<Articles>he Sen 宣 of the Nara Period

DOI HANDLE Web Site Open Access

Bibliographic Information

Other Title
  • <論説>奈良時代の宣
  • 奈良時代の宣
  • ナラ ジダイ ノ セン

Search this article

Description

This article is meant to discuss some characteristics of the sen (宣) which appeared in the historical sources of the Nara period. The sen is divided into three categories; "the sen of imperial orders", which were the manifestations of imperial intentions handed down through the hands of the nyokan (女官), (2) "the sen of decisions", which were the proclaimations of official settlements within administrative circles, and (3) "the sen of authority'", which were of a rather private character. Among these three categories, the second one was closely related to literal administration, sometimes taking the actual form of official documents. This was rather exceptional, because the administrative circles of the Japanese ritsuryo (律令) government, which hadn't originally had a system of written procedures, usually gave oral settlements to the petitions from the side of the sakan (主典). I also succeeded in reconstructing the communicative channels and the methods of the sen to some extent. In conclusion, the following points were made clear. First, the sen of the first category was probably disspatched by oral communication. Second, however, documents which substituted for the oral sen existed. Finally, these documents can be interpreted as the formal origins of the senji (宣旨) in the Heian period.

Journal

  • 史林

    史林 71 (4), 503-540, 1988-07-01

    THE SHIGAKU KENKYUKAI (The Society of Historical Research), Kyoto University

Keywords

Details 詳細情報について

Report a problem

Back to top