Title: A Study of the Officials in the Ceremony of Voluntary Abdication
Abstract: Voluntary abdication( 禅让) is one of the basic models of the succession of imperial dynasties in ancient China. It also presented one of the grandest ceremonies,in which a great number of officials were involved. Among them,the official who carried the imperial seal was the most important. During the Han and Wei periods,it was the Censor- General( 御史大夫) who shouldered the responsibility. The origin of this assignment lay in the nomination of Cao Cao( 曹操) and Cao Pi( 曹丕) as Duke and King of Wei conducted by the Censor- General,aiming at worshiping the ceremony and also symbolized the submission of Han dynasty officials to the new Wei regime. During the Wei and Jin periods,the person who carried the imperial seal include both the Grand Guardian( 太保) and the Defender- in- Chief( 太尉) supreme military official. The historical roots of this practice include two: the presence of the Defender- in- Chief was originated in the Eastern Han imperial inauguration rituals,and the Grand Guardian found its first presence in the Testamentary Charge of the Book of Documents( 《尚书·顾命》). The different practice reflects the disparate political philosophies between the two time periods: The Cao Wei regime was practical-and Legalist- minded,while the Western Jin was keen on the Confucian ideology. From the Wei and Jin onwards,the second practice had been inherited by most regimes in the South,while the Northern dynasties witnessed some new transformations.
Publication Year: 2015
Publication Date: 2015-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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