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An Administrative Cycle in Chinese History: The Case of Northern Sung Emperors

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

James T. C. Liu
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This study starts with three assumptions. First, inasmuch as the concept “absolutism” which is often used in writing about premodern Chinese history needs clarification, it will be helpful to study imperial power at the level of actual administrative operations. Second, within the framework of general political and ideological institutions, administrative operations have dynamics of their own. Finally, a new understanding of these dynamics as a contributing factor will add to our knowledge of the working of the dynastic cycle in Chinese history.

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The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 21 , Issue 2 , February 1962 , pp. 137 - 152
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Copyright © Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1962

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References

1 The author appreciates suggestions on Chinese history from fellow participants at the Laconia, N. H., summer (1959) conference on political power in traditional China, sponsored by the East Asian Research Center, Harvard University. He also wishes to thank Dr. Judith N. Shklar, special consultant on European political theories at the same conference, and Dr. James Thompson and his colleagues, Administrative Science Center, University of Pittsburgh, for advice on problems relating to public administration.

Abbreviations used in footnotes:

CCTI = Chao Ju-yü comp., Sung chu-ch'en tsou-ij (A Classified Collection of Select Memorials by Northern Sung Officials). Ming edition.

CPPM = Yang Chung-liang, T'ng-chien ch'ang-pien chi-shih pen-mok (A Topical Summary of the HCP), 1893.

HCP = Li T'ao, Hsü tzu-chih-t´ung-chien ch'ang-pienl (A Collection of Materials for an Annalistic History of the Northern Sung), 1881.

SHY = Sung hui-yao chi-kaom (Collected Draft on Government Institutions of the Sung Dynasty), original ed. 1936; reprint, 1957.

SJIS = Ting Ch'uan-ching, comp., Sung-jen i-shih hui-pienn (An anthology of the anecdotes of the famous Sung people), 1936.

SL = Wang Fu-chih, Sung luno (Comments on the Sung), SPTK ed.

SPLC = P'an Yung-yin comp., Sung pat lei-ch'aop (A topical anthology of Sung anecdotes), 1669.

SPPY = Ssu-pu pei-yaoq ed.

SPTK = Ssu-pu ts'ung-k'anr ed.

SS = Sung shih (The dynastic history of the Sung).

SWC = Lü Tsu-ch'ien comp., Sung wen Mens (Models of Sung essays), SPPY ed.

TTSL = Ch'ien Ju-shui and others comp., T'ai-tsung huang-ti shih-lut (The Veritable Record of the Emperor T'ai-tsung), SPTK ed.

TSCC = Ts'ung-shu chi-ch'engu ed.

WYWK = Wan-yu wen-k'uv ed.

2 Wittfogel, Karl A., Oriental Despotism: A Comparative Study of Total Power (New Haven, 1957), pp. 106–107Google Scholar. For a critical review, see Needham, Joseph, in Science and Society, 23 (1959), 1: 61–65Google Scholar, relevant to the point here.

3 Yü-ch'üan, Wang, “An Outline Of the Central Government of the Former Han Dynasty,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 12 (1949), 181.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4 Kracke, E. A. Jr., Civil Service in Early Sung China, 960–1067 (Cambridge, 1953), pp. 3 and 29.Google Scholar

5 On the relationship between the emperor's power and the officials' power, cf. Levenson, Joseph R., “The Suggestiveness of Vestiges: Confucianism and Monarchy at the Last,” Confucianism in Action, ed. Nivison, David S. and Wright, Arthur F., (Stanford, 1959). pp. 253–259.Google Scholar

6 Kracke, , Civil Service, p. 28.Google Scholar

7 Kracke, , Civil Service, pp. 24–26Google Scholar. devotes a section to the disposition of the emperors; Wittfogel, Oriental Despotism, p. 107, also agrees that the personality of the ruler as well as that of his aides are significant factors.

8 Kracke, E. A. Jr., “Sung Society: Change Within Tradition,” Far Eastern Quarterly, 14 (1955), 479–488CrossRefGoogle Scholar; entry on the Northern Sung by Yoshimi, Matsumoto in Sekai rekishi jiten (1951–54), p. 251Google Scholar; David S. Nivison, “Introduction,” Confucianism in Action, pp. 4–24.

