“罪己”并非悔过——由汉代诏令看“罪己诏”的界定

“Criticizing Oneself”is not Penitence —— Definition of the Imperial Edicts about Criticizing Oneself from the Imperial Edicts of Western Han Dynasty

关于汉代罪己诏的含义,学界众说纷纭。对现存汉代罪己诏进行考察可知:其颁布与皇帝因自身过失而主动承认错误没有必然联系,它实质上是皇帝以罪己为由,通过宣扬浓厚的以天下为己任的责任意识,以塑造德行神圣的皇帝形象并维护皇权的产物。狭义的"罪己诏"以罪己作为诏令的核心内容;广义的"罪己诏"则只是使用了一些罪己套语,为诏令的官方表达提供了一种范式而已。从内容来看,罪己诏又可分为责任型罪己和悔过型罪己两种类型,前者的数量远大于后者。

The academic opinions are divergent about the meaning of imperial edicts of Han Dynasty. It is known from the existing materials of imperial edicts of Han Dynasty that they do not necessarily mean that the emperor would admit and correct the mistakes because of his own faults. The essence of the imperial edicts is to shape a holy image of emperor to maintain the imperial power with the statements and actions of criticizing himself and to declare that the whole society is his duty. In a narrow sense, criticizing oneself is a core theme of the imperial edicts ; but in a broad sense, it is only a polite formula which provides a paradigm to the expression of imperial edicts. It can be also divided into two patterns according to the content of criticizing oneself： the one for responsibility and the other for penitence. The former is more than the latter in number.