Historical Materials No.28
THE WOODEN TABLETS FROM THE NARA PALACE SITE IV
English Summary
NARA, 1986
PUBLICATIONS ON HISTORICAL MATER VOLUME XXVI, SUPPLEMENTUM
WOODEN TABLETS EXCAVATED FROM THE NARA IMPERIAL PALACE SITE IV
English Summary
This report has been compiled as the fourth volume and continuation of the previous volume “Wooden Tablets Excavated From The Nara Imperial Palace (III)”. This time, we have made a record of the wooden tablets excavated in the 32nd Supplementary Survey undertaken in the south-east corner of the Imperial Palace in 1966. However, as most of the wooden tablets excavated in the 32nd Supplementary Survey are inscriptions on shavings from wooden tablets and number over 12,000 making it impossible to record them in a single-volume report, the report is being published in three separate volumes of which this is the first.
1 Architectural Remains
The 32nd Supplementary Survey was undertaken in an area bordering the northwest part of the site of the 32nd Survey reported in “Wooden Tablets Excavated From The Nara Imperial Palace (III)”. The main architectural remains discovered were : one south-facing boundary wall and roofed mud wall; two lines of buildings; four stockades; two ditches and four hearths. It was between the two ditches that the wooden tablets were excavated. Ditch no. SD4100 lies east-west, proceeds eastwards from a point about 5m north of the south-facing boundary wall to join the north-south ditch no. SD3410. It was excavated for 55m westwards from this point of intersection. 12,837 wooden tablets were excavated from the substratum of accumulated earth in the ditch. Ditch no. SD3410 lies about 150m east of the 2nd Chddoin （朝堂院）, runs southwards to the west of the Toin （東院） section, along the inside of the east-facing boundary wall south of the protruding part of the. Toin and is the main drain which intersects the ditch on the southern side of the Nijo （二条） main street south of the Imperial Palace. A search was undertaken on a north-south 12m section of ditch no. SD3410 and 72 wooden tablets were excavated.
2 Wooden Tablets
The characteristics of the wooden tablets excavated in the 32nd Supplementary Survey are as follows.
Firstly, about 95% of the wooden tablets excavated from SD4100 are inscriptions on shavings from wooden tablets. From the fact that there is a large number of inscriptions on shavings from wooden tablets, it could be considered that fragments scraped off the wooden tablets were bundled together and heaped in a specific spot. Moreover, that the wooden tablets and inscriptions on shavings from wooden tablets were found accumulated at the same level in the ditch suggests that these wooden tablets and inscriptions can be treated as a homogenous historical source. That one may in this way treat this large number of wooden tablets as one historical source can be said to be the great merit of the wooden tablets excavated from SD4100. Secondly, the contents of the wooden tablets from SD4100 are nearly all related to the Shikibusho （式部省） and among them are many which are connected to kosen （考選） (records and investiture of personnel). These are precious historical sources for research into the bureaucracy of the eighth century.
Thirdly, with regard to the peculiarities of the shape of the kosen wooden tablets, it was found in many cases that a small hole had been made in the upper parts of the tablets through which a string could be passed and tied together. This can be said to provide an important clue in the investigation of the function of the kosen wooden tablets.
Fourthly, there is the dating of the wooden tablets. Of the wooden tablets excavated from SD4100, those that are dated span the period from the fifth year of Jinki （神亀） (729) to the first year of Hoki （宝亀） (770). Those of the Jinki year period were excavated in one particular spot on the western side of the excavation site SD4100. Nearly all the other wooden tablets excavated from SD4100 can be regarded as dating from the Tempyo-jingo （天平神護） period (765 on-wards) to the first year of Hoki (770).
Furthermore, there are a number of instances in which it could be considered that the wooden tablets from ditch no. SD3410 drifted in from SD4100, but on the whole no wooden tablets of great remark were excavated.
3 The Significance of The Kosen Wooden Tablets
Above are listed the characteristics of the excavated wooden tablets. Now let us examine the significance of the most noteworthy wooden tablets.
