『運使郭公復齋言行録』の編纂と或るモンゴル時代吏員出身官僚の位相

Abstract

This article is an attempt to shed light on the scholarly life and selfconsciousness of officials who started their careers as low-level clerical officials and later rose to higher officialdom in the Yuan period. As the civil service examinations played a limited role under Mongol rule, a considerable number of local literati chose to serve as clerks to enter officialdom. At times, such low-level officials were praised as "scholarly clerks, " 儒吏. ruli, in contemporary materials and they formed the main source of officials throughout the Yuan period. However, we understand little how "scholarly" they were, especially in comparison with scholarofficials who passed the civil service examinations. Based on two memoirs of a fiscal attendant in chief named Guo Yu 郭郁 (ca 1259-?), who was also promoted from the position of clerk, this article examines his self-consciousness, relationships with other scholars, and reputation as a scholar. Poems, letters and commemorative inscriptions contained in Yunshi Guogong Fuzhai Yanxinglu 運使郭公復齋言行錄 clearly indicate that Guo Yu was strongly conscious of himself as an outstanding scholar and was especially proud of his knowledge of Yi 易 (The Book of Changes). As described in his memoirs, he eagerly looked for a connection with contemporary leading scholars at the Court and local literati in Jiangnan in order to join scholarly society. According to poems and letters presented to him, this attempt gained remarkable success, and he even went on to patronize the publication of an annotated text of the Yi in Jiangnan. At the same time, he successfully secured the patronage of a Mongol noble at Court. As patronage was an essential factor for aspiring officials and clerks to gain a higher position, Guo was successful not only in scholarly society but also in officialdom. His career as a clerical official seemingly posed no hindrance to his scholarly activities. However, it should be noted that he obviously could not keep on enjoying success after the death of his patron Burilgidei, who had had considerable influence at Court and in Jiangnan, and consequently few sources, except the memoirs, mention his name. In short, Guo's life is a mixture of traditional scholarly life and the new clerk-officialdom that emerged under Mongol rule. Many Yuan sources indicate or directly express the superiority of "authentic" scholars (they were usually scholar-officials who had gained their positions through the civil service examinations, or local literati who clung to the traditional notion of official-clerk boundaries) to clerical officials and officials who had risen from the ranks of such clerks. On the other hand, in the Yuan period, it was not difficult to find dignified scholars who were promoted from the ranks of these clerks, such as Zhang Yanghao 張養浩. As the life of Guo Yu clearly shows, being a scholarofficial was not as simple a matter as it had been in earlier periods of Chinese history. The multi-routed recruit system that the Mongols established in China changed the standard for becoming a scholar-official, who during the Song and Jin period had only had to pass the civil service examination. This resulted in the emergence of new scholar-officials who did not cling to the civil service examinations. This diversity of scholar-officials marks one of the most remarkable traits of multicultural Chinese society under Mongol rule.