Court (Themiclesia)

Court (會, kwāps and 朝, traw) is the ceremonial meeting of the Themiclesian monarch with an assembly of aristocrats or bureaucrats.

History

In Antiquity, when most power was exercised within cities and their immediate peripheries, rulers were known to hold court for menial officials of their households.

The first courts in the sense of an assembly of noblemen, were held after the establishment of the Hegemony in 256 CE, when Patriarch ′An ordered all his barons and "lords of the cities" (邦君) to meet him in the city of Sin. In this assembly that lasted two months, the barons and lords conferred upon him the titles "hegemon prince" (伯王) and "elder prince" (大兄王), signifying his primacy in all their lands; however, most historians agree he instigated this conferral. It is recorded that "with one voice and heart" the lords submitted to his hegemony and paid tribute to him, while ′An promised to uphold their dignity "for generation after generation". The Court of Sin (辛會) became a model for the political theatre of ′An's more successful successors for the confirmation of hegemonic status. Not all of his successors automatically became hegemon prince, as some of the less ambitious ones were content with the Tsins dominion.

The choice of the city of Sin as the customary place of assembly is not conclusively explained. Many scholars, however, note that the city possessed a certain sanctity or inviolability that could be cultural or political.

The system and rationale for holding the court of "barons and lords" continued beyond the Tsins dynasty, which was replaced by the Sungs in 420. The first Sungs ruler summoned the barons of the late Tsins rulers and the lords of the cities at the customary place, Sin, in 421, but apparently so few of them arrived that the assembly was not formally convoked for fear of embarrassment. Due to his inability to summon the assembly, the Sungs ruler was forced by the nobles houses of the Tsins realm to lead an unsuccessful campaign against the recalcitrant barons. The failure of this campaign further damaged his reputation, and the Sungs did not become hegemonic until 443. The Baron Men of Rang conquered Tsins in 492 and declared himself its Patriarch, proceeding then to summon the barons and lords in 493, and a sufficient number of them appeared to confirm his hegemony. Men used his military power to compel the lords' attendance, making the event an annual one during his reign. Men took to appointing many more barons to safeguard his influence in the peripheries of his dominion, though this in turn created tensions with the nobles in his city.

In the early Mrangh dynasty, the emperor was a foreign prince ushered onto the throne to remove an unpopular ruler, and as such his hegemonic powers were unconfirmed. During this period, the Mrangh emperors held court for the city's nobles and bureaucrats that they could appoint at will. However, Emperor Gaw was mortified when the Patriarch of Nedrings in 576 summoned the barons and lords, and for a time it appeared that they might actually have responded. In response, the nobles of Tsins rallied troops and barred the Patriarch of Nedrings from entering Sin, which would have spelt a transition of power away from the city when the ruler of another was established instead. In 580, the Emperor's chancellor procured the agreement of about 60 barons and lords and successfully established him as hegemon prince.

Under the Mrangh administration, the court of barons and lords was summoned less frequently as the early emperors did not wish to face potential challenges. This reticence then limited opportunities to extract tribute and services from the nobility outside of the Tsins realm. The Mrangh emperors compensated for this by tentatively confiscating extinct dominions and constructing a larger royal demesne. The intensive administration of this enlarged demesne encouraged the growth of a bureaucracy, for which the emperor also held court. This court was distinct from the grand court of the nobility and placed the emperor in the active role of rulership, rather than the passive role of receiving honour.

Republic

In the final decades of the 14th century, the imperial monarchy that had been developing since the 6th century came under increasing pressure from foreign policy frustration and especially subjugation by the Yi dynasty of Menghe. The final Themiclesian emperor was forced to summon his nobles to the city of Sin in 1410, where he was deposed. The assembly instead appointed a leading nobleman, the Patriarch of K.rong (龏伯), to be the guardian for a non-existent imperial household, thus creating the Themiclesian Republic, which was actually an aristocratic oligarchy. The assembly had considered the establishment of a new monarch but ultimately chose against it, as it gave the appearance of political instability and possibly an excuse for further intervention by Yi. The deposed Emperor ′Ei was kept under house arrest until he died in 1413.

When the Patriarch of K.rong died in 1417, his heir was denied the imperial guardianship, and the court, summoned to appoint a replacement, chose the Patriarch of Prang (方伯). This peaceful and lawful transition of power was considered pivotal in its influence on the Republican administration, though the non-heritability of guardianship under customs is also a cultural factor that contributed to chiefly-bloodless transitions. The court, periodically summoned to replace the imperial guardian, came to be more assertive over public policies pursued by the incumbent, as evidenced in its decision to depose the Patriarch of Mak in 1487 over his waging war in the east.

In the early 1500s, the Patriarch of Ra rebelled against the Republic and privately assumed the title of Emperor, though he still called for the traditional assembly to meet and grant him the title of hegemon prince; however, the assembly refused to grant him this title unless he submitted to certain demands.

Modern era

The first half of the 16th century was one characterized by a harmonious continuation of the periodic summoning of the barons and lords of the cities to Sin, but under Emperor Mats (r. 1567 – 75) a second body came to prominence: the Council of Baron-Attendants. The body was constituted as an informal council composed of non-bureaucrats and held some powers over the royal household. Initially, the crown consulted this group of nobles as representatives of the entire nobility, but subsequently it often bowed to the crown's whims as the emperor could control the body's composition by summoning co-operative barons and expelling recalcitrant ones. The court for the entire nobility receded in frequency from an annual event to one held to confirm a newly-enthroned monarch. To impose order on the assembly, Emperor Sap in 1613 commanded that each town or county only select one representative, which reduced the size of the court from some 2,000 to 454, but this was not felt to be a successful policy.

In the 18th century, this reduced version of the court continued to be held shortly after enthronements.

Etymology

The character for "court" (朝, ndrjaw) was written with the radicals for grass, sun, and moon, assembled to represent a sun rising and shining through woods, while the moon was still visible in the sky. The composite meaning is the early morning. It is generally assumed that the term was applied to court, since court was usually held during the early morning, as evinced from the Menghean Classics of Poetry. Phonologically, it is a N-derivation of trjaw, "morning".

Types of court held

1. Great Court (大朝, dadh-ndrjaw), held on the first (moonless) day of each lunation, consisting of all peers and officials located in the capial city Ninth Rank and above; the equivalent military rank is colonel in the Army and commodore in the Navy and Air Force. Individuals with the title of Courtesy Courtier (奉朝請, bjong’-ndrjaw-nsjêng) as well as heads of foreign missions are also invited to participate. For the first Great Court held each administrative year, which occurs on the tenth lunation after the winter solstice, the representatives of prefectures and other high-ranking regional officials are present, in the ceremony of Account.
2. Day Court (日朝, njik-ndrjaw), held every fifth day (weekends not counted), attended by government ministers and legislators.
3. Leisure Court (宴朝, ‘rênh-ndrjaw), held, in principle, every day, for the emperor's personal attendants and the governors of his household.

Procedure for holding court

The Nine Intercessors

The Nine Intercessors (九賓, kju′-prjin) are an ancient element of the relationship between host and guest in Themiclesian culture.

See also

• Themiclesia