Oldest manuscript of the Confucian Analects discovered in Japan
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Article by Eiichi Miyashiro in The Asahi Shimbun (9/27/20):
"Oldest writing about teachings of Confucius found in Japan"
The manuscript of a compilation of commentaries on Confucian teachings produced by Chinese scholar Huan Kan (488-545) bears a mark suggesting ownership by the Fujiwara clan. (Provided by Keio University)
Selections from the article:
A manuscript of commentaries about Confucianism written apparently between the sixth and early seventh centuries in China was confirmed in Japan, a discovery one scholar described as “invaluable.”
…
The Confucian Analects, compiled by disciples after the death of the philosopher (ca 551 B.C. to ca 479 B.C.), is a collection of sayings and dialogues on his views on morality, education and politics.
…
The manuscript is a compilation of commentaries, known as Lunyu Yishu (the elucidation of the meaning of the Confucian Analects), put together by Huang Kan, a Confucian scholar of Liang (502-557), during the Northern and Southern dynasties period.
All manuscripts of Lunyu Yishu had been lost in China by around the 12th century, according to experts.
…
The manuscript concerns Vol. 5 of Lunyu Yishu. It consists of 20 papers pasted together in the shape of a scroll measuring 27.3 centimeters long.
Keio University bought the manuscript from an antiquarian bookshop in 2017. In fiscal 2018, the university formed a research team of experts in various fields, including bibliography, Chinese literature, Japanese literature and Japanese history, to determine the origin of the manuscript.
Based on the shape of the characters, the team concluded that the manuscript was most likely written between the Northern and Southern dynasties period and the Sui Dynasty (581-618).
They also believe it was brought to Japan through Japanese missions sent to the Sui Dynasty and Tang Dynasty (618-907) in China.
The manuscript bears a mark showing that it was in the possession of the Fujiwara clan, a highly influential family with close ties to emperors during the Nara Period (714-784) and the Heian Period (794-1185).
Written accounts stated that the manuscript was kept by a court noble assigned to handle official documents in the Edo Period.
…
“The photo of the ownership mark and handwritten monogram on the manuscript are almost identical to those on ancient Chinese historical records in the collection of the Tokyo National Museum,” he said. “If the authenticity of the manuscript is established, it will be a discovery equal to a national treasure.”
Until the recent discovery, the world’s oldest manuscript of the Confucian Analects originated from the Song Dynasty between the end of the 12th century and early 13th century. The oldest one in Japan dated back to the latter part of the Kamakura Period (1185-1333).
The newly found manuscript is scheduled to go on display at the Marunouchi main store of Maruzen Bookstore in Tokyo from Oct. 7 to Oct. 13.
Selected readings
- "New evidence for the development of hiragana?" (11/29/15)
- "Chinese transcriptions of Indic terms in Buddhist translations of the 2nd c. AD" (4/20/20)
- Nubui Kuduchi, "Quick Links: Archaeology, and some other news" (1/20/12)
[h.t. Nelson Goering, June Teufel Dreyer, and John Tkacik, and thanks to Joshua Fogel, via Keith Knapp]
Bathrobe said,
October 2, 2020 @ 9:23 pm
I'm sorry, I'm confused.
Oldest writing about teachings of Confucius found in Japan
It's unclear where "in Japan" is supposed to attach. The immediate reading is that the oldest writing about the teachings of Confucius was found in Japan. But as we read on it gets more confusing.
"A manuscript of commentaries about Confucianism written apparently between the sixth and early seventh centuries in China was confirmed in Japan"
"It is believed to be one of the oldest of any religious teaching written on paper, except for those of Buddhist scriptures, found in the country."
Ok. The oldest ones to be found in Japan.
"Manuscripts dating from about 50 B.C have been unearthed in China and North Korea."
So there are much older ones on the Asian continent. But then:
"Until the recent discovery, the world’s oldest manuscript of the Confucian Analects originated from the Song Dynasty between the end of the 12th century and early 13th century. The oldest one in Japan dated back to the latter part of the Kamakura Period (1185-1333)."
