Yamatai Yamatai-koku (邪馬台国) | |
|---|---|
| c. 1st century–c. 3rd century | |
| Capital | Yamato (Modern-day part ofNara Prefecture) |
| Common languages | Proto-Japonic |
| Government | Monarchy |
| King/Queen | |
• c. 180–c. 248 AD | QueenHimiko |
• c. 248 AD | Unknown king |
• c. 248–? AD | QueenToyo |
• ?–367 | QueenTaburatsuhime [jp](disputed) |
| History | |
• Established | c. 1st century |
• Disestablished | c. 3rd century |
Yamatai orYamatai-koku(邪馬台国)(c. 1st century –c. 3rd century) is theSino-Japanese name of an ancient country inWa (Japan) during the lateYayoi period(c. 1,000 BCE –c. 300 CE). TheChinese textRecords of the Three Kingdoms first recorded the name as/*ja-maB-də̂/ (邪馬臺)[1] or/*ja-maB-ʔit/ (邪馬壹) (using reconstructedEastern Han Chinese pronunciations)[1][2] followed by the character國 for "country", describing the place as the domain of Priest-QueenHimiko (卑弥呼) (diedc. 248 CE). Generations of Japanese historians, linguists, and archeologists have debated where Yamatai was located and whether it was related to the laterYamato (大和国).[3][4][5]
%2c_297.jpg)
The oldest accounts of Yamatai are found in the official Chinese dynasticTwenty-Four Histories for the 1st- and 2nd-centuryEastern Han dynasty, the 3rd-centuryWei kingdom, and the 6th-centurySui dynasty.
The c. 297 CERecords of Wèi (traditional Chinese:魏志), which is part of theRecords of the Three Kingdoms (三國志), first mentions the countryYamatai, usually spelled as邪馬臺 (/*ja-maB-də̂/), written instead with the spelling邪馬壹 (/*ja-maB-ʔit/), orYamaichi in modern Japanese pronunciation.[3]
MostWei Zhi commentators accept the邪馬臺 (/*ja-maB-də̂/) transcription in later texts and dismiss this initial spelling using壹 (/ʔit/) meaning "one" (theanti-fraud character variant for一 'one') as a miscopy, or perhaps anaming taboo avoidance, of臺 (/dʌi/) meaning "platform; terrace." This history describes ancient Wa based upon detailed reports of 3rd-century Chinese envoys who traveled throughout theJapanese archipelago:
Going south by water for twenty days, one comes to the country of Toma, where the official is calledmimi and his lieutenant,miminari. Here there are about fifty thousand households. Then going toward the south, one arrives at the country of Yamadai, where a Queen holds her court. [This journey] takes ten days by water and one month by land. Among the officials there are theikima and, next in rank, themimasho; then themimagushi, then thenakato. There are probably more than seventy thousands households. (115, tr. Tsunoda 1951:9)
TheWei Zhi also records that in 238 CE, Queen Himiko sent an envoy to the court of Wei emperorCao Rui, who responded favorably:[3]
We confer upon you, therefore, the title 'Queen of Wa Friendly to Wei', together with the decoration of the gold seal with purple ribbon. ...As a special gift, we bestow upon you three pieces of blue brocade with interwoven characters, five pieces of tapestry with delicate floral designs, fifty lengths of white silk, eight taels of gold, two swords five feet long, one hundred bronze mirrors, and fifty catties each of jade and of red beads. (tr. Tsunoda 1951:14-15)
The ca. 432 CEBook of the Later Han (traditional Chinese:後漢書) says the Wa kings lived in the country of Yamatai (邪馬臺國):[4]
The Wa dwell on mountainous islands southeast of Han [Korea] in the middle of the ocean, forming more than one hundred communities. From the time of the overthrow of Chaoxian [northern Korea] by Emperor Wu (B.C. 140-87), nearly thirty of these communities have held intercourse with the Han [dynasty] court by envoys or scribes. Each community has its king, whose office is hereditary. The King of Great Wa [Yamato] resides in the country of Yamadai. (tr. Tsunoda 1951:1)
TheBook of Sui (traditional Chinese:隋書), finished in 636 CE, records changing the capital's name from theYamatai recorded in the Book of Wei, toYamadai (traditional Chinese:邪靡堆,Middle Chinese:/jiamuɑtuʌi/; interpreted asYamato (Japanese logographic spelling大和):
Wa is situated in the middle of the great ocean southeast of Baekje and Silla, three thousandli away by water and land. The people dwell on mountainous islands. ...The capital isYamadai, known in the Wei history asYamatai. The old records say that it is altogether twelve thousandli distant from the borders ofLelang andDaifang prefectures, and is situated east ofKuaiji and close to Dan'er. (倭國在百濟・新羅東南、水陸三千里、於大海之中、依山島而居。... 都於邪靡堆、則魏志所謂邪馬臺者也。古云、去樂浪郡境及帶方郡並一萬二千里、在會稽之東、與儋耳相近。) (81, tr. Tsunoda 1951:28)
TheHistory of the Northern Dynasties, completed 643-659 CE, contains a similar record, but transliterates the nameYamadai using a different character with a similar pronunciation (traditional Chinese:邪摩堆).
