Title
The idea of kingship in ancient Chinese and Japanese mythologies: a comparative study
Advisor(s)
Murakami, F
Author(s)
Chan, Wai-yu.; 陳慧瑜.
Citation
Issued Date
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Rights
Chan, W. [陳慧瑜]. (2004). The idea of kingship in ancient Chinese and Japanese mythologies : a comparative study. (Thesis). University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.5353/th_b3122818 2004
http://hdl.handle.net/10722/51694
The author retains all proprietary rights, (such as patent rights) and the right to use in future works.
The Idea of Kingship in Ancient Chinese and Japanese Mythologies: A Comparative Study
Chan Wai Yu B.A. H K U
A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy at The University of Hong Kong
FEBRUARY 2004
DECLARATION
I declare
that
this
thesis
represents
my
own work,
except
where
due
acknowledgement is made, and that it has not been previously included in a thesis, dissertation or report submitted to this University or any other institution for a degree, diploma or other qualification.
Signature: Chan Wai Yu
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I owe thanks to the members of the Department of Japanese Studies, University of Hong Kong for their support and assistance with this work.
I would particularly
like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisors, Mr Takemichi Hara and Mr Fuminobu Murakami, for their support and help.
I would also like to thank Dr
Peter Cave, Mr. C.Y. Chan, Dr Yoshiko Nakano and Professor Kirsten Refsing of the Department of Japanese Studies, for their enlightening opinions and advice.
Abstract of thesis entitled The Idea of Kingship in Ancient Chinese and Japanese Mythologies: A Comparative Study Submitted by Chan Wai Yu for the degree of Master of Philosophy at the University of Hong Kong in February 2004
This thesis compares the corpuses of the ancient Chinese and Japanese mythic texts，examines the philosophies and ideologies on which the emperors obtained and established their power to sovereignty, the law and order of imperial rule, and thus tracks down the origin of such power.
I will analyze how the tradition of myths,
their historical as well as sociological functions shaped the political development and maturity of China and Japan at that time. First of all，in the Introduction I will state the purposes of my comparative study as well as the research methodology.
The emergence and definitions of Chinese
and Japanese myths will be discussed, on top of the political environment in each of the two neighboring empires.
The content and background information of the
myths selected will also be summarized. Focusing on the creation of myths, Chapter Two aims to demonstrate the process they help sustain and reinforce the sovereign rule. accounts in myths will be integrated and their importance deduced. will open the discussion of the second part of my thesis.
The genealogical Emperor myths
In Chapter Three, the
distinctions of the emperor myths will be examined. They are the miraculous birth myths, auspicious myths and myths narrating the moral deeds of the emperors.
In
Chapter Four, I will look into the state foundation myths, along with the ideas of
ming succession of rule. In my Conclusion，the historical background and the influential role of ancient myths will be tied together.
I will locate the political niche of such mythic records
within the Chinese and Japanese imperial rule, highlighting the similarities and differences also. (281 words)
The Idea of Kingship in Ancient Chinese and Japanese Mythologies: A Comparative Study
Chan Wai Yu (B.A. HKU)
A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy at The University of Hong Kong
F E B R U A R Y 2004
NOTE ON TRANSLATIONS AND STYLE
A l l translations in this work are my own except otherwise stated. A l l Chinese words are given in The honorifics for the names of Japanese deities，'mikoto, and 'kami\ are omitted in the thesis except for their first appearance and except when they appear in a translation.
iii
CONTENTS
Abstract Declaration
/
A cknowledgements
U
Note on Translations and Style Chapter One Introduction Definition of Myth Purpose of Research Approach Background of Chinese and Japanese Mythologies Political Development in Ancient China and Japan Chapter Two Creation Myths in China and Japan World Creation Human Creation Genealogy Chapter Three Emperor Myths I: Miraculous Birth, Augury and Virtue Miraculous Births Auspicious Myths Moral deeds of Emperors Chapter Four Emperor Myths II: Foundation and Succession State Foundation Myths Idea of Succession in Kingship
1
19
44
69
Chapter Five Conclusion
99
Appendix
104
Bibliography
108
iv
CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION
Definition of myth Myths are narratives about gods and the supernatural, world creation, natural phenomena, emperors and heroes (Ruthven 1976，p. 1). simply fantastic stories in their traditional sense.
However, myths are not
They generally refer to stories that
contribute to the elaboration of a cosmological system and to a cohesive social identity，for instance, explanations of origins and values, and legitimizations of authority1.
Myths demonstrate the primitive mind and logic of ancient people who
interpret facts in similar ways people of today interpret them; the only difference is that the results ancient people attained are much different from all that we know today because of their lack of knowledge and empirical evidence, therefore what have been considered supernatural in myth may simply be something commonly known today (Cassirer 1950，p. 7). Myths are stories handed down from the archaic period. As they are told and retold by successive generations, their contents may be interpreted differently or
1
Cited from Dictionary of the Social Sciences. Craig Calhoun, ed. Oxford University Press 2002. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Hong Kong University. 10 October 2004. http://www.oxfordreference.com.eproxv.lib.hkii.hk/views/ENfRY.html?subview=Mam&entrv=tl04.e 1133
even altered, and the message that the retellers told may not necessarily be the same message that the myth-makers intended their myths to convey.
In view of this,
Tudor suggests that a given account can be classified as myth by whether the myth-maker takes it, rightly or wrongly, as ‘hard fact’，and by the form into which it is put (Tudor 1972，p. 17).
In addition to Tudor's definition, one should also look at
whether the retellers took the myth, and whether he wanted the myth to be taken, as ‘hard fact’，in order to name a particular account ‘myth’. In the same vein as Tudor, I consider that, what function a particular account is made to serve is essential in the classification of myth.
Cuthbertson (1975，p. 156)
says that myth is the bond between 'miracle, mystery, and authority' and that myth is very important in legitimizing and maintaining political power, and may respond to the challenges of politics during the formative stages of social development. Friedrich and Brzezinski hold that myth is a narrative of a past incident from which a specific meaning can be developed to apply to the present situation, and that by this application of the specific meaning of such narratives，the authority of the ruling class or the person in power in a particular society can be reinforced (1965, pp. 91-93). Like Friedrich and Brzezinski, Levi-Strauss considers that myths are some past events, and that these past events may appear at times of social contradictions in
order to explain present and future situations.
He has developed a structural
approach by which different versions of a story are broken down into the shortest possible sentences and compared.
The similar elements contained in different
versions are grouped together and a deep stratum of meaning is thus unveiled.
And,
according to Levi-Strauss, although the content would be slightly different from time to time for different reasons, the structure of myth remains essentially unchanged, (cl963，pp. 229-230). In sum, I consider that myths are fantastic tales that are taken as 'hard facts' by their makers and retellers.
Because myths are written in a non-rational style of
writing that reject critical doubts, they are made possible to reinforce the absolute authority of the ruler over the ruled (Leach 1969, p. 7), and thus serve the political functions of legitimizing and strengthening political power. It should be noted that some stories that are generally considered ‘legend’，such as the miraculous birth of the founder of the Han dynasty, Liu Bang, and the miraculous birth of the Japanese prince regent Prince Shotoku, are also discussed here.
In folklore theory，a ‘legend，is a short traditional narrative about a person,
place, or object that really exists, existed, or is believed to have existed; even when it recounts a supernatural or highly unusual event，this is claimed to have occurred in
real life and is presented, or generally accepted, as true2.
According to this
definition, a legend is very similar to a myth in the sense that they both narrate supernatural events and that they are both taken to be true.
Thus, the main
difference of the two genres lies in whether the heroes are real persons.
However,
in the case of China and Japan, most of the myths are recorded in official histories, indicating precisely that the myths are believed to be true and the heroes are believed to be real persons.
Such being the case, the borderline between 'myth' and ‘legend,
is indistinct in the two countries.
Furthermore, according to the definition of myth
stated above, a myth serves the political functions of legitimizing and maintaining the power of the ruler.
I will show in later discussions that the stories about Liu
Bang and Shotoku did serve to legitimize and reinforce the power of the ruling authority.
Taken all these into account, I have included such stories in the category
of myth and discuss in this thesis.
Purpose of research There are a large number of comparative studies on various aspects of China and Japan，and many of them attempt to compare myths of the two countries, for
2
Cited from A Dictionary of English Folklore. Jacqueline Simpson and Steve Roud. Oxford University Press, 2000. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Hong Kong University. 11 October 2004. http://www.oxfQrdreference.com.eproxv.lib.hku.hk/views/ENTRY.html? subview=Main&entrv:=:t71 .e604
instance, creation myths and myths about natural phenomena of the two countries. Nonetheless，research on the political aspect of both mythologies hitherto is limited. In China, only a few researchers work on political myths.
K.C. Chang (1983)
demonstrates that ancient Chinese civilization was strongly politically oriented，with the study of ancient Chinese myths, rituals and art.
Sarali Allan (1981) uses a
structural approach to study ancient emperor myths and the transfer of rule in China. However, their works are limited solely to the study of Chinese myths.
Yan
Shaodang studies the influence of ancient Chinese literature on Japanese literature in his Zhongri Gudai Wenxue Guanxishi Gao (Draft history of the relationship between Chinese and Japanese ancient literature, 1987) and gives a comparison of Chinese and Japanese creation myths.
In his work, the absorption of Chinese civilization
and literature into ancient Japanese literature is convincingly demonstrated.
This is
certainly an enlightening and valuable discussion，yet his main concern is confined to the spread of ancient Chinese literature in Japan.
In the works of Ito Seiji (1979，
1997)，there are comparisons of emperor myths in China and Japan, but his interest lies in the anthropological aspect rather than the political one.
In Japan，myths in
the two great corpuses of myths namely Kojiki (Record of Ancient Matters, 712AD) and Nihon Shoki (also known as Nihongi; Chronicles of Japan, 720AD) are centred on the imperial house, so there is countless research on imperial myths and political
systems of Japan.
Yet still，very few have attempted to compare the imperial myths
of Japan with that of China. As such, there appears to be some space for doing research on this subject.
Approach In the following chapters, I will compare ancient myths that dealt with emperors in Japan and China.
I will focus on the political aspect of these myths and examine
the idea of kingship as reflected in Japanese and Chinese mythologies.
Myths
selected include creation myths which describe the origin of the country and its people, and which served political functions of legitimizing the authority of rule over the country.
Emperor myths and founding myths that can broadly be categorized
as political myths are also studied.
Emperor myths are myths that show how an
emperor was destined to rule，and founding myths are myths that tell the extraordinary deeds of the emperor-to-be which lead to the founding of a new dynasty.
I would especially emphasize on the comparison of the political functions
of such myths.
I hope to show how such myths reflect the antique idea of kingship
and locate them in the establishment of rules in ancient Japan and China. This study is mainly based on textual analysis of ancient myths in China and Japan.
I will examine the contents of myths to find out the similarities and
differences between myths of the two countries with a structural approach.
I will
break myths into the smallest elements，then demonstrate and compare their structures and patterns.
I will also analyze how these structures and patterns affect
the functions of myths in establishing the authority of ancient rulers in the two countries. The Chinese texts which this study refers to were mainly written between the Spring-and-Autumn period (722-481BC) and the Southern Dynasties (420-589AD). This period encompasses the long epoch of annexation and division of China (about 1300 years) during which China experienced vigorous dynastic changes 3 .
The end
of the rule of the Western Zhou Dynasty (1066-771BC) as a result of an attack by some northern feudal states, brought about the period of Eastern Zhou (770-403BC) and then the Spring-and-Autumn period.
Following was the Warring States period
(403-221BC) in which over a thousand of states sprang up into existence, and eventually only the powerful Qin remained and brought China into a new era (Eberhard 1950，pp. 30，47). By 221BC, Shi Huangdi (the First Emperor) of Qin had unified all the states and became the emperor of the whole China.
However,
the death of Shi Huangdi immediately gave rise to rebellions and the Qin was
3
Fan named the period from Eastern Zhou (770-403 BC) and Spring-and-Autumn period (722-481 BC) to the Warring States period (403-221BC) as the epoch of annexation (Fan 1965 vol.1 p. 156, 231). He called the period from the Three Kingdoms (220-265AD) to the Southern Dynasties (420-589AD) the epoch of division (1965 vol.2 p i 37，268, 356.)
replaced by the Han of which the founder was L i u Bang in 206BC.
There began a
rather long period of stability until 220AD when the Han Dynasty collapsed and brought about the division of China into the Three Kingdoms (220-265AD)，then the Western Jin Dynasty (265-316AD) which lasted for only 51 years，followed by the Eastern Jin (317_420AD) and the Sixteen States (304-439AD)，and finally the Southern and Northern Dynasties (420-589AD).
As the texts used in this study are
composed in this long period of dynastic changes, we may observe how myth served its function of legitimizing and maintaining the power of the ruler. As regards Japanese myths, the texts on which this study is based were mainly written around the first half of the eighth century when most myths of Japan were compiled.
Similarly, within this period，important changes were made in
government, society, state structure, leadership and the like.
The Taika Reform
(646AD), introduced only several decades earlier, put into practice a new system of land holding and taxation by which lands and serfs formerly owned by imperial princes and ministers were to become possessions of the tennd administration was introduced to consolidate and to make efficient the rule of the centralized government (Murdoch 1996，pp. 150-156).
In addition, in 672AD (the
year of Jinshin)，the year after the death of Tenchi Tenno, the extensive imperial war caused by the succession dispute between Prince Otomo (subsequently Kobun Tenno)
and Prince Oama (subsequently Temmu Tenno), necessitated a rock solid political foundation for the imperial house.
Furthermore, Japan in the early eighth century
was greatly influenced by Chinese works such as writing techniques, political as well as philosophical thinking.
Such being the case,
although the Chinese and Japanese texts used were written in different periods，they can be compared on the same level for they both represented a time of vigorous political change in the history of these two countries.
Background of Chinese and Japanese mythologies 1.
Influence of Chinese literary writings on Japan According to Yan Shaodang (1987), there was cultural interchange between
China and Japan during the 200 years since the seventh century.
By the year
712AD when the first complete documentary record Kojiki was compiled, Japan had already sent eight diplomatic and study missions to Tang China.
The ritsuryo
(statues and regulations) system, which constituted the backbone of Japanese government system during the Nara and the early Heian period, was a replica of Tang China's.
Chinese influence was not only confined to the political system, but
also extended to literary and philosophical development.
Yan convincingly
demonstrates how early Japanese literature was indebted to Chinese writings in
terms of writing techniques and mode of thinking.
Certainly, this is not to deny the
influence of other countries such as Korea and India on various aspects, but Chinese influence is no doubt the most important factor that contributed to the development of Japanese culture and civilization.
2.
Chinese sources
Yuan Ke, the foremost authority of Chinese mythology in the past forty years, notes that, for a long time, people had the perception that China had not a recognizable mythology, but that this is quite untrue.
He reasons that poets like
Homer or Hesiod of the west who retold ancient myths in their poems, were absent in China, resulting in the piecemeal and fragmented fashion of ancient Chinese myths.
Elements of myths were found in contexts of various types of works such
as literature, historical records, philosophical writings or even geographical treatises. These elements were interpreted literarily，historically or philosophically according to the contexts in which they were put and were seldom seen as myths as such, which is the second reason to account for the false notion that China lacks a recognizable mythology.
The third reason Yuan gives is the Confucian influence.
Under the Confucian influence，the miraculous and fantastic aspects of myths were ignored, which prevented Chinese myths from reaching their full development.
Yet，
10
for the same reasons, Chinese ancient myths could be preserved in their most primitive way4.
Precisely because China had no poets like Homer or Hesiod who
reworked or extrapolated myths, early Chinese myths could avoid the fate o f being distorted and were able to maintain their authenticity (Birrell 1993, pp. 17-18). There is also a general perception that ancient Chinese literature contains much history but few myths in the traditional sense o f fantastic and miraculous stories. There have been discussions on whether China has a tendency of historicizing myths, and the Chinese have been called the most history-conscious people in the world who tended to treat mythical figures as i f they were humans inasmuch as most myths were found in historical texts，for instance, Shi J/, rather than in mythical and fantastic writings.
Nonetheless, I consider that historicization of myth does not
necessarily hinder the development of myth.
Rather, historicization of myth may
be seen, in a sense, as the scholars or historians' taking myths as true events inasmuch as even the rationalistic Confucius did not deny the existence of the mythical figure of Huangdi (the Yellow Emperor).
Whether they are historicized
myths or mythicized histories, these accounts as recorded in historical texts should be classified as myths, for they are，in Tudor's words (see p. 2), believed to be ‘hard facts'.
