Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T03:59:55.833Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Influence of Jurchen Rule on Chinese Political Institutions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Jing-Shen Tao
Get access

Abstract

This paper is an attempt to assess the influences of the Jurchen Chin dynasty (1115–1234) on the Chinese political system, with emphasis on the bearing of alien rule on the establishment of a highly centralized despotism. The thesis is that the Jurchen solutions to the political problems arisen from the conquest situation seem to require measures of centralized control. During the initial phase of conquest, the political struggles between the bureaucrats and the aristocrats entailed the brutalization of the political process. Subsequently the need for centralized control led to wholesale sinicization. There are, however, several aspects of Jurchen rule in the formation of a centralized despotism: the establishment of a prototype of the provincial system, the abolition of important government councils, the monopoly of state affairs by a single administrative organization, the degradation of scholar-officials by inflicting corporal punishment, and the transformation of the censorate into an imperial instrument. The alien rules also adopted and modified the Chinese civil service examination system to stabilize their regime. The Chin, as a successor state of the Northern Sung, served as an important link in Chinese cultural and political developments, and transferred its institutions to later conquest dynasties.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 30 , Issue 1 , November 1970 , pp. 121 - 130
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1970

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 For a general treatment of the trend, see Mote, F. W., “The Growth of Chinese Despotism,” Oriens Extremus, Vol. 8, No. 1 (1961) 1–41.Google Scholar

2 Wittfogel, Karl A. and Chia-sheng, Feng in their History of Chinese Society: Liao (907–1125) (Philadelphia, 1949) pp. 15–16Google Scholar assert that the dynasties during the period of disruption are dynasties of infiltration rather than conquest. Tamura Jitsuzō points out that these dynasties of infiltration are the results of great waves of barbarian migration similar to the barbarian invasions in Europe. See his pamphlet, , “Yūboku minzoku to nōkō minzoku tono rekishi teki kankei” (The Historical Relations between the Nomads and Agriculturists), issued by Kyōto University in 1968, pp. 2–5.Google Scholar

3 See Yin-k'o, Ch'en, Sui-t'ang chih-tu yüan-yüan lüeh-lun kaoGoogle Scholar (Draft Essay on the Origins of Sui-T'ang Institutions), reprinted by Academia Sinica, n.d.

4 See Tao, Jing-shen, “The Horse and the Rise of the Chin Dynasty,” Papers of the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts, and Letters, LIII (1968) 183–189.Google Scholar

5 The situation is evident in the career of Han Chi-hsien, who assumed the position of Chanceller in 1128. Han, however, always stayed in North China, never having the chance to have an audience with Wu-ch'i-mai in Manchuria until 1134, when he was appointed Right Prime Minister of the newly reformed central government. The case of Han also indicates the powerful position held by the generals in North China, who, in fact, completed A-ku-ta's unfinished task of conquest. See Chin Shih (Dynastic History of the Chin. Po-na ed.; hereafter cited as CS), 78.8ab.

6 For details see Tsugio, Mikami, “Kinsho ni okeru sanshō seido, Part I” (The Three Department System for Central Government in the Early Chin Dynasty), Rekishi to Bunka, V (1961) 151.Google Scholar

7 Ibid., 129–152.

8 Meng-hsin, Hsü, San-ch'ao pei-meng hui-pien (Compendium on the Northern Alliance under the Three Reigns: 1101–1161. Taipei: Wen-hai ed.; hereafter cited as SCPM) 3.3Google Scholar; 166.5.

9 Ibid., 3.7.

10 CS, 78Google Scholar, “Biography of Ta-lan.”

11 In the early years the highest authority in military affairs was held by generals such as Nienhan and Wa-li-pu. Later the Chancellery took over their power. Cf. CS, 44Google Scholar. The Chancellery, unlike that of the Northern Sung, was controlled by the Presidential Council. See CS, 114.8b.Google Scholar

12 Cf. Pulleyblank, Edwin G., The Background of the Rebellion of An Lu-shan (London: Oxford University Press, 1955) pp. 47–48.Google Scholar

