Research About The Imperial Edicts Of Han Dynasty

Imperial edicts mainly refer to the "King’s words", including some official commands or speeches to notice the public which is a compelling document promulgated by a country. Imperial edicts were regarded as a kind of unique practical style highlighting its important position among the ancient styles in essays or literary works such as "Du Duan", "Wen Xin Diao Long", "Zhao Ming Anthology", "Wen Zhang Yuan Qi", etc, and the Han Dynasty imperial edicts were hailed as a model of the style. The studies about the style is still in the scattered state, and there has not been a systematic research monograph yet. So this thesis carries out various researches on the generation process, category, type, development and evolution, and its practical effect in the political culture around the Han Dynasty imperial edicts, in order to clarify the names and meanings of the style in Han Dynasty, and grasp the function and the characteristics of the times more effectively. The whole text is divided into six chapters:The first chapter is about imperial edicts formation under the perspective of stylistics. It is respectively reviewed from the diachronic and synchronic dimensions to provide a necessary background to promote the study further by combing the entire system of the style. From the diachronic point of view, the command structure has experienced a long process of development from oral to written order, laying a foundation for the formal establishment in the imperial edicts system. As a carrier that the emperor issue orders, the imperial edicts’ name also experienced a process from fuzzy to accurate and from simple to dense in the evolution and development. Under the synchronic perspective, as the emperor’s role must change according to the different occasions, it results in a pluralistic phenomenon of the imperial edicts’ functional diversity. The literary features of the imperial edicts in Han Dynasty showed a meteorological grand, elegant dictions, and emotion and reason united.The second chapter considers Ceshu in Han Dynasty. By the writing style of view, the Han Dynasty Ceshu can be divided into three types for canonization, recalling and condolence. Ceshu is a product of Han Dynasty Confucianism political process. It developed and perfected gradually with the in-depth of Confucianism political interference. It is worth mentioning that "Ce" style has other functions as Cegao and Cewen besides Ceshu under the imperial edict category. It can be said that the diversification of Ceshu function is not only the result of the development to meet practical needs, but also a reflection of many inductions and summary reviews.The third chapter concentrates on Zhishu in Han Dynasty. The written form of Zhishu is mainly "Zhizhao" style. The beginning of the writing is usually called "Zhizhao Censor" or "Zhizhao Three Ducal Ministers". The word "Zhizhao" or "Zhi" must be top grid writing in the format to prominent the authority of imperial edicts with a significant position. Zhishu is often used as "system command"; on the other hand, it also has the function of personnel appointment and removal; in addition, the promulgation of Zhishu needs to face the problem of "jiaozhi". And this chapter is to inspect Zhishu’s development and evolution in two ways of system and style.The fourth chapter is written about imperial rescript in Han Dynasty. It can be divided into three types which are "To some officer" style, "Zhiyue" style and "Yizourushu" style according to "Duduan" by Caiyong. All the commands except "system command" belong to the category of imperial rescript in terms of their usage, and " Declaring to the whole world" indicate that the imperial rescript can be issued in a quite wide range. In this way it become an important part of its function that the imperial rescript are issued to officials at all levels. The law relating to the imperial rescript is a powerful guarantee for its smooth operation. With the evolution of the political system, the working procedure of the imperial rescript also makes corresponding adjustment; at the same time, its style has evolved too, and even some new styles’ names have the same functions with the imperaial rescript which therefore become variant forms of the latter.The fifth chapter focuses on Jiechi in Han Dynasty. The written form of Jiechi can be divided into two types which can be called general Jiechi and specific Jiechi according to different objects. The former mainly refers to the "Jiechi state department", and the latter is aimed at individual objects. Jiechi in Han Dynasty is mainly used to advocate moral education and manage mandarins with the accountability. In addition, it is also used for the deployment of military. "Jie" and "Chi" change into two styles in the development process: "Chi" gradually standardizes, and then becomes emperor exclusive style; on the other hand, "Jie" generalizes a caution style for the widespread usage.The sixth chapter thoroughly discusses the imperial edict and political culture. Comparing with the written institutionalization and stylization that the imperial edict already had, and essential laws and regulations as a guarantee, it is the result of many realistic factors jointed which includes the specific implementation and propulsion of imperial edicts in the political and cultural environment, and its follow-up influence. This chapter selects four types of imperial edicts for amnesty, criticizing oneself, accountability to mandarins, and soliciting talents. The purpose is to get a glimpse of their realistic effect under the political and cultural background in Han Dynasty with a discussion about the enactment of the imperial edicts.