ABSTRACT
According to the theories elaborated late in the day by the feudalists, the overlord is he who, having received the investiture of the king, the sole master of the whole country of China, is charged with the government of a fief. He governs it in the name of the Son of Heaven, enforcing the regulations laid down by him. In every fief the seigniorial authority belongs to one family. Nevertheless, at the death of the holder of the position, his successor only assumes the emblems of his dignity after having received the king's investiture. 1 As sovereign of all the overlords of China, the king wears a dozen symbolical emblems upon his robes. The three first (sun, moon and constellation) are strictly reserved to him alone. The right of wearing others (or rather a certain number of them) is granted to the various invested overlords. The number of emblems allotted to each varies with the quality of the investiture. This determines the rank which he holds in the feudal hierarchy. The overlords form five classes (dukes, marquises, counts, viscounts, barons), the extent of their fiefs varying (according to the theory) in proportion to their title. The domain proper of the Son of Heaven measures one thousand li in length and in breadth. One hundred li are the measure of the domain of a duke or marquis, fifty li that of the fief of a viscount or baron. 2 A smaller domain is still a fief, but it is not held directly from the king (at any rate in his capacity as king). Its titular owner is the vassal of the master of a particular domain. The overlords and the king distribute not only the hereditary fief of the domain, but also its offices or fief salaries. The titular holders of salaries belonging to the fief are divided into five classes and bear the title of grand-officers (t'ai fu) or officers (she). Originally these titles, like all feudal titles, had a military signification : all implied the idea of command. Each of them came in the end to correspond to a settled rank, and then to a degree of the feudal hierarchy. The word officer (she) denoting the lowest order of nobility, acquired the general sense of noble. The word duke (like the word prince) is a title applicable to every overlord, at any rate within his own lordship. Each one is master in his own house. The feudalists, however, credit the king with the right of promoting or degrading the overlords according to their merits. 1 These merits are displayed in the careful maintenance of the altars of the Soil and of the Ancestors, and in the suitable enforcement of the royal edicts relating to morals, to music, to measurements, and to clothes, Nominations and promotions (by the king and the princes) must be made in Council and after a debate requiring the agreement of the vassals. Punishments (or at any rate, the most serious punishment : banishment or death) must be proclaimed on the public square and submitted to the approval of the whole people. 2 The constitutional theory implies the idea that authority is only retained through an investiture granted by a sovereign and the consent of vassals and subjects. The king-sovereign himself holds his throne at once from Heaven and from the people. It is his mission to maintain an order of civilization whose worth is appraised by the help of natural signs and the sentiments of men. He wields his authority from above, delegating to the various feudatories authority of a lower order but the same nature. The overlords, attached by their genealogy to the reigning dynasty or to one still more ancient, are only qualified to rule in their fief by virtue of an investiture received in past times by an ancestor and confirmed at every succession.
