Grundlagen herrschaftlicher Entscheidungsfindung im frühkaiserlichen China

Abstract

With a focus on the Han Dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE), the present contribution attempts to answer the question what kind of resources emperors had at their disposal to make decisions? After giving an overview of the early development of governmental organisation, the author examines the bureaucratic organisation of the Han court together with the various ways of arriving at imperial decisions. This he follows by a review of the body of knowledge that would actually have been accessible to the emperor and his advisers at this time. He combines the review with a comparative case study of the chronicles of two emperors, emperor Wu of the Western Han (r.141-87 BCE) and emperor Ming (r.57-75 CE) of the Eastern Han, to understand which parts of this knowledge were possibly consulted by these rulers and whether the need for knowledge diversified over time. The study concentrates on indicators of both rulers' expertise, the circle of advisors they engaged with, and the description of decision processes.