漢魏六朝における｢銘｣

Abstract

Ming, one of the many genres in Chinese literature, is believed to have been developed during the latter Han 後漢 dynasty. However, its origin can actually be traced much earlier to inscriptions on bronzeware in the Chou 周 dynasty. In those days, bronzeware was only produced for special reasons because it was an invaluable metal, and ming recorded the circumstances under which a bronzeware was produced. Normally a piece of bronzeware was made to register the conferment or ownership of territory. Such function gradually faded out in the Ch'un-ch'iu 春秋 period to give way to ming as a literary genre for eulogical purpose. Wen-hsin-tiao-lung 文心雕龍, a milestone of literary criticism in the Six Dynasties 六朝, extolled the Chin 晉 poet Chang Tsai 張載's Chien-ko-ming 劍閣銘 because it included a chen 箴 to add specially the function of admonition to ming. We can therefore deduce that other mings of the time did not have the function of admonition as Wen-hsin-tiao-lung praised Chang's attempt as an innovatory one. Actually the function of admonition did not continue for very long. Pao Chao 鮑照, about a century and a half after Chang Tsai, laid more emphasis on using ming as a means of expression or description of Nature. His work Shih-fan-ming 石帆銘 was a clear example of such an attempt. About another century later, in Yu Hsin 庚信's ming, the tendency towards expression became even stronger. Similar trend can also be seen in poetry. Pei 碑 is a similar genre to ming in terms of literary style. The fundamental difference between them is in the material on which they are engraved. While pei can be carved on essentially any stones, special attention must be paid to the origin of the stones or bronze used in ming. It was Pan Ku 班固who contributed most to establishing ming as one of the styles of literature in the Latter Han dynasty. His Feng-Yen-jan-shan-ming 封燕然山銘 consisted only of thirty-five words, however it had a preface which was more than seven times longer. The preface contained a lot of historical details whereas the ming existed only as a summary at the end. This piece of ming was not significant by itself. The point is rather in the preface and the relation between the ming and the preface. Probably Pan-Ku was the first to create this form with an elaborate and well composed preface. And his work had become the standard form for ming and pei. Perhaps he composed ming to demonstrate his versatile talents not only in history or fu 賦, but also in ming. justifying his betrayal to the Ming 明 dynasty were received warmly at his time. One reason to explain this phenomenon was that he was only one of the many intellectuals who had done so.