記憶される西周史--逨盤銘の解讀

Abstract

The Lai pan 逨盤 a bronze vessel, discovered in January, 2003 in Yangjia village 楊家村 in Meixian county 眉縣, Shanxi 陝西 records the exploits of twelve monarchs across eleven generations, i.e., kings Wen 文王, WU 武王, Cheng 成王, Kang 康王, Zhao 昭王, Mu 穆王, Gong 共王, Yi 懿王, Xiao 孝王, Yi 夷王, Li 厲王, and King Xuan 宣王 who was served by Lai. When combined with the Shi-Qiang pan 史牆盤, a vessel, which refers to the reigns from King Wen to King Gong, it is possible to confirm the orthodox lineage of the kings of the Western Zhou by inscriptions on bronze vessels. The Lai pan highlights the service of the Shan clan 單氏 to the kings of Zhou since Shangong 單公, who had served King Wen and King Wu. However, this assertion is nothing other than the reuse of the claims of the late Western Zhou that recounted the founding of the dynasty by taking Wen and Wu as a single unit. The large size of the group of bronze pieces left by Lai (12 three-legged basins 鼎, 1 four-legged pot 盉, 1 shallow vessel 盤, and 4 bells 鐘) and the inscriptions on them do indicate the influential Lai did serve the court of King Xuan, but the attempt to link his ancestors to the memory of the founders of the dynasty was meant to garner prestige and authority. As a result of extending the family lineage back to the period of the founding of the dynasty, he mimicked the joint record of kings Wen and Wu, and combined King Zhao and Mu, and then King Gong and Yi 懿王, and Xiao and Yi 夷王 on the Lai pan so that each would correspond with one of his ancestors in order to disguise the contradiction with the actual lineage. Despite this fact, King Cheng and King Kang are not combined in the Lai pan inscription. Each is treated as a separate king corresponding to one of the Lai ancestors. Tang Lan 唐蘭 has previously proposed that the Kang gong 康宮 inscribed on the bronze vessels referred to the mausoleum of King Kang and argued that the Kang gong occupied the leading position among the mausoleums of the kings of Zhou, but because the inscription on the Lai pan does not attempt to combine the two kings, it may be supposed that this is somehow related to the Kang gong's special position. However, this special position of the Kang gong cannot be confirmed immediately after the death of King Kang. Confirmation of such a position can be confirmed only after the ruling order of the dynasty was shaken, when revolts occurred successively in the reigns of King Li and Xuan and when the full-fledged foreign campaigns of King Kang's reign were viewed in hindsight. The inscription on the Lai pan vessel reflects the historical consciousness of the later Western Zhou. The joint record of the foreign expeditions of Kings Zhao and Mu and the silence on the exploits of kings Gong, Yi 懿王, Xiao, and Yi 夷王 were carried on in the later historical sources.