Gaoshen And Social Hierarchy In Tubo

The Dunhuang Tibetan document P.t.1071 "Tubo Hunting Law" consists of three parts: the compensation for hunting injuries,the treatment of those trapped under yaks and other hunting-related issues.It was written between 701 and 727 A.D.P.t.1071 records a variety of Gaoshen,Among them,(?)can be verified as瑟瑟告身in Chinese,and(?)corresponds to瑟瑟,which is the present-day turquoise.(?)corresponds to the(?)石告身in Chinese literature,(?)石告身should be the error of鍮石告身.(?)refers to鍮石告身,and (?)refers to the brass.At the same time,this paper,in conjunction with other relevant documents,points out that the Tubo Gaoshen could be awarded to local officials,descendants of meritorious officials,or officials of conquered areas,but not to feudal kings and monks.In addition,although the tiger skin award system was used in parallel with the Tubo Gaoshen system,there was no correspondence between the award specifications and the Gaoshen rank,nor did it have an impact on the level of official positions.The tiger skin reward system was only used as a commendation for warriors in combat.P.t.1071 also divides Tubo society(except for the royal family)into two classes:upper and lower.Da Shang Lun,Hongtong Gaoshen and others were members of the upper class of Tubo society,while Da Zang to the lower class of civilians and slave households and other dependent people were members of the lower class of Tubo society.P.t.1071 provides a detailed account of the property composition and inheritance relationships of the members of the lower class in Tubo,and this paper finds that there were also slave households under the lower-class commoners and dependent people such as slave households.These slave households had no personal freedom and were regarded as tools of production by all classes of the Tubo.To prevent the commoners from occupying more slave households and affecting the stability of the Tubo social class,these slave households were not inherited by brothers of the same clan.P.t.1071 also reflects that in a society dominated by patrilineal kinship,women do not exist as individuals with separate identities,but only as male dependents.