On the Cheracter of the Chun-hsien 郡県 System in the Kingdom of Kao-ch'ang 高昌 under the Rule of the Ch'u 麹 Familiy

<p>The Kingdom of Kao-ch'ang 高昌 under the rule of Ch'u 麹 family instituted chun 郡 and hsien 県 over an area spanning almost all of twenty and more walled towns dotted in the Turfan basin. However, between these chun and hsien, there was no subordinative relation, rather they were respectively under th direct command of the central government. We may presume that actual responsible persons for management of such chun and hsien were the "ssu-ma 司馬 (chu-che 主者)" of chun and hsien mentioned in "fu 符" (documents for communication from superiors to inferiors). Especially, in the case of chun, the "ssu-ma (chu-che)" seemed to mean the official post of ssu-ma in several government offices ; and the person who was assigned to that post had to be a man of an influential clan in the central area or a particularly influential clan in a local area On the other hand, in the case of chun and hsien, men of central influential clans, including the royal family, were designated chun t'ai-shou 郡太守 (governors-general of chun) and hsien ling 県令 (prefectural governors). However, they not always actually travelled to thir appointed places, that is, an inclination towards absentee designation prevailed. Thus, the reason why a characteristic chun-hsien system was formed in the Kingdom of Kao-ch'ang under the rule of the Ch'u family was because there was a tradition of the organization "fu 府" (supreme municipal government) of "P'iao-ch'i 驃騎 grand general Hsi-p'ing-Chun K'ai-kuo-kung 西平郡開国公" given by Northern Wei to the king of Kao-ch'ang, and when the Kingdom was established as an independent nation at the beginning of the sixth century, it founded new commanding order centered around the above mentioned "fu". In the process of gaining ascendancy over several walled towns, the Kingdom of Kao-ch'ang instituted chun and hsien while at the same time apparently structuring the organization of "fu" over them and assigning ssu-ma as well as can-chun 参軍, the "fu" officials. Ordinally, in order to govern these chun and hsien, we presume that men of central influential clans, including the roylal family, were sent as governors-general of chun and prefectural governors to command the officials of "fur" as well as to bring the walled towns under the military administration. Before long, together with the stabilization of local administration, the inclination towards absentee designation to those posts of governor-general of chun and prefectural governor, was generated, and the actual responsible persons for local administration were replaced by "ssu-ma (chu-che)" of chun and hsien. The reason why not only central influential clans but also particular local influencial clans entered into the official post of ssu-ma in several local government offices, I suppose, was because this post was not only the highest in rank for local officials, but also because a promotion course from ssu-ma of chun to the official post of ssu-ma in central government offices was created. Moreover, though we can hardly ascertain by historical materials, these conditions were assumed to be fundamentally similar to hsien, which had almost the same level of governmental organization. And to cope with the established noble lineage society in this Kingdom, they created, I presume, a certain promotion course to introduce local influential clans into the center, in order to pervade local management with the central government, as well as to build up a new noble lineage under the Ch'u King's family. In brief, from the study of the character of the chun-hsien system in the Kingdom of Kao-ch'ang, We may conclude that this Kingdom succeeded to a certain extent in its countermeasurs against influential clans through the execution of the unique chun-hsien system ; and this was one of</p><p>(View PDF for the rest of the abstract.)</p>