The Imperial Qín Dynasty

Elements of Governance as Reflected in the Lǐyē 里耶 Manus

秦帝国

里耶秦简所见国家治理要素

简 介

The Lǐyē 里耶 text corpus, which is named after an ancient township in present-day Lóngshān 龍山, Húnán province, grants unique opportunities to reshape the image and redefine our knowledge about social, legal, political, administrative and ritual responsibilities of the first Chinese empire. The impressive collection of over 37,000 documents span a time period from 222 to 208 BC and grant a unique opportunity to reshape the image and redefine our knowledge about social, legal, political, logistical and ritual responsibilities of the first Chinese empire. This book is concerned with the overall governance at the southern fringes of the Qín dynasty as reflected in the excavated documents from Lǐyē well J1. It contributes to a revised understanding of the Qín dynasty by demonstrating that the degree of decentralization in the empire was high and to a large extent coordinated by relatively autonomously governed regions. It furthermore displays the Qín dynasty’s strong sense of historical continuity and a desire to strive towards unification by embracing the predominant standards of earlier rulers.

After an introductory part on the Lǐyē material, this book analyzes Qín’s sophisticated methods of calendar and timekeeping. It then dwells into the territoriality of the young empire and focuses on unification attempts bound to transform the pre-imperial multistate order into a standardized system of governance and control. The last part deals with the organization of essential resources, including unprecedented tax calculations ‘district’ (xiāng 鄉) level. Overall, this book offers a fascinating glimpse at the many microstructures and complexities in the peripheral area of a larger administration. The manus available to us to this day and the ones that will be excavated from wells J2 and J3 in the future will undoubtedly continue to be a basic reference point when it comes to the research of pre-imperial and early imperial documents.

里耶秦简以今湖南省龙山县一处古代乡邑命名，为重塑中国首个帝国的社会、法律、政治、行政及礼仪职能之形象、重新定义相关认知提供了独特契机。这批令人瞩目的简牍文献总数超过37,000件，时间跨度自公元前222年至公元前208年，为重塑帝国社会、法律、政治、后勤及礼仪职能之面貌、更新既有认知提供了无可替代的宝贵资料。本书聚焦于里耶J1号井出土文献所反映的秦王朝南部边陲的整体治理状况，通过论证帝国地方分权程度较高，且在很大程度上由相对自治的区域协调运作，从而推动对秦王朝的重新理解。本书同时展示了秦王朝强烈的历史延续意识，以及通过吸纳前代统治者的主流标准来实现统一的渴望。

在关于里耶材料的导论部分之后，本书分析了秦朝精密的历法与计时方法，继而探讨了这一年轻帝国的领土性，并聚焦于旨在将帝国前的多国秩序转变为标准化治理与控制体系的统一尝试。最后一部分论述了重要资源的组织方式，包括前所未有的“乡”级税收核算。总体而言，本书为读者提供了一个窥见大型行政体系边缘区域诸多微观结构与复杂性的迷人视角。至今可供我们研究的简牍，以及未来将从J2号和J3号井中出土的文献，无疑将继续成为前帝国时期与早期帝国文献研究的基本参照点。

（机翻）

著者：Marcel Schneider

出版社：De Gruyter

出版时间：2025

目 录

Acknowledgements 致谢

Periodization 历史分期

Abbreviations 缩写

1 Introduction 引言

2 The Lǐyē 里耶 Manus 里耶秦简

 2.1 General Background 总体背景

 2.2 Physical Properties of the Manus 简牍的物理特征

 2.3 Handling of Documents 文书处理

3 Calendar and Timekeeping Systems 历法与计时系统

4 Administrative Geography 行政地理

 4.1 Central Government 中央政府

 4.2 ‘Commanderies’ (jùn 郡) “郡”

 4.3 ‘Counties’ (xiàn 縣) “县”

 4.4 ‘Bureaus’ (cáo 曹) and ‘Offices’ (guān 官) “曹”与“官”

5 Corvée Labor 徭役

6 Resource Management 资源管理

7 Conclusion 结论

Appendix 附录

List of Figures 插图列表

List of Tables 表格列表

Bibliography 参考文献

Index 索引

（机翻）

书 影

著 者

Author

Marcel Schneider

University of Zurich, Switzerland.

（机翻）