「郭璞」說話の形成

Abstract

This dissertation's purpose is to examine, through the stories about Guo Pu (276-324), how people of that era related stories of the strange. Because Guo Pu was accomplished in the arts of the five primary elements, astronomy, and divination, he was prone to being associated with the strange. But that was not enough to originate the anecdotes about him practicing sorcery, and even becoming an immortal. Contemporary social factors were closely involved in the process by which tales about Guo Pu were told and evolved. Here I focus on the Eastern Jin 東晉 dynasty revival and Wang Dun's 王敦 rebellion as those factors. Briefly the events are as follows. 1. Wang Dao 王導, a meritorious retainer of the revival, manipulated public opinion and used Guo Pu's divination to advocate the legitimacy of Emperor Yuan's 元帝 ascension to the throne. Guo Pu was appraised as being indisputably superior to Jing Fang 京房 and Guan Lu 管輅 as the person who spoke for the Divine Will. It was here that Guo Pu's image as an infallible diviner came into being. 2. Wang Dun, who had been involved in the ascension of Emperor Yuan, attempted to exploit Guo Pu's divination but killed Guo Pu when he failed to meet with his expected success. After the quelling of Wang Dun's rebellion there were discussions over the punishment of those involved, and on those occasions Guo Pu was seen as representative of the people who had been compelled to serve Wang Dun. Guo Pu was further portrayed as a sorcerer who had transcended even death, which was based on his image as a diviner acquired in the revival period during Emperor Yuan's reign. This image of a superhuman Guo Pu having come into being, that image took on a life of its own and spawned the kind of absurd tales that appear in the Sou Shen Ji 搜神記. At the same time, the original intent for talking about Guo Pu was forgotten.