秦律の夏と臣邦

Abstract

This article analyzes the Qin legal concepts of Xia 夏 and chenbang 臣邦 seen in the Faludawen 法律答問 (Responses to Questions on Law and Punishment) , found among the Qin bamboo slips recovered from the Shuihudi 睡虎地 site in Yunmeng 雲夢, and considers the concept of China (the Central States, the Middle kingdom) that was constructed in the period of Qin domination during the Warring States period. The Xia of the Qin law was a concept with a two-fold relationship to the Qin center. The first was the relationship of ruler and ruled linking the Qin and a ruler of the chenbang. Qin law defined the act of the chenbang people breaking away from their ruler as qu Xia 去夏 (leaving Xia) and prohibited it. The second relationship involved the Qin pedigree. In Qin law a chenbang individual borne of a Qin mother was recognized as a Xiazi 夏子 (a child of a Xia) and was distinguished from other chenbang people. In short, it seems that the Xia of Qin law was a concept based on some relationship (either of ruler and ruled or of marriage) linking the Qin and chenbang. What then was the character of the chenbang? The Qin constructed a channel for indirect rule through the rulers of various sized vassal states, such as the rulers of alien peoples who had become the subjects of the Qin, the feudal lords, 封君 or 侯, who had been enfeoffed by the Qin, and other Zhou related states that had submitted to the Qin. The people who were the subjects of these rulers were clearly distinguished from the Qin people who were organized into districts 縣 and commanderies 郡 under direct Qin rule. The chenbang of Qin law was a relationship that paralleled that of districts and counties, and it seems to have been a legal concept that signified a channel to govern through these local rulers. On the basis of the above understanding of chenbang, it is then possible to understand the Xia of Qi law in the following manner. First, Xia was concept for controlling non-Qin people through their rulers, 君長 or 君公, and to justify their integration based on a different channel of rule from that of the direct district and commandery. The chenbang people were not incorporated into the people of the Qin, but were grasped as people within the Xia order linked by their ruler to the Qin. Furthermore, within the chenbang were states recognized as rong 戎 (alien peoples) and others that belonged to the Zhou cultural sphere. Thus Xia was a concept that was capable encompassing both. In other words, the Xia of the Qin law was not a concept that stood in binary opposition to rong, it seems rather to have been a concept of political relationship for integrating various states, including those classified as rong. On the other hand, the Xia within the context of family lineages was an affiliation through the bloodline of a Qin father, and it also presented a more broader identification for people born when a Qin woman married outside the group with a chenbang person. The Qin legal system invariably distinguished whether one was Qin (Xia) or chenbang on the basis of background of one's father. Then in the case of the chenbang people a further distinguish was made, whether one was Xiazi or Zhen 眞 on the basis of the background of the mother. The Xiazi was a chenbang person who was borne by a Qin (Xia) mother, in short this meant the person was "a quasi-Qin." And the Zhen in contrast was someone who did not have Qin blood, meaning someone who was "a genuine non-Qin." The Qin constructed the concept of Xia, an affiliated relationship based on the bloodlines of their own state for the chenbang people. As seen from the above, the Xia in Qin law was constructed upon the system of Qin domination as a concept to justify the integration of Qin and non-Qin people. It was a concept in a theory of governance that expressed the ties, both political and of blood, to the Qin center and was not cultural or territorial. In other words, Qin constructed a social order in which the Xia were placed atop the various states that included those of foreign peoples.