李白の作詩の年代

Abstract

Whereas the works of certain T'ang poets lend themselves to precise dating, others do not. In cases where detailed biographies are available, the task is not a difficult one; but when the biographies abound in unclear points, it often is. Although the biographical details of the life of Li Po (701-762) are comparatively well-known, there are varying interpretations concerning the dating of his works. This paper treats of three of the poet's pieces in an attempt to establish their correct dates of composition. The first is "Setting Out Early from Pai-ti-ch'eng" 早發白帝城 (Obata, p. 98). Until recently it has been assigned the date 725, when the young poet left his native Szechwan. More recent research by Huang Hsi-kuei 黃錫珪 (d. 1941) has revealed, however, that the poem was probably written in 759 when the poet was returning home east from Wu-shan 巫山. The author here concurs with the late Aoki Masaru 靑木正兒 in considering Huang Hsi-kuei's dating correct. The second poem is Li Po's "Song to the O-mei Mountain Moon" 峨眉山月歌 (Obata, p. 61). This seven-character chüeh-chü has been assigned the same traditional date of 725 as the poem above. There is, however, another poem by Li Po, a seven-character ku-shih, on the same theme: "Song to the O-mei Mountain Moon--Seeing Off the Szechwanese Monk, Yen, upon Entering the Middle Capital" 峨眉山月歌送蜀儈晏入中京. In as much as Ch'ang-an was given the name Chung-ching or 'Middle Capital' in 757, only to be renamed Hsiching or 'Western Capital' in 761, the work must have been written in this five-year period. The recent scholars, Chan Ying 詹鍈 and Huang Hsi-kuei, have dated the poem 759 and 760 respectively. The similarity in theme and treatment between this latter poem and the seven-character chüeh-chü lead the author to believe that the chüehchü dates from the same period. The third poem is the seven-character chüeh-chü, "Gazing at T'ienmen Mountain" 望天門山. Huang and Chan assign the dates 754 and 743 to the work. Yet there is another poem by Li Po entitled "Presented to My Uncle, the Inspector of Tang-t'u, Yang-ping" 獻從叔當塗宰陽氷--Tang-t'u being the district where T'ien-men Mountain is located--for which the two scholars agree on a 762 date of composition. This latter piece contains the line, "The moon holds the T'ienmen dawn in its mouth" 月啣天門曉. This would seem to lend support to a 762 dating for the former work also. "Gazing at T'ien-men Mountain" contains the line, "Alone, a single sail emerging from near the sun" 孤帆一片日邊來. Li Po uses the phrase jih-pien 日邊, or 'near the sun', a total of six times in his poetry. It is the author's view, however, that in this poem does Li Po use the term to refer to the place where the emperor resides. Presumably the poet wrote the verse late on in life while thinking back nostalgically to his years (743-744) spent in the bustling capital of Ch'angan. In summary, the author feels that these three poems traditionally assigned to Li Po's early period should be reassigned to his final years.