In this study, many discussions are given on accounts recorded in the
4
This is taken from the foreword Yuan Ke wrote for the book Chinese Mythology: An Introduction of Anne Birrell in 1993, p. xi-xiii. 11
following three ancient historical records: Ji (Record of the Grand Historian) and Han Shu (History of the Han Dynasty). First, Shang Shu (ca.551-479BC)? of which section from Yao Dim (Record of Yao) to Yu Gong (Geographical Account in the time of Yu), records the main ancient mythical figures. Although Sima Qian {Shi Ji, p. 46) criticizes that Shang Shu only recorded two of the Five Divine Emperors whereas Huangdi, Zhuanxu and Ku are not mentioned, he does refer much to Shang Shu for the stories of Yao and Shun in the section of Wudi benji (annals of the Five Emperors) in Shi Ji, indicating that Shang Shu actually provides important written information of the proto-historic emperors. Second, Shi Ji, composed by Sima Qian in the Western Han period (ca.145-ca.86BC), is one of the key historical records that contain mythical narratives.
It is in fact one of the few historiographies that have a comparatively
detailed record of the proto-historic emperors starting from Huangdi.
The section
of benji (basic annals) records from the period of Huangdi to Emperor Xiaomu. Han Shu, composed by Ban Gu in the early Eastern Han period (ca.32-92AD)5 is the official historical record of the Han Dynasty.
The section of benji is the main
source used in discussing founding myths in chapter four.
It begins with the
foundation of Western Han and ends at the record of Emperor Xiaoping.
12
In discussing creation myth, the classical poem is used.
It is a well-known poem collected in
renowned poet of the Warring States period, Qu Yuan (ca.343-277BC). Qu was one of the few poets who composed works of mythical topics and Qu，s poems. Tian Wen is arranged in the form of a series of questions5 about the ancient mythical figures, which makes it appear as some kind of philosophical style of questioning although it makes no effort to explain the details further. Nonetheless, Tian Wen, together with another famous work Jiu Ge (Nine songs) have indeed provided an important reference of Chinese myths and are still essential readings for Chinese mythologists or Sinologists today. Chinese myths are also recorded in various types of writings, and supernatural story (zhiguai xiaoshuo) arisen in the third to fifth century AD is one of these types of writings that use ancient myths as the subject of creation.
Soushen Ji (Collection
of the Miraculous, fl.317-322AD) and Shuyi Ji (Narrations of the Miraculous, 460-508AD) are very important sources for mythological study.
Furthermore,
Soushen Ji is one of those writings that had great influence on Japanese literature, and many of the Japanese mythic narratives quote from this work.
Besides
supernatural stories, a number of myths are found in ancient philosophical writings 5
According to Ma, Chen Zhongfan inferred that Tian Wen originally consisted of questions and answers, and that the answer part was removed because it was too lengthy {Chuci Zhushi [Notes and Explanation of the Songs of Chu] 1999，p. 159). 13
like reference for this study.
The geographical treatise
Mountains and Seas, 276-324AD), which contains an extraordinarily large number of myths, many of which are considered to be of Taoist origin, is also used.
3.
Japanese sources
While Chinese myths were distributed in a fragmented fashion, Japanese myths were systematically recorded and centralized mainly in two written works which are
Kojiki Nihon Shoki divided into two parts namely the Age of Gods and the Age of Humans.
They
recorded in the former the miraculous births of the land of Japan，divine islands and numerous deities including the asserted first ancestor of Japanese imperial line, the Sun Goddess Amaterasu-omikami; recorded in the latter the lives of tenno from Jimmu to Suiko in Kojiki and from Jimmu to Jito in Nihon Shoki.
Both of them are
written in a manner of historiography and Nihon Shoki is in fact an imitation of the Chinese chronicles Han Shu and Houhan Shu.
Not until the end of the sixth century,
as Suiko Tenno came to the throne and adopted the system of ritsuryo, did tenno become the national ruler of Japan.
However, according to the two records, tennd's
14
rule could be traced back to 660 years before the birth of Christ.
Many scholars
held that such historical myths were produced or reinterpreted in the interest of the ancient
Nihon Shoki Tokugawa period.
Until 1945，every Japanese schoolchild was required to
memorize the oath written in Kojiki and Nihon Shoki declaring that Amaterasu decreed Japan to the rule of her descendants and guaranteed the eternal prosperity of Japan (Brownlee 1997, p. 5).
Doubts on the authenticity of the imperial genealogy
before the 14th tenno Chuai first arose in the Edo period (1603-1868AD), and the 30 years of research work carried out by Tsuda Sokichi (1873-1961AD) since 1910 finally helped the critical study of the Kiki {Kojiki and Nihon Shoki) reach a full-scale development (Naoki 1975，pp. 25-26). Besides Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, Fudoki (Topographies), which is a type of topography, or gazetteer, in Japan recording the plants and animals, the fertility and infertility of the soil, origin of the name of the mountains，and extraordinary stories passed down from the antiquity within the provinces, also provides a source of Japanese myths.
There are five topographies of this kind called by the name of
provinces being recorded, which are Harima，Izumo，Bungo, Hizen and Hitachi. These topographies were written around the first half of the eighth century, the
15
earliest being completed in 713AD, with a style resembling the geographical work,
Shan Hai Jing Japan's origin and imperial house are relatively few as compared to
Shoki, kunibiki In this thesis, reference is mainly on most representative sources in studying the political aspect of Japanese mythology, and are the most detailed records of Japanese myths.
Furthermore, they are chosen
because they were all written in the early eighth century which was, according to official historical records, the early period of the rule of period after the imperial war in 672AD, that is，the period when the need to lay a firm political foundation was particularly strong.
Political development in ancient China and Japan In Chinese and Japanese traditions, there are assertions that they have an old civilization and imperial rules started at dates proven to be false by archaeological evidence.
Eberhard (1950，p. 1), in discussing the situation in China, pointed out
that these traditions may be viewed as attempts to legitimize the rule of the government, or the ambitions and acts of particular individuals or parties.
Modem
16
Japanese historians would be likely to agree to this statement when discussing the ancient Japanese historical records of such false historical data was recorded mostly in historical or philosophical writings; while in Japan, it had been taken as historical truth before Edo period and up to present, Japan is still celebrating the founding of the Japanese empire by Jimmu in 660BC on her National Foundation Day each year6. In Japan, the sovereign ruler is called China (in Chinese, ‘tian huang title was introduced at the end of the sixth century by Prince Shotoku (574-622AD) who attempted to consolidate the power of the imperial house.
In the time of
Temmu Tenno (?_686AD), ancient tenno system was established and tenno had become the highest authority in the ritsuryo government who could exercise absolute power over the country.
The transfer of throne in Japan was hereditary and
although there were succession quarrels from time to time, the successors to the throne belonged to the same imperial house ever since the antique eras.
Under the
oath of 'tenjo mukyu (The everlasting land of Heaven)' decreed by Amaterasu upon the descent of Ho-no-ninigi-no-mikoto, Japan was to be ruled by her descendants and tenno is and will be the supreme ruler forever.
6
The National Foundation Day of Japan is 11th February, but this date has been changed for several times due to changes in official calendars. 17
Unlike the situation in Japan, in the course of Chinese history, changes of dynasty occurred frequently.
Archaeological evidence suggests that the first
dynasty in China is Shang (ca. 16c.-1066 BC) 7 , and from Shang to the last dynasty of Qing (1644-191 IAD) there are roughly eighteen dynasties8.
Furthermore, most of
the time the political environment was unstable inasmuch as power struggle often occurred, leading to the split of political power and eventually the division of the whole territory into several independent states or kingdoms, the first examples of which being the Spring-and-Autumn period (722-481BC) and the Warring States period (403-221BC) during the reign of the Zhou family.
In such precarious
political situation, how could the rulers win the highest and unquestionable authority over his subjects?
Furthermore, in most cases, a new ruling family ascended the
throne by wars or rebellions against the preceding dynasty; how could they then be accepted as the object of loyalty and reverence?
In the same vein as Eberhard，I
consider that it was the false historical data, which we now call myths, that served to justify their acts of overthrowing the preceding dynasties and usurping the throne， and provided the rulers with the legitimacy necessary for their coming to power.
7 According to some ancient historical records, kingship can be traced back to the pre-dynastic era of Xia (ca.21c._16c.BC)，or even further back to the reigns of the sage kings Yao and Shun, yet, there is not enough archaeological evidence to support such records. 8 These include, in chronological sequence, Shang (ca.l6c.-1066BC), Zhou (ca. 1066-22IBC), Qin (221-206BC), Han (206BC-23AD), the Three Kingdoms (220-265AD)，Western Jin (265-316AD), Eastern Jin and the Sixteen Kindoms (317-439AD), Southern and Northern Dynasties (420-58IAD), Sui (5 81-61 SAD), Tang (618-907AD), the Five Dynasties (907-979AD), Song (960-1279AD), Liao (907-1125AD), Sixia (1032-1227AD), Jin (1115-1234AD), Yuan (1279-1368AD), Ming (13681644AD), Qing (1644-191 IAD).
18
CHAPTER TWO CREATION MYTHS IN CHINA AND JAPAN
The purpose of this thesis is to study the political aspect，mainly the idea of kingship, as reflected in the ancient mythic texts in China and Japan.
To begin with,
I will study creation myths. Creation myth is the projection of the cosmological concept, the way of life and the sense of identity of a particular society.
Like any other myths, creation myths
are etiological attempts of ancient people to explain how things began and how things came to function. They try to explain the ultimate origin of the cosmos as well as the ethnological origin of a people.
That is to say, creation myth contains
descriptions of the creation of a physical world and the creation of humans who inhabit the world; albeit in many cases the two kinds of descriptions do not come together to form a single account.
For instance, in the Philippine mythology,
Bathala created the material world but was not the one who created humans 9 .
In
Japanese myth, Izaxiaki-no«mikoto and Izanami-no-mikoto created the world and gave birth to numerous deities and divine islands but it makes no mention of the
9
Bathala was widely accepted as the representative deity of Philippines. He was said to have created all things in the world including the sky and the earth. However, ancient Filipinos considered him as the sustainer, keeper, nourisher and protector of man, not as their creator. At the time of his arrival, he declared his lordship over man (Jocano cl969, p. 8-9.), implying that man already existed before Bathala. 19
creation of human beings.
On the other hand, in the Babylonian myth, some
accounts tell only the creation of man out of blood and bones of slain god by Marduk (Dalley 1991，pp. 233-274).
In one version of the Niiwa myth in China, there is
only account describing how she used mud to create humans. In any case, the basic creation myth is an account that describes how cosmos comes from chaos, how things are created out of nothing, and how humans come to being.
Creation stories in Japan and China take place primarily in one, or the
combination，of the following three conditions: 1) chaos or nothingness, 2) a cosmic egg，3) stages of emergence10.
World Creation 1.
World creation in Japanese mythology
In Japan, the part of kamiyo (the Age of Gods) in Kojiki and Nihon Shoki is the mainstay of study of creation myths. The focus is always put on the chapter tenchi kaibyaku (the separation of the sky and the earth) in Nihon Shoki and the chapter tenchi shohatsu (the beginning of the sky and the earth) in Kojiki, both of which describe the state of the universe in the beginning, the emergence of deities and the creation of the archipelago of Japan by the spouse deities Izanaki and Izanami.
10
Reference made to Encyclopedia of Creation Myths [electronic resource] / David Adams Leeming with Margaret Adams Leeming, 1999, p. 1-8. 20
[2.1] In ancient times when the sky and the earth was not yet differentiated, and the Yin and Yang was not yet separated, it was as chaotic as an egg and the unclear vapour was about to move.
The clear was pulled high up to
form the sky; and the turbid sank down to form the earth... Later, gods were bom in there.
Therefore, it is said that, at the
beginning when the sky and the earth separated, the land was floating on the water surface like fishes. At that time，a substance was bom within the sky and the earth. into a god.
It was like the shoots of reeds and it soon turned
This was called Kuni-no-tokotachi-no-mikoto.
The next god
[was called] Kuni-no-satsuchi-no-mikoto. The next god [was called] Toyokumunu-no-mikoto (Nihon Shoki11
[2.2]
Izanaki-no-mikoto and Izanami-no-mikoto stood on the ama-no-
ukihashi (the pontoon bridge of Heaven) planning, T h e r e should be no continent underneath.' They thus put the spear decorated with pearls into [the water] to find out [if there was continent].
There was only the sea.
Seawater dripped from the point of the spear, and solidified to become an island...The two deities then descended to the island.
They decided to
11
Citations of Nihon Shoki are taken from Nihon Shoki. Nihon Koten Bungaku Taikei 67，68. Sakamoto Taro; lenaga Saburo; Inoue Mitsusada; Ono Susumu (ed.). Tokyo: Iwanami shoten, 1984 ed., unless otherwise stated. 21
get married and to give birth to continents (ibid. p. 81).
[2.3] When the sky and the earth separated, the god who was bom in the
Takama-no-hara The next god was Takamimusuhi-no-kami.
The next god was Kami-
musuhi-no-kami. Next, the earth, like oil on the water surface, had not yet a complete form and was drifting lightly like a jellyfish. sprout like the shoots of reeds. Mashiashikabihikoj i-no-kami.
Then, something began to
It formed the god who was named
The next god [was named] Ame-no-
tokotachi-no-kami
[2.4]Now, the numerous deities of Heaven instructed the spouse deities Izanaki-no-mikoto and Izanami-no-mikoto, ‘Solidify and make this piece of land into its proper form.’ Thereby [they] granted them the spear decorated with pearls.
Thus, the spouse deities stood on the arm-no-
ukihashi, and put the spear into [the water]. water [with the spear].
They stirred and churned the
When [they] pulled it up, water dripped from the
12
Citations of Kojiki are taken from Kojiki (Records of Ancient Matters). Tokyo: Iwanami shoten, 1985 ed., unless otherwise stated. 22
point of the spear accumulated to form an island. They descended to the island…There，Izanaki-no-mikoto was the one to speakfirst，‘Alas，whata lovely young girl..
Then Izanami-no-mikoto
said, ‘Alas，what an attractive gentleman.'
As they finished their
conversation, they got married and gave birth to Awaj inoho-no-sawakeno-shima. Next, they gave birth to lyo-no-fiitana-no-shima... Next，they gave birth to Oki-no-mitsugo-no-shima... (ibid. pp. 52-56).
[2.5]The slain Kagutsuchi-no-kami's head became a god whose name was Masakayamatsumi-no-kami (steep region of mountain).
Chest became a
god whose name was Odoyamatsumi-no-kami (central region of mountain). Stomach became a god whose name was Okuyamatsumi-no-kami (inner part of mountain).
Genital area became a god whose name was
Kurayamatsumi-no-kami (valley).
Left hand became a god whose name
was Shigiyamatsumi-no_kami (luxuriant woods).
Right hand became a
god whose name was Hayamatsumi-no-kami (foothill). Left foot became a god whose name was Harayamatsumi-no-kami (flat area).
Right foot
became a god whose name was Toyamatsumi-no-kami (outer part of mountain) (ibid. pp. 62-63).
Table 2-1 • Structure of world creation story in Japanese mythology
1
2
3
Sky and earth was The unclear A, substance was not yet vapour was about oom within sky differentiated. to move. and earth like
^4
5
Land was floating :Izanaki and on water surface 丨
Izanami put the
like fishes.
spear into the sea.
shoots of reeds. Yin and Yang was The clear was
[t soon became a The earth was like Water dripped
not yet separated. pulled high up to god: Kuni-noform the sky.
tokotachi,
oil on water
from the point of
surface; drifting
spear, and
Kuni-no-satsuchi, lightly like a Toyokumunu.
jellyfish.
solidified to become an island.
World chaotic as The turbid sank to
They got married
an egg.
and gave birth to
form the earth.
continents. The sky and the
Gods were bom in The earth was like Heaven instructed
earth separated.
the
oil on water
the two deities to
hara:
surface.
solidify the land
minakamishi， !^XtXT 1iOJL， Ol 1 L•JISJn'xiT oJrOot ^lX cloYl X
into its proper "friTrn
Kamimusuhi.
Not yet a
They stirred the
complete form.
water with the spear. Water dripped from the point of the spear，
Land was drifting and accumulated like a jellyfish.
to form an island.
Something began
They got married
to sprout like
and gave birth to
shoots of reeds:
numerous islands.
Mashiashikabihik oji9 Ame-notokotachi. Kagutsuchi's head became Masakayamatsumi (steep region of 24
mountain) His chest became Odoyamatsumi (central region of mountain). His stomach became Okuyamatsumi (irnier part of mountain). His genital area became Kurayamatsumi (valley). His left hand became SMgiyamatsumi (luxuriant woods). His right hand became Hayamatsimii (foothill). His left foot became Harayanaatsumi (flat area). His right foot became Toyamatsumi (outer part of moimtam).
