1997 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
A Study of the Political-Social History of the Interim between Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods
| Project/Area Number |
07610372
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Asian history
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| Research Institution | Ritsumeikan University |
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Principal Investigator |
YOSHIMOTO Michimasa Ritsumeikan University of Ietters associate professor, 文学部, 助教授 (70201069)
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| Project Period (FY) |
1995 – 1997
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| Keywords | Spring and Autum Period / Warring States Period / Shiji / hegemon / aristocrats / three descendants of the Jin State / constitution / youshi, or expatriate officials |
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| Research Abstract |
Since 1970's, historians who have engaged in the study of Spring and Autumn (SA) and Warring States (WS) periods have failed to treat these periods as a whole, and studied each state in the Central Plain, the Chu state in SA period or the Qin state after the Shangyang's Reformation in WS period individually. The main reason for this is uneaven condition of survival material from these periods. The aim of this research project is to overcome such limits of sources, to clearify the general trends of political and social history of the China during these periods, and to attain a more integrated picture. To investigate the interim between SA and WS periods we must depend on the very brief chronicle of the Siji, but the confusion of Shiji's chronology of WS period have prevented us from using this text sufficiently. The head investigator has already published "Editorial Sources of Shiji, Warring States Period" to confirm the variety of sources and the editorial stratification of the Shiji.
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Following this he reconstructed the chronology of the WS period in his aricle "Shiji's Chornology of the Warime States Period". These preliminary works have made possible to use the Shiji's descriptions of the WS period for historical reconstruction, and to provide the following perspective. The later Western Zhou (WZ) and the middle WS periods can be understood as the unremitting visiccitude of the hegemon system and aristocratic rules. In the same way Qin and Qu states after the later WZ period, which were excluded from the hegemon system, can be recognized from such viewpoint. For this purpose he wrote "A Study of the Establishment of the Three Descendants of the Jin State" to illustrate the process of disintegration of the hegemon system from the later SA period to the middle WS period, in addition, to consider aristocratic members of princely clans and bureaucrats of non aristocratic members represented by youshi, or expatriate officials, and their status in the rulling organization of each state. His article "On Mencius, States ans Society in the middle Warring States Period" treated especially about youshi. Its analytical framework is also Prerented in another one, "Constitution of States in the Early nd Middle Warring States Period". These are included in this report. As a result of this project the general trends of the political-social history of the China from the later SA period to the middle WS period have been clarified, and to a certain degree above-mentioned research condition have been overcome. Less
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