唐代西州における府兵制の展開と府兵兵士

Abstract

Following its destruction of the Qu state of Gaochang 麹氏高昌國 in Zhenguan 貞観 14 (640), the Tang transformed this area into Xi-Zhou province and established it as an important point in the control of the Western Territories and the Silk Road. Following the conquest, the Tang established four Zhechong-fu 折衝府 (district military headquarters) within the new province and implemented the conscription of the local populace to serve as soldiers in the fu-bing system. This paper is an analysis of the actual workings of the fu-bing system and the true status of the soldiers in it via an examination of records found in Turfan. It also highlights specific aspects of the working of the Tang fu-bing system, with particular attention paid to the actual circumstances of the soldiers involved in this system. Among the several points confirmed in this paper are, first, that the four Zhechong-fu were established early in the period of Tang control and that the total soldiers involved in it numbered some three thousand. Second, these soldiers were referred to , as Weishi 衛士 (imperial guards), but they actually served five one-month-long tours of duty in the lookout posts and signal towers within the province rather than in the capital. Third, it may thus be surmised that the duties of these soldiers were less onerous than those of peasant farmers, and that their social status was, moreover, higher than the latter. Recognition of this principle of the separation of soldier and peasant--the soldier and the peasant-farmer did not occupy the same role--makes it possible to redefine the fundamental character of the Tang fu-bing system from this vantage point.