蘇秦列傳の成立

Abstract

Su Qin 蘇秦 is one of the most prominent figures of the Warring States Period. There are, however, glaring contradictions in the biography devoted to him in the Shiji (『史記』蘇秦列傳). These contradictions gave rise to controversies around Su Qin from early on. Some scholars went so far as to claim that all the accounts associated with Su Qin were pure fiction. Analyses of the Zhanguo zonghengjia shu 戰國縱橫家書 from the tomb in Mawangdui 馬王堆, which was discovered in 1973, have facilitated the study of Su Qin. On the one hand, it now seems to be generally agreed that Su Qin was engaged in a plot against Qi 齊 in the 280s BCE, there are still some scholars who, on the other hand, argue for the accuracy of the Shiji. The problems involving Su Qin are still not completely resolved. In this paper, I will argue that the cause of these problems lies in the lack of understanding of the historical development of the images of Su Qin. From this perspective, this paper will examine the editorial process of Su Qin's biography by analyzing the Shiji and other texts such as the Zhanguoce 戰國策. The story of Su Qin in his biography roughly falls into two parts. The first part narrates Su Qin's success in his official career.In this part, Su Qin persuaded the sovereigns of the six states to ally with one another, thus forming the vertical alliance (hezong 合從) which was to counteract Qin 秦. He was conferred a fief as the Lord of Wu‘an (Wu'an jun 武安君) for this accomplishment. The second part recounts Su Qin's conspiracy against Qi and his assassination. I propose that the latter narrative, in which Su Qin is involved in the fall of Qi, was created at the end of the Warring States Period while the former was invented later in the Han Dynasty. The author of the Shiji adopted these two narratives, using them as a framework into which details of Su Qin's biography were inserted. According to this analysis, it is impossible to claim that Su Qin's biography has a factual basis. However, it is not fair to blame the author of the Shiji for having adopted unreliable information about Su Qin. On the contrary, his biography provides substantial and valuable information for scholars to trace the change of Su Qin's images in history.