宋代銓選のひとこま : 薦擧制度を中心に

Abstract

The bureaucratic system of the Sung Dynasty seems at first glance extremely complicated, but one can say that it reached the highest level possible for the contemporary society, by fully incorporating and adjusting itself on various levels to the results of the great social changes since the middle T'ang 唐 period, while basing itself on the 'three department six board' (san-sheng liu-pu 三省六部) system which was perfected during the T'ang. This paper takes up, out of the appointment system of officials which was an important pillar in this bureaucratic system, the question of 'recommendation-election' (chien-chu 薦擧, recommendation with guarantors), which was necessary for an appointment, explains its organizational content, and tells about its changes in time. In the appointment of officials there was a division between civil officials (wen-kuan 文官) and military officials (wu-kuan 武官), and each group was further divided into a higher and alower class. The guarantor system was especially considered necessary when lower civil officials ascended in rank and function. For instance, when lower civil officials, who were collectively called hsuan-jen (選人), ascended to the middle rank collectively known as ching-kuan (京官), then the guarantee of five central higher officials or regional governors was a necessary condition. Consequently, to each of the central higher officials there was given yearly a certain number of lower offcials for whose promotion they should serve as a guarantor. Due to such a guarantor-relationship the factions and power groups became strengthened. This paper treats in the first chapter the 'guarantor-recommendations' of ching-kuan and ch'ao-kuan(京朝官), in the second chapter those of the hsuan-jen, and in the third one those of the military officials. In the early Sung this system was still rather simple and not always adjusted, but it was almost brought to perfection during the first half of the eleventh century, during the reign of the fourth Jen-tsung 仁宗 emperor, and in the Southern Sung period extremely detailed laws and regulations were enforced.