25
In the above table, the white boxes represent descriptions in the grey boxes represent descriptions in the cosmos in the beginning: a state of chaos (first condition: chaos or nothingness.). The second column is about how the world came into being: some air went up and some air went down to form the sky and the earth.
In the third column, something
sprouted like shoots of reeds to form deities (third condition: stages of emergence). The fourth column shows that how incomplete the world was and that it needed a proper form.
Lastly, Izanaki and Izaaami created the land of Japan with the help of
the spear and by the process of reproduction. As shown above, the creation myths as recorded in the two great scriptures bear strong resemblance in contents and can be considered to have originated from the same mythic tradition, which is that Izanaki and Izanami were the centre of world creation.
However, it is noteworthy that while the description of the pre-universe is
recorded in piece of description appears in the foreword of compiler O-no-Yasumaro.
It says, ‘It is chaotic and there is not yet a shape; it has
no name and makes no motion. No one ever knows its form. Then the sky and the earth began to separate; the Three Deities initiated the creation and the Yin and Yang differentiated from here. The two spirits (Izanaki and Izanami) were the
26
progenitors of everything This concept of the Yin and Yang as reflected in this foreword as well as in
Nihon Shoki the classic philosophical writing compiled between the Spring-and-Autumn period and the Han Dynasty in China.
It
is said that all creations in the world are the products of the interaction between the negative energy Yin and the positive energy Yang.
Later，the concept of Yin and
Yang was combined with the concept of the Five Movements in the Han period. This rather sophisticated philosophical concept is recorded in the foreword instead of the main body of Kojiki, showing that Kojiki is relatively close to primitive myths while Nihon Shoki has input a foreign concept and in effect，transformed the primitive myth (Yan 1987，pp. 2，17).
2.
World creation in Chinese mythology
As Chinese mythology was distributed piecemeal, descriptions of the origin of the world can be found in many different classical texts.
Among these narratives,
there are two dominant traditions of world creation myths: one centred upon the giant Pangu，and the other centred upon the female deity Niiwa.
27
[2.6] The world was as chaotic as an egg.
Pangu was bom within.
eighteen thousands years, the world separated.
The clear Yang [air]
became the sky, and the turbid Yin [air] became the earth. sky and the earth] Pangu changed nine times a day. the sky; the sage went to the earth.
After
Within [the
The divine went to
The sky grew ten feet higher a day;
the earth grew ten feet thicker a day; and Pangu grew ten feet taller a day. A s such, after eighteen thousand years，the sky was very high, the earth was very thick, and Pangu was very tall. Divinities.
Later, there were the Three Sage
The number grew from one to three; formed at five; rose at
seven; and stayed at nine.
Therefore the sky was ninety thousand miles
away from the earth {Sanwu Lijiu, cited in Yiwen Leiju14
[2.7] In the past, when Pangu died，his head became the four mountains; his eyes became the sun and the moon; his fats became the sea; his hair became the vegetation...The ancient scholars said，The tears of Pangu were the rivers; his breathe was the wind; his voice was the thunder; his eyes were lightning' (Shuyi Ji, p. 1).
13
Sanwu Liji (The Records of the Three Divinities and Five Divine Emperors) compiled between 222-280AD by Shu Zhen. 14 Yiwen Leiju (Encyclopaedia of Literature and the Arts) compiled by Ouyang Xun et al. between 557-641AD. 28
[2.8] In ancient times, the four pillars of the world were damaged and the land cracked; the sky fell down and the earth slanted.
Fire did not cease
and floods did not stop; beasts ate the good people and ferocious birds caught the old and weak.
Thereby Niiwa melted the five-coloured rocks
to mend the sky; cut the legs of the giant tortoise to replace the four pillars; killed the black dragon to repair the Ji [Province]; accumulated reed ashes to stop the floods
Table 2-2. Structure of world creation story in Chinese mythology
1
2
3
The world was as chaotic as anPangu was bom within. egg. Pangu changed nine times a day. After eighteen thousands years, the world separated. The clear Yang became the sky; the turbid Yin became the earth. Pangu grew ten feet taller a
The sky grew ten feet higher a
day.
day; the earth grew ten feet thicker a day.
Pangu died.
Pangu's head transformed to the four mountains; fats the sea; tears the rivers. Eyes transformed to the sun and the moon. Breathe was the wind; voice was the thunder; eyes were lightning. Hair became the vegetation.
Four pillars of the world
Niiwa melted the five-coloured
damaged.
rocks to mend the sky.
Land cracked.
Gut the legs of the giant
Earth slanted.
tortoise to replace the four
Sky fell down.
pillars.
Ceaseless fire.
Killed the black dragon to
Ceaseless floods.
repair the J i province.
Beasts ate good people.
Accumulated reed ashes to
Ferocious birds caught the old
stop the floods.
and the weak.
30
In the above table，the white boxes represent the Pangu tradition which originates in the northern part of China, and the grey boxes represent Niiwa tradition which originates in the southern part of China.
The structure of the Chinese
creation myth is less complex than that of Japan for there shows only three layers of structure.
The first column tells what the world was like in the beginning and the
third column narrates the process of world creation.
The middle column is a
sub-theme showing the role which Pangu played in the creation of the world.
There
are mainly two versions in the Pangu tradition, which do not exclude one from the other.
One version suggests that the birth and the growth of Pangu led to the
separation of the sky and the earth, and the other suggests that the death of Pangu brought about all creations for the world which Pangu had not intended it to be. It should be noted that the creation in the Ntiwa myth took place in a completely different condition from that recorded in the Pangu myth.
The pre-world in the
Niiwa myth, although in disorder (first condition: chaos or nothingness), seemed to have a relatively proper shape for there were four pillars to support the sky and it was inhabited with animals and people.
In contrast, the pre-world in the Pangu
narrative was a cosmic egg with nothing but the Yin and Yang vapour (second condition: cosmic egg). another.
These two traditions，however, are not contradictory to one
We can even view the two myths, with some imagination, as a continual
31
story with Pangu being the primary creator and Niiwa being the secondary creator, albeit they are found in different parts of China and in different writings.
3.
Comparison
World creation myths reflect the cosmological concept of primitive people. We may find that the description of the pre-universe as recorded in resembles that of the Pangu myth in within a cosmic egg.
The concept that underlies the two myths seems to have
originated from the philosophical idea of the Yin and Yang developed around the Spring-and-Autumn period.
Therefore, although Yan noted that a 'single deity
myth，is the product of a relatively primitive society where the knowledge of sex was little known (1987, p. 19)，I consider that the compilers of Nihon Shoki and the myth-tellers of the Pangu myth had introduced such contemporary idea to the creation
myths,
altering
the
original
primitive
cosmological
concept.
Comparatively, the Niiwa tradition，in which the sky was to be supported by the legs of giant tortoise，shows an unsophisticated and simple style that is closer to primitive mind. Let us compare the myths in another aspect.
There are two patterns of
description in the creation myths of Japan and China, namely evolutionary pattern
32
and creative pattern
•
In the evolutionary pattern, the disordered world
transformed into the present cosmos after thousands of years by its own force; while in the creative pattern, a supernatural being appeared to create a new cosmic order. For the evolutionary pattern, transformation is the keyword.
For example, in the
Pangu myth recorded in Shuyi Ji (see [2.7] p. 28)，Pangu died and transformed into various things in the world.
However, Pangu did not intentionally create these
things and his nature as a creator was not as evident.
In Kojiki (see [2.5] p. 23), the
dead body of Kagutsuchi also transformed to mountains and valleys, but he was not considered as a creator either. On the other hand, creation is the keyword of the creative pattern.
In myths
constructed with such pattern, a supernatural being appears when the society is in a state of chaos and creates a new order for the society，as in the Japanese creation myth, Izanaki and Izanami appeared when the world was still incomplete, and then created the archipelago of Japan and numerous divine islands, and became the ‘progenitors of everything'.
In the Niiwa myth as recorded in Huainanzi (see [2.8]
p. 29), Niiwa rebuilt the damaged and disordered world and her nature as a world creator was clear.
15
The terms "Genealogical/Evolutionary pattern" and “Creative pattern" were used in Matsumoto's comparison of Japanese and Polynesian myths (Matsumoto 1971，p. 161-165). These two terms were also used by Tetsui (1990，p. 98) to compare Japanese creation myths with the Chinese ones. However, I consider that genealogical accounts do not necessarily come with evolutionary accounts. Therefore, genealogy is not to be discussed together with evolutionaiy pattern here. 33
The difference between the evolutionary pattern and the creative pattern lies in the presence and absence of a creator.
Through further discussions in the following
sections, it will become clear that with the presence of creator in creation myths, the authority of the rulers may be strengthened, and it may be easier for myth-makers or rulers to launch a genealogy on which to rest the legitimacy to rule.
Human Creation 1•
Human creation in Japanese mythology
Creation of humans is another important feature of creation myths，but some mythic traditions do not include the creation of man. example.
Japanese myth is one such
Although it is said that Izanaki and Izanami had created a series of divine
islands and deities, the creation of man is not mentioned in either Nihon Shoki or Kojiki.
Kojiki and Nihon Shoki record only the activities of deities，and rarely
mention human activities even in the time of Jimmu Tenno when the Age of Human started.
This is possibly because the two corpuses are records of mythic narratives
about deities and divinities, so accounts of human beings were not as important
It
is for this reason that the temd govermnent is able to emphasize the unbroken lineage from the heavenly deities of the Age of Gods to the tenno of the Age of Human, thus making tenno a demigod in the human world.
34
It is noteworthy that the only description of human during the age of gods appears at Izanaki s visit to the Izanami s death, Izanaki went to the Underworld to visit Izanami.
However, he did
not listen to the warning of his wife and peeked at her dead body.
Therefore,
Izanami commanded the ugly women of the underworld to chase after him.
Then,
Izanaki threw three peaches against the ugly women and thus he was able to escape. He thereby told the peaches to rescue man on earth whenever they were in distress. This is the first time in simply explaining why peaches were used to drive out evil spirits, but it also reminds us that man already existed at that time although how they came into being is not explained.
Later, in response to the curse of Izanami by which a thousand of men
were to die everyday, Izanaki declared that he would grant the birth of a thousand and five hundred people a day.
This is considered as a mere effort to explain the
birth and death cycle in the world.
Yet, it also shows that Izanaki was the deity to
manage the birth of humans，albeit it makes no mention as to how he granted man lives.
16
in Nihon Shoki, the story of Izanaki's being arrested appears to be quite different. The ugly women saw the peaches on the way they arrested Izanaki, and stopped to cat them. The arrest was once stopped but resumed later. As Izanaki was not able to escape, he did not speak such words to the peaches. 35
2.
Human creation in Chinese mythology
In China, the Niiwa tradition is considered the most dominant or even the only human creation myth.
There are two main versions, one being the creation of man
out of mud by Niiwa, the other being the giving birth of man by the spouse deities Ntiwa and FuxL According to (PP. 364-365), there was no human when the sky and the earth first separated. Niiwa then decided to create man by moulding figures of man out of mud and water. A s she felt tired，she used a rope to mix the mud and made humans.
Here, Ntiwa
created humans with her hands; therefore, her role of a creator is clearer when compared with Izanaki and Izanami. The second version was developed among the minorities such as Yao and Miao in the southwest of China.
It is said that Fuxi was the elder brother of Ntiwa.
Once, a great storm killed all the people in the world and only Fuxi and Niiwa could survive.
Therefore, Fuxi wanted to marry Niiwa to produce offspring, but Niiwa
felt it inappropriate to marry her brother.
Then she thought of a solution and told
Fuxi, ‘I shall marry i f you can catch me.'
Having said so, she ran about a big tree.
17
This is a famous encyclopaedia in China compiled in covers a wide range of fields including astronomy, geography, people, nature and so on, and is in fact a collection of the words of scholars. It quotes from the classics of the hundred schools, novels, poems, essays and other materials, and the quotations in the book are relatively complete and readable. A s such, many pieces of great work are preserved in this book. 36
Fuxi started to run after her but failed to catch her. direction and finally caught Ntiwa.
Then he ran in the opposite
Hence, they got married and gave birth to
numerous children This narrative resembles the myth of Izanaki and Izanami in that Niiwa and Fuxi were seen as spouse deities, reflecting a similar concept that the birth of human is the result of sexual intercourse.
This concept is considered to originate in a
period of time when primitive men had attained certain level of knowledge of sex and birth (Yan 1987，p. 19).
On the other hand, the concept of human creation by
moulding seems to have originated in a comparatively more primitive time. Of the two versions of creation of man, the former was more widely circulated in China for there is no myth in Chinese mythology that shows a direct link between Fuxi and floods, except the one above which was developed among the minorities of China (Tetsui 1990，p. 373).
In Tian Wen
have made it?，Niiwa was believed to be the creator of man，thus it would be doubtful if anyone knew who would have made her body.
Hence this question is
considered to be responding to the first version in which Niiwa created man out of mud.
As stories collected in this work of literature were popular myths and
folktales that had been spread in the south18 where the Nuwa narratives developed, it
18
The author of Tian Wen, Qu Yuan, was an aristocrat of the state Chu that was located in the southern part of China. In his work Tian Wen, he collected a number of popular myths and folktales 37
shows that the first Ntiwa version was more widely accepted than was the second flood myth.
3.
Comparison
Creation myths originated from the attempts of primitive people to explain how the world came into being and how humans were created.
Every people has its own
creation myths (Leeming 1999，p. 1), reflecting that the primary concern of ancient people was the cosmos or nature.
Primitive people were curious toward nature and
the inexplicable in the way modem men are, albeit the knowledge and experience that primitive and modem men obtained are unquestionably very different. Primitive men were amazed at the power of nature, but at the same time threatened by it.
Had there been any supernatural being who created the cosmos or the nature,
the primitive men might admire and revere this supernatural being as the master of the world.
Very often, the authority of the creator was emphasized in myths and the
‘sphere of influence' of this authoritative creator is not confined to Heaven, but reaches down to Earth.
For instance，in Japan, although Izanaki and Izanami did
not actually govern the Earth or man on the Earth, they had the power to control the life and death of humans (see p. 35), and their descendants were given the authority
presumably of the south during the Warring States period. 38
to govern the earthly world.
Thus，the mythological creator and his human
descendants were connected in this way: Creator: Master of the world — Descendants : Earthly rulers In fact，in many creation myths of countries other than Japan and China, the emphasis on kingship was more overt.
For instance, in the Tagalog myth, when the
highest-ranking deity Bathala first appeared in the world, he immediately announced his lordship over man.
As he was very powerful, no one dared to question his
demand for obedience and reverence from man (Jocano cl969，pp. 8-9).
In the
Greek mythology, the offspring of the creator was the ruler of Heaven and there was always power struggle among the descendants until Zeus became the leader of the Olympian gods. In Tian Wen, it says ‘Niiwa had a body, who would have made it? the ruler, who would have nominated her?，19
She became
This verse related Niiwa directly with
the throne for she was the creator of the world and of human.
Diwang Shiji
(Generations of Emperors, cited in Yiwen Leiju p. 208) also calls Nuwa 'Empress Niiwa', showing that Niiwa was accepted as a prehistoric empress.
In Japan, the
heavenly deity Amaterasu who was the daughter of Izanaki and Izanami had the
19
The Chinese original is ‘女媧有體，孰制匠之？登立爲帝’孰道尙之?’ Huang Y i claimed that the ‘帝 as Zhou Gongchen indicated, there were many emperors and there was no reason that this emperor should specifically mean Fuxi (Ma 1999, p. 203). As Ntiwa was generally accepted as a prehistoric empress, the ‘帝,here should be referring to her. 39
authority to govern the earthly matters.
Later, this governance of Heaven by the
deities was transformed into the pragmatic governance of the earthly world upon the descent of Ho-no-ninigi.
This time, however, the authority was passed to the
A s it is mentioned that the creator of the world was naturally considered as the master of the world，therefore his direct descendant would inevitably be the legitimate successor to his rule who should eventually become the earthly ruler.
In
many foundation myths in Korea, the ruler of a clan was often said to have come from Heaven.
For example, Tan'gun, the founder of the state Choson, was said to
be the grandson of the ruler of Heaven (Grayson 2001，p. 31).
In fact，in the
understanding of ancient Chinese and Japanese, the creator was a supernatural being who came from another world, Heaven. descendant of the god or Heaven.
They believed that the emperor was the
As such, creation myth could serve as a means to
prove the legitimacy of a ruler, and ‘genealogy’ was an important tool to demonstrate the legitimacy of the candidate to the throne.
Genealogy Genealogy is a tool to demonstrate that the ruler is the descendant of the world creator and that therefore he is legitimate to rule.
Japanese myth, as Matsumoto
(1971，pp. 161-165) indicated, is characterized by a verbose genealogical description
40
beginning from the genesis of the world to the age of the human emperors.