13 SCPM, 166.3–5Google Scholar; Hao, Hung, Sung-mo chi-wen Travel Records of the Cypress and Desert Area, Liao-hai ts'ung-shu ed.) 1.2b.Google Scholar

14 Mao-ch'ao, Yü-wen, Ta-chin-kuo chih (History of the Great Chin Kingdom. In Ssu-ch'ao pieh-shih, Sao-yeh shan-fang ed.) 12.3b–4a.Google Scholar

15 See Hsi-yin's epigraph in Ping-ch'ang, Hsü, “Chiao chin wan-yen hsi-yin sheng-tao-pei shuhou” (After Editing the Epigraph of Wan-yen Hsi-yin of the Chin), Shih-hsüeh Chi-k'an, I (1936) 14.Google Scholar

16 See Hao, Hung, P'o-yang chi (San-shui-t'ang ed.) 1.6ab, 8aGoogle Scholar, 10b, 12b, 13b, 14ab, and 15a for poems written by Hung for Hsi-yin's sons.

17 Ibid., 1.11a; 4.10a.

18 CS, 70.3b.Google Scholar

19 Tiao-fa lu (Records of Consoling the People and Punishing the Rebels. Ssu-pu ts'ung-k'an 3rd ser. ed.) 2.6.Google Scholar

20 Nien-han was deprived of his military power in North China, while his adviser Kao Ch'ing-i was executed. P'u-lu-hu and O-lu-kuan allegedly plotted against Tan, but Tan forestalled in action and killed them. Ta-lan was executed in 1139 and his scheme for peace with the Southern Sung was dropped. Finally even Hsi-yin could not manage to escape from the fate of being eliminated,

21 Cf. Gunji, Toyama, “Sansei o chūshin toseru kinshō sōkan no katsuyaku” (Chin General Tsunghan's Activities Centering upon Shansi), Tōyōshi Kenhyū, Vol. 1, No. 6 (1936) 509–532.Google Scholar

22 For some details of the case of T'ien Chüeh see CS, 89.5a–7a.Google Scholar

23 It was called a “Mobile” council because its site was not fixed at a single place and it exercised a flexible rule of first the area north of the Yellow River, and then the whole of North China. Cf. Tsugio, Mikami, “Kinsho ni kodai shōshoshō yo kore o meguru seiji jo no sho mondai” (On Hsing-t'ai shang-shu-sheng of Chin Dynasty and Its Political Problems), Rekishi to Bunka, IV (1959) 61–72.Google Scholar

24 For detailed discussions see Kosuke, Aoyama, “Kinchō kodai shōshoshō kō’ (Studies of the Mobile Presidential Council in the Chin Dynasty), Taihaku teikoku daigaku bunsei gakubu shigaku ka kenhyū nembō, No. 1 (1934) 151–162Google Scholar; Tomitarō, Aoki, “Gensho gyoja kō” (Studies of the Province in Early Yuan), Shigaku Zasshi, Vol. 51, Nos. 4–5 (1940) 480–501 and 614–645.Google Scholar

25 Ch'eng-ta, Fan, Shih-hu chü-shih shih-chi (Ssu-pu ts'ung-k'an ed.), 12.11Google Scholar; Lin-chih, Chou, Hai-ling chi (Hai-ling ts'ung-k'e ed.), Appendix, p. 2.Google Scholar

26 CS, 5.6a and 14abGoogle Scholar; 55.1b–2a.

27 Cf. Tsugio, Mikami, “Kinsho ni okeru sanshō seidō, Part I,” 148–152Google Scholar; Part II, Rekishi to Bunka, VI (1963) 91–92.Google Scholar

28 Cf. Tao, Jing-shen, “Chin sung ch'ien ti chin hai-ling-ti” (On Emperor Hai-ling of the Chin before His Invasion of the Southern Sung), Yu-shih Journal, Vol. 3, No. 1 (1960) 7–12.Google Scholar

29 Tao, Jing-shen, Chin hai-ling-ti ti fa-sung yü ts'ai-shih chan-i ti k'ao-shih (A Study of the Chin Emperor Hai-ling's Invasion of the Southern Sung and the Battle of Ts'ai-shih, 1161. Teipei: National Taiwan University, 1963) pp. 15–18.Google Scholar

