「賢」の觀念より見たる西漢官僚の一性格

Abstract

In considering the nature of officials under the Han dynasty. it is necessary to note the existence of the groups of military adventurers characteristic of the Warring States and early Han periods. Throughout this time, the ideal member of a band of these soldiers of fortune was evaluated outside the group and supported by the masses on the basis of the "Worthiness" (xian) attributed to him. Therefore those who were trying to gain mastery over the empire made efforts to assemble these "Worthies" (xian-zhe 賢者) and appoint them to positions of authority. Furthermore even in cases where they are serving under such a leader, the "Worthies" could preserve an autonomous existence on the basis of their popular support. The chang-zhe 長者, the ideal official of early Han times, as well as the Confucian- bureaucratic version of the "Worthy", shared common characteristics with the earlier "Worthy" dating from the Warring States period. Great weight was attached to the bureaucrat's soldier-of-fortune aspect during the whole Western Han; in actual politics, this kind of bureaucratic style was evinced in the importance attached to debates over policy. Confucian officials in particular regarded debate over issues as the precondition of "the politics of the Worthy" (xian-ren zheng-zhi 賢人政治). "Seeking out the Worthy" was also important, but it was considered that if the "debate system" had not been established in the first place, officials would not have been able to carry out their proper functions. The advocacy of this kind of "politics of the worthy" on the part of the bureaucrats grew up slowly within the Han institutional context. In the system of selection and recruitment, the creation of the office of jian-da-fu 諫大夫 was one of its expressions, and ultimately this advocacy on the part of the officials came to constrain the emperor himself. The emperor himself had to be "Worthy" Thus it could happen that hereditary imperial succession was called in question, and the notion of abdication or non-hereditary cession of the throne came to the surface in Han politics. The establishment of Wang Mang's regime can be interpreted as an inevitable result of this.