For
example, before Izanaki and Izanami created Japan，a number of deities had already existed. water.
The first three deities emerged when the world was still in the form of Thereby two other single deities and the seven generations of deities
(kamiyo-nanayo) emerged.
Furthermore, it is precisely stated that the creators
Izanaki and Izanami passed the ruling authority of Heaven to their daughter, Amaterasu.
Later, Amaterasu granted the authority to rule the Earth to her
descendants, the tenno.
The lineage from the creators to temd, as well as the
passing of authority was strongly emphasized inasmuch as the government of Japan acknowledged the importance of these genealogies overtly and even set up a department which specialized in examining families who claimed a divine descent (Brownlee 1997, p. 4). In China, there is not a detailed genealogy in the either Nuwa myth or Pangu myth to draw from the creator to the human emperors. For example，Sanwu Liji tells that the Three Sage Divinities rose up after Pangu, but it tells nothing about their relationship. The fact that Chinese myths appear to be incomplete and fragmented，and sometimes contradictory with one another, may be one reason to account for this situation.
We cannot deny the possibility that there might be
genealogical accounts in the creation myths, but that they may be lost during the
41
course of transmission or distributed in other literary or philosophical works. Efforts were made in later works to gather myths from the genesis to the human emperors, and figure out the lineage from the divine emperors to the human emperors.
In
emperors beginning from the first Three Divine Emperors Tianhuang, Dihuang and Renhuang20.
Following the Three Divine Emperors, Fuxi, Niiwa, Yandi, and then
Huangdi，Shaohao, Zhuanxu, Ku, Yao, Shun and Yu came to the throne.
However,
Diwang Shiji does not mention whether or not the emperors had the same blood relationship.
Sporadic attempts are made to connect Huangdi to Wu, yet this
lineage seems to have been breached after the start of the Zhou dynasty.
Later, the
Han dynasty attempted to trace back the origin of its founder Liu Bang to Yao, yet the evidence given by Han Shu did not suffice to support the claim. It appears that China lacks a functional genealogical account that proves the ruler's right to rule.
The nature of Ntiwa as the world creator may be clear, but
there is no genealogy to link the world creator with human emperors.
Although
there is a genealogy from Huangdi to Wu, it is breached as it reaches the non-mythical era after the Zhou Dynasty.
It shows that, unlike Japanese tenno
20
According to Chuxue Ji (Record of the First Knowledge) cited in Dhvang Shiji, '[A person with] deeds compatible with the Divinity is called huang\ [A person with] virtues compatible with Heaven and Earth is called di\ [A person with] righteousness compatible with man is called wang It is said that Tianhuang ruled for eighteen thousand years, and Dihuang ruled the world after Tianhuang for eighteen thousand years {Yiwen Leiju, p.p. 207). 42
ancient Chinese rulers did not seek their evidence of legitimacy from the world creator. A l l in all, in contrast to the Japanese genealogy, the Chinese genealogy as accounted in classical texts had little effect on strengthening the authority of the emperors.
43
CHAPTERTHREE E M P E R O R M Y T H S I :M I R A C U L O U S B I R T H ， A U G U R Y A N D V I R T U E
I have discussed how creation myths and genealogies help strengthen the legitimacy and rule of an emperor.
In this chapter，I will discuss emperor myths
which narrate the biographies and the deeds of emperors.
By studying how the
emperors are presented in the narratives, we may have a clue to what the necessary qualities that a successful candidate to the throne may have to possess.
Miraculous births Supernatural quality is the key element in emperor myths, and the supernatural and divine qualities of the emperors were emphasized through frequent association of miraculous birth or childhood with emperors.
Miraculous birth myths may be
categorized into three types which I call speak-at-birth myths, virgin births，and auspicious birth myths.
1.
Speak-at-birth myths
In a speak-at-birth myth, the child is able to speak upon birth.
This type of
miraculous birth is mostly fcnmd in the pre-dynastic eras and the number of this kind
44
of myths is small in comparison with other emperor myths.
The birth myth of
Buddha Sakyamuni is an example of such myth in which it is said that as soon as Sakyamuni was bom, he took seven steps by himself and said, ‘I am supreme over Heaven and Earth' (http://www.geocities.com/lifefuture/storv.htmL 1999). In China, the myths of Huangdi and Emperor K u are examples of speak-at-birth myths.
It says，‘Huangdi…was miraculous when he was bom.
He was able to
speak as an infant could speak his own name at birth (ibid. p. 13).' It is extraordinary for a child to speak at birth; therefore it is not difficult to believe that a child who could speak at birth possesses miraculous power, such as Sakyamuni who announced upon his birth that he was supreme over Heaven and Earth.
It also implies that the child would eventually become an emperor who had
the supreme authority over his subjects.
Sakyamuni was a prince, and if he had not
become the Buddha, he might have succeeded the throne and this myth might have been considered an emperor myth.
If we proceed to consider the symbolic level of
such birth myths, this supremacy may even connect the child to the master of the world, that is，the world creator or the First Man.
Moriyasu (1970，p. 150)，in
21
The original of "miraculous" is shenling 神靈 which means quick to understand and to judge. Whereas William Nienhauser, Jr. et al. (1994，p. 1，5) translate it as “perspicacious”，shenling here should instead mean shenyi 神異(miraculous and extraordinary). In
14), it says ‘其(高辛)母見其痱真，自言其名曰岌，，meaning his (Gaoxin's) mother felt he was miraculous and extraordinary to speak his own name at birth. 45
discussing the supernatural qualities of Huangdi, suggests that the myth even have the implication that the words Huangdi spoke came simultaneously with the genesis of the world, and thus he must be the god who already existed when the world began. To Tetsui, Ku's speaking his own name at birth is the symbol of the world creator. This is because it is not very possible for a child to name himself; i f there was no one to name for him and he has to name himself, he must be the creator who was the first to appear in the world (Tetsui 1990，pp. 106-107), In Japan, there is only one account of this kind which was recorded in Nihon Shoki.
The hero was Prince Shotoku (574-622 AD), a relatively recent figure of the
imperial house.
Prince Shotoku was the second son of YSmei TennS, who was
appointed the successor to the throne (hitsugi-no-mikd) and was the prince regent at the time of Suiko Tenno.
Although he did not actually ascend the throne, he was a
personage in the imperial history inasmuch as he consolidated the power of the imperial house by introducing the title of "tennd" to replace the previous title of ‘king {okimiy
for the Japanese emperor, and by instituting the Seventeen-Article
Constitution in 604AD. It is said in the myth that the day when the expectant Queen Hanahobeno-hashihito-no-himemiko passed by a stable, all in a sudden she, without pain, gave birth to Prince Shotoku who could speak as soon as he was bom and who was an
46
extremely intelligent [child] 丁his account of Prince Shotoku's miraculous birth may be considered an exceptional one in Japan, for speak-at-birth myths imply that the emperor，which the baby would eventually be, was supreme and possessed the character of a creator. However, in the case of Japan，emperors were granted the right to rule by the Sun Goddess Amaterasu who was the ultimate ruler of the world，thus the emperors who were her descendants must not be superior over her.
For this reason，when it enters
into the so-called hitoyo (the Age of Humans) in Kojiki are recorded while the birth of the emperors is seldom described22, leaving Nihon Shoki as the main source of emperor myths. It should be noted that the content of this piece of myth was very similar to that of the Chinese myths quoted from Shi Ji, and it is possible that this was of a Chinese derivation.
As the heroes of the speak-at-birth accounts recorded in Shi Ji were the
virtuous emperors and sage kings in China, this myth in Nihon Shoki is considered to have been used to convince the audience that Prince Shotoku was an extraordinarily sage prince for he was an important character in the imperial history and had played an important role in strengthening the power of the imperial house.
22
Records of emperors are usually written in a genealogical style following this sequence: (1) name of the emperor's palace, (2) start of the emperor's rule, (3) list of his descendants, (4) date of the emperor's death and the location of his mausoleum. 47
2.
Virgin births
Hie concept of virgin birth (Immaculate Conception) originated in the Roman Catholic Church, which specifically refers to the virginal conception of Jesus Christ in Virgin Mary.
It is said that Mary conceived Jesus Christ in her virginal body
because of the will of God, and that the birth of Jesus Christ was one without the stain of the Original Sin. The term virgin birth is now used in general to describe conception without sexual intercourse. There are several examples of such myths in the Chinese mythology，most of which were found in the pre-dynastic era.
[3.1] Emperor Zhuanxu was also called Gaoyang, sumamed Ji.
He was
the grandson of Huangdi, the son of Changyi...His mother was called Niishu.
In the late Jintian [Shaohao] period，a star, which shone with the
lustre of precious jade, penetrated through the moon like a rainbow.
It
inspired Niishu in her secluded inner room, and thus gave birth to Zhuanxu at Ruoshui {Diwang Shiji, p. 11).
[3.2] Shun sumamed Yao. Zhuanxu.
His ancestors were the descendants of
Zhuanxu begot Qiongchan.
Qiongchan had a son called
48
Jingkan.
Jingkan begot Goumang.
Qiaoniu begot Gusou.
Goumang had a son called Qiaoniu.
The wife of Gusou was called Wodeng.
[Once]
she saw a great rainbow, and was then inspired to give birth to Shun at Yaoxu (ibid. p. 16).
[3.3]Houchi of Zhou was called Qi. His mother was a daughter o f the Youtai Clan, called Jiangyuan. Ku.
Jiangyuan was the first wife of Emperor
[It happened that] she went out to the fields and saw the footprint of
a giant. abdomen
She...wanted to step on it. As she stepped on the footprint, her trembled as i f she was pregnant.
After some time she gave
birth to a baby
[3.4] Emperor Shizong …was the second son of the progenitor Emperor Xiaowen. His mother was called Lady Gao. chasing after her.
She once dreamt of the sun
She escaped to floor under her bed.
turned into a dragon and [flied] several rounds [above].
Then the sun [Lady Gao]
woke up in fear, and [found that] she was pregnant...She gave birth to the emperor in the Pingcheng Palace 23
Abdomen is translated from the word “身” which literally means “body”. I follow Nienhauser, W. jr. et al. (1994，p. 55) to use ‘‘abdomen，，instead of "body" because it seems to be more appropriate to describe pregnancy. 49
Table 3-1. Structure of Chinese virgin birth myths
1
2
3
4
Zhuanxu was the
A star penetrated
It inspired
She gave birth to
grandson of
through the moon
Niishu, mother of
Zhuanxu.
Huangdi and the
like a rainbow.
Zhuanxu.
Shun was
The mother of
She was inspired.
descendant of
Shun saw a great
Zhuanxu and son
rainbow.
son of Changyi. She gave birth to Shun.
of Gusou. Houchi of Zhou
She stepped on
She was
She gave birth to
was called Qi.
the footprint of a
pregnant.
Houchi.
giant. Shizong was
His mother
She woke up and
She gave birth to
Xiaowen's
dreamt of the sun
found that she
the emperor.
second son.
chasing after her.
was pregnant.
The sun turned into a dragon.
50
The above table shows the structure of the four virgin birth myths found in Chinese ancient texts.
The myths contain four main layers of structure.
column introduces the family line of the emperor concerned. there is no description of his family line.
The first
In the myth of Houchi,
However, it is said in the narrative that
the mother of Houchi was the first wife of Ku, indicating that Houchi was the son of Ku.
The second column begins to account for the virgin conception by the
emperor's mother.
The sun, the moon，star, rainbow are natural phenomena.
It is
generally thought that natural phenomena are controlled by the personified Heaven. In addition, giants are supernatural beings and dragons are divine animals, and they are considered to be divine and to have originated from Heaven.
As such, the
myths share a similarity in the source of conception, that is, they all have a connection with Heaven.
In the third and the last columns, virgin conception took
place and eventually, the mothers gave birth to the children. The original virgin conception emphasizes the purity of Jesus Christ and Virgin Mary.
In China，the mothers of these great emperors were not glorified for their
purity, but emperors bom this way were usually regarded as divine or sacred, for the elements constructing the myths are considered to originate from Heaven，hence provided a divine and sacred stage for the birth of the emperors.
The emperors
were bom as a result of the inspiration of Heaven, implying that their lives were
51
granted due to Heaven's intention of choosing them to be future emperors on Earth. Thus, this kind of myths gave the emperors a sound reason to rule and be successful. It is noteworthy that there are many examples of birth myths found in the
kamiyo sexual intercourse, of which notable examples are the birth of the Three Divine Descendants Amaterasu, Tsukuyomi-no-mikoto and Susanowo-no-mikoto in the ritual of purification performed by Izanaki.
Such miraculous birth myths are
different to those recorded in the Chinese mythology in several aspects.
In the first
place, the deities bom in these miraculous births were essentially ‘deities，，not emperors.
They may be rulers of different places in Heaven or on Earth, but they
were not rulers of a state, of an organized government with its own law.
In the
second place, in the above-mentioned Japanese birth myths，the babies were not conceived nor delivered in the way babies usually are, but simply came into existence with either natural or external forces. As a matter of fact, we do not even have a hint as to whether or not the Japanese deities were bom as an infant or as a grown-up.
As a rare example of virgin birth myth in Japan, it is written in the
chapter of Ojin Tenn5 that when a woman was having a nap in the marsh, a light ray cast on her genital area.
This woman then delivered a red jewel which later turned
into a beautiful girl whose descendant was Empress Jingu, mother of Ojin Tenno.
52
Yet still，the woman who was thought to be the ancestor of Empress Jingu was not a ruler. I consider that such myths contained in the Japanese mythology did not aim to emphasize the supernatural qualities or divinity of the deities，for the whole narration of kamiyo in both Kojiki and Nihon Shoki is devoted to describe gods and deities to whom to be bom miraculously was of no consequence at all.
3.
Auspicious birth myths
The third type of miraculous birth myths is called auspicious birth myths.
As
far as emperor myths are concerned, auspicious omens may occur at the birth of the emperor，when he ascended the throne, or when the emperor governed his country well.
Here, I will discuss auspicious myths that took place at the birth of emperors. Auspicious birth myths are narratives about the augury that occur at the birth of
a baby.
The birth of Sakyamuni can be considered an example of auspicious birth
myth, though not an emperor myth at all.
It is said that at the birth of Sakyamuni,
the sky echoed with beautiful music; flowers fell from the sky while the whole world brightened up; lotuses grew where Sakyamuni took his steps (see p. 45); two dragons appeared in the sky and sprayed spring water over the prince to give him a bath.
53
There seems to be a paucity of auspicious emperor birth myths in Chinese mythology, but we may look at two examples in the Wei and Jin period (317-557AD) in China.
In
was bom, there was divine light to brighten up the whole room of the emperor.
Wei
Shu (Record of Wei, p. 135) says that when Emperor Xiaowen was bom, there was divine light shining in the room, and the atmosphere was filled with harmony and peace. In Japan，auspicious births are not very common either. examples can be found in the chapter of Yuryaku Tenno.
One of the few
It is written that when the
emperor was bom, there was divine light shining in the whole palace {Nihon Shoki, p. 457).
This episode reminds us of the Chinese style of auspicious birth in which
light seems to be a key element.
Other than myths that related to divine light, in
the myth ofNintoku Tenno, birds were the main constituent:
[3.5]On the day when the emperor [Nintoku] was bom，an owl flew into the maternity ward.
The next day，Homuta-no-sumeramikoto (Ojin
Tenno) called for his minister Takeuchi-no-sukune and asked him，'What kind of omen was it?'
The minister answered, 'It was a good omen.
Yesterday, a wren flew into the maternity ward when my wife was giving
54
birth [to my baby].
This was again strange
As shown above, the coming of birds was seen as a good omen.
In some
inland districts of Asia and Northern Eurasia，owls and wrens are considered as divine birds. For instance, there is the Owl Festival among the Ainu24. birds too are often seen as divine animals in myths.
In China,
For example, in the myth of
Xie, his mother swallowed the egg of a crane and gave birth to him; and in the myth of Liu Bang，his mother swallowed a red jewel brought by a precious hen, and gave birth to him. Divine light and divine birds are both connected with Heaven.
As Ojin Tenno
commented after the birth ofNintoku, 'Auspicious omen occurred at the birth of my son and the minister's son who were bom on the same day, this indicates the sign of Heaven，，auspicious birth myths represent the appreciation from Heaven toward the birth of the new emperor.
It also signifies, therefore, that the new-bom baby would
become a great emperor in the foture; otherwise Heaven would not have welcomed his birth.
24
This is taken from the commentary of Sakamoto et al. in Nihon Shoki p. 627. 55
5.
Remarks
Miraculous birth myths and miraculous childhood myths are common in ancient emperor myths in both Japan and China.
