The Seat-Orders and 'The Emperor's Facing West' in the Records of Ancient China

Abstract

In this paper I studied the seat-orders in the records of ancient China and then thought about the meaning of the emperor's facing west. Finally I came to a conclusion as follows. 1.The seat facing south or north between the sovereign and his subject (in this occasion the sovereign usually takes north seats) is a symbol of absolute relation of domination-obedience. No one but the sovereign can hardly take a seat facing south. Therefore, when the someone takes a seat facing south, it means that there is a relation of the ruler and the ruled among the present company at the meeting. 2.At the private meeting, there exists fundamentally different seat-order, that is, facing east and west. The meaning is clearly different from the above one. This occurs between host and guest, among families or teacher and pupil. The seats facing west are for hosts, the youngers, and pupils, who are inferior in the company. Then, the seats facing east are for guests, the olders and teachers, who stand higher. In the case of taking all-side seats, the order stands from facing east, south, north, and west. 3.Through understanding the difference between facing south or north and facing east or west, I thought over the emperor's power during and after the Han dynasty. Thus, I could find that the emperor, who is thought to give priority to the relation of domination-obedience in every respect, in fact, did not always take the seat facing south. When he was with the empress dowager 皇太后, the Supreme Lords 上公 (the grand tutor 太師・the senior tutor 太傅・the junior tutor 太保), the San-lao 三老 or the Wu-keng 五更 (titles given to elders who were honored by the emperor), he did not seat facing south. i)The empress dowager was never treated as a subject, not only at a private meeting but also at an official meeting (at least in 'Lin-chao-cheng-chih' 「臨朝称制」), and she could meet the emperor, sitting facing east. ii)The Supreme Lords, the council of the emperor, were in the post of Pu-chen-chin-li 不臣之礼 in the Later Han Dynasty. iii)The San-lao and the Wu-keng were treated with respect, given seats facing east or south, for the emperor had to teach people the order of the young and the old by Yang-lao-li 養老礼. When there was a strong relation of teacher and pupil, the San-Lao took a seat facing south, while the emperor took a seat facing north as a pupil. In this way, while the emperor was ruling he took a seat facing south as a symbol of power, and when he treated some subjects with respect, he took a lower-rank seat for himself. So, in such a case there was no domination-obedience relation between the emperor and his subjects. In other words, it is understood that the emperor recognized them as 'not subject' 「不臣」. The supreme Lords, the San-lao, and the Wu-keng were not the rank which threatened the emperor's position, but by making such a system, the dynasty seems to have dealt successfully with both domestic and foreign policy without falling into logical dilemma, which happened in following crises ; the change of dynasties, the invasion of different neighbour races and so on.