9 Ch'ung-ch'i, Nich, “Discussion of Sung T'ai-tsu's Resumption of Military Authority,” Yen-ching hsüeh-pao, 34 (1948), 85–106.Google Scholar

10 Kracke, Civil Service, pp. 38–39. Exceptions were made only in times of emergency, either to coordinate military affairs with or to place them under general administration, cf. HCP, 126:9, 126:24, 137:5. 137:13, and 157:8.

11 Kracke, Civil Service, pp. 27–28. Po, Ch'en, “Explanatory Notes on the Sung Bureaucracy,” Wen-shih tsa-chih, 1.11 (1942), 25–30.Google Scholar

12 Tomi, Saeki, “On Huang-ch'eng-ssu or the Imperial Court Police Service,” Tōhō gakuhō, 9 (Kyoto, 1938), 158–196Google Scholar; Liu, James T. C., Reform in Sung China: Wang An-shih (1021–1086) and His New Policies (1959), p. 90Google Scholar; SPLC, 1:62: CCTI, 8:30, memorial of Chiang Kung-wang in 1101, complaining that each of the seventy intelligence officers in the capital had ten agents and each agent probably had ten informants.

13 SL, 1:7–8.

14 CCTI, 47:27, memorial of Fan Chen in 1055; SWC, 42:12–13, essay by Hsieh Mi; Pao Cheng, Pao-kung tsou-i (Yüeh-ya-t'ang ts'ung-shu ed.). 1:10–11; HCP, 166:18, 181:9; and 193:1; Mu, Ch'ien. “A discussion of the power of chief councilors of state during the Sung,” Chung-kuo wen-hua yen-chiu hui-k'an, 2 (1942), 145–150Google Scholar. The prohibition was gradually relaxed. By the time of Wang An-shih, he reversed the situation by receiving guests to discuss various matters and by refusing social calls on the holidays, see Meng-te, Yeh, Shih-lin yen-yü (Pai-hai, Ming, ed.), 6:11–12.Google Scholar

15 HCP, 193:1.

16 Ichisada, Miyazaki, “The chou-hsien System Under the Sung Dynasty,” Shirin, 36 (1953), 2:101–127.Google Scholar

17 CCTI, 3:18–19, memorial of Tseng Chao in 1088.

18 SL, 1:5; SPLC, 3:9.

19 SL, 1:23: CCTI, 12:2, memorial of P'ang Chi in 1033; CCTT, 3:1–13, memorial of Lü Kung-chu in 1085; Chao I, Nien-erh-shih cha-chi (Shih-chieh Shu-chü ed., 1936), 25:330–334.

20 Kracke, Civil Service, p. 197.

21 CCTI, chüan 11, passim.

22 CCTI, chüan 28–31, passim; see note 55 below.

23 SS, chüan 312.

24 Cf. CCTI, 3:18; memorial of Tseng Chao in 1088.

25 Foreign invasions led to the intensive loyalty expressed in Sung folk plays and later adopted by many Ming vernacular novels. There might be an additional point: the authors of these Ming novels, possibly identifying themselves consciously or subconsciously with the Sung scholar-officials who had been well treated by the Court, were particularly sympathetic toward the Sung.

26 This is almost an exact translation, save for the proper names here omitted, of a memorial in Yeh Shih, Shui hsin chi (SPPY ed.), 1:7. Literati who joined the Hsi Hsia invaders or the Chin conquerors seem to be relatively few, see SPLC, 2:76 and Wang Ming-ch'ing, Hui-chu-lu yü-hua (SPTK ed.), 2:26, SJIS, 20:1013.

27 The writer has used the same approach in “Eleventh Century Chinese Bureaucrats: Some Historical Classifications and Behavioral Types,” Administrative Science Quarterly, 4.2 (1959) 2:207–226.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

28 Liu, James T. C., “An Early Sung Reformer: Fan Chung-yen,” Chinese Thought and Institutions, ed. Fairbank, John K. (1957), pp. 122–125.Google Scholar

29 For female rulers as regents not discussed here, there is an unpublished article by Professor L. S. Yang of Harvard University, read at the 1959 summer conference.