The first Japanese books, such as theKojiki orNihon Shoki, were mainly written in a variant ofClassical Chinese calledkanbun. The first texts actually in the Japanese language used Chinese characters, calledkanji in Japanese, for their phonetic values. This usage is first seen in the 400s or 500s to spell out Japanese names, as on theEta Funayama Sword or theInariyama Sword. This gradually formalized over the 600s and 700s into theMan'yōgana system, a rebus-like transcription that uses specifickanji to represent Japanesephonemes. For instance,man'yōgana spells the Japanesemoraka using (among others) the character加, which means "to add", and was pronounced as/kˠa/ inMiddle Chinese and adopted into Japanese with the pronunciationka. Irregularities within this awkward system led Japanese scribes to develop phonetically regularsyllabaries. The newkana were graphic simplifications of Chinese characters. For instance,ka is writtenか inhiragana andカ inkatakana, both of which derive from theMan'yōgana 加 character (hiragana from the cursive form of the kanji, and katakana from a simplification of the kanji).
The c. 712Kojiki (古事記, "Records of Ancient Matters") is the oldest extant book written in Japan. The "Birth of the Eight Islands" section phonetically transcribesYamato as夜麻登, pronounced inMiddle Chinese as/jiaHmˠatəŋ/ and used to represent theOld Japanese moraeya ma to2 (see alsoMan'yōgana#chartable). TheKojiki records theShintoist creation myth that the godIzanagi and the goddessIzanami gave birth to theŌyashima (大八州, "Eight Great Islands") of Japan, the last of which was Yamato:
Next they gave birth to Great-Yamato-the-Luxuriant-Island-of-the-Dragon-Fly, another name for which is Heavenly-August-Sky-Luxuriant-Dragon-Fly-Lord-Youth. The name of "Land-of-the-Eight-Great-Islands" therefore originated in these eight islands having been born first. (tr. Chamberlain 1919:23)
Chamberlain (1919:27) notes this poetic name "Island of the Dragon-fly" is associated with legendaryEmperor Jimmu, whose honorific name includes "Yamato", asKamu-yamato Iware-biko.
The 720Nihon Shoki (日本書紀, "Chronicles of Japan") transcribesYamato with the Chinese characters耶麻騰, pronounced inMiddle Chinese as/jiamˠadəŋ/ and inOld Japanese asya ma to2 orya ma do2. In this version of the Eight Great Islands myth,Yamato is born second instead of eighth:
Now when the time of birth arrived, first of all the island of Ahaji was reckoned as the placenta, and their minds took no pleasure in it. Therefore it received the name of Ahaji no Shima. Next there was produced the island of Oho-yamato no Toyo-aki-tsu-shima. (tr. Aston 1924 1:13)
The translator Aston notes a literal meaning for the epithet ofToyo-aki-tsu-shima of "rich harvest's" (or "rich autumn's") "island" (i.e. "Island of Bountiful Harvests" or "Island of Bountiful Autumn").
The c. 600-759Man'yōshū (万葉集, "Myriad Leaves Collection") transcribes various pieces of text using not the phoneticman'yōgana spellings, but rather a logographic style of spelling, based on the pronunciation of the kanji using the native Japanese vocabulary of the same meaning. For instance, the nameYamato is sometimes spelled as山 (yama, "mountain") +蹟 (ato, "footprint; track; trace").Old Japanese pronunciation rules caused the soundyama ato to contract to justyamato.
According to the Chinese recordTwenty-Four Histories, Yamatai was originally ruled by the shamanessQueen Himiko. The other officials of the country were also ranked under the queen, with the highest position calledikima, followed bymimasho, thenmimagushi, and the lowest-ranking position ofnakato. According to the legends, Himiko lived in a palace with 1,000 female handmaidens and one male servant who would feed her. This palace was most likely located at the site ofMakimuku inNara prefecture. She ruled for most of the known history of Yamatai.
