西漢七國之亂以前的楚國政區推定

Exploring the Kingdom Jurisdiction of Chu in the First Half of Western Han Dynasty

The adjustments of the regional administrative sphere in the Western Han Dynasty occurred prior to the Rebellion of Seven Kingdoms. Before that, there were about thirty counties in Chu, and the officials designated by the Emperor were in charge of the domestic affairs. Subsequently, the number of counties was reduced to only seven in later period of the Western Han Dynasty and the county administrative deputies were appointed by the central government. Qing scholars such as Quan Zuwang explored this change based on the material in Book of Han--Di li zhi. Only recently the conventional view of the administrative regions in the early Western Han Dynasty was re-examined and revised by Zhou Zhenhe, according to the excavated documents such as the seals and the legal texts discussed in his book titled The Geography of the Administrative Regions in the Western Han Dynasty. However, many seals in the tombs of the kings of the Chu near Xuzhou and the Han legal texts-Two-Year Regulations at Zhang Jiashan Tomb No. 247 were discovered after this book was published. Hence, Zhou's estimation of Chu's administrative counties along with the borders in the west and north were not as precise.
To correct this view, this paper first charts the changing process of Chu's administrative regions based on the materials in Historical Records and Book of Han. Then it identifies the location of the counties near Chu, which was governed by the Emperor as shown in the Han legal texts Two-Year Regulations from Zhang Jiashan Tomb. It finally examines the seals discovered in Chu since the Qing Dynasty. Based on the above three materials, I reckon that Chu was conferred to Liu Jiao in 201 B.C.E., and was adjusted several times due to the civil wars in 195 and 186 and the Rebellion of the Seven States in 168-156 B.C.E. The administrative regions of Chu before the Rebellion is approximately located at the east side of County Pei, the Chu, the Lu, and the County East Sea, according to Book of Han. Due to the central army's interferences and political appointments, the administrative regions were frequently changed in Chu.