Huh?
"Until the recent discovery" implies that the date of the oldest dated manuscript in Japan has now been pushed back by centuries. (There is some quibbling in the article about what constitutes a manuscript of the Analects, but "until the recent discovery" makes it clear that the writer was including "commentaries" in the definition.)
But if manuscripts dating from about 50 B.C have been unearthed in China and North Korea, what the hell is this talking about?
When I read things like this, my first instinct is to doubt the ability of the translator to capture the nuances of the Japanese.
murawaki said,
October 2, 2020 @ 11:17 pm
Yes. In the original Japanese text, the phrases attached to the adjective "oldest" are clearly restrictive: 伝世品では (among heirlooms; not unearthed) and 紙の写本としては (among paper manuscripts; not bamboo strips).
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/32d4d8eb750abb855760552f07382eb034afb741
Bathrobe said,
October 2, 2020 @ 11:32 pm
This is a fairly common problem with translating from Japanese. I can only see the first paragraph of the original article online (it's behind a paywall), but it goes like this:
古代中国の思想家、孔子（こうし）（前５５１ごろ～前４７９）と弟子との対話などをまとめた「論語（ろんご）」の注釈書の一つ「論語義疏（ぎそ）（論語疏）」について、６～７世紀初めに中国で書かれたとみられる写本が日本で確認された。調査した慶応義塾大学を中心とする研究チームによれば、日本に伝わり、国内の寺社…
The problem is that the Japanese crams a lot of information into the lead, including the fact that Confucius was an ancient Chinese thinker, Confucius's dates, the nature of the commentary (dialogues with disciples), the name of the commentary 論語義疏 (Lunyu Yishu), and the fact that it was probably written in China in the 6th-early 7th centuries. The headline 論語「最古」の写本 遣唐使？で伝来、国内に保管 慶大が調査、６～７世紀か suggests that it is the "oldest", but puts this word in quote marks.
All of this has to be spun out at various parts in the article itself because English-speaking readers are not happy to read such top-heavy articles. In the process, information can get lost or presented in a misleading way.
I'm wondering whether "Until the recent discovery" is an unreflecting translation of the Japanese (something along the lines of これまでは…., 'until now' ?), which can't be used as is in English without distorting the meaning.
Bathrobe said,
October 2, 2020 @ 11:35 pm
Put up my most recent comment without having read murawaki's comment. Apologies and thanks for the link.
John Finkbiner said,
October 3, 2020 @ 10:08 am
I’m a bit confused by this sentence: “It consists of 20 papers pasted together in the shape of a scroll measuring 27.3 centimeters long”
Was it common to use 14 mm pieces of paper to make scrolls? Why?
David Marjanović said,
October 3, 2020 @ 12:42 pm
I suspect 27.3 cm, a reasonable height for a modern page, is the width of the scroll.
David C. said,
October 3, 2020 @ 9:21 pm
Height may been a more appropriate translation, rather than length. Scrolls are in presented "landscape", if you will. If you follow the link provided by murawaki above, you'll see how bits of the scroll were pasted together. The reader would start from the right, and follow the scroll to the left.
Josh Reyer said,
October 5, 2020 @ 3:28 am
The article that murawaki posted uses the word 縦 ("tate", meaning verticality, length, height). Certainly for a side-rolling scroll, the correct translation would be "width" (縦 in this case meaning "the direction the characters are written in"). The translator may have had in mind hanging scrolls when he translated it as "27.3 centimeters long". It may have been an American translator who just doesn't have a feel for metric, and just thought, "Sounds right." In any case, it was translated without thinking about what it said.
Most likely, Asahi Shimbun had it machine-translated, and then outsourced the "post-editing" on the cheap, and the post-editor didn't pick up on the mistake. Heck, it probably passed from Asahi to a translation company to a freelancer getting paid 3 yen per word, if he was lucky.
(Do I, a professional translator, sound bitter? Very well, I am bitter.)