<Articles>The Chou-hsien System under the Sung Dynasty : An Essay on the History of the Ya-ch'ien

宋代の地方制度は中央の官制と同様に複雑を極めたものであつた。それは唐代の地方民政機関としての州が、藩鎮の跋扈の影響を受けて軍事化し、州院と使院との二重体制が生じたためである。宋代に入つても形式上はこれが継続していた。この変遷を背景として始めて唐末から北宋への地方政治の諸相を理解することができる。宋代の農民地主を苦しめた役である衙前は、州衙門の軍事面を司る節度使としての役所たる使院の機構の中から発生したもので、宋の統一による中央集権の強化の結果、徒らに経済的負担が重くて地位の低い職役となり下つた。この職役なるものは、原来地方税の意味を含むものであつて、それが中世的な形で課せられていたのである。王安石の役法改正は、この役の形の地方税を金銭化し更に地方財政制度の確立を目ざしたもので甚だ進歩した政策であつた。この改正以後、宋代では役の問題は農村において服役する郷役に限られることになつた。The local administration under the Sung dynasty furnishes a complicated structure as well as that of the central government. This is due to the changes througe which the chou (州), administrative unit of the T'ang dynasty, passed during the rebellion of the fan-chen (藩鎮). As a result we see a double system composed of chou-yüan (州院) and shih-yüan (使院) developed in the chou itself and succeded formaly by the Sung. The political aspects of the localities in the transitional ages from the T'ang to the Sung must be understood in the light of these changes which took place in the administrative structure of the chou. The yach'ien (衙前) was the service rendered by the landlords and took its origin in the shih-yüan, military organ of the chiehtu-shih (州衙門). It became more and more oppressive with the centralization of the Sung, but as a service rather mean. The reform of Wang An-shin (王安石) aimed at the commutation of this service and the establishment of the system of local taxation, because the ya-ch'ien was originally considered as a sort of local tax. After the reform this service was rendered only by the hsiang-i (郷役) in the rural districts