They attempt to show that the
emperors are divine and predestined to rule; in some cases they also imply that the emperors possess the nature of a creator. As regards auspicious myths, they serve mainly two purposes: (1) celebration of the birth of a great ruler and (2) recognition of the good deeds of the ruler. It is noted that the number of miraculous births and childhoods is comparatively small in Japanese mythology for descended from Heaven, and myths to show the divinity of necessary.
In the case of ancient China, however, commoners were able to ascend
the throne as long as they could prove their right to rule.
Therefore, rulers in China
needed such kinds of myths to help strengthen their authority and legitimacy.
I will
discuss this issue further in the next chapter.
Auspicious myths If an auspicious omen, which is usually represented by the appearance of supernatural animals such as dragons and phoenixes or the occurrence of extraordinary phenomena such as gold rains，takes place during the reign of an
56
emperor, it represents Heaven's appreciation of the good deeds of the emperor. For instance, it is said that the deeds of Shun were highly honoured by the people within the four seas and his virtues reached the rare animals inasmuch as even phoenixes soared over his territory Spirits2) in ancient mythology which axe considered divine and spiritual; their appearance indicates that something good has taken place which in this case，is the great rule of Shun. As regards Japan, during the time ofNintoku, there were several occurrences of auspicious omen. As mentioned in the section of miraculous births, the first lucky omen was the appearance of an owl at his birth. during his reign.
The second good omen took place
It is said that one day when Nintoku was holding a feast，he saw a
goose laying an egg.
Because it was nearly impossible for a goose of passage to lay
eggs in the land of Japan, Nintoku inquired the god who told him that it was a sign which signified that his descendants would rule the land of Japan forever {Kojiki, pp. 280-282).
This declaration made by Heaven becomes a guarantee of an everlasting
prosperity for the tenno family. In addition, as it is impossible for gooses to lay eggs in Japan，it exhibits that the rule ofNintoku was an ideal one. In comparison with other emperor myths, auspicious myths are relatively
25
The four spirits in ancient mythology include unicorns, phoenixes, turtles and dragons. 57
common in Japanese and Chinese mythologies.
Extraordinary natural phenomena
such as earthquakes or sun eclipses were at a time seen as bad omen which implied the unsatisfactory rule of the emperor.
Conversely, extraordinary but beneficial
phenomena such as gold rains are considered good omens that implied the good deeds or effective rule of the emperor.
Moral deeds of emperors In the discussions above, we have not yet encountered one important element in emperor myths, which is virtue.
Power was necessary for a ruler to control a whole
state, but virtue was also necessary for him to set up a model for his officers and subjects, and to win their respect and loyalty. This holds true not only for China who traditionally values virtues and morals, but also for Japan, albeit there may not be a common standard for the judgement of virtues. Myths set up moral consensus in the society (Cuthbertson 1975, p. 156).
One
may understand the importance of moral deeds of an emperor through myths. Conversely, myths set the model or prerequisites of a sage king, demonstrating to later emperors the ways to become a great ruler.
58
1.
Virtues and emperors in China
Chinese ancient texts contain a relatively large number of descriptions relating to the moral standard of emperors.
The Three Sage Divinities and the Five Divine
Emperors were well known throughout China's history since the remote past. A l l these emperors, as recorded in ancient texts, were virtuous and sage.
For example,
Huangdi followed the law of the Yin and Yang and the four seasons; understood the Yin and Yang and the five movements by divinations; established rites for his people. His virtues reached the sky, seas and mountains. events occurred because of the virtues of these emperors, of which one well-known example is the myth of Emperor Shun. reached even the border tribes.
Shi Ji (p. 43) says the deeds of Shun
Yu (later the ruler of Xia) thus played the divine
music which reached the rare animals, and invited phoenixes to come and celebrated the good deeds of Shun.
Fengsu Tongyi Jiaozhu (pp. 10-13) says Shun promoted
morals and virtues, and revised the traditions set by Yao.
Shang Shu (p. 216) says
that Shun was wise and understanding, affectionate and respectful. His profound virtues were well known，and as a result he was appointed to the throne.
1.1
T h e trials of Shun
Shun was a virtuous person but his family disliked him and had several attempts
59
to murder him.
After Yao showed his appreciation of the virtues of Shun，his
family became extremely jealous. him alive in a well .
They tried to bum him in the granary and to bury
Yet, Shun was able to escape from their plots eventually and
still treated his parents well and loved his brother even better. Because Shun was well known for his virtues, Yao intended to let him succeed to his throne.
In order to try whether Shun possessed the right qualities, Yao gave
five trials to Shun.
[3.6]Yao said，Til try him (Shun).’
Thereby Yao married his two
daughters to him and observed how he treated the two daughters.
Shun
instructed the two daughters so that they behaved how women were supposed to behave in his family27.
Yao appreciated it.
Then he made
Shun educate [the people] with the five moral teachings, and the people all followed.
Then [Yao] put [Shun] into various official positions and he
did well and orderly in all various positions. guests at the four gates.
[He was made] to host
[The guests at] the four gates were in harmony
26
Once Gusou (the father of Shun) made Shun clean the granary. Shun told his two wives who thus instructed him to use bamboo hats as wings in order to escape if Gusou was to bum him. Gusou really tried to bum Shun. Shun did as told and was saved. There was another time Gusou ordered Shun to dig a well. Shun told his two wives who thus instructed him to dig one more well and escape from it. Gusou and Xiang (the stepbrother of Shun) filled the well with mud when Shun entered into the well. Shun did as his wives told him and escaped from another well {Shi Ji, p. 35). 27 The original is ‘舜飭下二女於嫣?內，.Nienhauser et al. (1994，p. 8) literally translated the phrase ‘於嫣衲，as ‘at the bend of the Gui 嫣[River]，. As Shun lived in the River Gui, the phrase should be referring to his residence. Therefore, I consider it more natural to use in his family . 60
and all the lords and guests from afar were respectful.
Yao made Shun
enter the mountains, the woods, the rivers and the swamps, and Shun marched through the storms and thunders without losing his way.
Yao
[thus] regarded him as sage
1.2
Analysis
Shun succeeded in escaping from the traps set up by his father and brother merely with the help of his two wives.
However, this story demonstrates that Shun
was obedient and affectionate to his family. Even though he was nearly killed by his family, he still treated his family well and obeyed as instructed even though he understood the cruel heart of his family. As such, the virtues of Shun needed not to be questioned. Yao married his two daughters to Shun in order to observe Shim's moral conduct in treating his two daughters. This is because when a person wants to give peace in the world, he must be able to rule his country; to rule the country, one must be able to manage his family in good order (Daxne Thereby Yao made Shun educate the people.
He also put him into various
official positions and made him host guests from afar. These tasks were in fact mock tests for ruling the state.
This is because a ruler needed to educate his people
61
so that they could live in harmony and that no one would commit crimes.
He also
needed to manage all officials and understand the work of each position，so that he could have all matters under control.
As a state grew more powerful, contacts with
other states were unavoidable, and thus the ruler needed to maintain harmonious and peaceful relations with other states.
As Shun passed the first four trials, he was
qualified to be the emperor. In the last trial, Shun could go out from storms unharmed, showing that he was a sage person whom Heaven would not harm. Shun.
Yao therefore passed the throne to
This is again suggesting that, above virtues and ability, a great emperor
needed to possess divinity.
2.
Virtues and emperors in J a p a n
Starting from the chapter of Jimmu, most accounts about tenno recorded in Nihon Shoki contain a few lines telling the extraordinary qualities of the emperors, such as being powerfully built and extremely intelligent, whereas there is no such kind of descriptions in Kojiki.
One may，however, have a grasp of what special
qualities an emperor or a deity had from the myth itself, for instance, in the story about Susanowo's killing of the eight-headed serpent, we may understand that Susanowo was a clever and powerful deity.
In Kojiki, there is a relatively lengthy
62
story depicting the ordeals that Okuni-nushi-no-kami, who completed the task of creating the Japan archipelago，experienced before he succeeded Susanowo to the throne.
This myth is often compared with the myth of Shun for there is a close
resemblance between the ordeals that Okuni-nushi and Shun experienced. Therefore, this narrative exhibits the qualities that a successor needed to possess.
2.1
The qualities of Okuni-nushi a s a ruler
Okuni-nushi and his numerous brothers once went to propose marriage to Yakamihime in Inaba.
On their way, they met a skinned rabbit.
The brothers of
Okuni-nushi thus told the rabbit to bathe in the sea, expose itself to the wind and lie on the mountaintop.
The rabbit followed these instructions, but when the seawater
dried, its skin cracked in the strong wind. was crying because of extreme pain.
When it met Okuni-nushi afterwards, it
As it explained to Okuni-nushi what had
happened, Okuni-nushi said to the rabbit, 6 [You should] hurry to the river and wash your body.
Spread the pollen of palms on the ground, lie on it and roll about.9
The rabbit did as instructed and its skin indeed recovered.
It thereby blessed
Okuni-nushi that he would defeat his brothers and marry Yakamihime in the end. The blessing of the rabbit became reality.
Yakamihime refused the numerous
suitors and decided to marry Okuni-nushi. This made the brothers of Okuni-nushi
63
extremely angry and murdered him.
Fortunately, with the help of Kamu-musuhi-
no-mikoto, Okuni-nushi was able to return to life.
Thereupon his brothers made the
second attempt to kill him，and this time he was saved by his mother.
In order to
escape from his brothers, Okuni-nushi ran to the Ne-no-katasu-kuni where he was tried by Susanowo. When Okuni-nushi arrived at the palace of Susanowo, he immediately fell in love with the daughter of Susanowo, Suseribime.
When Okuni-nushi was brought
to meet Susanowo, Susanowo felt that Okuni-nushi was a man who had the power to rule the earth28.
Thereby he prepared four trials for Okuni-nushi.
In the first and second trial，Okuni-nushi was made to sleep in a room of snakes and a room of centipedes and bees respectively.
With the magical repelling scarves
which his wife gave him, Okuni-nushi was able to come out unscathed.
In the third
trial，he was told by Susanowo to fetch an arrow in a large field. As he had gone into the field，Susanowo immediately set fire around the field. When he could not find the way out, a mouse came and told him the way to escape and found him the
28
When Susanowo saw Okuni-nushi, he said in the original language version “此者、謂之葦原色許 男命”.Philippi (1968, p. 98) takes this term “葦原色許男命，，as "Ugly Male of the Reed Plains" which is of a derogative intent. This is perhaps due to Susanowo ’s intention to disparage Okuni-nushi before his wife, or due to the practice of keeping evil spirits away from a person. However, this paper adopts the explanation of Yamaguchi and Konoshi (1997, p. 81). It says that “Shiko，，，the kana reading of the word “色許”，would have been written in Chinese character as “醜” i f it is used to mean ugly. Therefore, the word ‘‘色許” here should not have a derogative meaning. Instead, it should be translated as having strong power [that is enough to rule the earth] because Susanowo was going to prepare ordeals for Okuni-nushi which aimed at selecting capable ruler of the earth. 64
arrow.
Finally, Susanowo told him to pick lice from his head but the lice were in
fact centipedes.
Okuni-nushi then threw up the mixture of the seeds of elm and red
clay, which his wife gave him, and pretended that he picked up the centipedes from Susanowo. At last, he was able to leave safely again and was able to flee with his wife.
He took the powerful sword and bow-and-airow from Susanowo and became
the ruler of Earth.
After passing all the trials, Okuni-nushi became the ruler and married Suseribime.
Later，he married Nunakawahime in Koshi-no-kuni as his second wife.
At first, it invited jealousy of Suseribime，but Okuni-nushi was able to solve the conflict at last.
2.2
Analysis
In the myth about the skinned rabbit，the brothers of Okuni-nushi gave the rabbit wrong instruction to make the rabbit suffer, showing that they had a cruel heart.
In contrast, Okuni-nushi was sympathetic to the rabbit.
Notwithstanding the two attempts of his brothers to kill him，Okuni-nushi still obeyed his brother as before, showing that he was obedient and affectionate. Moreover, the deity Kamu-musuhi's recovering his life indicates that he was favoured by Heaven. 65
The trials set by Susanowo aimed to test the courage of Okuni-nushi. Although like Shun，Okuni-nushi could only pass the trials with the help of his wife， at least Okuni-nushi was brave enough to take those trials.
Susanowo's trials also
aimed to test the divinity of Okuni-nushi and to test that whether he was the right person for his throne.
If Okuni-nushi was divine and was the right person, he
would be able to escape from danger. Just as Shun remained unharmed in the storms, Okuni-nushi was able to pass all the trials eventually.
In addition, when he
went into the field to fetch the arrow for Susanowo, Okuni-nushi was helped by a mouse which was an inhabitant on earth, signifying that he was a preferable ruler for Earth. As regards his romantic affairs, although his queen Suseribime resented his marrying Nunakawahime at first, Okuni-nushi was able to settle the conflict and married several more wives in the end, which shows that he could manage the relationship with his wives well.
In fact, it seems that deities and tenno who
married many wives were highly appreciated. As commented by Yamaguchi and Konoshi, being fond of romantic affairs was the virtue that a king needed to possess (Kojiki29 p. 91).
This is because managing the family in good order is the
necessary task for a good ruler.
29
Kojiki. Tokyo: Shogakkan, 1997 ed. 66
In sum, in the mind of ancient Japanese, it was necessary for a ruler to be sympathetic, obedient, courageous and capable to manage family affairs.
3.
Shun and Okuni-nushi: Comparison
The myths of Shun and Okuni-nushi are often compared by comparative mythologists, for instance, Ito Seiji (1997), for the ordeals that they experienced were indeed very similar. Both Shun and Okuni-nushi were nearly murdered by their family, and both were tried by their fathers-in-law and succeeded in gaining the throne eventually.
Ito argues that the stories about the trials set by their
fathers-in-law are in effect a type of common in agricultural societies.
It originated from the fact that the son-in-law
needed to replace the bride as the source of productivity for the maiden family, therefore the father-in-law had to test the capability of the suitor. that the objectives and structure (father of a bride
ordeals
It is also believed
-> suitor)30 of ‘obstacle
proposal' are similar to that of the ordeals of primitive tribes in that candidates are also required to pass all ordeals in order to show their capability and courage.
In
the case of choosing the leader of a tribe, the ordeals set for the candidates are even tougher, which can be recognized as a specialized form of the common ordeal (ltd 30
This formula explains the structure of 'obstacle proposal'. In an 'obstacle proposal', the father of a bride sets different ordeals to test the suitor in order to choose a capable and courageous husband for his daughter. 67
1997，pp. 60-85).
In the myths of Shun and Okuni-nushi, the custom developed in
primitive societies was coloured with the contemporary moral judgement in the interest of the rulers although curiously enough, Okuni-nushi was not often praised for his moral conduct.
Yet, because this story seems to be the only account that
directly deals with the selection of emperor, we may rely on it to have a glimpse of the idea of kingship in ancient Japan.
On the contrary, the kind deeds of Shun as
shown in his myth were highly appreciated throughout the course of Chinese history by Confucianists. I believe, therefore, the myth of Shun，unlike that of Okuni-nushi, was not only a reflection of the ordeal or 'obstacle proposal’，but also a reflection of the moral standard that a model ruler was supposed to achieve.
However, some
Chinese historical accounts，such as Guben Zhushu Jinian (ca.403-221BC), say that Shun did not receive the throne firom Yao, but that he in fact fought against Yao and murdered him (Allan 1981, pp. 29-30).
There is no evidence that suffices to
conclude which source is more creditable，but should this account of murder be true， the purpose of the myth of Shun would become quite different; that it is used to justify Shun's usurpation of throne，and thus this myth would be considered very successfiil inasmuch as Shun was generally regarded as the ancient sage king and was much revered.
68
CHAPTER FOUR E M P E R O R M Y T H S II: FOUNDATION AND SUCCESSION
I have discussed creation myth and myths about the supernatural qualities and extraordinary virtues of emperors. Now, I will discuss state foundation myth which is a combination of these genres.
State foundation myths State foundation myths are the stories of the founders of an independent state as opposed to feudal state.
These myths appeared at or around the founding of a state
or the changing of dynasty, a time which Levi-Strauss would have called ‘social contradictions' (see p. 2).
A state foundation myth includes three motifs which are
usually placed in sequential order: (A) a state founder who possessed supernatural qualities; (B) he appears to restore the social order, or to bring about peace for the people; (C) consequently, he establishes a new state and become the emperor. However, attention should be paid to the fact that a state foundation myth does not necessarily need to contain all these three motifs. According to Sun, genuine Chinese state foundation myths only came into existence since the period of the Western Han Dynasty (206BC-23AD).
Before that，not all state founders had
69
myths about themselves, but there were accounts about their supernatural qualities or sometimes the miraculous history of their ancestors (Sun 1990，pp. 220-221).
