In the Tang period there was
chih (_??_) in the official system (_??__??__??_). (The word
chu-chih (_??__??_) means all kinds of
chih (_??_).)
Chih was a name of the people who had special technical abilities and worked at each government office The position-class of it was in accordance with
Liu-wai-kuan (_??__??__??_).
In the official system of our
RYO code (_??__??_), there was a post called
TOMOBE (_??__??_). This is a name of the people who belonged to a government office also with special technical abilities. Their position-class was ZONIN (_??__??_). There were _??__??__??_, _??__??__??_, _??__??_, _??__??__??_, _??__??__??_, etc. in the system of chih, and, in the system of TOMOBE there were _??__??__??_, _??__??__??_, _??__??__??_, _??__??__??_, _??__??__??_ etc. Those two are very similar to each other both in contents and in expression. The people of TOMOBE were engaged in all kinds of manufactures, but when they could not do alone, as they had the people called
ZOKO (_??__??_) and
SHINABE (_??__??_) under them, they used
ZOKO and SHINABE. This connection between TOMOBE and
ZOKO or SHINABE is very similar to that of
chu-chih and
tsa-hu(_??__??_) or
kuan-hu (_??__??_) in the Tang period. Comparing those matters described above, we can find that our system of
TOMOBE,
ZOKO and SHINABE in
RYO code had been transferred from the system of
chu-chih,
tsa-hu and
kuan-hu in a code of
Tang Dynasty.
Before the Reformation of the Taika era'
TOMO-NO-MIYATSUKO (_??__??_), a chief of
BE (_??_) which was a group of the people of special technical abilities, had serv-ed at the Imperial Household with the people of this group of BE. (
BE (_??_) was also called
SHINABE (_??__??_).) But at the time of the Reformation of the Taika it was abolished, and, as Chinese
RITSURYO code introduced from China was established in Japan,
TOMONO-MIYATSUKO came to be named
TOMOBE and newly started as
ZONIN in official system.
SHINABE came to belong to each office with the people of
ZOKO that system was also newly transferred from China. I think that the system of
TOMO-NO-MIYATSUKO and
SHINABE before the Reformation of the Taika era was not inherent in Japan but was influenced by the system of China. The reason of it is that
pu-ch'ü (_??__??_), an origin of our
BE, mainly came from the name of a supply section of people (the lowly), who belonged to a powerful clan of the
Wei (_??_)
Dynasty and the
Chin (_??_)
Dynasty, pu-ch'ü; and after that, a system of
Liu-wai-kuan was made in Northern
Wei (_??__??_);a system of
chu-chih which accorded with
Liu-wai-kuan was established in the
Zui (_??_) Dynasty and in the
Tang Dynasty ; and it is said that
kuan-hu and
tsa-hu which consisted of the people attached to each government office as exclusive laborers came to be recorded in history about a time of the
Chin Dyn asty, and those systems were established in the last days of
Zui Dynasty or at the time of the
Tang Dynasty ; then, comparing changes of the system of Japan with those of China, we can see that the system of
TOMO-NO-MIYATSUKO and
BE (
SHINABE) before the Reformation of the
Taika era were established under the effect of the system of the powerful clan and
pu-eh'ü in China.
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