两汉侯国的动态考察

A Dynamic Review of Marquis-States in the Han Dynasty

侯国是两汉时期重要的县级行政单位,封侯而设,侯免则废。西汉时期,侯国经历了从直属中央到从属汉郡,从遍布王国到尽归汉郡的变化;西汉有侯则有国,东汉有侯则不一定有国。从侯国的变化不仅可以看出两汉间列侯地位的下降,也可以看出汉中央在利用侯国赏功的同时,成功地利用侯国来削弱王国。侯国的设置是人为的而非经济发展的结果,其设置与废除为汉代地方行政带来不良影响,为纠正此弊,东汉政府采取了省并县邑及乡、亭侯不立国的对策。

As the important administrations on the county level in the Han Dynasty, marquis-states were established with subinfeudation, and abolished with dethronement. During the Western Han Dynasty, marquis-states initially were under direct control of the central government, then subordinated by the local county administrations; initially spread all over the empire, then controlled by the counties; initially accompanied with marquis in the Western Han Dynasty, then this tight association became loosened in the Eastern Han. From this, we can find that the marquis became less important with the time. At the same time, it indicates that the central government not only achieved his purpose of awarding, but successfully weakened the princedoms by the means of subinfeudating marquis-states. The suhinfeudation of marquis-states is resulted from administrative purposes rather than economic development. Its establishment and abelishmen^t disserved the function of local administration of the Han Dynasty. In order to rectify, in the early Eastern Han a lot of counties were omitted or merged, and the marquises on the xiang-ting level no longer held their marquis-states.