As
another example, Birrell (1993，pp. 253-256), in discussing the founding myths of the Shang, included not only the myth of the founder of the Shang Dynasty, Tang， but also his ancestor Xie whereas the myth about Xie told nothing more than his miraculous birth. Emperor Shun.
In fact, the Shang at the time of Xie was only a fief granted by Thus, Xie was not considered the founder, but the ancestor of the
founder of the Shang. importance.
Such being the case, the three motifs may not have equal
The mythical history of the founder of a certain state usually covers
the largest space of a piece of myth, while only a few sentences or sometimes not even a line is used to conclude the process of state establishment, and descriptions about the restoration of order by the founder and the foundation of a certain state often appear to be purely historical and without mythical colour at all.
Having said
that，mythologists in general still call these accounts state foundation myths.
State foundation myths have the effect of justifying the founder's establishment of a new state.
Accounts about the state founders are often associated with
miraculous birth or childhood (motif A).
As discussed earlier, frequent association
of state founders and miraculous births aims to emphasize the founder's divinity. Because he was bom in a miraculous and divine birth, the founder was able to
70
establish the divine nature of his dynasty. believed to be divine people.
Thereupon, his descendants are also
Emphasis on the restoration of social order (motif B)
gives the state founder an image as a saviour who rescued the people from distress. His establishment of a new state (motif C) was therefore justified; hence, he became the object of reverence and loyalty.
1.
State foundation myths in China
There axe more state foundation myths in China in comparison with that of Japan because of her frequent change of dynasty.
In earlier foundation myths，the
state founders may be presented as gods or divine beings.
In later myths, the
founders are mortals, yet possessed supernatural power of gods, demigods，or divine beings.
The myth of Huangdi is an example of the former and the myth of Liu
Bang, the founder of the Han Dynasty is an example of the latter.
1.1
T h e myth of Huangdi a s a foundation myth
Huangdi is better known as a mythic hero who killed the monster Chiyou. However, the myth of Huangdi has well-developed characteristics of the state foundation myth which contains the three requisite motifs.
71
1.1.1 Supematuralness of Huangdi
Shan Hai Jing serpent, with his tail rising to touch on the head.
It also says that his daughter was
the goddess of drought, making it clear that he was a divine being. says Xiwangmu (the Queen Mother of Heaven) sent a priest to give Huangdi a commander's seal in his dream which Huangdi used to fight with and defeated Chiyou (1934，pp. 11-12).
This account is stressing that Huangdi was favoured by
the divinity Xiwangmu rather than focusing on his supernatural power.
I consider
this to be an important point, as it shows that even when the ruler himself does not possess extraordinary power at all, he is able to secure power from the gods which can lead him to success. The birth of Huangdi also displays his supernatural qualities.
Shi Ji says,
‘Huangdi was miraculous when he was bom and was able to speak when he was still an infant (p. 1).' Another version in Diwang Shiji says:
[4.1] Huangdi was the son of Shaodian31，sumamed Ji.
His mother was
called Fubao, and his ancestor was the Yandi... [Once] there was a great lightning around the North Polestar and its light lit the whole field.
It
31
It is generally thought that Shaodian was the name of a clan, rather than the name of a person. However, Diwang Shiji seems to consider Shaodian as the father of Huangdi. 72
inspired Fubao [and made her pregnant].
She conceived Huangdi for
twenty-five months and gave birth to him at Shouyou
The story of Huangdi，s birth as recorded in Shi Ji is apparently a speak-at-birth myth, while that in Diwang Shiji is a typical virgin birth myth.
Since speak-at-birth
myth implies that the child is supreme over Heaven and Earth, and a virgin birth myth implies that the birth of the child was granted by Heaven, indicating that Huangdi was supernatural, and was ordained by Heaven to be a future emperor.
1.1.2 Restoration of social order
In the myth of Huangdi, the social order was disturbed by Chiyou who was considered a demon of the proto-historic era.
According to Shi Ji (p. 3)，Chiyou，
who fought against Huangdi, was the most tyrannical among the feudal lords32. also made various weapons to execute other feudal lords.
He
He had the body of a
beast, his head was made of copper and his forehead made of iron. human language but ate sands and stones (Long Yu Hetu 1934, p. 9).
He spoke
According to
Shan Hai Jing, he could even command the deities of wind and rain to bring about 32
The original of ‘feudal lords' here is zhuhou 諸侯，which literally means many lords. The term feudal lord was developed in the Eastern Zhou period in which feudalism was established and it is clear that this term should not exist during the protohistoric era. However, as Nienhauser et al. (1994, p. xix) indicated, Sima Qian used this term, as well as some other terms describing the official ranks and positions, anachronistically in understanding and use 'feudal lords' instead of 'many lords' here. 73
great storm. As Chiyou was so tyrannical, when Huangdi fought with him in the battle of Zhuolu and killed him in the end, Huangdi became a deliverer of the people from extreme sufferings and a restorer of the social order.
1.1.3 Establishment of a new state
[4.2] During the time of Xuanyuan, the Shermong Clan was declining... [Xuanyuan] fought with Yandi in the wilds of Banquan. after, he was able to destroy Yandi33. his order.
Three battles
Chiyou rebelled and did not obey
Thereupon Huangdi called to arms from the feudal lords to
fight with Chiyou in the wilds of Zhuolu, thus captured and killed him. The feudal lords then honored Xuanyuan as the Son of Heaven.
He took
over Shennong Clan, and was called the Huangdi
Before Huangdi successfully restored the social order, he was not the ruler, nor was he the legitimate successor to the current ruler. At that time，the state was ruled by Yuwang 34 , or Yandi35 [Flame Emperor] of the Shennong clan 3 6 .
After
33
The original sentence is “三戰’然後得其志•” Nienhauser et al. (1994，p. 2) translated it literally as "Only after he fought three battles was he able to put his ideas into practice." However, according to Shi Ji (p. 5), the sentence should mean Huangdi destroyed Yandi. Kongzi Jiayu says “與炎帝載 于阪泉之野，三戰而後勉之，” which makes it clear that Huangdi defeated Yandi after fighting three battles at the wilds of Banquan. 34 According to Huangfu Mi, Yuwang was called 'the Emperor Yuwang' and he was the predecessor of Yandi, therefore it is not likely that Yandi would be a contemporaiy person. The validity of Yandi here is not clear. See footnote 30. 74
destroying Yandi and Chiyou, Huangdi took over the rule and became the ruler. This foundation myth of Huangdi shows that (A) Huangdi was a capable person with supernatural qualities. (B) He delivered the people from the tyranny of Yandi and Chiyou.
(C) He established a new rule and was honoured as the Son of Heaven.
It is clear that Huangdi usurped the throne from Shennong Clan in order to become the emperor.
However, this myth makes his seizure of power a righteous act and
thus renders it legitimacy.
1.2
The founding myth of the Han Dynasty
Liu Bang was the founder of the Western Han Dynasty.
His stories are
recorded in recording events since the time of Huangdi.
These fantastic stories are largely
35
There are disputes over the validity of Yandi in this piece of description. In Ji, according to implying that Yandi was not a contemporary of Huangdi. In that the name of Yandi that appeared in the myth of Huangdi was in fact a usurped title of Yandi by Chiyou, and that Sima Qian wrongly took Yandi and Chiyou as different persons. In Taiping Yulan, Wei Zhou explained that Huangdi destroyed Yandi and his descendants. As there is no agreement concerning this point，I translated the version of Sima Qian literally without making any changes. 36 Shennong was generally referred to Yandi. In Diwang Shiji, it says, 'Shennong surnamed Jiang. When his mother visited a place called Huayang, she saw the head of a divine dragon, thereby conceived Yandi.' Huangfii Mi also quotes from Yi Jing that Shennong Clan rose up after Fuxi, and was called Yandi (cited by Shi J/, p. 3-4). In Kongzi Jiayu, Confiicius said the Five Divine Emperors were Taihao, Yandi, Huangdi, Shaohao and Zhuangxu. According to Shangshu Xu, Diwang Shiji and Shibeng, Taihao, Shennong and Huangdi are called the Three Sage Divinities, whereas Shaohao and Zhuangxu are the first two emperors of the Five Divine Emperors (cited by Shi Ji, p. 1). As such, Kongzi Jiayu has combined the Three Sage Divinities with the Five Divine Emperors and Shennong is called Yandi here. 75
about his supernatural qualities, while narrations about his wars against Qin and his establishment of the Han dynasty appear to be purely historical.
1.2.1 Supematuralness of Liu Bang—the miraculous birth
[4.3]Gaozu (the Primogenitor of Han) was a native of Zhongyangli in the Feng County of Pei，sumamed Liu.
His mother Ao had once taken a rest
at a pond in the great marsh and dreamt of meeting the god.
At that very
moment, the sky gloomed, and thunder and lightning began. His father Taigong went to see [what happened] and saw a flood dragon above [her]. Consequently [she became] pregnant and then gave birth to Gaozu {Han Shu, p. 1).
An almost identical account can be found in the annals of Gaozu in Shi JL This myth is constructed with the structure of virgin birth myths.
It introduces the
miraculous origin of Liu Bang，as his mother，Ao, was inspired by the dragon and gave birth to Liu Bang. The myth shows that the birth of Liu Bang was the result of Heaven's inspiration.
His supematuralness was shown not at the moment of his birth，but at
the time when he was conceived in his mother's womb.
It is noteworthy that when
76
A o was meeting the god in the dream, there was a dragon flying above her in reality. It seems possible that the dragon appeared in L i u Bang's myth as the manifestation of the god.
Thus the connection between Liu Bang and Heaven (God) becomes
obvious. On the other hand, in ancient China, dragon was considered a common heroic motif that symbolized power and the king.
While one may not infer a cause and
effect relationship between the conception of L i u Bang and the appearance of the dragon, a dragon flying overhead when Liu Bang's mother became pregnant indeed served as an augury of his becoming a future emperor. There Hanshi, the queen mother Zhaoling，had once visited a place called Luodi. came a precious hen holding in its mouth a red jewel.
The queen mother thus
swallowed the jewel and [later] gave birth to Gaozu (Shi Ji, p. 342). principle constituents in this myth.
There
There are two
The first one is the precious hen which serves
as a lucky sign，an omen or an augury for Liu Bang's birth. The second principle constituent is a round object: the red jewel which signifies a life. The story was set up in a way to make it convincing that the mother became pregnant because she had eaten the red jewel.
Without doubt, her pregnancy was an extraordinary one, which
also showed that the child she conceived was of extraordinary origin.
In addition,
77
the red jewel is a symbol of respect and honour, and seems to be connecting the infant with an emperor.
1.2.2 Supematuralness of Liu Bang—mysterious animals
[4.4] Gaozu appeared like a dragon and had a high-bridge nose, and there were seventy-two black moles on his left thigh...He often took wine from the old ladies Wang and Wu on credit.
When Gaozu got drunk and fell
asleep，Wu and Wang always saw dragons [flying] above him.
They thus
thought it strange (Shi Ji
The above piece of myth aims to emphasize the link between Liu Bang and dragons: the symbol of king and power.
The birth of Liu Bang was inspired by a
flood dragon; therefore he looked like a dragon . Not only his face reminded people of a dragon, when he got drunk, there were often dragons appeared above him, foretelling his fate of becoming an emperor. There is another myth which again involved the appearance of a mysterious animal:
37
Hecheng Tu (cited in Shi Ji, p. 343) says, 4The body of the Red King was a red bird. His face looked like the dragon and had many black moles.' Liu Bang was said to be the son of the Red King (see discussion below), therefore his appearance was like the Red King. 78
[4.5] Gaozu, who was drunk, took a footpath through the marsh at night and commanded a person to inspect in the front.
The person reported
after inspection, ‘There is a large snake occupying the path in the front. I beg you return.'
[As] Gaozu was drunk, he said, ‘Go，the brave fighter
fears nothing!，[He] thus went forth，took out the sword and cut the snake into two.
The path was therefore cleared.
Gaozu fell asleep as he got drunk.
After going for a few miles,
Later someone came to the snakes'
den and found an old woman crying in the night.
The person asked why
she was crying.
The old woman answered，'Someone killed my son,
therefore I cry.'
The person asked, 'How was your son killed?’ The old
woman answered,
4
My son was the son of the White King
who
transformed to a snake and occupied the footpath. He was killed by the son of the Red King39. That is why I cry.'
The person thought the old
woman was lying and wanted to insult her, but the old woman suddenly disappeared...[Later] the person told Gaozu. and thought that he was superior.
Gaozu was thus delighted
All his followers revered him even
more (Han Shu
Baidi (the White King) refers to Shaohao， a prehistoric emperor who was believed to be the descendant of Huangdi. 39 Chidi (the Red King) refers to Emperor Yao.
38
79
There are two themes constructing this myth. Bang was the son of the Red King.
The first theme tells that Liu
That is, Liu Bang was originally a divine being.
If the snake was the manifestation of the son of the White King, then L i u Bang must be a manifestation as well.
Moreover, because Liu Bang killed the snake, it
indicates that he was more powerful than the son of the divine White King. The second theme is the implication of Liu Bang's success in overthrowing the rule of Qin.
The White King (Shaohao) was considered the lord of the west.
Because the predecessor of the Qin dynasty, Xianggong, was a feudal lord in the west，he built Xizhi40 to worship the White King. it rained gold in Yueyang, a place in Shanxi.
Later, in the time of Xiangong,
This incident was thought to be a
good omen and thus, Xiangong built Qizhi to worship the White King. As such, the White King in this myth may be considered to be representing Qin rule.
Killing
the son of the White King signifies that Liu Bang was able to overthrow the Qin. That was why Liu Bang was delighted to hear the story. The above three pieces of myth give strong reasons to support Liu Bang's becoming a great emperor. origin.
(2) He was of a divine
(3) There was an auspicious omen showing that he was about to succeed in
founding a new rule.
40
(1) He was bom miraculously.
Consequently, it justified Liu Bang's overthrowing the
Xi refers to the West and zhi is a place to offer sacrifice for deities. 80
tyrannical Qin.
2.
State foundation myths in Japan
In Japan, there are few state foundation myths for the simple reason that the imperial line in Japan is always emphasized to be an unbroken and eternal one which originated from the descent of Ho-no-ninigi, the heavenly descendant of Amaterasu. Two myths, namely the founding myth of Izumo-no-kuni (now the province of Izumo) by Susanowo and the myth of Jimmu Tenno recorded in
Shoki
2.1
The myth of Susanowo as a foundation myth
Similar to the myth of Huangdi, the myth of Susanowo's descent to Izumo-nokuni is seldom seen as，or emphasized as a foundation myth. Here, I will analyze the myth of Susanowo with the three basic motifs.
2.1.1 Supematuralness of Susanowo
Susanowo was the son of Izanaki and Izanami, and at the same time brother of Amaterasu.
He was one of the most powerful deities in Heaven (Takama-no-hara)
inasmuch as his crying could dry up the green mountains and the oceans, and invite
81
the noise of the evil deities • Even his sister, the Sun Goddess who was the master of Heaven, feared his power.
When he went to his sister in Heaven, he made the
mountains and the rivers thunder, and made the whole territory shake vigorously. He won the fight with Amaterasu and made Amaterasu so frightened that she hid herself in the ame-no-iwaya (the Heaven's cavern) 42 .
Finally，it required the
endeavour of all deities in Heaven to expel him.
2.1.2 Restoration of p e a c e
In spite of his destructive power，Susanowo was the hero in restoring peace in Izumo.
As he was expelled, Susanowo descended to the earth, and came to a place
called Torikami in Izumo.
There he learned that an eight-headed serpent43 would
come every year to eat one daughter of the earthly deity Ashinazuchi and consequently seven out of eight daughters of the deity were eaten.
Susanowo thus
decided to kill the serpent and save the deity's youngest girl.
41
According to Kojiki, Susanowo did not obey Izanaki who commanded him to become the ruler of the ocean. He thus cried loudly for he longed to visit the Ne-no-katasu-kuni where his deceased mother resided. 42 After Susanowo won the fight with Amaterasu, he caused severe damage here and there in the Heaven. Amaterasu was unable to stop him and when she was weaving the clothes for the deities of Heaven in the weaving house imihataya, Susanowo broke the roof of the house and dropped in the dappled horse of Heaven which was skinned by him from bottom to head. Because of extreme fear, the weaving maid hit her genital with the shuttle and died. Frightened by this accident, Amaterasu opened the door of the ame-no-iwaya and hid herself there. 43 The eight-headed serpent, Yamata-no-orochi, was a giant serpent with eight heads and eight tails. Vines, cedars and cypresses were growing upon its body the length of which covered eight valleys and eight mountains. 82
[4.6]Haya-susanowo-no-mikoto thus turned the little girl into a sacred comb and wore it on his topknot.