80 Fan-kang, Tseng, “The Influence of Legalism on the Premier System in the Ch'in and Han Dynasties,” She-hui k'e-hsüeh lun-ts'ung, 7 (Taipeh, 1956), 33–55.Google Scholar

81 Kracke, Civil Service, pp. 29 and 34–37. Originally, the censors with jurisdictions limited to impeachment of individual officials were not permitted to criticize policies. During the middle of the Northern Sung, the distinction between the functions of the policy-criticism officials and those of the censors began to disappear. See Nieh Ch'ung-ch'i, “Chung-kuo chien-ch'a chih-tu chih yen-pien,” I-shih pao (daily, Tientsin), October 14, 1947.

32 Kracke, Civil Service, pp. 24–26. and SJIS, 4:113.

33 SJIS, 1:8.

34 Ma Yung-ch'ing, Yuan-ch'eng yü-lu (vol. 601 in TSCC), 1:13.

35 TTSL, 26:3, 31:2, 33:3, 34:7, and 80:6.

38 SL, 2:3–5; SS, chüan 4 and 256.

37 TTSL, 42:6, 76:11, and 78:3, SJIS, 5:176–177, 179 and 181.

38 TTSL, 78:10.

39 TTSL, 44:2–3; SJIS, 4:113.

40 TTSL, 24:7–8 and 28:3; HCP, 25:5 and 26:2; CPPM, 14:4–6.

41 TTSL, 33:5–6.

42 CPPM, 21:3–5; Kracke, Civil Service, pp. 28–29. note 2.

43 Wang Ming-ching, Hui-chu hou-lu (SPTK ed.), 1:10.

44 CCTI, 8:4, memorial of Wen Yen-po in 1049; the exact words also appear in CCTI, 1:10, memorial of Ssu-ma Kuang in 1060. See also CCTI, chüan 12, passim.

45 CCTI, 1:1–3, Memorial of Ssu-ma Kuang in 1061; 2:12–18 Memorial of Ch'en Hsiang in 1069; 3:13–14, Memorial of Wang Yen-sou in 1085; 3:17–24, Memorial of Tseng Chao in 1088; and 4:2–6, Memorial of Liang T'ao in 1095.

46 Han-fei-tzu chi-chieh (WYWK ed.), 1:8 and 2:7; W. K. Liao tr., The Complete Works of Han Fei Tzu (1939), 1:32 and 1:150 respectively; Kuan-tzu (SPPY ed.), 10:14 which has one of the clearest statements on the division of jurisdiction and responsibilities between the sovereign and his ministers; Hsün-tzu (SPPY ed.), 7:3–12.

47 Kracke, Civil Service, pp. 29–30.

48 Ibid., 26.

49 Liu, “Fan Chung-yen,” 122–125. Lü I-chien was an astute conservative or conformist and probably a better man than the description given in SS, chüan 311. For his long tenure, see Chao I, Nien-erh-shih cha-chi, 26:345–348 and Wang Ming ch'ing, Hui-chu chien-lu (SPTK ed.), 2:6. For the absence of long tenure after Lüi's retirement, see CCTI, 46:14–18, memorial of Ho T'an in 1050.

50 Liu, Reform, pp. 25–27.

51 CCTI, 3:9, memorial of Lü Kung-chu in 1085; 8:2–4, that of Wen Yen-po in 1049; and chüan, 13–17 passim; SWC, 93:1–7, three essays by Hsü Hsüan, 97:3–5, essay by Su Hsün; Pao Cheng, Pao-kung tsou-i, 1:13–14; Chang Ju-yü, Shan-t'ang k'ao-so pieh-chi (1518 ed.), 18:4–8; Kracke, Civil Service, pp. 26 and 29, note 5; Liu, “Fan Chung-yen,” p. 123.

52 CCTI, chüan 23, passim; HCP, 129:1 and 188:8. Courageous drafting officials since Fu Pi objected to unjustifiable favors by refusing to draft the necessary decrees, see HCP 133:12 and Wang Ming-ch'ing, Hui-chu hou-lu, 2:30.

