In April 1988 a stele dating from the Shilla Kingdom was found in Pongp'yeong-ri, Chukpyeon-myeon, Uljin-gun, Kyeongsang-bukto Province 慶尚北道 蔚珍郡 竹辺面 鳳坪里, Republic of Korea. It is the Shilla Kingdom's earliest stone monument, built in 524 under the reign of King Peopheung-wang 法興王 (514-540). The findings from the primary research made by the members of the Cultural Properties Committee were reported in several newspapers, and number of research studies have already been published. On the basis of these reports the author offers a new interpretation of the inscription in order to further the study of its contents, its purpose, and its contribution to the historical understanding of Shilla. The inscription has 399 characters, and according to the author's opinion, it consists of the following four parts : i.King Peopheung issued an order to thirteen high officials. ii.The king ordered the inhabitants of two villages named Keobeol-mura (居伐牟羅) and Nammiji-ch'on (男弥只村), who had been formerly subjects of the Koguryeo (高句麗) Kingdom and were called Pon-noin (本奴人), to keep the main roads in repair around Uljin in conformity with a previous order. The king also made an on-site inspection for himself. iii.The names of government officials and eight heads of four villages who were flogged for violating of the king's orders about participating in sacrificing cattle to heaven. The names of the stele-builders are then listed. iv.The two heads of Keobeol-mura, attended by their 398 villagers, swore an oath in the name of heaven that they should obey the king's orders. Uljin, where the stele stands today, was located on Shilla's northern border, which was a special militarized zone liberated from Koguryeo's control and thus strengthening Shilla's own political rule. The inscription tells us how Shilla controlled and managed this zone in the year 524. There is also the importance of the stele in throwing light on the history of Shilla legal institutions. i.It has proved that corporal punishment by flogging was carried on at that time. ii.The law called Noin-beop (奴人法), which is regarded as a set of regulations for dealing with Koguryeo people newly subjugated by Shilla, gives us some clues to the origin of Shilla's laws and the historical background of the kingdom's social status system. iii.In addition to the king's orders and sanctions the inscription tells of sacrificial rites for worshipping heaven and of swearing in the name of heaven. These magical rites cannot be ignored in searching for the primitive norms underlying Shilla's legal system. The inscription is also a valuable source in studying Shilla's folkways. Moreover, it should be interpreted in the context of the long-standing political, social and cultural relations between Shilla and Koguryeo.

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There has been a lot of research lately on the fiscal affairs under the Ritsuryo 律令 system. With respect to institutions concerning the salaries given to government officials, only the allocation of various taxes levied on commoner households (fuko 封戸), the ranked status allotments (iroku 位禄) and the seasonal allotments (kiroku 季禄) have thus far been covered. Concerning sechiroku 節禄, or those items allotted on the occasion of seasonal court banquets (sechie 節会) there has been no serious study made until now. In the Okurashiki 大蔵式 of the Engishiki 延喜式 ordinances dealing with fiscal affairs, there is a section which codifies various sechiroku allotments. Both the type and quantity of items to be bestowed at banquets are clearly determined according to the court rank of government officials. Sechiroku can be seen here not only as some special allotment, but possibly as an institutionalized salary payment. The present paper takes up the issues of when sechiroku was established as a salary for the officials under the Engi ordinances and its overall significance, by examining the six court chronicles of Japan and ceremonial handbooks. While the origins of sechiroku are not completely clear, it seems that in the late seventh century the bestowal of gifts at court banquets began to take on a political meaning. We do observe the bestowal of items by the Tenno at banquets throughout the Nara 奈良 period. As seen in the Miscellaneous Statutes (Zoryo 雑令), however, these gifts are indeed unscheduled and subject to the personal whims of the Tenno himself. On these occasions the main items were garments, especially the Tenno's quilts believed to embody his magical powers. This suggests, therefore, the Tenno bestowed these gifts for the purpose of solidifying personal political relations with various high officials and thereby gaining control over the bureaucracy in a non-Ritsuryo, superstitious manner. In the Konin and Kanmu courts (770-806) we do see an increase in and greater regularization of sechiroku bestowals ; but they still were not completely institutionalized. Throughout the Heizei court regime (806-809) many sechie banquets were either postponed or cancelled due to fiscal difficulties ; on the other hand, we also observe a sudden increase in unscheduled banquets, an indispensable part of which was the bestowal of gifts by the Tenno. We can surmise that these gifts became important in an economic sense to government officials who were facing hard times due to fiscal curtailments. During the Saga court regime (809-823) sechiroku allotments were institutionalized in the Dairishiki 内裏式 ordinances concerning the court events, thus taking on the same economic significance as the gifts in banquets during the Heizei court regime. While iroku and kiroku allotments came to be no longer paid to the officials as salaries at the central level in the mid ninth century, sechiroku continued to be paid regularly in the form of a salary. Therefore, sechiroku became more important as an official salary than either iroku or kiroku allotments. The establishment of the code for sechiroku, first of all, did away with the bestowal of garments which dominated the banquet gifts during the Nara period. Only at the sechie held on new year's day did the bestowal of the quilts remain as a symbolic ceremony, thus indicating a virtual end to the need for the Tenno's magical bond with the bureaucracy. Secondly, from the fact that salaries were now paid only to the participants in the sechie banquets, we can see that a new order of the bureaucracy called jijiju 次侍従 came to be economically established. Though sechiroku payments were discontinued in the mid tenth century, they were revived during the Sekkan 摂関 period. While their economic importance waned during the Insei 院政 period, the sechiroku institution survived into the Nanbokucho 南北朝 and Muromachi 室町 periods.

