<論説>秦の墓制とその起源

Abstract

中国史上、最初の統一帝国となった秦については、都城や王陵などその壮大な文化様相はかなり明らかになってきたが、秦人自身の発生・発展・消滅の過程については、まだ解明されていない。本稿はそれを墓制から考察したものである。はじめに春秋戦国期の典型的な秦人墓を三つの側面から明らかにした。すなわち、副葬品、墓制の階層的構成、そして埋葬方式、とくにその屈葬形態である。これらを時間的に整理してみると、秦に独自の墓制は春秋時代にもっとも強く現れていたが、戦国早期から中期にかけて急速に薄れ、中原化していくことが判明した。次にこの独自の墓制をより広い視野から眺めてみた結果、伸展葬を伝統的に採用していた中原の墓制とは対照的に、屈葬を伝統的に続けていた甘粛東部地域の墓制にその起源が求められることがわかった。とくに、西周時代にさかのぼる甘粛毛家坪遺跡の文化様相は秦文化の直接の祖形と言えるものである。そして春秋戦国期における中原地域や周辺地域への秦の墓制の一時的な広がりは、秦が東遷してきた証左と言える。しかし、いったん強い影響を周囲に与えた秦人墓制は、天下統一へ向かう戦国後期から秦代にかけて、急速に弱まっていき、ついには失われる。これは帝国形成途上、墓制においても統一化を目指した秦の積極的な意図によるのである。

It has become fairly clear that the Chin (秦), the first dynasty of ancient China, had a grand culture with great capital city sites and royal tombs. But we hardly know anything of the origin of the Chin culture and people, their development, and their eclipse. In this paper I considered this problem using archaeological materials from burials. First I examined burials of the Chin in Chunqiu (春秋) and Zhanguo (戦国) periods focussing mainly on burial objects, rankings of the burial size and structure, and the form of burial-particularly contracted burials. I found Chin burials were most unique during the Chuqiu period, when almost all of the dead body was more strongly contracted and styles of grave goods were different from those of Zhongyuan (中原) culture. But in the Zhanguo period this gradually faded out and the form of burial became homogeneous with that of Zhongyuan Culture. Then I showed that the form of Chin burial had originated in Gansu (甘粛) district, in west China, where contracted burial had emerged long before it did in Zhongyuan district. The lower culture of the Maojiaping (毛家坪) site can be said to be direct prototype of the Chin, dating from as early as the Western Zhou (西周) period. In contrast, in Zhongyuan district, extended burial had been traditionally adopted until the Xizhou period, but it was superseded by contracted burial in the Chunqiu Zhanquo period. I consider that this phenomenon could have been brought about by Chin people moving to the east at that time. On the other hand, the loss of originality in burials could be regarded as an indispensable process in the construction of a great Chinese dynasty.