30 Yüeh, Lou, Kung-k'uei chi (Ssu-pu ts'ung-k'an ed.) 111.11b.Google Scholar

31 During the Yuan period there was a distinction between ch'ih (whipping) and chang (flogging), the latter of which involved beating with a bamboo pole. See Yuan Shih (Dynastic History of the Yuan, Po-na ed.) 50.1b, 2a, and 13aGoogle Scholar. Examples of officials flogged are in ibid., 19.4b; 24.3b; 32.22ab, 24b; 34.26b; 35.13b. It is generally believed that the t'ing-chang was first used in the Yuan period. See Mote, F. W., “The Growth of Chinese Despotism,” pp. 27–28Google Scholar. For this practice in the Ming period see Sheng, Meng, Ming-tai shih (History of the Ming Dynasty; Taipei, 1957) pp. 81–82Google Scholar; Hucker, Charles O., The Traditional Chinese State in Ming Times (1368–1644) (Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 1961) p. 48Google Scholar; and his The Censorial System of Ming China (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1966) p. 318.Google Scholar

32 Cf. Tsugio, Mikami, “Kin no gyoshidai to sono seiji shakai teki yakuwari” (The Political and Social Role of the Censorate of the Chin Dynasty), Rekishi to Bunka, IX (1967) 1–71.Google Scholar

33 CS, 8.2aGoogle Scholar; 100.4b.

34 Ibid., 109.8b–9a.

35 Tsugio, Mikami, “Kin no gyoshidai to sono seiji shakai teki yakuwari,” pp. 28–29 and 41–43.Google Scholar

36 Tsugio, Mikami, “Kinchō ni okeru shōshoshō no kenkyū, Part II” (A Study of the Presidential Council of the Chin Dynasty), Rekishi to Bunka, VII (1965) 41–44.Google Scholar

37 This development is discernible in the Yuan and Ming dynasties. See Hucker, Charles O., The Censorial System of Ming China, pp. 25–28Google Scholar (Yuan) and passim.

38 Ssu-yü, Teng, Chung-kuo k'ao-shih chih-tu shih (A History of Chinese Examination System. Taipei, 1966) pp. 189–193 and 201–202Google Scholar. In the early Chin the quota for the chin-shih from the northern region was 200 while that for the southern region was 150.

39 Tao, Jing-shen, “Chin-tai ch'u-ch'i nü-chen ti han-hua” (The Sinicization of the Jurchen in the Early Chin Period), Bulletin of the College of Arts, National Taiwan University, XVII (1968) 53–54.Google Scholar

40 Ibid., 54.

41 CS, 51.11a–12a.Google Scholar

42 Ssu-yü, Teng, Chung-kuo k'ao-shih chih-tu shih, p. 209.Google Scholar

43 Tao, Jing-shen, “Chin-tai ch'u-ch'i nü-chen ti han-hua,” 54.Google Scholar

44 The Mongols also balanced the several ethnic elements in their bureaucracy by dividing the exanimation degrees equally among the four ethnic groups. The policy was perhaps an imitation of the Jurchen example, but Yuan examinations only played a very limited role. See Kracke, E. A. Jr., “Region, Family, and Individual in the Chinese Examination System,” in Fairbank, John K. (ed.), Chinese Thought and Institutions (Chicago and London, 1957), p. 263Google Scholar. Cf. also Ssu-yü, Teng, op. cit., pp. 211–213Google Scholar. In the early years of the Ch'ing period the rulers adopted a similar quota system in favor of the Manchus. See ibid., p. 255.

45 Cf. Liu, James T. C., “Sung Roots of Chinese Political Conservatism: the Administrative Problems,” Journal of Asian Studies, XXVI, No. 3 (1967) 457–463.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

46 See Hsin-ch'uan, Li, Chien-yen i-lai hsi-nien yao-lu (Annual Records of Important Events since the Chien-yen Era: 1127–1162. Kuan-ya ts'ung shu ed.) 22.12abGoogle Scholar. The other councils were abolished in 1129.