This paper was prepared as part of an effort to understand the changes of the power structure during the Han dynasty. I think it will be possible to find the structural principles of the Han state from the relationship between the Imperial power and t...
This paper was prepared as part of an effort to understand the changes of the power structure during the Han dynasty. I think it will be possible to find the structural principles of the Han state from the relationship between the Imperial power and the Mu-fu, because the Mu-fu had sometimes participated in Imperial power as a part and occasionally as an opposition. Hence, the character of the state was changed. Until now few scholars have been concerned about the Mu-fu, so it has scarcely been researched. Therefore, in this paper, I tried to gain some basic information about the historical meaning and function of the Mu-fu. The findings about the Mu-fu in the Han dynasty, found in such historical records as 'Shi-chi'(史記), ?Han-su'(漢書), ?Hou-han-su'(後漢書), ?San-kuo-chi'(三國志), and so on, are as follows:
(1) The Mu-fu fundamentally means an assistant means supporting the military activities of the Chiang-chun(將軍; general). That is to say, it was an administrative office which had taken charge of such affairs as application of the martial law or the military command, supplying provisions, and appointing officers. (2) The second function of the Mu-fu was that of participant in the second role of the Chiang-chun, namely assistance to the throne. So it was a political organization that framed the state policies and offered political ideas to the Ching-chun. (3) The third responsibility of the Mu-fu was the election of the bureaucracies. The Mu-fu of the Chiang-chun in the Han employed a special system, recommending the governmental bureaucracies to the Emperor. (4) The fourth function of the Mu-fu was that of central power machinery of the independent government established by the Ching-chun. In this case, the Chiang-chun was one member of the bureaucracy in theory, but an independent power in fact.
Through understanding those meanings and functions of the Mu-fu, we can measure the differences between the Imperial power and the power of the Chiang-chun-mu-fu(將軍幕府). Especially through seizing the developmental steps of those functions and meanings, we can understand the change of course in the power structure. The first function of the Mu-fu was originated in the anti-Ch'in(秦) period, the second function in the pose-Han-Wu-ti(漢武帝)period, the third in the early Later Han (後漢) dynasty, the fourth in the end of the Later Han dynasty. These developmental steps show us that the self-regulative power of the Mu-fu had been strengthened. On the other hand, the unificative power of the Han state had been disrupted according to the conditions of the time. In conclusion, the Mu-fu in the Han dynasty was a contradictory being that had been a part of the state power-and concurrently disrupted it.