He commanded the deities Ashinazuchi
and Tenazuchi, Brew strong wine that is repeatedly brewed for many times.
Then build a fence around and make eight doors for the fence.
For each of the door, build a temporary shelf and put a large boat-shaped vessel with the wine inside in every shelf, and then wait there'...The serpent really came forth as he predicted and hanged down its heads on each of the eight vessels to drink the wine.
It thus got drunk and fell
asleep. Thereby Susanowo took out his sword and cut the serpent into pieces
We are told in the above narrative that (1) Susanowo was extraordinarily powerful. His body was so huge that he could wear a life-size comb44 on his topknot, and his strength was so great that he could cut the giant serpent into pieces. (2) He was very clever. While the serpent had troubled the earthly deity for as long as seven years, Susanowo could plan a wise plan to trap the serpent and killed it without using much time or effort.
44
According to the commentary in change the size of the young girl (Kushinadahime) when he turned her into a comb. 83
2.1.3 Establishment of a new state
[4.7] [After killing the eight-headed serpent,] Susanowo sought a place for his palace in Izumo-no-kuni.
He then arrived at a place called Suga and
said，My heart was refreshed when I came here.'
Thus, he built a palace
there and this place is now named Suga (refreshing). When this great deity started to build the palace, many clouds rose up from the site {Kojiki^ p. 88).
Palace is the symbol of sovereign inasmuch as nearly every account of tenno in Nihon Shoki started by telling the name of the palace where the emperor resided, followed with the phrase ‘[The emperor] began to rule the world，，which shows that palace was essential in the rule of an emperor，and building a palace was considered the necessary step in establishing a rule. Thus, Susanowo's building a palace in Izumo was in fact a declaration of his sovereign rule over the province.
Izumo was
not ruled by any ruler before the coming of Susanowo, therefore his establishment of rule in Izumo was new and unprecedented.
We may find in the Kojiki and Nihon
Shoki that Susanowo was in effect the first deity to found a state on earth. The rising up of the clouds at the time of the building of the palace may be considered a good omen for the start of Susanowo's rule, as clouds were the
84
reflection of a vigorous movement of spiritual power of the earth 4 、Furthermore, the Chinese saying 'clouds rise when the dragon prances ahead46，is used as a metaphor for the rise of great heroes.
As such, the clouds rose at the building of
Susanowo's palace may be seen as an augury for the rise of a great ruler. It is noteworthy that this myth of Susanowo's establishment of rule in Izumo is generally regarded as the Izumo system of myth，as opposed to the Takama-no-hara system of myth in which Ho-no-ninigi descended to the present Kyushu to declare control over the Earth.
The Izumo system refers to the mythic system originated
from the gdzoku (powerful tribe) which occupied the Izumo-no-kuni; whereas the Takama-no-hara system refers to the mythic system originated from the Yamato Court.
This reflects the historical fact that the gdzoku in Izumo had been a
powerful rival to the Yamato Court; and the Yamato Court had eventually defeated the gdzoku and took over control of Izumo (Yokoda 1950，pp. 50-51). As such，in Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, the historical records of the Japanese empire the precursor of which was the Yamato Court, the legitimate imperial line started from Amaterasu and not Susanowo, albeit Susanowo was the first deity to found a state on Earth. These two systems of myth are combined into one single account in Kojiki and
45
This is taken from the commentary in Kojiki Tokyo: Shogakkan, 1997 ed. (p. 73). The Chinese original is “雲起龍骧”• The phrase first appeared in the biography (lie zhuan) of Han Xin, Ying Bu, Pen Yue and Wu Rui in Han Shu. It says，'Clouds rose and dragon pranced ahead, then [the four of them] became m&rcjuiscs and ruled the feudal states of Qi，Chu, Huainan and Liang respectively (p. 4246).’ 46
85
Nihon Shoki. who completed the formation of Plains, i.e. the land of Japan).
When the land of Japan was completely formed,
Amaterasu dispatched her descendant to take control over the land.
Consequently,
the rule founded by Susanowo was handed over，and therefore both Heaven and Earth were in complete control under Amaterasu and her descendants, whereupon the rule of tenno in the real world began. If we return to Susanowo's killing of the eight-headed serpent, we may find that this piece of myth is related to a later episode about the subdual of the land of Japan by Yamato-takeru during the rule of Keiko Tenno.
At the time when Susanowo cut
the serpent into pieces, he found the kusanagi-no-tachi (the grass mowing sword) which he then presented to Amaterasu.
Later, this sword was given to
Yamato-takeru when he began his eastern expedition，which once saved him from a fire set by Sagamu-no-kuni-no-miyatsuko.
As such, the previous rival of
Amaterasu was made a key person to the start of the realm of the heavenly descendants, and the founding of a rule by Susanowo in Izumo was of great consequence to the tenno family.
86
2.2
The myth of Jimmu Tenno as the foundation myth of the Yamato regime
Jimmu Tenno, according to the two ancient Japanese works，was the founder of the Japanese empire.
Thus, his myth was generally considered as the foundation
myth in Japan.
2.2.1 Supematuralness of Jimmu
In Kojiki, there is no account about the birth of Jimmu.
It is only written that
Jimmu was the fourth child of Ukaya-fuki-aezu-no-mikoto9 and his mother Tamayorihime-no-mikoto was the sister-in-law of his father. Nihon Shoki adds some more details to the account, saying that Jimmu was wise and determined since he was bom. There are only very few descriptions about the supernatural power of Jimmu. However, his identity as a heavenly deity and, most importantly, the direct descendant of Amaterasu already gave him a divine and supreme nature.
Precisely
because he was the direct descendant of the Sun Goddess，he received help from Heaven in times of difficulties.
[4.8] As Kamuyamatoiwarebiko-no-mikoto 47 …arrived in the village of
47
The name of Jimmu before he became the emperor. 87
Kumano, a huge bear came out and suddenly disappeared.
Kainuyaniato-
iwaxebiko-no-mikoto was then poisoned and lost consciousness.
The
imperial troops also lost consciousness and all fell down. At this moment, Kumano-no-takakuraj i 48 came to the heavenly son and presented him one sword.
[Jimmu] immediately woke up...and when he received the sword，
all the evil spirits in the mountain of Kumano were killed one after the other.
Thereby the troops who had lost consciousness all woke up {Kojiki,
pp. 150-152).
The sword that rescued Jimmu was descended from Heaven by Amaterasu and Take-mikazuchi-no-kami.
Take-mikazuchi told Takakuraji in his dream to find the
sword named Futsu-no-mitama inside his warehouse and present it to the heavenly descendant.
The coming of Takakuraji was the result of the instruction of Heaven.
Thus, Jimmu was in fact saved by Heaven who foresaw the danger. Soon after Jimmu and his troops regained their consciousness, according to Nihon Shoki, the imperial troops of the heavenly son headed to Uchi-tsu-kuni (the middle land).
However, the mountain was so precipitous that they could not find
the way out.
Thereby Amaterasu49 told Jimmu in his dream that she would send
48 49
Takakuraji was named as such since he got the Heaven's sword in the floor of his own warehouse. in Kojiki, it was Takagi-no-okami who spoke to Jimmu in his dream. 88
him the woke up, he really found the crow which guided him to find help. From the above examples, it is clear that the Heaven would offer help or give Jimmu useful instructions whenever he was in danger or in difficulties.
It should
be noted that in the beginning of his Eastern Expedition，his troops did not seem to have easy fight with enemies.
According to Nihon Shoki (pp. 191-195), Jimmu's
eldest brother Itsuse-no-mikoto was fatally injured in Jimmu's first battle with Nagasunebiko in Shirakata-no-tsu. At last, Jimmu had to withdraw and took a roundabout route to continue his expedition.
In the middle of the sea in Kumano,
his troops met with a sudden storm. As the descendants of the heavenly deity and the sons of the Sea Deity, experiencing setbacks in both the land and the sea made Jimmu's two brothers very frustrated. They then jumped into the sea, leaving Jimmu alone to fight the enemies.
As such, in the early period of his expedition,
the situation of Jimmu was difficult and he lost all his brothers. Not until all his brothers left did the deities in Heaven start to help him.
From this，we learn that: (1)
Jimrnu was the toughest and strongest ainong his brothers. (2) Jinunu was particularly favoured by Heaven.
50
(3) He was destined to be the future emperor.
It is called yaata-karasu in Kojiki. 89
2.2.2 Restoration of peace and establishment of a new state
In the myth of Jimmu, no monsters or people appeared to break the social order. However, the conversation between Amaterasu, Takagi-no-kami and Take-mikazuchi showed that the Earth was not quite at peace then.
[4.9] Amaterasu and Takagi-no-kami summoned Take-mikazuchi-no-kami and said, our children were troubled [by this]
As the Earth was very turbulent, therefore bringing peace and stableness to the Earth became the mission of the heavenly descendants.
[4.10]Then Take-mikazuchi-no-kami answered, ‘I need not descend [to the Earth].
The sword which has conquered the land is here.
We should
send it down [instead] (ibid. p. 152).，
The sword was sent to Earth in order to subdue those who disturbed the peace. As Jimmu received the sword from Takakuraji in accordance with the instruction of Take-mikazuchi, he was given the mission to bring about peace and more 90
importantly, he was granted the legitimacy to conquer and rule the land of Japan. There were not many battles to fight before Jimmu succeeded in conquering the land of Japan .
It is written in
evil spirits, and fought to keep away those who did not obey. At last，he built his palace, the Kashiwara-no-miya (The Kashiwara Palace), and started to rule the land of Japan. In this section, I have used the three basic motifs of state foundation myth to examine the myth of Jimmu.
It is found that，in this myth, the help from Heaven is
given more prominence than the supernatural power of Jimmu. Jimmu received help from Heaven in times of troubles and escaped from all difficult situations in the end.
This indicates that Heaven favoured Jimmu to be the emperor of the land of
Japan.
That is, he was chosen by Heaven to be the ruler, and as such, his rule over
the Ashihara-no-naka-tsu-kuni was legitimized by Heaven.
3.
Remarks
State foundation myth appears in times of change of dynasty in China.
Such
myth is considered to have been constructed in the interest of the state founder so
51
According to Kojiki, Jimmu started his expedition by the battle with Nagasunebiko at Shirakatano-tsu. Then he met several earthly deities during his journey but none of the deities rebelled against him. Later his troops arrived at Oshisaka where they fought with many violent enemies.. At last， Nigihayahi-no-mikoto who followed Ninigi to descend from Heaven showed Jimmu his will of submission, which brought the Eastern Expedition of Jimmu to a successful end. 91
that his act of overthrowing the preceding dynasty can be justified.
In Japan, there
are fewer state foundation myths because the imperial line is always claimed to be an unbroken one and the It is noteworthy that the three-layered structure of a state foundation myth resembles that of a creative-pattern myth in which (1) a supernatural being appears in a chaotic world; (2) he restores the world order and (3) creates a new world. Here, the structure of a creation myth，which shows the etiological attempt of the primitive people, is employed in a state foundation myth, whereas the myth now implies that the state founder is as respectable and as great a being as the world creator, or to say the least, it implies that the act of founding a new state by the state founder is as consequential as the creation of the world by the world master. This reminds us of the statement of Levi-Strauss which says that the structure of myth remains essentially unchanged but the content is slightly different from time to time (cl963, pp. 229-230)，albeit creation myth and state foundation myth are very different mythic types and are developed at different periods of time.
Idea of succession in kingship In this section，I will discuss the idea of succession of kingship in ancient China and Japan.
Certainly, heredity was the most common idea of succession of rule.
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Nonetheless, ancient China and Japan always related the emperors to Heaven and called them the son of Heaven Japan. As such, Heaven was considered the ultimate determiner of the successor to reign in Japan and China.
However, as regards how this determination of Heaven
was expressed becomes an important question, and the answer to this question differs in the two countries.
1.
Tian ming
In the chapter discussing creation myths，I have concluded that creation myths allow rulers of later generations to trace their origin back to the creator, and thus legitimize the rule of the emperors.
However, I have also shown that Chinese
creation myths provided no foundation for later rulers to launch their genealogy and could not quite function to prove the legitimacy of any rulers in China.
If that is so,
did Chinese rulers seek an alternative way to launch a genealogy that was able to reinforce the authority of their rules? Change of dynasties was frequent throughout the history of China. Nevertheless, emperors from different ruling families were all called the son of Heaven, implying that they were all descended from Heaven and their ascent to the throne was in effect a succession to the existing throne albeit they did not actually
93
share the same blood.
In
continued until Wu of the Zhou Dynasty, the fifteenth generation of the progenitor of Zhou，Houchi • relation at all.
However, this link from Huangdi down to Houchi was not blood Xie of Shang and Houchi of Zhou were bom as a result of virgin
birth, and Xie and Houchi were mere commoners, but they were appointed official ministers and finally became the progenitors of Shang and Zhou respectively. According to Sima Qian, this is because they were sages.
Sima Qian says,
[4.11] Yao knew that Xie and Chi [Houchi] were sages, and were begotten by Heaven.
Therefore, he granted seventy miles of territory to Xie.
Until several decades later. Tang could rule over the world.
Yao knew
that the descendants of Houchi would become king, therefore granted hundred miles of territory to him.
Until thousand years later，Emperor
Wen came to the throne... The Confucius said, 'In the past, Yao gave the surname Zi to Xie，because there would be Tang [to rule the world].
[Yao]
granted the surname Ji to Houchi, because there would be Wen [to rale the
52
Shi Ji (p. 488-492) says that Huangdi begot (sheng) Xuande; Xuande begot Qiaoji; Qiaoji begot Gaoxin (Ku); Ku begot Houchi who was the progenitor of Zhou. Wu was the fifteenth generation of Houchi. However, Houchi was said to be bom without a father (he was bom as a result of virgin birth), therefore he should not have blood relationship with Huangdi. Sima Qian explained that since Yao thought Houchi sage，he granted Houchi the surname Ji. Ji was the surname of Huangdi which meant ‘the origin {ben)\ indicating that Houchi was the origin of the people. Houchi was a sage person who was bom under the will of Heaven, just as how Huangdi was bom. As such, Houchi was regarded as the descendant of Huangdi (Shi Ji, p. 504-505). 94
world].
Gugong appointed Jili, because he understood the augury53.
Taibai
went for the state of Wu; therefore peace in the world could be
achieved.'
The will of Heaven was difficult to put into words.
sages could read it. Huangdi.
Only the
Shun, Yu, Xie and Houchi were all descendants of
Huangdi ruled the world in accord with the will of Heaven.
His good deeds reached future generations, therefore his descendants all became emperors. [people].
This was the reward of Heaven for the virtuous
[Ordinary] people could not understand and thought that the
emperors ascended [the throne] as common people. people become king without reason?
How could common
It was [because] there was the will
of Heaven
Sima Qian gave us a clear explanation as to why commoners could rise up to the throne, which is a very important idea of kingship in ancient China.
To the
Chinese Confucianists, it was the Mandate, which passed to the eligible ruler the right to rule. At the same time，the
53
it is said that one day a red bird, holding in its mouth an imperial edict written in red, flew and stopped in front of the room of Wen, the son of Jili. The content of the imperial edict implied that the immoral Jiao should be overthrown and be replaced by a sage ruler {Maoshi Zhengyi, p. 531). Therefore, Gugong regarded this as a divine augury. 54 Wen was the father of Wu of the Zhou Dynasty who overthrew the tyrannical Shang Dynasty. Shi ji (p. 506) says that Gugong was the grandfather of Wen; Jili was the father of Wen; Taibai was the first son of Gugong. He went to the state Wu in order to give way to Jili who could pass the reign to Wen, so that the task of restoring peace could be accomplished by Wu. 95
Confucmmsts also recognize ‘rule by virtue，and that only the sage people who were chosen by Heaven could rule the world (Shen 1990，p. 4).
Therefore, although the
sage rulers might appear to be ordinary people, they were in fact predestined to be the rulers. Heaven expressed its will in various ways. appeared in the miraculous births of emperors.
One was its manifestation as
The virgin birth signified that the
emperor was dispatched by Heaven to rule the world when the time came. Auspicious omens were another indication of the will of Heaven.
The
auspicious myth of Wen (see footnote 53, p. 95) was an explicit expression of the will of Heaven.
Usually, a good omen showed that the emperor was in favour by
Heaven, while a bad omen indicated the resentment by Heaven.
For instance,
disasters were usually considered as the expression of the Heaven's resentment. Huainanzi (p. 84) says，‘the sentiments of people are in touch with Heaven. Therefore, strong winds blow in times of violence; pests break out in times of circumvention of laws; and droughts occur when the innocent is killed•， In China, the emperor was considered to have supreme authority. He was appointed by Heaven and nature, was predestined to be the emperor (Itano 1950，p. 277), and was the representative of Heaven to govern the world.
