<研究ノート>後漢代における外戚政権と尚書台 --尚書官人事を中心として--

Abstract

The Latter Han was an age of rule by the dowager empress and the affines, or marital relations, of the emperor. In this article, I examine whether the regimes of these affines introduced their own factions as official personnel in the Imperial Secretariat (Shangshutai 尚書台). In the Latter Han one often sees records that mention the Lu Shangshushi (録尚書事), a post that has been translated as the Overseer of the Imperial Secretariat, but opinion is divided over its actual role. In the first section, I examine the question of whether the Lu Shangshushi did in fact oversee the Shangshutai. Then, after concluding that the Lu Shangshushi did not oversee the Imperial Secretariat, I made clear that the Lu Shangshushi should not be considered an object of this study. Then in the second section I consider the regime of the Dou clan 竇氏 from the second year of the Zhanghe era (88) to the fourth year of the Yongyuan 4 (92). All previous scholarship has indicated that the regime of the Dou clan controlled the Shangshutai. However, Han Leng 韓棱, who was extremely critical of the Dou clan during the period of their ascendance, occupied the post of Shanshuling 尚書令. In addition, other people who were critical of the Dou clan were selected as bureaucrats of Shangshu. While on the one hand the regime of the Dou clan did emphasize personnel placement in the imperial household, palace guards and military officials, but it can be said that they placed no special significance on placing their own faction in in the Shangshutai. In the third section, I considered the regime of the Deng clan from the first year of the Yuanxing era (105) to the first year of the Jianguang (121). Although there were some officials in the Shangshutai who were critical of the Deng clan during their regime, it was composed in general of personnel who cooperated with the Deng clan. In the fourth section, I consider the regime of the Liang clan 梁氏 from the first year of the Jiankang era (144) to the second year of the Yanxi era (159). During this period, there were many officials critical to the Liang clan among Shangshu officials including the Shangshuling. The Liang clan, like the Dou clan, did not place great weight on the personnel in the Shanshutai but instead placed more emphasis on officials close to the emperor. Judging from the above considerations, I have made clear that these regimes were able to operate the foundations without placing emphasis on personnel in the Shangshutai and that whether they placed emphasis on the Shangshutai did not depend on change over time. It was the regime of the Deng clan that emphasized personnel in the Shangshu and whose influence extended over policy decision-making through the Shangshutai. In contrast, the Dou and Liang clans placed greater emphasis on personnel who were close to the throne and had influence on the decision making of the emperor or dowager empress having restrained the Shangshutai through their own authority.