The Numeral Ideas in the Ideal Bureaucracies from Warring States to Han Period

• Main Authors: Zi-chiao Lin, 林子喬
• Other Authors: 甘懷真
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2017
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/28h8h2

碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 歷史學研究所 === 105 === In this thesis, I intend to point out the political ideas from warring states to Han by analyzing the conceptions of bureaucracies and narratives of official history in texts from these periods, focusing especially on the role of government in the relation between human and heaven. In introduction, I review discussions on the relations between political thoughts and actual institutions. The common terms used in these discussions, autocracy and bureaucracy, come from political science and sociology. However, scholars have reflected whether the western terms interpret traditional Chinese history appropriately in recent studies. In chapter 2, I illustrate two political ideas, “Yang Guan Fu Cha” (仰觀俯察, sage kings established their institutions according to their analysis of Nature) and “Zuo Jiao Hua Min” (作教化民, sage kings established their institutions for cultivating the people) by analyzing the history of government offices narrated in the preface of Hanshu Baiguangongqingbiao (《漢書•百官公卿表》, Table of Nobility Ranks and Government Offices in Book of Han) by Ban Gu (班固) and Wuxingdayi Lunzhuguan (《五行大義•論諸官》, On government offices in Great Meaning of the Five Phases) by Xiao Ji (蕭吉). In chapter 3, I focus on “the Five Offices” (五官) and “the Six Offices” (六官) based on the four seasons or the five phases. The conception of offices intends to achieve the harmony between human and heaven, whose nature is altered by people’s knowledge in different times. Although the offices in these conceptions are arranged by birth of spring, growth of summer, harvest of autumn and storage of winter, there are some differences in details according to the designers’ understanding of seasons or phases. In chapter 4, I focus on San Gong Jiu Qing (三公九卿, three ducal ministers and nine ministers), in which the number of positions triples by descending gradations of offices. The institution takes precedents as its reference and may have been created in Qin and early Han regimes when the government rules the reunited China. It is interpreted with ideas like “Guan Zhi Xiang Tian” (官制象天, Official regulations take Heaven as image) during the mid-Han. In the end, I conclude the analysis of the conception of governments and point out the religious aspects in traditional political ideas. The ideas have been absorbed and transformed by Confucians in later history.