秦代の御史と監御史

Abstract

The inspectorate system in Qin period has been studied exclusively on the basis of previously transmitted texts. The resulting understansingneeds to be reviewed in the light of the rapid increase in the number of bamboo and wooden documents excavated in recent years. This paper uses the Qin bamboo and wooden manuscripts, especially the Liye 里耶 and Yuelu academy 嶽麓書院 Qin manuscripts, to discuss the function and features of the Jianyushi 監御史, officials in charge of commandery level supervision in the Qin empire, as well as closely related government posts, such as the Yushi 御史 and the Zhifa 執法, in order to elucidate the real situation of local supervision at that time. Section 1 focuses on the relationship between the Jianyushi and the Yushi. In the Qin bamboo and wooden documents, the term “Yushi” refers only to the central Yushi, not to the Jianyushi stationed in the commandery. However, it is likely that the Jianyushi was derived from Yushi. Originally, local supervision was carried out by the Yushi on an ad hoc basis, but as Qin expanded its territory and the number of commanderies increased, the need for permanent supervision of the commanderies arose. The Jianyushi was then established as a resident officer of the commandery. It is estimated that this occurred between the latter half of the 4th century BCE, when the commandery system was founded, and 222 BCE, when the Jianyushi clearly appears in the excavated documents. Section 2 discusses the relationship between the Jianyushi and other government officials. Although the Jianyushi had the power to impeach commandery and county officials, he did not conduct the trials himself and was not held responsible for the mistakes of local officials in administrative procedures. The Zhifa, on the other hand, had the power to conduct trials and pass judgment himself. The limited authority of the Jianyushi can be seen here. Section 3 examines the position of the Jianyushi from the perspective of spatial control in the Qin Empire. Chengxiang 丞相, Yushi, Tingwei 廷尉 and Zhifa all exercised spatial control over the territory of the Qin empire by dispatchingtheir subordinates to various regions for inspection. In particular, Yushi and Zhifa were conspicuous for their ability to coordinate across the commandery and county boundaries. On the other hand, there is no evidence of such a function being performed by the Jianyushi. This reflects the limitation of the authority of Jianyushi, which was merely a supervisory post within the commandery. The limited authority of the Jianyushi, however, is to be expected given the Qin empire’s local governing bodies were a complex of offices with various powers.