Because the
emperor ruled under the mandate of Heaven, he was also called the son of Heaven,
96
"ari
and had absolute authority in his country.
Heaven would reward the
emperors for their good deeds and punish those who violated the Heaven's way. When the emperor was tyrannical, Heaven would appoint another candidate to replace him. As such, ancient Chinese believed in 'rule by virtue，. why virtue was an important element in Chinese myths.
This explains
Because ancient Chinese
believed in ‘rule by virtue', they also recognized the changing of royal house once the mandate of Heaven was transferred from the current ruler to another eligible candidate.
Therefore, myth-makers readily made use of this thought and produced
myths that demonstrated the mandate of Heaven and justified the overthrowing of a dynasty or usurpation of throne，as is shown in the founding myth of Huangdi and the myth of Wen whose son Wu overthrew the tyrannical Shang (see p. 95)‘
2.
Kami
In contrast to the frequent changes of dynasty in China, Japan asserted that the imperial house remained the same from the time of Jimmu, and the imperial lineage of mythology, there was an ultimate authority in Heaven to detennine the ruler of the world.
Amaterasu, the ancestral deity of Japanese decreed the sovereignty of the
land of Japan to her descendants and guaranteed the everlasting prosperity of the
97
country. As such，in ancient times, the country under the rule of tennd was stable and peaceful, and the throne was always in the hand of the tenno family. Although there were succession quarrels between princes，and there were times when the throne was succeeded by the brother instead of the son of the retired or deceased emperor, the blood relationship was still there. could never ascend the throne.
People outside the royal house
In most cases，the successor to the throne was
appointed by the current emperor but in some cases, the god {kami) would appear to announce the appropriate candidates to the reign. Contrary to the Chinese idea of the kingship, Japanese people did not recognize changing of ruling house.
In Japan, people believed that tennd is a demigod
(arahitogami) who is granted the divine right to rule by Heaven.
Because of the
authority of Heaven as affirmed in Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, Japanese scholars like Motoori Morinaga, asserted that tenno was a real god and was beyond criticism，and urged that regardless of how the tenno ruled，his people should rather serve him with reverence (Motoori 1771，pp. 295-297).
It may be said that the emperor myths in
Kojiki and Nihon Shoki did much to help enhance the rule of tennd over Japan.
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CHAPTER FIVE CONCLUSION
The most distinct difference between Japanese myths and Chinese myths may be that Japanese myths were systematically recorded in official histories while Chinese myths were fragmentarily distributed.
However，the discussions in the
previous chapters make it sufficiently clear that in spite of their different distributive patterns, they do not differ greatly in mythic types and contents. Every culture has its own creation myths which convey the etiological attempts of primitive people to explain the origin of cosmos and nature. The creators present in the myths are naturally, if not inevitably, connected to an absolute authority that rules the world.
Thus，if myth is a legitimate tool for the ruler, then world creation
myth which provides a traceable genealogy linking the creator with the rulers should be considered the ultimate origin on which the legitimacy rests. Both Japan and China have world creation myths accounting how the world came into being.
In Japanese mythology, the sky and the earth separated by their
own force while the land of Japan was created by Izanaki and Izanami.
In Chinese
mythology, there are various accounts about the creation of the world，of which traditionally the most popular has been the story of Nuwa, who repaired the world
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and created humans. Japanese creation myth is characterized by a lengthy genealogy by which one can trace the origin of each emperor back to the highest deity in Heaven, Amaterasu. This genealogy is a means to prove that the emperor was a legitimate ruler and had the right and power to rule the land of Japan.
In China，however，there is no
genealogical account of such kind in the mythic text itself. Although many later ancient texts or myths considered Niiwa as a prehistoric empress, there seems to have been a breach of lineage from Niiwa to later emperors.
In historical records
like Shi Ji, there are only genealogical accounts to trace the origin of emperors back to the time of Huangdi. Nevertheless, there were sporadic attempts by scholars and writers to link the emperors to the ancient sage kings.
A most notable example
would be Cao Zhi (192-232AD) who wrote that Huangdi succeeded to Niiwa in establishing rites and creating things in the world 55 .
We may therefore say that
there might have been genealogies in Chinese ancient texts，whether mythic or historical, and the genealogical accounts were indeed used to provide legitimacy or divinity for later emperors，albeit their effect might not be as significant. As regards miraculous birth myths, miraculous childhood myths, and auspicious myths，they were common in ancient emperor myths in both countries.
Miraculous
55
Cao Zhi says that Ntiwa was an ancient empress. She made panpipes and reeds, but rituals were not yet established and the creation of things in the world was not yet finished in her time. Thereby, Xuanyuan completed the tasks, (cited in Yiwen Leiju 1982. p. 208) 100
births and childhoods show that the emperors are divine and predestined to be a ruler, sometimes they also imply that the emperors possess the nature of a creator. A s for auspicious myths，they serve mainly two purposes, which are celebration of the appearance of a great ruler and recognition of the good work of the emperor. These three types of myth would often combine to form a state foundation myth. A state founder was usually bom extraordinarily and had a miraculous childhood. Auspicious omen usually occurred at the time of his birth, at the time of or soon after his ascent to the throne.
A state foundation myth is constructed with three main
layers, namely, (1) supernatural qualities of the emperor as reflected in miraculous birth or childhood myth; (2) restoration of social order; (3) establishment of a new state.
This three-layered structure resembles the structure of creative-pattern myth
in which (1) a supernatural being appears in a chaotic world; (2) he restores the world order and (3) creates a new world. As such, the structure of a creation myth, which shows the attempt of primitive people to explain how the world came into being, is employed in a state foundation myth，whereas the myth now seems to imply that the act of founding a new state by the state founder is as consequential as the creation of the world by the world creator.
This somewhat corresponds to what
Levi-Strauss has meant when he said that myth appears in times of social contradiction and that although its content is slightly different from time to time, it
101
remains essentially unchanged in the structure (cl963, pp. 229-230).
As demonstrated in the previous discussions, the mythic types, contents and structures do not differ much in the Chinese and Japanese mythologies, but the way people perceive their own mythologies is very different.
It is noteworthy that the
elements of a means to provide legitimacy for the candidate to the throne, yet despotic rule in China could not last like the Japanese imperial house.
In chapter four, I pointed out
that because ancient Chinese recognized the changing of royal house once had shifted away from the current ruler，myth-makers always made use of this concept and produced myths to prove that an emperor was granted the divine right to rule (see pp. 96-97). Notwithstanding the effort of the myth-makers, none of the imperial houses ruled more than 300 years since the unification of China by Qin, while tenno continue to be the national ruler in Japan.
It appears that the function of emperor
myth in strengthening and maintaining the rule of emperors have been more significant in Japan. The fact that China experienced a number of dynastic changes since the Shang and the subsequent dynasties did not attempt to maintain the myths of the preceding dynasties also accounted for the undermining of the significance of
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myths in China.
Furthermore, in Chinese emperor myths, the absolute authority of
emperor was not as emphasized as it was in myths in instance, the Seventeen-Article Constitution as recorded in that the emperor is like the heaven and the ministers are like the earth.
Things go
well when heaven covers the earth, but when the earth is to cover heaven, everything would be destroyed.
Therefore, the ministers must obey the emperor; otherwise
they are destroying themselves (1600-1868)，the Japanese foundation myth was advocated again to provide legitimacy for the bakufu (military government), the head of which, i.e., the shogun, was officially appointed by the tennd (Brownlee 1997，p. 15)，for Amaterasu decreed that the government of the country should be done by ministers with thoughts and intelligence {Kojiki, pp. 126-127). All in all, how emperor myths functioned in strengthening and in maintaining imperial rule in the two countries had to do with factors other than those I have discussed above.
However, as this research is confined to the analysis of mythic
texts，I have not taken sufficient consideration of such factors as the historical and political background
A more comprehensive study taking these factors into
account would be the next logical step for further understanding of this topic.
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APPENDIX [2.1] 古天地未剖、陰陽不分、渾沌如雞子、溟滓而含芽。及其清陽者、薄靡而 爲天、重濁者、淹滯而爲地、精妙之合搏易、重濁之凝竭難。故天先成而地後 定。然後、神聖生其中焉。故曰、開闢之初、洲壤浮漂、譬猶游魚之浮水上也。 于時、天地之中生一物。狀如葦牙。便化爲神。號國常立尊。次國狭槌尊。次 豐斟淳尊。 [2.2] 伊奘諾尊•伊奘冉尊、立於天浮橋之上、共計曰、底下豈無國嶼、廼以天之 瓊矛、指下而探之。是獲滄溟。其矛鋒滴瀝之潮、凝成一島。名之曰碳馭慮島。 二神、於是、降居彼島、因欲爲夫婦、產生洲國。 [2.3] 天地初發之時、於高天原成神名、天之御中主神。次高御產巢曰神。次神 產巢曰神。此三柱神者、並獨神成坐而、隱身也。 次國稚如浮脂而、久羅下那州多陀用弊流之時、如葦牙因萌騰之物而成神 名、宇摩志阿斯訶備比古遲神。次天之常立神。此二柱神亦、獨神成坐而、隱 身也。 [2.4] 於是天神諸命以、詔伊邪那岐命、伊邪那美命、二柱神、修理固成是多陀 用弊流之國、賜天沼矛而、言依賜也。故、二柱神立天浮橋而、指下其矛以畫 者、鹽許々袁々呂々邇畫鳴而、引上時、自其矛末垂落鹽之累積、成島。是淤 能朞呂島。 於其島天降坐而…於是伊邪那岐命、先言阿那邇夜志愛袁登賣袁、後妹伊 邪那美命、言阿那邇夜志愛袁登古袁。如此言竟而御合、生子、淡道之穗之狭 別島。次生伊豫之二名島…次生隱伎之三子島。 [2.5] 所殺迦具土神之於頭所成神名、正鹿山津見神。次於胸所成神名、淤縢山 津見神。次於腹所成神名、奧山津見神。次於陰所成神名、闇山津見神。次於 左手所成神名、志藝山津見神。次於右手所成神名、羽山津見神。次於左足所 成神名、原山津見神。次於右足所成神名、戶山津見神。
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[2.6] 天地混沌如雞子，盤古生其中，萬八千歲，天地開闢，陽清爲天，陰濁爲地， 盤古在其中，一日九變，神於天，聖於地，天日高一丈，地日厚一丈，盤古日 長一丈，如此萬八千歲，天數極高，地數極深，盤古極長，後乃有三皇，數起 於一，立於三，成於五，盛於七，處於九，故天去地九萬里。 [2.7] 昔盤古氏之死也，頭爲四岳，目爲日月，脂膏爲江海，毛髮爲草木...先儒說， 盤古氏泣爲江河，氣爲風，聲爲雷，目瞳爲電。 [2.8] 往古之時，四極廢，九州裂，天不兼覆，地不周載，火壏炎而不滅，水浩 洋而不息，猛獸食顓民，鶩鳥攫老弱•於是女媧鍊五色石以補蒼天，斷鼇足以 立四極，殺黑龍以濟冀州，積蘆灰以止淫水。 [3.1] 帝顓頊高陽氏，黃帝之孫，昌意之子，姬姓也。母曰景僕，蜀山氏女，爲 昌意正妃，謂之女樞。金天氏之末，瑤光之星貫月如虹，感女樞於幽房之宮， 生顓頊於若水。 [3.2] 舜，姚姓也，其先出自顓頊。顓頊生窮蟬，窮蟬有子曰敬康，敬康生勾芒， 勾芒有子曰橋牛，橋牛生瞽瞍，妻曰握登，見大虹意感而生舜於姚墟。 [33] 周后稷，名弃。其母有邰氏女，曰姜原。姜原爲帝嚳元妃。姜原出野，見 巨人跡，心析然說，欲踐之，踐之而身動如孕者。居期而生子’以爲不祥。 [3.4] 世宗宣武皇帝，諱恪，高祖孝文皇帝第二子。母曰高夫人，初夢爲日所逐’ 避於床下，日化爲龍，繞己數匝，寤而驚悸，既而有娠。太和七年閏四月’生 帝於平城宮。 [3.5] 初天皇生日、木菟入于產殿。明旦、譽田天皇、喚大臣武內宿禰語之曰、 是何瑞也。大臣對言、吉祥也。復當昨日、臣妻產時、鹪鶄入于產屋°是亦異
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[3.6] 堯曰：「吾其試哉。」於是堯妻之二女，觀其德於二女。舜飭下二女於嫣柄， 如婦禮。堯善之，乃使舜慎和五典，五典能從。乃編入百官，百官時序。賓於 四門，四門穆穆’諸侯遠方賓客皆敬。堯使舜入山林川澤，暴風雷雨，舜行不 迷。堯以爲聖。 [4.1] 黃帝有熊氏，少典之子，姬姓也。母曰附寶，其先即炎帝…見大電光繞北 斗樞星，照郊野，感附寶，孕二十五月，生黃帝於壽丘。 [4.2] 軒轅之時，神農氏世衰。諸侯相侵伐，暴虐百姓，而神農氏弗能征。於是 軒轅乃習用干戈，以征不享，諸侯咸來賓從。而蚩尤最爲暴，莫能伐。炎帝欲 侵陵諸侯，諸侯咸歸軒轅…與炎帝戰於阪泉之野。三戰，然後得其志。蚩尤作 亂，不用帝命。於是黃帝乃徵師諸侯，與蚩尤戰於涿鹿之野，遂禽殺蚩尤。而 諸侯咸尊軒轅爲天子，代神農氏，是爲黃帝。 [4.3] 高祖，沛豐邑中陽里人也，姓劉氏。母媼嘗息大澤之陂，夢與神遇。是時 雷電晦冥，父太公往視，則見交龍於上。已而有娠，遂產高祖。 [4.4] 高祖爲人，隆準而龍顏，美須髯，左股有七十二黑子…常從王溫、武負貰 酒，醉臥，武負、王媼見其上常有龍，怪之。 [4.5] 高祖被酒，夜徑澤中，令一人行前。行前者還報曰：「前有大蛇當徑，願還。」 高祖醉，曰：「壯士行，何畏！」乃前，拔劍斬蛇。蛇分爲兩，道開。行數里， 醉困臥。後人來至蛇所，有一老軀夜哭。人問嫗何哭，軀曰：「人殺吾子。」人 曰：「軀子何爲見殺？」軀曰：「吾子，白帝子也，化爲蛇，當道，今者赤帝子 斬之，故哭。」人乃以嫗爲不誠，欲苦之，軀因忽不見。後人至，高祖覺。告 高祖，高祖乃心獨喜，自負。諸從者日益畏之。 [4.6] 爾速須佐之男命、乃於湯津爪櫛取成其童女而、刺御美豆良、告其足名椎 手名椎神、汝等、釀八鹽折之酒、亦作廻垣、於其垣作八門、每船盛其八鹽折 酒而待。故、隨告而如此設備待之時、其八俣遠呂智、信如言來。乃每船垂入 己頭飲其酒。於是飲醉留伏寢。爾速須佐之男命、拔其所御佩之十拳劎、切散 106
其蛇者。 [4.7] 故是以其速須佐之男命、宮可造作之地、求出雲國。爾到坐須賀地而詔之、 吾來此地、我御心須賀須賀斯而、其地作宮坐。故、其地者於今云須賀也。茲 大神、初作須賀宮之時、自其地雲立騰。 [4.8] 故、神倭伊波禮毘古命、從其地廻幸、到熊野村之時、大熊髮出入即失。 爾神倭伊波禮毘古命、倏忽爲遠延、及御軍皆遠延而伏。此時、熊野之高倉下、 賫一橫刀、到於天神御子之伏地而獻之時、天神御子即寤起、詔長寢乎。故、 受取其橫刀之時、其熊野山之荒神、自皆爲切仆。爾其惑伏御軍、悉寤起之。 [4.9] 天照大神、高木神、二柱神之命以、召建御雷神而詔曰、葦原中國者、伊 多玖佐夜藝帟阿理那理。我御子等、不平坐良志。 [4.10] 故、爾答曰、僕雖不降、專有平其國之橫刀、可降是刀。 [4.11] 堯知契、稷皆賢人，天之所生，故封之契七十里，後十餘世至湯，王天下。 堯知后稷子孫之後王也，故益封之百里，其後世且千歲，至文王而有天下…孔 子曰：「昔者堯命契爲子氏，爲有湯也。命后稷爲姬氏，爲有文王也。大王命季 歷，明天瑞也。太伯之吳，遂生源也。」天命難言，非聖人莫能見。舜、禹、 契、后稷皆黃帝子孫也。黃帝策天命而治天下，德澤深後世，故其子孫皆復立 爲天子，是天之報有德也。人不知，以爲氾從布衣匹夫起耳。夫布衣匹夫安能 無故而起王天下乎？其有天命然。
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