Bureaucracy in ancient times can be said to have been managed on the basis of the order of court rank held by officials. That is to say, because the officials were able to serve as members of a bureaucracy according to the court rank they held and the level of an official’s court rank showed the grade of his position as an official, each rank having a corresponding official post, elevation in court ranking was linked to promotion in posts and also led to further political, social and economic privileges. Accordingly, promotion in court rank was a matter of great concern for the officials of ancient times. Discounting exceptional situations such as when someone had been brilliantly enterprising in times of disaster or civil war, or as in no. 3767 of the collected wooden tablets mentioned in this report, when a man was sent abroad as an envoy and fulfilled his mission, promotion was under-taken following a plan of constant advancement in court rank. This plan has the name Kosenho （考選法）. Kosen stands for koka （考課） (personnel records) and senjo （選叙） (investiture). The ‘personnel records’ were the work gradings of the officials and the ‘investiture’ was the decision for court rank promotion according to the results of the gradings.
Let us examine the kosen method in further detail. To begin with, every year in his own government office each official was graded ‘upper’, ‘middle’ or ‘lower’ through the content of his work. The chief of the government office would then submit the documents (komon 考文) of that year’s grades to the minister (Dajokan 太政官). The komon were gathered together in the Shikibusho and there, the contents were verified. When the number of years set for each post was fulfilled this was called josen （成選） and it brought about a chance for court rank promotion. The set period was generally from four to ten years. In each government office, distinct from the komon, the senmon （選文） (composite gradings over the years up till josen) were drawn up for each official who had reached josen that year and sent via the Dajokan to the Shikibusho. In the Shikibusho when an in vestigation was undertaken into the contents of the senmon and it was decided that the josen was correct then a ceremony was undertaken to receive the approval of the senior minister (daijin 大臣) and emperor. Once this was completed, it was decided to what rank the officials would be promoted.
The above kosenho method of promotion is thought to have been undertaken in much the same way from the Nara period through the Heian period, but this is a fine point and so far only known through the historical sources of the Heian period such as the Engishiki （延喜式）. However, through the excavation of the kosen wooden tablets of which this is a report, the true state of the kosenho in the Nara period has been elucidated. Hence the tablets can be said to be of exceedingly great significance.
The kosen wooden tablets come in the following forms.
(1) 去上位子従八位下伯祢広地年坩二 河内国安宿郡
(2) ・下等 兵部省使部従八位下□□□□年六十 右京 上日百□
・ □●□ ● □
(3) ・少初位下高屋連家麻呂年五十 右京 六考日并千九十九六年中
・陰陽寮
(4) □□朝臣□麻呂年坩六 □□人 今授従□
(5) 今正八王正八下
Among these, nos. 1 and 2 are koka wooden tablets and nos. 3, 4 and 5 are senjo wooden tablets. The number of inscriptions on shavings thought to come from these many sorts of kosen wooden tablets is, even in this report, extremely high, but it is very unlikely that they were used in any government office other than the Shikibusho.
Thus, the excavation of the kosen wooden tablets confirms the location of the Shikibusho in the vicinity of the excavation site, is a clue to understanding the particular methods of practice for the kosen in the Shikibusho and can be said to be of some importance in the research into the bureaucratic systems of ancient times.
CONTENTS
page
Preface 3
Table of Contents 5
List of Illustrations and Tables 6
Index to Plates 7
Explanatory Notes 14
General Text
Chapter I Introduction 3
Chapter II Excavation Sites Where Wooden Tablets Were Recovered 8
Chapter III The Wooden Tablets in Personell Records and Investiture 13
1) Types of the Kosen Wooden Tablets 13
2) The Systems of Personell Records and Investiture 19
3) Comparison between Documents and Wooden Tablets in Kosen 28
Tablet Transcriptions and Interpretations
Drainage Ditch SD3410 39
Drainage Ditch SD4100 45
Index xx
English Summary i
ILLUSTRATIONS
1 Map of Features Where Wooden Tablets Were Recovered 6
2 Map of Architectural Remains in the 32nd Supplementary Survey 9
3 Photograph of Drainage Ditch SD4100 10
4 Photographs of the Lacquered Papers 11
5 Circumstances of Recovery of Wooden Tablets from SD4100 12
6 Photograph of the Side of Kosen Wooden Tablet 15
7 Photograph of Wooden Tablet (b) 16
8 Photograph of Wooden Tablet (d) 33
TABLES
1 Number of Wooden Tablets from the 32nd Supplementary Survey 4
2 Number of Wooden Tablets in Content Categories 5
3 The System of Personell Records and Investiture 20
昭和六十一年三月三十一日 発行
平城宮木簡四 解説
奈良国立文化財研究所史料第二十八冊
