秦代洞庭郡治辨正

Critique of the Seat of the Dongting Commandery During the Qin Dynasty

自2002年里耶秦简牍面世,湮没无闻两千年之久的洞庭郡被揭示出来之后,洞庭郡郡治所在就一直是学界关注的焦点。郡治的位置会对后续的整理和研究工作造成一定影响。目前的观点还有诸多疑点,这对简牍文书的理解和秦代地方行政的认识形成了干扰,特此进行辨正,敬请方家赐教。

Dongting Commandery,recently found in historical documents,was one of the 36 commanderies set up during the Qin Dynasty.Previous theories on the seat of the Dongting Commandery have proven ambiguous,and the recently proposed theory suggesting a shifting seat of the Dongting Commandery has caused even more confusion for subsequent data sorting and research.Fundamental evidence supporting the shifting seat theory comes from historical documents,which record that several counties,including New Wuling,Linyuan,Yuanyang,and Shangyan,etc.,conducted business on behalf of the Dongting Commandery.This cannot prove that these counties once were seats of the Dongting Commandery,only suggesting that these counties’magistrates administrated on behalf of the Dongting Commandery governor.Considering the facts that Linyuan and New Wuling were nexuses for the official document postal system,that the administrative power of the local government was actually shared between the Governor,Commandant,and Inspector,along with consideration of strategic geographical factors,this study infers that the Governor and Inspector of the Dongting Commandery could have been spatially separated from the Commandant.The former officials set their seats in Linyuan County,the latter in New Wuling County.Therefore,the seat of the Dongting Commandery should have been Linyuan County.