<論説>尚書の銓衡の成立 : 漢代における「選挙」の再検討

Abstract

従来、漢代の人事制度については察挙制度に研究が集中してきた。しかし、それとは別に勤務日数を積むことにより自動的に昇進していく制度のあったこと、通常大半の官吏はこのような制度により昇進を遂げていたのであろうことが大庭修氏によって指摘されている。従来、このような日常の人事と察挙との区別が明らかにされないまま、漠然と「選挙」なる呼称のもとに漢代の人事制度が論ぜられてきた。本稿はこの両者の区別を明らかにするとともに、察挙に非ざる日常の人事の制が後世の尚書による人事―「銓衡」―の起源をなす事を論ずるものである。 まず漢代における察挙によらぬ日常的人事の存在とその際の手続きについて、続いてそれを掌る担当官庁が前漢末頃三公より尚書へ移行したこと、後漢の文献に見える三公による「選挙」とは非常の察挙を指していたこと、従って日常的人事は依然尚書により行われていたこと、後漢末期になるとこのような尚書による人事が後世のように「銓衡」の語で呼ばれるようになったこと、を順次論述する。

Previous studies of the Han system for the promotion of officials focused primarily on the recommendation system 察挙制度. As Professor Oba has pointed out, however, there was another promotion system, through which officials could be promoted routinely by serving a certain term ; most officials obtained their promotions through this system. Most previous studies do not distinguish this system from the recommendation system, and refer to both systems as the election system 選挙. This article clarifies the differences between the recommendation system and the routine promotion system. There was a routine promotion system in the Han period, managed according to documents on the administration of officials and rules for their promotion. At the end of the Western Han, the office charged with the management of this system was shifted from the purview of the Three Dukes 三公 to that of the Imperial Secretary 尚書. In some records from the Eastern Han, it appears that the Three Dukes still managed this system, but the system referred to in these records by the term "election" was in fact the recommendation system and not the routine promotion system. Though the routine promotion system was also referred to as "election " in some contemporary records, it remained under the control of the Imperial Secretary. Toward the end of the Eastern Han, the routine promotion system began to be called quqn heng 銓衡 ; it can be regarded as the origin of the evaluation-election system (quan xuan 銓選)managed by the Ministry of Personal 吏部尚書 in the later periods.