Tiānshūyuàn dūsī xūzhī gé 天樞院都司須知格
Regulations to Be Known by the Director-General’s Office of the Heavenly-Pivot Bureau
About the work
A short single-juǎn companion to the Lìng of the same Bureau (KR5b0255) presenting the gé 格 (regulations / penal tariff) of the Dūsī. Together with KR5b0253 (DZ 549), KR5b0254 (DZ 550), KR5b0255 (DZ 551) and KR5b0257 (DZ 553), it forms the Daozang’s Jìngmíng 淨明 sequence of Tiānshūyuàn manuals.
Abstract
The work prescribes the gé 格 — the formal regulations governing the duties, dossiers, and penalties of the Bureau’s officers — in fifteen articles. Article 1 specifies that the seven lùshì 録事 are rotated daily through the Dūsī by the chief registrar’s yā 押 (signature-and-seal). Article 2 prescribes that the seventy-four pànguān 判官 officers are punished in proportion to the gravity of their delays and obscurities; major cases are remitted to higher authority. Article 3 sets a precise time-tariff for zhuǎndié (routing) — “one kè late = demotion of one grade; one shí late = stripping of two grades; one day = held under interrogation; two days = suspended from office; three days = full investigation”. Subsequent articles fix the dimensions of the official seal (Tiānshū dūlù zhī yìn, “two cùn five fēn”), the use of the iron rod for minor offences, the operation of the Bureau’s small prison (xiǎo yù 小獄), and the rewards for diligent inspection (extension of life-span, posthumous offices for ancestors).
Schipper & Verellen (Taoist Canon 2: 1092, John Lagerwey) treat the Lìng and the Gé as a complementary pair. The manual is invaluable as a Sòng-style penal-administrative regulation transposed into the celestial domain.
Translations and research
- Schipper, Kristofer, and Franciscus Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004. Vol. 2: 1092 (DZ 552, John Lagerwey).
- Akizuki, Kan’ei. Chūgoku kinsei dōkyō no keisei: Jōmyō-dō no kisoteki kenkyū. Tokyo: Sōbunsha, 1978.