After Queen Himiko died, an unknown king became ruler of the country for a short period, and thenQueen Toyo reigned before Yamatai disappears from historical records.
According to Japanese historianWakai Toshiaki [jp] (若井敏明), theYamato Kingship collapsed Yamatai in 367, killing its last ruler, QueenTaburatsuhime [jp] (田油津媛).[6]
Modern JapaneseYamato (大和) descends fromOld JapaneseYamatö orYamato2, which has been associated withYamatai. The latterumlaut orsubscript diacritics distinguish two vocalic types within the proposed eight vowels ofNara period (710-794)Old Japanese (a,i,ï,u,e, ë,o, andö, seeJōdai Tokushu Kanazukai), which merged into the five modern vowels (a,i,u,e, ando).
During theKofun period (250-538) whenkanji were first used in Japan,Yamatö was written with theateji 倭 forWa, the name given to "Japan" by Chinese writers using a character meaning "docile, submissive". During theAsuka period (538-710) when Japanese place names were standardized into two-character compounds, the spelling ofYamato was changed to大倭, adding theprefix大 ("big; great").
Following the ca. 757 graphic substitution of和 ("peaceful") for倭 ("docile"), the nameYamato was spelled大和 ("great harmony"), using theClassical Chinese expression大和 (pronounced inMiddle Chinese as/dɑHɦuɑ/, as used inYijing 1, tr. Wilhelm 1967:371: "each thing receives its true nature and destiny and comes into permanent accord with the Great Harmony.")
The early Japanese texts above give three spellings ofYamato inkanji:夜麻登 (Kojiki),耶麻騰 (Nihon Shoki), and山蹟 (Man'yōshū). TheKojiki andNihon Shoki use Sino-Japaneseon'yomi readings ofya夜 "night" orya orja耶 (an interrogativesentence-final particle in Chinese),ma麻 "hemp", andto登 "rise; mount" ordo騰 "fly; gallop". In contrast, theMan'yōshū uses Japanesekun'yomi readings ofyama山 "mountain" andato跡 "track; trace". As noted further above,Old Japanese pronunciation rules causedyama ato to contract toyamato.
The early Chinese histories above give three transcriptions ofYamatai:邪馬壹 (Wei Zhi),邪馬臺 (Hou Han Shu), and邪摩堆 (Sui Shu). The first syllable is consistently written with邪 "a place name", which was used as ajiajie graphic-loan character for耶, an interrogative sentence-final particle, and for邪 "evil; depraved". The second syllable is written with馬 "horse" or摩 "rub; friction". The third syllable ofYamatai is written in one variant with壹 "faithful, committed", which is also financial form of一, "one", and more commonly using臺 "platform; terrace" (cf.Taiwan 臺灣) or堆 "pile; heap". Concerning the transcriptional difference between the邪馬壹 spelling in theWei Zhi and the邪馬臺 in theHou Han Shu, Hong (1994:248-9) citesFuruta Takehiko [ja] that邪馬壹 was correct.Chen Shou, author of the ca. 297Wei Zhi, was writing about recent history based on personal observations;Fan Ye, author of the ca. 432Hou Han Shu, was writing about earlier events based on written sources. Hong says theSan Guo Zhi uses壹 ("one") 86 times and臺 ("platform") 56 times, without confusing them.
During the Wei period,臺 was one of their most sacred words, implying a religious-political sanctuary or the emperor's palace. The characters邪 and馬 mean "evil; depraved" and "horse", reflecting the contempt Chinese felt for a barbarian country, and it is most unlikely that Chen Shou would have used a sacred word after these two characters. It is equally unlikely that a copyist could have confused the characters, because in their old form they do not look nearly as similar as in their modern printed form. Yamadai was Fan Yeh's creation. (1994:249)
He additionally cites Furuta that theWei Zhi,Hou Han Shu, andXin Tang Shu histories use at least 10 Chinese characters to transcribe Japaneseto, but臺 is not one of them.
