Government document systems in Qin dynasty evident in Qin bamboo slips = Cong Qin jian kan Qin dai gong wen zhi du

Abstract

It is a wonder to discover the remarkable progress the Qin Dynasty made two thousand years ago concerning its documentation systems. Ever since the excavation of the Shuihudi (in Chinese 睡虎地), we now know in Qin, there was the Rule Book of Implementation 《行書》律(about the laws on documentation systems). Unfortunately, there was no correspondence for cross examination. Not until the excavation of the Liye (里耶) site in 2002 were we able to identify the format of the correspondence between the central government, provinces and towns. From the 37000 bamboo slips of Qin which are rich in contents, we can see they covered every aspect. As well, the 2008 Yuelu (嶽麓)bamboo slips appeared to fill the gaps left by Shuihudi. They provide clues, allowing the author to reconstruct the profile of Qin’s documentation systems.

Scholars working on the documentation systems of Qin through the bamboo slips appear to base their findings on only isolated excavations, such as the discussion of either Shuihudi or Liye. But when they researched on the postal system which was central to the wider documentation systems, they had to rely on the clues provided by the Warring States Period, or on the bamboo slips of the Han Dynasty. There are thus limitations. For example, we cannot assume that Han must have inherited its systems from Qin. This thesis looks at the many unearthed bamboo slips having to do with Qin’s documentation systems, revisits and organizes current researches and attempts to reconstruct the state of documentation in Qin.

有誰想過二千年前的秦朝，其公文制度已發展至一定程度？1975年睡虎地秦簡出土後，讓我們知道秦代已有《行書》律(與公文制度有關的法律)。可惜的是，睡虎地秦簡中並沒有往來文書。直至2002年里耶秦簡出土後，大量的簡牘出土，使我們有機會看到秦代中央政府、郡、縣三層行政機構的往來文書，也讓我們了解秦代的公文已具備一定格式。37000枚的里耶秦簡，內容相當豐富，涉及當時各個層面。而2008年入藏的嶽麓秦簡，更補充了睡虎地秦簡《行書》律的不足。雖然嶽麓秦簡《行書律》簡文並非完整版本，但卻提供線索，讓本文能從中整合出秦代文書制度的面貌。

過往有關秦代公文制度的研究，學者傾向將研究範圍限定於某一出土簡牘中，如集中討論睡虎地秦簡或里耶秦簡中所見的公文制度。而當研究與秦代公文制度息息相關的郵傳制度時，往往要依靠戰國留下來的線索來推測秦代郵傳的情況，又或借助漢代的簡牘來逆推秦代的面貌，這種研究方法無疑是有局限的。我們不能單憑‘漢承秦制’而認定秦代制度與漢代一樣。本文希望透過集中研究各種出土秦簡，從中找出與秦代公文制度有關的資料，並將諸家研究進行整理，重塑當時公文制度的概況。