漢六朝時代における禮制と官制の關係に關する一考察 : 禮制秩序の中における三公の位置づけを中心に

Abstract

Government officials and feudal lords in ancient China served both in the role of deciding and administering policy and also in that of performing the various rituals of the state. This article focuses on the latter of the two roles and seeks to consider the characteristics of the organization of the government officials and feudal lords which was based on the li-zhi 禮制, the courtesy system of prescribed ritual etiquette, and also how these characteristics changed over time. Following the late Former Han, the Zhi-dan 秩石 system, the hierarchy that ranged from Emperor on down through Gong 公, Qing 卿 and Dafu 大夫, continued to be refined, and in the sphere of the courtesy system and particularly in performance of various state rituals, the organization of the offcials, who were ordered in accordance with the Zhi-dan system, came to function as a ritual group. Amidst these developments, the roles of the San-Gong 三公, the Three Dukes, who occupied the pinnacle of the Zhi-dan order, in determining and executing policy as well as the parameters of their authority had become unclear, but, when it came to the ritual space in which the state rites were performed, they played roles appropriate to their lofty status. This principle was not only maintained in the Wei-Jin 魏晉, but the idea of emphasizing the Zhi-dan system and elevating the status of the San-Gong within the courtesy system also appeared. However, amidst the changes in the forms of organization of those who executed policy, i.e., the shift from the system of the San-Gong and Jiu-Qing 九卿 to one centered on the Department of State Affairs 尚書省 in the Wei-Jin, a trend toward the disintegration of the principle underlying the Zhi-dan order within the sphere of the courtesy system occurred as the San-Gong were gradually eliminated from the policy decision-making process and their former mystical power, which had been derived from their link with Heaven, was gradually attenuated. The confrontation of two views, one, a strain of thought that motivated the shift toward a "return" to the feudal system on the Zhou 周 model in various systems during the Western Jin 西晉, and the other, an opposing current of thought, were played out in disputes over interpretations of the code of ritual etiquette, i.e., regulations of courtesy. The former postion was represented by Sun-Yi 荀顗 who compiled the Xin-Li 新禮 at the beginning of the Western Jin. And in accordance with his thinking, an attempt was made to upgrade the status of the San-Gong in the ritual system and reconstitute the Zhi-dan order through the Ping-Mian 平冕 system of hierarchal dress codes. However, opposition from those who held the opposing point of view was fierce; as seen particularly in the reforms of the ritual system in the early Liang 梁, in which the emperor's ultimate authority would be stressed and the status of the San-Gong and that of those lower in the hierarchy were to be decreased. In this fashion, the struggle between the two ways of thinking became one of the points of dispute over the ritual system during the Six Dynasties, and that this posed a constant threat to the exalted status of the San-Gong is undeniable.