<Previous Section>
<Next Section>

Appendix I. An Official's Charter

When important officials or nobles were appointed, they were given a charter; cf. n. 5.7. The Han-chiu-yi (by Wei Hung, fl. 25-57) A: 12a, contains such a charter, which shows that these charters consisted of admonitions by the ruler to the appointee:

"A [certain] charter for a Grandee who was newly installed says,

" `Verily, in [the year-period] Wu-feng, the third year, the first month, on [the day] yi-szu [Feb. 19, 55 B.C.], the Grandee Secretary took office and the Emperor invited him to mount [the steps to the throne] and in person gave him an imperial edict, which said,

" ` "Let the Grandee Secretary approach, empty himself [of his notions], and receive Our words. We are ignorant of the Great Way, [yet We] have had the opportunity to protect the [imperial] ancestral temples, [so that We are] very fearful and humble. Day and night [We] think of [Our] own faults without taking leisure, joy, or repose. During the day We think that the people have not yet been able to be tranquil. Alas! Let the Grandee Secretary apply himself with all his mind and do his best in supplying Our deficiencies. Alas! Let the nine high ministers, the grandees, and all the officials be careful. If you are not earnest in your duty, there is the regular law. Go and apply yourself with all your mind in harmonizing, enriching, and opening [the way for] capable persons, enabling the capable to have the means of returning to their proper places [in the bureaucracy, and so of] directing the people. Do not keep silence before Our Self. The multitude [of people] in the world receive commands from Us and consider the law as [determining] their fates. [Then] can you fail to be careful? Alas! O Grandee Secretary, be warned." ' "

The list of officials in HS ch. 19 B does not give any appointment on the date in this document, and from the dates in that chapter it does not seem at all likely that this date is correct ibid. p. 23a however lists the appointment of Wang Yen-kuang in the third year of T'ai-ch'u, the first month. According to this suggestion, the year and month are correct, and yi-szu is a mistake for chi-szu (a common error). Then the date is Feb. 18, 102 B.C. The phrasing may well be that of Emperor Wu.

<Previous Section>
<Next Section>
IATHPublished by The Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities, © Copyright 2003 by Anne Kinney and the University of Virginia