The Study Of Bureaucracy Sealing Clay At Qi State In Han Dynasty And Relavent Issues

Sealing clay is the remains of ancient stamps rich in history, bureaucracy, geography, and other information. So the seals, oracle bones and bamboo slips were called three remains of ancient writing. As the capital of Qi State in Western Han, since the end of the Qing Dynasty, a large number of sealing clay materials have been unearthed from here and led to the boom of sealing clay studies. And there are a large number of Qi sealing clay unearthed again in the21st century. But many were dispersed without collection so its value has not been fully exploited. The number of Qi sealing clay materials is very large and they cover many of the official titles. Through our research, we can understand the system of county and township and the official system of Qi state in Han Dynasty. At the same time we can take the advantage of archaeology to study its use and abandoned system, the burial and unearthed environment and so on.Based on the results of senior researchers, and take use of new materials, this article will sort and classify the sealing clay of Qi. Most of them were unearthed without scientific excavation, and some were quickly dispersed to the hands of collectors and others were smuggled abroad. Most of sealing clay materials have been recorded and published before the founding of People’s Republic of China. But because they were kept in many collectors and always handed down with others, the recorded books always have too much duplication and selectivity. Through careful research and analysis, I choose a few books which were more comprehensive without repeat, thus I can grasp sealing clay’s numbers and species. Entering the21st century, there are a large number of Qi sealing clay unearthed again, but they were dispersed more speedily, and many were abroad. Since they were rarely published, we can not learn their full information. I have tried my best to collect the articles and books which have record the newly unearthed sealing clay materials, in addition to some objects from collectors and scholars. Therefore I can learn the numbers, species and situations of newly unearthed sealing clay. On the basis of the work, I could count the statistics of Qi sealing clay materials unearthed old and new according to their official titles, belongings and ranks. This work is the most comprehensive for the collection of the sealing clay, and lays foundation for related research.Based on the work above, I make philological studies of their texts, and find the official titles have covered most of the records in historical documents, and also find some new ones. This work is a more comprehensive study for bureaucracy of Han dynasty, and plays an important role in the study of history, geography and so on.As an important ancient remains, sealing clay’s are not only valued in the officials they recorded, but also in the information obtained from the situation they buried, unearthed and so on. This article has studied the use, discarding, burial, excavation and special appearance of sealing clay from the method and view of archaeology. It will be a useful preliminary attempt to fully exploit the value and expand the research direction of sealing clay materials.