CHAPTER THREE

THE COMMANDERY AND KINGDOM OF DONGHAI

Certain parts of stand out as centres from which men and women arose to make notable contributions to the growth of the Han empire, the strength of its government and the richness of its culture. The land within the passes, where later generations looked to see the ideals of the kings of Zhou, formed the capital of Western Han. As in earlier times, so in Eastern Han Luoyang acted as a focus for learning and the arts. Men of Chu in the south and in the west enriched the way of life of the north with the characteristic features of their arts and literature. The east had given rise to teachers whose writings and precepts formed an essential element of Chinese civilisation as the basis of traditional learning. Within this context attention is due to the part taken by one particular locality in the process whereby the idea of China's unity came to be accepted as the norm, alike in cultural, administrative and dynastic terms. From the documents of Yinwan J=f" ~ there emerges a vivid picture of the administration of one of the larger commanderies of Western Han. Unmatched as these records are for other parts of the empire, it remains open how far the conditions that they describe applied to other commanderies or kingdoms. In the following pages it will be shown that Donghai commandery of Western Han was replaced in Eastern Han by Donghai kingdom, to be entrusted to the care of one of the sons of Guangwudi and supplemented by control over Lu from AD 52. Thanks to its geographical position the area may well have been of considerable strategic importance to those who wished to impose their rule over a united empire, as may be witnessed in the actions of the First Emperor, the fighting that preceded the foundation of Han, the revolt of 154 BC, the restoration of Han and the civil warfare of its final decades. Several of those men who took leading parts in public life, enjoying appointment to the highest offices of state in Western Han, came from families whose domicile lay in Donghai. Moreover 90 CHAPTER THREE particular attention is due to the of Lanling If ~' that was one of the largest in the Han commandery, and had been within Lu in Zhanguo times. From Wudi' s time onwards a number of scholars who left an imprint on China's tradition came from Lanling. They seem to have carried the torch of learning of Lu and Qi and to have attracted students from commanderies such as Langye, Pei and , and kingdoms such as Liang and Lu. Similar examples, however, cannot be traced for Eastern Han times, when it seems that men of talent were forthcoming more from lands that lay to the west. Tanxian ~B Wl, capital of the commandery, and Xiapi -r !B county may also have been places of considerable interest. In administrative terms, like Langye, Donghai had acted as a highly suitable home for the establishment of nobilities for sons of the kings of neighbouring kingdoms. No less that twelve were founded for the princes of Lu, between 82 and 21 BC, and thirteen for those of Chengyang between 127 and 41.

Administrative organisation

It has been seen above that by the end of Western Han the commandery of Donghai * r-fi, which had been founded in 155 BC, comprised a total of 38 subordinate units. 1 In AD 14 Wang Mang .: ~ re-organised the administration of the provinces, by sub-dividing some of the larger commanderies, in some cases into as many as 5 smaller ones,2 and creating an empire of 125 commanderies, with 2,203 .3 No statement tells of how Donghai was affected, if at all, but it is likely that its very size may have called for re­ organisation. Some of the later developments, whose causes or origins are not explained, may have been due to these changes. Along with changes made to the names of many other commanderies

1 Chapter Two, pp. 64-71, 80-7. According to HS 2, p. 89, HSBZ 2.4b in 192 [Zou] Yao [g] mwas made king ofDonghai. This statement is also seen in HS 95, p. 3859, HSBZ 95.15b, 16a with the addition that the line of kings was known as Dong Ou Wang }ll:[ 1ffi: .:E,; see also SJ 114, p. 2979; Qian Han Ji 5.4b has Zou Yao made king of Dong Ou. The Donghai that is mentioned in these references is quite separate from the other units of this name that are under study here. 2 E.g., Beihai, Donglai and Dongjun. 3 HS 99B, pp. 4136-7, HSBZ 99B.24b-25a note.