Inhistorical Chinese phonology, theModern Chinese pronunciations differ considerably from the original 3rd-7th century transcriptions from a transitional period between Archaic orOld Chinese and Ancient orMiddle Chinese. The table below contrasts Modern pronunciations (inPinyin) with differing reconstructions of Early Middle Chinese (Edwin G. Pulleyblank 1991), "Archaic" Chinese (Bernhard Karlgren 1957), and Middle Chinese (William H. Baxter 1992). Note that Karlgren's "Archaic" is equivalent with "Middle" Chinese, and his "yod"palatal approximanti̯ (which some browsers cannot display) is replaced with the customaryIPAj.
| Chinese pronunciations | ref:Japanese pronunciations | |||||
| Characters (ja) | Modern Chinese | Middle Chinese | Early Middle Chinese | "Archaic" Chinese | Old Japanese | Modern Japanese |
| 邪馬臺 (邪馬臺) | yémǎtái | yæmæXdoj | jiamaɨ'dəj | jama:t'ḁ̂i | yamatai ? | yamatai |
| 邪摩堆 (邪摩堆) | yémóduī | yæmatwoj | jiamatwəj | jamuâtuḁ̂i | ? | yamatai |
| 大和 | dàhé | dajHhwaH | dajhɣwah | d'âiɣuâ | ?(yamato2) | dai-wa (yamato) |
Roy Andrew Miller describes the phonological gap between these Middle Chinese reconstructions and the Old JapaneseYamatö.
TheWei chih account of the Wo people is chiefly concerned with a kingdom which it calls Yeh-ma-t'ai, Middle Chinese i̯a-ma-t'ḁ̂i, which inevitably seems to be a transcription of some early linguistic form allied with the word Yamato. The phonology of this identification raises problems which after generations of study have yet to be settled. The final-ḁ̂i of the Middle Chinese form seems to be a transcription of some early form not otherwise recorded for the final-ö of Yamato. (1967:17-18)
While most scholars interpret邪馬臺 as a transcription of pre-Old Japaneseyamatai, Miyake (2003:41) citesAlexander Vovin that Late Old Chineseʑ(h)a maaʳq dhəə邪馬臺 represents a pre-Old Japanese form of Old Japaneseyamato2 (*yamatə). Tōdō Akiyasu reconstructs two pronunciations for䑓 –dai < Middledǝi < Old *dǝg andyi <yiei < *d̥iǝg – and reads 邪馬臺 asYamai.[citation needed]
Theetymology ofYamato, like those of many Japanese words, remains uncertain. While scholars generally agree thatYama- signifies Japan's numerousyama山 "mountains", they disagree whether -to < -tö signifies跡 "track; trace",門 "gate; door",戸 "door",都 "city; capital", or perhaps所 "place". Bentley (2008) reconstructs underlyingWa's endonym *yama-tǝ(ɨ) asunderlying the transcription 邪馬臺's pronunciation *ja-maˀ-dǝ > *-dǝɨ.[7]
The location of Yamatai-koku is one of the most contentious topics inJapanese history. Generations of historians have debated "the Yamatai controversy" and have hypothesized numerous localities, some of which are fanciful likeOkinawa (Farris 1998:245). General consensus centers around two likely locations of Yamatai, either northernKyūshū orYamato Province in theKinai (Kinki) region of centralHonshū. Imamura describes the controversy.
The question of whether the Yamatai Kingdom was located in northern Kyushu or central Kinki prompted the greatest debate over the ancient history of Japan. This debate originated from a puzzling account of the itinerary from Korea to Yamatai inWei-shu. The northern Kyushu theory doubts the description of distance and the central Kinki theory the direction. This has been a continuing debate over the past 200 years, involving not only professional historians, archeologists and ethnologists, but also many amateurs, and thousands of books and papers have been published. (1996:188)
The location of ancient Yamatai-koku and its relation with the subsequentKofun-era Yamatopolity remains uncertain. In 1989, archeologists discovered a giant Yayoi-era complex at theYoshinogari site inSaga Prefecture, which was thought to be a possible candidate for the location of Yamatai. Some scholars, most notablySeijo University historian Takehiko Yoshida, interpret Yoshinogari as evidence for the Kyūshū Theory for a reason of the site's scale and location which near Wei. On the other hand, many others support the Kinki Theory based on Yoshinogari clay vessels and the early development of Kofun, and the continuity of locations with the Yamato polity in the Kinki region.[8] (Saeki 2006).
The recent archeological discovery of a largestilt house suggests that Yamatai-koku was located near Makimuku inSakurai, Nara (Anno. 2009). Makimuku has also revealed wooden tools such as masks and a shield fragment. A large amount of pollen that would have been used to dye clothes was also found at the site of Makimuku. Clay pots and vases were also found at the site of Makimuku similar to ones found in other prefectures of Japan. Another site at Makimuku supporting the theory that Yamatai once existed there is, the possible burial site of QueenHimiko at theHashihaka burial mound. Himiko was the ruler of Yamatai from c. 180 C.E.- c. 248 C.E.
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
