中國古代の夜について --人閒の活動と鬼神の出現--

Abstract

This paper addresses the night in ancient China. In the case of ancient Japanese history, Miyake Kazuo offered the following four points about the night and the sensitivity of people in ancient Japan. First, daytime was a time for human activity, and the sense of sight predominated. Second, nighttime was a time for non-human beings, and the senses of hearing, smell, and touch predominated. Third, non-human beings began to become active in the evening. Fourth, non-humans beings retreat at dawn, and humans find signs of their presence. With reference to these findings, this paper examines the meaning of the night in ancient China from the point of view of human action and appearance of supernatural beings. First, in regard to human action, we find in the Zuozhuan 左傳 that the movement of armies, escapes, invasions, returns, and regicides take place at night. Most of these actions are those that should be conducted in silence or secretly, but a night attack might employ sound effectively to throw an enemy into confusion. Because these cases were irregular events and the Han dynasty prohibited people from going out at night without reason, it appears that actions conducted at night were regarded as outside the normal order. The second considers the appearances of non-human and supernatural beings. Emperor Wu of the Han conducted the rite worshiping Taiyi 泰一 and performed necromancy throughout the night. And nuo 儺 rites were performed with fire to exorcize pestilence on the final night of the year. Yamada Kenji indicated that exorcizing evil birds, such as the Guhuoniao 姑獲鳥 and Guiche 鬼車, which flew over at New Year's night and caused children to become sick, was related to the nuo. Because the evils of pestilence visited at night, it is thought that the ancient Chinese tried to exorcize them using fire to light the night. Furthermore, we find in the Zuozhuan and the Soushenji 搜神記 that ghosts and spirits often communicated with the living through dreams. It is clear from these facts that non-human beings appeared during nighttime in ancient China too. In addition, the concern shown sounds heard in the night, such as an owl's bleating, the cry of an orphan or Baosi 襃娰, or music played by supernatural beings on the banks of the Pu River 濮水, reveal that the predominance of the sense of hearing that operated in the night.