中國中古皇權之極限――以唐代詔書封駁為中心

Limits of the Imperial Prerogative in Medieval China ― The Institution of Feng Bo in Tang Dynasty Official Correspondence

本論文根據拙著〈論唐代制書程式上的官職〉、〈論唐代之封駁〉、〈唐代給事中之分析〉、〈論《貞觀政要》中的君臣溝通文化〉等論文修改整合而成。
中國自秦漢以迄清末，其政體均屬君主專制政體。而君主專制政體最嚴重的缺點，就是皇帝既是法律的制訂及頒佈者，也是全國行政最高長官及法律的最後裁定者。本論文亟欲透過唐代的詔、敕、制中所呈現出的封駁現象，討論唐代在官僚體制內如何進行結構性的節制，及這種節制可以達到的成效。
研究後發現，在君主專制政體中，法理上雖然沒有任何機構或角色對君主之裁定具有否決權，但在中國唐代的政治體制中，卻運用「給事中」所特有的封駁職任；及公文書發佈之前，公文程式所產生的體制上的節制；約束皇帝不可以為所欲為，尤其是關係著全國性的政策及法律問題。由此，可以減少決策與行政上的錯誤。
同時，為了整合帝國的人力物力，推動政務，事前的溝通成為政令形成以前最重要的工作。由唐太宗《貞觀政要》一書的內容可以發現，君臣之間的溝通，並非針對某一案件進行具體之討論，而是透過不定時，不斷的溝通，建立對於所有人事、事務等的基本共識，避免了個案或個人的利害衝突，建立君臣之間的互信，免去君主政體中最常出現的猜疑。

This paper is a synthesis of aspects my previous works concerning the formulae of official documents and the communicative dynamics of the imperial court in the Tang Dynasty.
The Chinese government maintained an absolute monarchy since its foundation in the Qin Dynasty to its dissolution in the Qing Dynasty. The critical flaw of an absolute monarchy is that the emperor is the legislator and the promulgator of the law, and also is the highest chief administrator and the final arbiter of the law. This paper discusses how the institution of feng-bo in Tang Dynasty official correspondence formed checks and balances to the imperial prerogative to the effect that the emperor exercised restraint.
This study finds that, while there were no organizational or individual mandates in absolute monarchy that had veto power over the emperor’s arbitration, the Tang Dynasty bureaucracy tasked the office of the ji-shi-zhong to exercise dissent, and its programmatic edicts, rescripts, and other imperial correspondence formed a systematic check that forced the emperor to exercise restraint, particularly regarding policies of empire-wide consequences and judiciary issues. The result is a reduction of deliberative and administrative errors.
In adition, the Tang Dynasty bureaucracy placed a high premium on the communicative stage of policy formulation, because it consolidated manpower and resources to ensure successful implementation. The communicative dynamics recorded in the compendium Zhenguan zhengyao show that the emperor and his court did not meet to discuss one specific item, but rather met continuously and frequently to discuss various matters in order to reach basic consensus on administrative matters. In this way, conflicts of interest were avoided, and mutual trust between the emperor and his court became established, which led to the negation of the element of suspicion, often the undesired product of absolute monarchy.