鄭鎭孫と「直說通略」(上)

Abstract

The five of the Quan-xiang ping-hua (全相平話) series which the Yu family (虞氏) in Jian-an (建安) published in Yuan period are written in colloquial style, and every page of them has an illustration, so people have regarded them as popular books. However, one important fact goes unrecognized. Considering not only them but also the Wu-dai-shi ping-hua (五代史平話) and the Xuan-he yi-shi (宣和遺事) which were published in the same period, under the rule of Dai-ön yeke Mongrol Ulus, it follows that people in the period could learn the Chinese history from the beginning of the world to Jin dynasty, using colloquial style. In 1321, about the same year of the publication of the Quan-xiang ping-hua series, an incumbent government official published another Chinese history book in colloquial style. The author is Zheng zhen-sun, and the title is the Zhi-shuo tong-lue. In the book, he used Chinese colloquial words, but in style, he used Mongolian grammar. Zheng zhen-sun had many friends and bosses who were government officials in the higher echelons came from Uighur. One of them was Seči'ül (薛昂夫) who was a representative separate arias writer. And another was a government who was concerned with the compilation of A History of Song (宋史), A History of Liao (遼史) and A History of Jin (金史). Zheng zhen-sun himself was an inspector (監察御史) who play a part of emperor's ears and eyes, and is also concerned with national publication project. Judging from these circumstances and material, it is probably safe to say that the Zhi-shuo tong-lüe was the Chinese history textbook edited for educating the Crown Prince Sidibala, and was published in commemoration of Sidibala's ascending Qa'an (emperor). Zheng zhen-sun left other two works. One is the Li-dai Shi-pu (歷代史譜), which put the history described in the Zhi-shuo tong-lüe into the form of a chart. The other is the Li-dai meng-qiu zuan-zhu (歷代蒙求纂註) whose contents are the verse comprised of about 250 phrase and its annotation. The verse was written for the purpose of easing the recitation of Chinese history. These two works differ in means, but they have the same purpose as the Zhi-shuo tong-lüe. They were written with the intention of commanding a panoramic view of history. According to these facts, these three works seem to make a set. Moreover, simple poems for revise of Chinese history were appended to many histories in this period. Then it follows that we reach the different conclusion from the commonly accepted view which says that the poems which were invariably inserted in the opening and the last of ping-hua textbook are the remains of the popular oral literature. I will introduce and examine the Zhi-shuo tong-lüe itself in the next number.