvement of the personnel system via the introduction of the investigation by the Office since the reign of Xuandi 宣帝 and Yuandi 元帝. The Office seemed to use the provincial director’s reports (cishi zoushi bu 刺史奏事簿) as one of the reference materials for investigation. In other words, its involvement in the performance assessment would be institutionalized using the lines of command and control between the Middle Aide to the Imperial Secretary and the provincial directors. On the other hand, the Middle Aide is thought to have gained more authority to inspect counties as time went on. It is obvious that the performance assessment and inspector and impeachment are inextricably linked. Hence, we can safely conclude that the deepening of the Office of Palace Writers’ involvement in the personnel matter of high-ranking officials concurred with the expansion of the inspection discharged by the Middle Aide to the Imperial Secretary.

著者

福永 善隆

出版者

東洋史研究会

雑誌

東洋史研究 (ISSN:03869059)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.71, no.2, pp.219-249, 2012-09