漢六朝期の地方的教令について

Abstract

In this article I focus on the regulations and edicts that were increasingly issued by the chief regional official in various regions on his own initiative after the latter half of the Former Han in contrast to the regulations issued by the central government. I introduce various examples from the latter half of the Former Han through the periods of the Wei, Jin and Northern and Southern Dynasties and consider their development. While the principle of imposing uniform rule continued on following the latter half of the Former Han dynasty, there were also incipient efforts to implement moderate regional policies in response to individual circumstances, and these efforts are thought to have a turning point in the increase in such orders. These regional orders, which had at times been prohibited during the Han dynasty as deviating from the central legal code, eventually came to embody the import of the legal codes and imperial edicts, and the state moreover came to recognize and promote many of them as providing the detailed stipulations of the former. Although these orders were independently adjudicated by the supreme regional authority in each region, these officials were conscious of precedent, contemporary examples in other jurisdictions, were constrained by the national legal and penal code, and looked to exemplars from the classics. There was additionally the restrictive influence of the collective opinion of the local elites. In regard to the collective opinion of the local elites, it is thought that the orders issued by successive top officials gave it direction, and it can be surmised that the eventual maturation of the concept of local government arose out of the mutual influence of the top official and the local elite. From the Latter Han, through the periods of the Wei-Jin, and Northern and Southern dynasties, the tendency toward decentralization progressed, but it should be noted that among the various regional orders that were issued during the period the definite tendency mentioned above can be seen.