Engishiki

The Engishiki (Japanese延 喜 式, Ceremonies of the Engi - time) is one of the early Japanese works of law and one of the most important classical texts of Shinto in Japan. However, it is less important than the Kojiki and Nihongi that.

The Engishiki can be seen as an evolution of ritsuryō system, in which, starting with the Taika Reform was organized the State after Chinese models of the Tang Dynasty.

Construction and content

The compilation began in the eighth month of the year 905 on the instructions of Daigo- Tennō under Fujiwara no Tokihira ( 871-909 ;藤原 时 平). The text was Fujiwara no Tadahira ( 880-949 ;藤原 忠 平) completed. It consists of 50 scrolls, dating mostly from the years 907 to 915 Compilations completed it was 927/12 presented to the ruler. Until the entry into force reduction 967 still several changes were made. It is a detailed law book in which court ceremonies and all the court protocol are defined. Most important were the changes to the tax base. This is no longer efficient head control system was converted to a property tax system that the governors, similar Roman tax farmers in the Province of comparatively free hand left. The individual books have been assembled so that they have the structure of each agency of the bureaucracy pictures ( two Councils of State and eight ministries): Book 1-10 are concerned with the Jingikan ( State Council for Kami- affairs ). Book 11-40 cover the bureaucracy of the Daijōkan ( secular State) and the known eight ministries. The books 41-49 describe other state agencies (police, military warehouses, etc.). The final book contains 50 Misc. That Engishiki also provides a variety of information about living at the time, so 10 different varieties of sake are described.

The oldest inherited copy was transcribed with the exception of a role in the late Heian period. These 27 scrolls, the oldest and best preserved texts are now kept in the National Museum Tokyo. They originate from the possession of the Kujo family, a branch of the Fujiwara clan. Since many of the scrolls were written on the back of older documents, these roles are not only in regard to the Engishiki itself of great historical importance.

Taxation

The control system of the Nara period had proved from the early 10th century as unfit, as more and more farmers put under the protection of tax-exempt landowners ( high rank ). The regular on ( after about 900 hardly carried out ) censuses and population registers based tax base was broken. Already in the early Heian period, the benefice for low batches of court administration had been removed or has been limited to four years, whose term of office.

With the introduction of the Engi - shiki 962 the tax base was changed from the head tax on a purely agricultural tax- based system.

There were only two types of tax kammotsu: Natural taxes and compulsory labor ( Rinji zōyaku ). The annual labor services were reduced to 30 days, but have included per village ( sato ) appoint two grown men in the capital. Beginning in the 11th century and forced labor on the basis of land cultivated per household and not per capita have been fixed. The governors of a Deliverables tax total was prescribed because of the built-up land area per province. The tax rate for rice fields was officially still 1.5 tons (12.75 liters ) per tan ( 0.12 ha ), but in some cases significantly higher rates of governors were driven and used for personal gain. This happened, for example, by paying less than the prescribed rates for textiles. In some cases, complaints of the residents led to the dismissal of governors. The usual crop failures and subsequent famines tax rebates were granted less and less from the 10th century. All this is a sign of the increasingly weak position of the central administration.

The Engi - shiki wrote before much more detailed than the Taiho Code type and amount of other products that were to deliver by the individual provinces. These ranged from dried fish, salt, copper ore and algae on horses to special textiles. Another burden was that the taxes were still deliver at the expense of taxpayers in the capital when Mimbu - shō. The loads for beams (about 38 kg) and pack animals ( approximately 105 kg) were determined. Originally, the carrier had to pay for your own food, and later they received from public memories 2 shō ( = 1.7 l) rice and 2 shaku salt per day for the round, half of the way back.

Shinto

About a third of Engishiki deals with rules for Shinto and the associated administrative authority Jingikan who had existed before then outside the ritsuryō bureaucracy. One of the first written rules rules of Shinto.

In Engishiki rules of conduct, a list of all state gods of Shinto, detailed instructions for conducting national rites are recorded (eg, the sequence of an imperial coronation and the rites of the seasons ) and old prayers ( norito ). The book is about the individual occasions some very detailed information on previous fasts, people involved, darzubringenden offerings etc.

In the work of 9 and 10 comprehensive surveys and subdivisions in relation to the Shrine system can be made in the books. 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 represents the imperial offerings ( Kampei ) by the Shinto office on Spring Prayer Festival ( toshigoi no matsuri ) approached. Similar, from the state mandatory offerings ( kokuhei ) existed more than 798 for the major shrines of the provinces ( later renamed the National People's shrines or shrines ( kokuheisha ) ) and the governors of the provinces.

It is questionable whether the provisions in this detail were actually complied with or if it were more like an ideal, which one came close only in the major shrines, but excavations have also detailed instructions at the local level brought to light.

About this time also at court already spread Buddhism can be found in the work no explanations. On the contrary, for at the court of common Buddhist terms alternative terms are proposed, so that the work can be seen as a traditional Shinto.