53 SL, 4:12–13, 4:15, and 4:17; Yeh Shih, Hsi-hsüeh chi-yen (1885 ed.), 47:15–17; HCP, 163:13, 184:3, 191:15, 192:3–4, 194:2–3, 194:4–5; Ichisada, Miyazaki, “The Morals of the Literary Class in the Sung Period,” Shigaku zasshi, 62 (1953), 152–153.Google Scholar

54 HCP, 107:12, 108:3, 109:10; CCPM, 37:1–20 and 55:1–16; Chang Ju-yū, Shan-t'ang-k'ao-so piehchi, 18:8.

55 CPPM, 54:1–4 and 55:1–6; Yeh Meng-te, Pi-shu lu-hua (TSCC ed.), 2:19; Yeh Shin, Shui hsin chi, 5:3.

56 Ma Yung-ch'ing, Yūan-ch'eng yü-lu, 1:9; Chang Shun-min, Chou-man-lu (Pai-hai, Ming ed.), 1:15.

57 Lu T'ien, T'ao-shan-chi (TSCC ed.), 11:117–119; cf. Liu, Reform, pp. 38, 52, 57, 62, and 91–92.

58 Liu, Reform, pp. 85–97.

59 A prophetic memorial of Fan Ch'un-jen in 1069 is found in CCTI, 2:11. See also Ma Yung-ch'ing, Yuan-ch'eng yü-lu, 1:3–4; SL, 4:4; Liu, Reform, pp. 75–79.

60 Liu, Reform, pp. 9–10.

61 Wang Ming-ch'ing, Hui-chu hou-lu, 2:30–31.

62 Cf. SL, 2:15.

63 For the nature of Ts'ai Ching's long tenure of office, see SL, 8:8.

64 Ichisada, Miyazaki, “Student Life Under the Sung Dynasty,” Shirin, 16 (1931), 97–105 and 625–651.Google Scholar

65 SPLC, 8:93; Ichisada, Miyazaki, “The Morals of the Literary Class in the Sung Period,” Shigaku zasshi, 62 (1953), 139–169.Google Scholar

66 Analects, “Tzu-lu,” 15.

67 See notes 45 and 51 above.

68 CCTI, 6:2–4, memorial of Wen yen-po in 1087; 4:15, memorial of Ch'en Tz'u-sheng in 1101.

69 CCTI, 20:7–8, memorial of Sun Mien in 1035; cf. Lien-sheng, Yang, “Schedule of Work and Rest in Imperial China,” Harvard Journal of Asian Studies, 18 (1955), 3–4:301–325.Google Scholar

70 SHY, Chih-kuan section 1, 58:2340.

71 CCTI, 8:14, memorial of Ssu-ma Kuang in 1069.

72 CCTI, 8:1, 8:5 and 8:8, memorials of Chang Kuan in 991, Fan Chen in 1056, and Ssu-ma Kuang in 1067 respectively.

78 CCTI, 8:23, memorial of Ssu-ma Kuang in 1067.

79 HCP, 189:14–16.

75 HCP, 208:5 SHY, Chih-kuan section 1, 58:2338.

76 HCP, 236:7–8.

77 CCTI, 19:13, memorial of Tseng Chao in 1100.

78 CCTI, 18:18, and 19:5, two memorials of Ssu-ma Kuang in 1068 and 1085 respectively; SHY, Chih-kuan section 1, 58:2239.

70 HCP, 108:3.

80 HCP, 113:13.

81 HCP, 114:3; CPPM, 29:1–2 and 53:1–9.

82 CPPM, 92:1–2.

83 Ch'eng I, Erh Ch'eng wen-chi (TSCC ed.), 5:67–80; also found in CCTI, 50:8–30 submitted in 1086. For criticism of his haughty attitude, see SPLC 3:54 and Liu Pan, Feng-ch'eng chi (Wu-ying-tien chu-chcn-pan ch'üan-shu), 24:12.

84 CCTI, 50:2–3, memorial of Ssu-ma Kuang in 1063.

85 CCTI, 46:3–4, memorial of Tu Yen in 1035; 46:12–13, memorial of Chang Fang-p'ing in 1045.

86 CCTI, 14:21, memorial of Sun Chüeh in 1068.

87 CCTI, 8:26, memorial of Su Shih in 1083; also in his Ching-chin Tung-p'o Wen-chih shih-lüeh (1957). 32:56–61; see also Su Ch'e, Luan-ch'eng chi (SPTK ed.), 39:8–10.

