漢代における災異と政治 : 宰相の災異責任を中心に

抄録

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the significance of a political practice peculiar to the Han dynasty, the dismissal of the prime minister at the outbreak of natural disasters and extraordinary phenomena. The effectiveness and influence of the Tsai-i (災異) thought (ideas concerning natural disasters) on actual politics are also examined. The Tsai-i thought is considered to have been set up to check the sovereignty of the emperor. Essentially this paper addresses itself to the following three questions : (1)Why were prime ministers dismissed when it was the emperor alone who had to bear the final responsibility for natural disasters? (2)Why were prime ministers dismissed because of natural disasters from Yuan-ti (元帝) on in the Former Han dynasty (前漢) and, in the Later Han dynasty (後漢), from An-ti (安帝) on ? (3)For what reasons was the practice discontinued by the Wei dynasty (魏)? Through the elucidation of the three points mentioned above, it is shown that such natural disaster thought, once applied to the world of actual politics, gradually became removed from its original aim and was used as a theory to justify the deposition of political opponents in the power struggles among the lieges and, finally, even to justify their moneymaking. It is concluded that the Tsai-i thought had hardly any practical effect on the checking of the sovereignty of the emperor.