秦汉时期，印章标识官吏身份，彰显文书权威，蕴含重要的象征意义。秦汉印制享有奠基之功，相关的学术积累亦深远丰厚。本文转换视角，以“用印”为主题，综合利用秦汉间各批行政文书与律令简牍、玺印封泥实物、传世文献，深入探讨不同官吏如何在各种类型的事务中使用印章，对官吏用印进行顺时而观的动态考察，主要取得了以下三个方面的结论。第一，官吏用印与其它环节工作的关联。其一，就封缄与用印的关系而论，用印虽是封缄程序中具有决定性作用的最后步骤，但不能完全等同于“封印”或“封”。公文书用印者不亲自封缄的分工使得封—印成为了长吏与属吏间一个细小却关键的交往场合。其二，文书收发传达过程中形成的用印记录是解明官吏用印实态最重要的材料。秦至东汉间的用印记录遵循大致相同的程式，也有机构与时期特性。登记印文的目的由重在确认外部封装完整逐渐向申明文书责任及保证文书内容转变。其三，署名、发文与用印环环相扣，在文书流程中互相影响。东汉中期起，三者出现彼此脱节的倾向。第二，各类印章的使用者，以及各职务的官吏在用印事务上的个性。在私印行用方面，秦汉间一直存在佩用官印之吏因故暂无官印时使用私印的特例，但无权持用官印之吏以私印参与工作的情况却存在逐渐普遍的变化趋势。官署名印行用历程悠久，并非官职名印的补充。西汉早期以前，官署名印在官印中与官职名印比重相当，使用者身份基本为各类啬夫，这与啬夫最初对牛马物畜等物资的管理工作相关。西汉中期以后，官印主体变为官职名印，同一官府中各自持有官印的多位官吏如何安排用印事务是政务运作中无法回避的问题，也涉及对官印赐授意义的理解。以县令长与县丞的用印同异为例，可知官职名印的行用状况与持用者的具体职务相关，官印内涵不可一概而论。第三，由官吏用印实践所观察到的秦汉时期长时段变化。印章在文书行政中的应用逐渐深入，大致体现在用印范围、规范、意涵等方面。官署名印与官职名印在官印中的比重变化折射出秦汉国家官吏设置理念上的转型。官印意涵经历了从侧重代表官职到表明官吏个人身份，再到象征官府整体的演变。这与战国秦汉间官阶制度由品位分等转向职位分等，官员官职的分等分类从爵本位向官本位的演进密切相联。从官吏用印中可察得官僚制发生结构性全面转变前的端倪。
In the Qin and Han Dynasties, seals marked the identity of officials, showed the authority of documents, and contained important symbolic significance. The seal system in this period enjoys the honor of foundation. The scholarship on seals of the Qin and Han Dynasties is also deep and rich. This dissertation alters the perspective, taking “using seals” as its theme, comprehensively utilizes various administrative as well as legal documents on wooden and bamboo boards and slips, seals and sealing-clay objects, received texts, and thoroughly discusses how different officials used seals in various types of affairs, to conduct a dynamic investigation of officials’ usage of seals in a chronological manner, and mainly obtains the following conclusions in three aspects.First, the relationship between using seals and officials’ other affairs. For the relation between using seals and sealing, on the one hand, using seals was the final step that played a decisive role in the entire sealing procedure. On the other hand, seals still held purposes other than sealing, so using seals cannot be wholly equated with “sealing”. A subordinate had accomplished the packaging process (feng) so the superior official could apply his seal to it (yin). This way, the sealing process was completed only when low- and high-ranking officials worked together. The two-step process was simultaneously a symbol of the proximity between superior and subordinate in office. Regarding sending and receiving documents, registers of seals applied are essential to understand the actual state of officials’ usage of seals. Such registers followed roughly the same procedure but also changed from the Qin Dynasty to the Eastern Han Dynasty. The purpose of registering seals gradually transformed from confirming the integrity of external packages to declaring responsibility and ensuring the inner content of documents. Concerning signing names, issuing documents, and using seals, which were closely relative to each other, the appearance and refinement of the documentary signature system and the implementation of the multi-person issuing system had been affecting the status of using seals. Since the mid-Eastern Han Dynasty, these three tended to disconnect from each other.Second, to combine seal categories with their respective users and to investigate the personalities of different officials in their affairs of using seals. Regarding private seals, there had always been exceptional cases in the Qin and Han Dynasties when officials who used official seals had no official seals for some reason, but the situation that officials who had no right to use official seals participated in work with private seals had a gradual changing trend. Official seals carved with names of offices had a long history. Before the early Western Han Dynasty, office-seals had the same proportion as post-seals. Their users were basically all kinds of bailiffs related to bailiffs’ management of animals and goods. After the mid-Western Han Dynasty, the main body of official seals became post-seals. How to arrange the affairs of using seals by multi officials whom each held an official seal in the same government is an unavoidable problem in the operation of affairs, and it also involves understanding the significance of granting an official seal. Taking the similarities and differences in the use of seals between county Magistrates and county Assistant Magistrates as an example, we can see that the use of official seals was connected with each holder’s specific rights and responsibilities, and the connotation of official seals cannot be generalized singly.Third, some long-term changes in the Qin and Han Dynasties were observed by officials’ practice of using seals. The application of seals in documentary administration was gradually deepening, roughly reflected in the scope, standard, and meaning of seals. The change in the proportion of office seals and post-seals reflects the transformation of the concept of setting up the bureaucracy in Qin and Han. The connotation of official seals evolved from representing posts to indicating every official’s personal identity and then symbolizing the whole government. This is closely related to the evolution of the bureaucracy in its official rank system and its classification of officials and positions. By applying the usage of seals as a perspective, we can observe the clues before the structural and comprehensive transformations of the bureaucracy.
