漢三國西晉紀年鏡銘における干支と作鏡年月日の硏究

Abstract

Inscriptions on the dated mirror are usually mentioned with a date of casting and its sign of the Chinese sexagenary cycle, Gan-zhi 干支, but a Gan-zhi in the mirror inscription does not always agree with a Gan-zhi on the calendar. As a result of the investigation, when the quality of a mirror which craftsmen planned was harmonious with the characteristic of Yin-yang Wu-xing 陰陽五行 about the Gan-zhi of the date of casting, they inscribed the Gan-zhi as it was ; but when unharmonious, they chose another Gan-zhi which could more strengthen and heighten the quality than former Gan-zhi. In addition to that, craftsmen used a good combination of Gan-zhis about month and day, which was closely linked to each other but could never exist at the same time ; on the other hand, they wrote a specified Gan-zhi which was placed on the exactly opposite position and meaning from the Gan-zhi of the date of casting. These tendencies were especially marked on the mirrors made from the end of the Later Han to the Wu, and a number of craftsmen who preferred to write these peculiar Gan-zhis were the masters of Wu school who came mostly from Kuai-Ji Shan-Yin 會稽山陰. I think that those Gan-zhis and dates were selected under the great law of Yin-yang Wu-xing, about the secrets of which only a grand master could learn and practice with his fine crafts of casting, probably related to arts of alchemist or Taoist. And then they attempted to realize the essential qualities of Heavenly Deities in their inscriptions, and aimed to produce a synergy effect on the phrase of Gan-zhis and dates under the law of Yin-yang Wu-xing.