武后朝末年より玄宗朝初年にいたる政爭について : 唐代貴族制研究への一視角 (特集 唐代史の諸問題)

Abstract

There are two theories on the political structure of T'ang (唐) prior to the revolt of An Lu-shan (安祿山); the new landlord-merchant class was already strong enough to cope with the aristocracy, or the latter was still in ascendancy. Which is right? The political strife in this period may be defined as that between the imperial clan including relations by marriage and the court dignitaries. With a view to increasing its infuence the former recruited many government officials from the landlord-merchant class and at the same time promoted the ranks of Buddhist monks, while the latter representing the old aristocracy made struggle against the former, emerging in victory. The political strife was thus fought between the two cliques of the aristocracy, but not between the aristocracy and a newly emerging social class. However, at the same time the fact should be taken into consideration that the influence of the common people had become so strong as to lead to the disruption of the ruling class into two camps.