前漢鏡銘の研究

Abstract

Chinese bronze mirrors are highly appreciated by Chinese and Japanese archaeologists, for they are particularly useful for chronological studies. Aside from the actual design, inscriptions can be found on a great many mirrors of the Han age. The mirror inscriptions have already been transcribed, first by Song dynasty scholars, and then by Qing dynasty epigraphists. In 1920s, Luo Zhen-yu published a fairly extensive collection of mirror inscriptions, and depended implicitly on his deciphering B. Karlgren collected 257 lines in his "Early Chinese Mirror Inscriptions" (BMFEA, No.6, 1934) and made an extremely important interpretation of the meaning. Many of mirror inscriptions are versified, Karlgren as a Western pioneer of Chinese linguistics also indicated the rimes throughout. I organized the Research Project on Chinese Mirror Inscriptions to make a safe interpretation of all the inscriptions known so far, and to investigate the changes of the poetry style during 400 years of Han dynasty. According to my chronology, the Western Han mirrors can be roughly divided into four period. Many of the inscriptions of Period II and III are composed of lines of four-character or three-character, and some of them were imitative of poetic style of Chu Ci (楚辭) and on this ground generated the seven-character verses known as Bai Liang (柏梁) style. The seven-character verses were popular in Period IV, frequently referred to the Confucian scheme conceived the cosmos as the si-shen and presence of Yin Yang Wu Xing and also to the existence of the immortal beings. The latter half of this period was in the time of Wang Mang, he spread propaganda about his political achievements in the mirror inscriptions.