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Dans cet article, nous examinons les particularites de la milice royale et les rapports entre cette institution militaire novelle et la societe d'Ancien Regime. Etablie par l'ordonnance du 29 novembre 1688 pour augmenter les effectifs de l'armee et mettre un terme aux abus des "troupes reglees" qui constituaient jusqu'alors le noyau des forces militaires, la milice devait, a l'origine, etre temporaire. Des 1726, elle devient pourtant une institution permanente. Le recrutement des miliciens au sein des paroisses, la presentation des candidats officiers au Secretaire d'Etat a la guerre, ainsi que l'inspection de l'etat des troupes etaient places sous le controle des commissaires royaux : intendants de province et subdelegues, et ce, des le XVIII^e siecle. Vis a vis des troupes reglees qui, du fait du systeme de venalite des charges et du recrutement des soldats par contrat, constituaient une sorte de patrimoine des officiers, la milice qui trouvait son recrutement dans le service militaire formait un systeme beaucoup plus centralise. Mais il est vrai que la milice rencontrait partout des obstacles lies a la nature meme de la societe d'Ancien Regime. Les miliciens etaient recrutes dans les milieux populaires et les exempts etaient extremement nombreux, surtout parmi les privilegies. L'Ancien Regime, de par sa nature meme, ne pouvait mettre en place une milice egalitariste. La milice devint finalement impopulaire et ses effectifs etaient surtout composes de volontaires et de remplagants. Les deserteurs etaient legions. Pour resister a l'enrolement dans la milice, les appeles faisaient appel a la solidarite familiale, a celle de leur communaute, a l'appui des notables. Les communautes souvent payaient des remplacants pour eviter le depart de ses jeunes membres et les agents locaux souvent fermaient les yeux sur les volontaires et les remplacants. Le fonctionnement pratique de la milice montre le compomis qui se tisse entre pouvoir royal et societe civile bien plus qu'une penetration reelle de l'autorite monarchique dans la societe. Du fait de la resistance opposee au recrutement, la milice etait composee souvent de gens sans biens, sans etat, sans relations, c'est a dire souvent de ceux qui n'avaient guere de motivations et d'interet a la defense de la chose publique. De plus, la milice ne constituait pas une troupe faite pour la guerre a proprement parler. Comme force militaire de choc, la pouvoir royal devait toujours compter sur les troupes reglees. Pour que la milice se muat en armee moderne, il fallait un bouleversement des structures de l'Etat d'une part ainsi qu'une plus grande adhesion du corps social aux objectifs de l'Etat.

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