88 See note 86 above.

89 CCTI, 17:5, memorial of Ts'ai T'ao in 1096.

90 HCP, 3:2, 107:12, and 108:3.

91 HCP, 109:10

92 A paper by Professor Kung-ch'üan Hsiao read at the 1959 summer conference.

93 SL, 2:14; 8:20–21, memorial of Ssu-ma Kuang in 1069.

94 A recent hypothesis in the field of public administration suggests that competitive multiple channels of information, though often conflicting and confusing, may actually achieve some degree of what Max Weber terms substantive rationality in helping flexible control and selective enforcement; consult Andrew Gunder Frank, “Conflicting standards and selective enforcement,” a paper on the operation of the Soviet industrial system, read at the September 1959 meeting of the American Sociological Society; also John Leddey Phelan (University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee), “Authority and Flexibility in the Spanish Imperial Bureaucracy,” (draft mss.).

95 CCTI, 51:23–25, 52:9–10, and 55:10–12, memorials of Ma Tsun in 1056, Lü Hui in 1065, and Su Ch'e in 1090 respectively

96 Ou-yang Hsiu, Ou-yang Yung-shu chi (WYWK ed.), 3:25.

97 CCTI, chüan, 18–19, passim.

98 CCTI, 8:11–12, memorial of Ssu-ma Kuang in 1069.

99 CCTI, 18:7, memorial of Su Shun-ch'in in 1036.

100 HCP, 126:12 and 126:25.

101 CCTI, 18:13, memorial of Sun Pien in 1055.

102 HCP, 163:19; CCTI, 18:14–15 and 18:16–17, memorials of Lü Hui in 1064 and Ssu-ma Kuang in 1067 respectively.

103 CCTI, 19:17–18 and 19:25–26, memorials of Tsou Hao in 1101 and Ch'en Kung-fu in 1126 respectively.

104 SL, 4:4; CCTI, 3:15, memorial of Wang Yen-sou in 1085.

105 CCTI, 24:13, memorial of Su Ch'e in 1085.

106 HCP, 118:9–10.

107 HCP, 124:6.

108 CCTI, 18:6–9, memorial of Su Shun-ch'in in 1036; HCP, 126:12.

109 HCP, 166:1.

110 CCTI, 18:30–32, memorial of Ssu-ma Kuang in 1068.

111 CCTI, 19:8–10, memorial of Chu Kuang-t'ing in 1068.

112 CCTI, 15:16–17, memorial of Sun Chüeh in 1069: HCP, 253:9.

113 CCTI, 19:13, memorial of Fan Ch'un-jen in 1085.

114 CCTI, 21:5–7, memorial of Ssu-ma Kuang in 1068.

115 CCTI, 21:18–19, memorial of Tsou Hao in 1100.

116 CCTI, chüan 16, passim.

117 CCTI, 16:11–13, memorial of Fan Po-lu in 1090.

118 For the case of Chen-tsung, see Kracke, Civil Service, p. 25; case of Jen-tsung, see ibid., 5:15–16; HCP, 182:1–2; 189:14–16 and 191:3. For the case of Yin-tsung, see HCP, 198:5–6 and 198:22.

119 CCTI, 47:13, memorial of Ssu-ma Kuang in 1086.

120 HCP, 112:16, 120:4–5; CCTI, 46:13–14, memorial of Chang Fan-p'ing in 1045.

121 HCP, 160:13

122 SHY, Chih-kuan section 1, 58:2345.

123 SHY, Chih-kuan section 1, 58:2338, 58:2341; HCP, 214:29, and 215:1.

124 CCTI, 47:10, memorial of Shang-kuan Chün in 1086.

125 SHY, Chih-kuan section 1, 58:2343; Su Ch'e, Luan-ch'eng chi, 37:6–9; CCTI, 47:13, memorial of Ssu-ma Kuang in 1086.

128 Tseng Pu, Tseng-kung i-lu (Ou-hsiang ling-shih collection, chüan, 22–24), 979.

127 HCP, 144:8–9.

128 SL, 4:8.

129 SL, 4:13 and 4:26; CCT1, 46:14–18, memorial of Ho T'an in 1050; 14:12–13, memorial of Fu Pi in 1067.

130 Liu, Reform, pp. 40–44.and 52–53.

131 SL, 9:2, Miyazaki's article cited in note 53 above.

132 CCTI, 2:10–12, memorial of Fan Po-lu in 1069; SL, 4:4; Liu, Reform, pp. 114–116.

133 professor E. A. Kracke has an unpublished article also read at the 1959 summer conference.