古鏡研究一千年 : 中國考古學のパラダイム

Abstract

The paradigms of academic studies of China have changed greatly in each era. The study of ancient Chinese mirrors has a history of one thousand years going back to the Song dynasty, and this article aims to position these studies in terms of changes in the paradigms. During the Song and Ming dynasties, epigraphic studies such as the Bogu-tulu 博古圖録 from the Northern Song, the study of physical sciences such as the Mengxi Bitan 夢溪筆談 of Shen Kuo 沈括, the study as an antiquarian pastime of the literati of the Southern Song such as that in the Dongtian Qinglu 洞天清録 of Zhao Xihu 趙希鵠, and the bibliographic study of classified reference works regarding popular customs about ancient mirrors in medieval novels were all conducted, but the aim of each of these studies was vastly different. Epigraphy, which developed as a field of the Qing school of Evidential Learning 考證學, followed the methodology of the Bogu-tulu in recording findings and advanced the analysis of inscriptions, but the method of classification that was influenced by study of the Yijing 易學 of the Song dinasty was not continued. In contrast in 19th-century Japan, Aoyagi Tanenobu 青柳種信, of the National Learning 國學 school, recorded in great detail the figures of Former Han mirrors excavated from jar burials in the northern Kyushu region, and while he used many Song and Ming antiquarian works in his interpretations, he did not rely on contemporary epigraphic works. In Japan the study of ancient mirrors began in earnest with Tomioka Kenzo 富岡謙藏, who was well versed in epigraphy, employed archaeological typologies, and the archaeological study of greatly advanced with Umehara Sueji 梅原末治, who was a student of Tomioka. In the West the linguist Karlgren collected mirror inscriptions and made translations, and the cultural historic study of mirrors along with iconographic motifs advanced as a branch of Sinology. After the establishment of the modern Chinese state, archaeological excavations proceeded throughout China and it became possible to argue the dating and regional characteristics of mirrors with greater precision. In addition Western iconographic and phonology influenced Japanese research, producing a multiplicity of approaches. However, although in Japanese archaeology the tradition of research focusing on periodic variation on the basis of meticulous typological study is deeply ingrained, the future task is likely to be international cooperation that aims at other fields of study beyond archaeology.