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Appendix I

AN OFFICIAL'S CHARTER

When important officials or nobles were appointed, they were given a
charter; cf. n. 5.7. The Han-chiu-yi (by Wei Hung, fl. 25-57) A: 12a,
contains such a charter, which shows that these charters consisted of
admonitions by the ruler to the appointee:

"A [certain] charter for a Grandee who was newly installed says,

" `Verily, in [the year-period] Wu-feng, the third year, the first month,
on [the day] yi-szu [Feb. 19, 55 B.C.], the Grandee Secretary took office
and the Emperor invited him to mount [the steps to the throne] and in
person gave him an imperial edict, which said,

" ` "Let the Grandee Secretary approach, empty himself [of his notions],
and receive Our words. We are ignorant of the Great Way,
[yet We] have had the opportunity to protect the [imperial] ancestral
temples, [so that We are] very fearful and humble. Day and night [We]
think of [Our] own faults without taking leisure, joy, or repose. During
the day We think that the people have not yet been able to be tranquil.
Alas! Let the Grandee Secretary apply himself with all his mind and do
his best in supplying Our deficiencies. Alas! Let the nine high ministers,
the grandees, and all the officials be careful. If you are not earnest in
your duty, there is the regular law. Go and apply yourself with all
your mind in harmonizing, enriching, and opening [the way for] capable
persons, enabling the capable to have the means of returning to their
proper places [in the bureaucracy, and so of] directing the people. Do
not keep silence before Our Self. The multitude [of people] in the world
receive commands from Us and consider the law as [determining] their
fates. [Then] can you fail to be careful? Alas! O Grandee Secretary,
be warned." ' "

The list of officials in HS ch. 19 B does not give any appointment on
the date in this document, and from the dates in that chapter it does not
seem at all likely that this date is correct. Ibid. p. 23a however lists the
appointment of Wang Yen-kuang in the third year of T'ai-ch'u, the first
month. According to this suggestion, the year and month are correct,
and yi-szu is a mistake for chi-szu (a common error). Then the date is
Feb. 18, 102 B.C. The phrasing may well be that of Emperor Wu.