The Study Of Li Officials And Related Special Groups In The Western Han Dynasty

The study of this paper shows that system of village management is about ternary system in the early Western Han Dynasty, which are Xiangsefu and Lizheng represented by the administrative system of rural officials, Tiansefu and Tiandian represented by the system of land officials, Xiangsanlao and Elders represented by unofficial system. When Wen Emperor is on the throne, land officials are abandoned and incorporated into rural officials, above systems evolve into binary system until the end of Western Han Dynasty. Lizheng and Elders represent two different local political powers of different sources, dual system reflects that the government hopes the combination of official and folk order and flexible law of the land, also highlights the local indigenous forces strong, which government cannot be indifferent. Elders and children is in a society and the juvenile is unstable molecules of children, which escapes from the normal order of Li and the discipline of the Elders, becomes a significant power of society.The first chapter is divided into two sections, the first section briefly discuss general problems of Li, which contains Li of city and countryside in the Western Han Dynasty. People are incorporated into Shi-Wu, peerage system must be taken into consideration. If his peerage exceeds Viscount, he will not be incorporated into Shi-Wu. Through studying and comparing literature, I doubt that Shi-Wu of Western Han Dynasty is not abided by some areas. The second section will discuss Li officials in detail. Lizheng is the leader of Li, supervise all things of a Li and his income comes from adult poll tax, but we do not know detailed figures. He is always acted by the elite, put up by Xiangsefu, nominated by prefecture, however, the authority is invaded and occupied by the other elite and many people are not willing to act as Lizheng. Lizuo is the assistant of Lizheng, help to deal with affairs, but his existence is skeptical. The establishment of Tiandian stems from the system of the grant of land from the state, whose responsibility is managing land affairs. when Wen Emperor is on the throne, land is allowed by the private ownership, so Tiandian is abandoned and incorporated into Lizheng. The doorkeeper of Li is primarily responsible for opening and closing the door of Li, comes from recruiting and has no confine of birthplace. Li officials have their own salary, but we do not know detailed figures and we affirm that their salary is little.The second chapter focuses on the Elders, whose power comes from clan clustering and respecting the old. Many family names live together in Western Han Dynasty and the blood color have already weaken, which lead to the fact that the Elders evolve into a kind of special title. The Elders and Lizheng are the dual leadership of Li. The Elders are acted by the old, good morality and have rich restriction, the number of more than one person, who is not lifelong tenure. The Elders seem to be selected and nominated by rulers, or at least acknowledged. The government recognizes and takes use of their power, allow them to help Li officials deal with affairs and introduce them to the system of local management. However, the power sources of the Elders differ from officials of country, belong to no officer, who are always on behalf of the interests of the citizens. The Elders communicate with each other, forming a network, through which they can act in concert, influence village public opinions and intervene local government.The third chapter discusses the problem of juvenile, the society of Western Han Dynasty has always been a large number of young group. Juvenile are the unstable molecules of the children and have a wide source, which are mainly engaged in inferior career or not producing and different from legitimacy. The juvenile are about fifteen to thirty years old, the special rogue of which are called evil juvenile. The juvenile do not work honestly, even kill officers and always act as the vanguard during the turbulent political situation. However, their careers and status are similar among the juvenile, so they can not lead each other, then go and seek refuge with the bully. There are many paladins in the Western Han Dynasty and a lot of juvenile adore them. Due to this reason, many juvenile learn paladins, which is the base of the society of paladins. The rulers take various policies for the juvenile, on the one hand, the government nominates cruel officials to suppress juvenile or recruit them banishment, on the other hand, the government also enlist the talents and take use of them. However, more juvenile still strand in society.