疾走する逸民 : 郭璞「江賦」の敍法

Abstract

Jiang fu (Rhapsody of the Long River), writtten by Guo Pu who lived from the end of the West Jin period to the beginning of the East Jin period, not only imitates the style of Han fu (rhapsodies written in the Han dynasty) for example by marshalling onomatopoeic words and many names of things in four syllables, but also emphasizes it. Such a style was made possible by the writer's extensive knowledge of Chinese characters and natural history. However, the conscious imitation of Han fu is too artificial, almost making the reader feel pitiful. "Jiang fu" does not revive such powerful atmospheres as those in Mei Cheng's fu and Si-ma Xiang-ru's fu. It is the last long fu of rivers and seas that imitates the Han fu style before the Tang dynasty. In spite of its imitative style, we can find some new attempts in it, such as the appearance of many strange animate things, including monsters from "Shan-hai Jing (the book about mountains and seas)", vivid descriptions of fish, water fowls, and plants, as well as the representation of a fairly new world found in the new scriptures of Taoism in those days. These strange creatures and scenes had never been described in many previous rhapsodies of rivers and seas. Gazing at them must have shaken the author's thoughts, or perhaps he was so free from conservative thought that he could gaze at them. At any rate, he depicted a more fantastic scene in the last part of "Jiang fu". The author describes a boat pulling out at the risk of the rower's life, as fast as the rosy morning haze spreads through the sky, running away to a world where there are no signs of imperial domination, to complete freedom. The rower at last acquires a life as a hermit, in this life. After his river fishing, he goes home at night, beating the side of his boat, singing a song, quite satisfied and proud of himself, taking nature for a friend, and able to enter a peaceful eternal sleep. "Jiang fu" describes a man turning his back upon the core and looking towards the periphery with great joy, something that many previous rhapsodies of rivers and seas had never described. Furthermore, he is depicted as running away at full speed, full of a sort of vigour. After "Jiang fu", the descriptions of hermit's lives in the literature of the Six dynasties are almost too quiet and refined, except for Tao Yuan-ming's text. In the sense that it describes the hermit's life just before being taken into the Six dynasties' aesthetics, "Jiang fu" can be said to be a monumental text.