『宋書』と劉宋政治史

Abstract

The chief characteristics of the political history of the Liu-Song Dynasty are generally taken to be the strengthening of the power of the emperor and the related rise of men of humble birth known as hanmen 寒門 or hanren 寒人. In other words, an image has been created of imperial authority aimed at building a monopoly on power by means of appointment of the hanmen/hanren in opposition to the aristocratic factions that had held power ever since the Eastern Jin. This picture conforms to the view of Shen Yue 沈約, the compiler of the Songshu, but it would probably be inappropriate to understand it as objectively reflecting the reality of the times. From this point of view, this study first examines the characteristic of the political history found throughout the descriptions of Shen Yue in the Songshu. And given the point of view critical of the emperor's exercise of arbitrary authority, makes clear that in the Songshu there was a tendency to over-emphasis the power of the emperor and the favored hanren. Moreover, it addresses the main studies concerned with Liu-Song political history, and points out the problem that the description corresponds perfectly to that of Shen Yue, particularly as regards the description following emperor Xiao Wu 孝武(r. 453-464). Furthermore, in seeking to discover a clue to the solution of this problem, it considers the political history of the period of Qianfei-di 前廢帝 (464-65). That which caused the political instability in the period of the Qianfei-di was the unstable authority of the emperor and the tendency for ceaseless repetition of factional infighting among government bureaucrats. The Songshu explained the cause of this political instability by charting a vision of the emperor and the favored hanren versus the aristocracy, however it would be difficult to claim that such a vision objectively depicted the real circumstances. The authority of the emperor and the bureaucratic class (including aristocrats, hanmen, and those originally of hanren status) were instead broadly united, and to explain the situation in terms of mutual influence, with the instability of the status of the emperor hastening the factional infighting of the bureaucrats, and simultaneously the factional infighting of bureaucrats influencing the instability of the emperor's status would surely be a more valid method for grasping not only the period of Qianfei-di but the structural characteristic of the politics of the entire Liu-Song Dynasty.