Engishiki

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The Engishiki ( Japanese 延 喜 式 , ceremonies from the Engi period ) is one of the early Japanese legal works and at the same time one of the most important classical texts of Shinto in Japan . However, it is less important than the Kojiki and Nihongi .

The Engishiki can be seen as a further development of the ritsuryō system, in which, starting with the Taika reform , the state was organized according to Chinese models of the Tang dynasty .

Origin and content

The compilation began in the eighth month of the year 905 on the instructions of the Daigo -Tennō under Fujiwara no Tokihira (871-909; 藤原 時 平 ). The text was completed under Fujiwara no Tadahira (880–949; 藤原 忠 平 ). It consists of 50 scrolls and comes mostly from compilations from the years 907 to 915. It was completed in the last month of the year 927 and presented to the ruler. Several changes were made before it came into effect in 967. It is a detailed code of law in which all court ceremonies and the court protocol are laid down. Most significant were the changes to the tax base. The no longer efficient head tax system was converted to a property tax system that gave the governors, like Roman tax tenants, a comparatively free hand in the provincial administration. The individual books are arranged in such a way that they reflect the structure of the individual agencies of the bureaucracy (two councils of state and eight ministries): books 1–10 deal with the Jingikan (State Council for Kami Matters). Book 11–40 cover the bureaucracy of the Daijōkan (secular council of state) and the eight known ministries. Books 41-49 describe other government agencies (police, military warehouses, etc.). The final book 50 contains miscellaneous items. The Engishiki also provides a lot of information about life at that time, 10 different types of sake are described.

The oldest surviving copy, with the exception of one scroll, was transcribed in the late Heian period . These 27 scrolls, the oldest and best preserved, are now in the Tokyo National Museum. They come from the possession of the Kujō family , a branch of the Fujiwara clan. Since many of the scrolls were written on the back of older documents, these scrolls are of great historical importance not only in terms of engishiki itself.

taxation

The tax system of the Nara period had proven ineffective from the early 10th century, as more and more farmers placed themselves under the protection of tax-exempt landowners (high ranks ). The tax base based on regular (after about 900 hardly carried out) censuses and population registers had collapsed. Already in the early Heian period the benefices for lower batches of the court administration were canceled or their term of office was limited to four years.

With the introduction of the Engi-shiki 962, the tax base was converted from a head tax to a purely land tax-based system.

There were only two types of tax kammotsu: taxes in kind and compulsory labor ( rinji zōyaku ). The annual compulsory labor was reduced to 30 days. a. To delegate two adult men per village ( sato ) to the capital. Beginning in the 11th century, compulsory labor was also set on the basis of the land worked per household and no longer per capita . Due to the built-up land area per province, the governors were required to pay a tax amount. The tax rate for rice paddies was officially still 1.5 to (12.75 l) per tan (0.12 ha), but the governors sometimes collected significantly higher rates and used them for personal gain. This was done, for example, by paying lower than prescribed prices for textiles. In individual cases, complaints from residents led to the dismissal of governors. From the 10th century onwards, the usual tax rebates for bad harvests and subsequent famines were granted less and less. All of this is a sign of the increasingly weaker position of the central administration.

The Engi-shiki, prescribed in much more detail than the Taihō Codex, the type and quantity of other products that had to be delivered by the individual provinces. These ranged from dried fish, salt, copper ore and algae to horses and special textiles. Another burden was that the taxes still had to be paid to the Mimbu-shō at the expense of the taxpayers in the capital . The loads for porters (approx. 38 kg) and pack animals (approx. 105 kg) were specified. Originally the porters had to pay for their own food, later they received 2 shō (= 1.7 l) rice and 2 shaku salt per day for the way there and half of it for the way back from public stores .

Shinto

About a third of the Engishiki deals with rules for Shinto and the associated administrative authority Jingikan , which had previously existed outside the Ritsuryo bureaucracy. It is one of the first written statements about the rules of Shinto.

The Engishiki contains rules of conduct, a list of all Shinto state gods, detailed instructions for performing national rites (e.g. the process of an imperial coronation and the rites during the seasons) and old prayers ( norito ). The book gives very detailed information on the individual occasions about previous fasts, people involved, offerings to be made, etc.

In the work, in books 9 and 10, extensive surveys and subdivisions are made in relation to the shrine system. In it, the total number of shrines was estimated at about 30,000. 3,000 of them were classified as kampaisha (government shrine ) or kansha (central government shrine ), which received imperial offerings ( kampei ) by the Shinto office at the spring prayer festival ( toshigoi no matsuri ). Similar offerings ( kokuhei ), which are mandatory on the part of the state , have existed since 798 for the large shrines of the provinces (later national shrines or people's shrines ( kokuheisha )) and the governors of the provinces.

It is questionable whether the regulations were actually adhered to in this level of detail or whether it was more of an ideal that could only be approached in the large shrines, but excavations have also revealed detailed instructions at the local level.

There are no explanations in the work about Buddhism , which was already widespread at court at this time . On the contrary: alternative terms are suggested for Buddhist terms customary at court, so that the work can be viewed more as traditional Shinto.

literature

Translations:

  • Bock, Felicia Gressitt; Engishiki procedures of the Engi Era; Tokyo 1970 - (Sophia Univ.), 3 vol .; "A Monumenta Nipponica Monograph"
  • Bock, Felicia Gressitt; Classical learning and taoist practices in Early Japan: with a translation of books XVI and XX of the Engi-Shiki; Tempe, Arizona 1985 (Center for Asian Studies); ISBN 0-939252-13-9
  • Philippi, Donald L .; Norito: a translation of the ancient Japanese ritual prayers; Princeton, NJ 1990 (Princeton Univ. Press), ISBN 0-691-01489-2

swell

  1. ↑ See: Ritsuryō , tax types
  2. ↑ in rice. With the cessation of the minting of divisional coins in the 9th century, Japan returned almost entirely to the barter economy by around 1200.
  3. ↑ which occurred more frequently between 900 and 1100. The cause was the demonstrably warmer world climate (average + 1.6 ° C above the value of 1970) during the Heian period and the erosion caused by increased deforestation of the mountain forests after 800 (Farris, Famine, Climate, and Farming ...; )
  4. ↑ Farris, W .; Famine, Climate, and Farming in Japan; in: Adolphson, M. et al .; Heian Japan ..., Honolulu 2007, ISBN 978-0-8248-3013-7 ; Yep Orig. In: Hakkutsu sareta Nippon rettō, p. 51

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