Bondage -

Generally speaking, it refers to forced labor, but in the ancient Ritsuryo state's tax terminology, it referred to saieki (annual labor) and zoyo (miscellaneous labor). Saieki was a system in which citizens were conscripted for 10 days a year to work on palace and temple construction at the central government, while zoyo was a system in which citizens were made to do miscellaneous labor such as building and repairing government buildings and warehouses and building new embankments and roads and bridges for 60 days a year under the command of the kokushi. If the number of days exceeded the regulations, they were exempted from paying the corresponding tax, called tomeyaku (restricted labor). When the Ritsuryo system began to collapse in the Heian period and it became difficult for the central government to conscript peasants to work in the capital, zoyo was sometimes used to refer only to zoyo.

Leaving aside its strict usage as a tax term, if we think of it in a general sense, various forms of forced labor were practiced under the Ritsuryo state. These included the system of servants, in which two people were conscripted from every 50 households to perform odd jobs in the central government office, the system of station boys who worked in transportation at stables, and the system of herders who raised cattle and horses at government ranches. Military service was also considered to be nothing more than forced labor for farmers, and was in fact forced labor.

[Yasuhisa Nagayama]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

一般的には強制的に行われる労役をいうが、古代律令(りつりょう)国家の租税用語では歳役(さいえき)と雑徭(ぞうよう)をさす。歳役は年に10日間公民を徴発し、中央で造宮や造寺に使役する制度であり、雑徭は国司の指揮下で年に60日間、官舎・倉庫の建築や修理、堤防・路橋の新設など雑多な労働に服させる制度である。もし規定以上の日数に及ぶときは、留役といってそれに見合う租調を免じた。平安時代に入って律令制が崩壊に向かい、中央政府が農民を徴発して都で働かせることが困難になると、徭役はときに雑徭のみをさす語として用いられた。

　租税用語としての厳密な用法を離れて一般的な意味で考えると、律令国家のもとでさまざまの徭役が行われていた。50戸ごとに二人を徴発して、中央の官衙(かんが)で雑役に従わせる仕丁(しちょう)の制、駅家(うまや)に所属して交通労働に従事する駅子(えきし)、官牧で牛馬の飼育にあたる牧子(ぼくし)などがそれである。また兵役も農民にとっては強制的な労役にすぎず、事実上は徭役であったと考えられている。

［長山泰孝］

出典　小学館　日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)について　情報 | 凡例