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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.
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