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- Convenor:
-
Maria Chiara Migliore
(University of Salento)
Send message to Convenor
- Section:
- Pre-modern Literature
- Sessions:
- Wednesday 25 August, -
Time zone: Europe/Brussels
Short Abstract:
Elite education and the transmission of knowledge from China were the standing points supporting the Nara period State. The panel will analyse several aspects related to State officials educational system, low ranks officials' technical knowledge, private education, teaching of Buddhist texts.
Long Abstract:
The ancient Japanese political elite adopted the Chinese administrative and legislative system in order to create a centralised and bureaucratic State moulded on the Chinese model and reach an equal status with China. At the same time, Buddhism was also promptly accepted as it legitimated the sovereign political supremacy and confirmed its sacred character. This process of adoption and adaptation of Chinese civilisation reached its final stage during the 8th century in the bureaucratic State of the Nara period, defined as the 'State held by codes' (ritsuryō kokka), where almost all regulations focused on officials taking part in the State administration. A fundamental standing point supported the whole system: the officials' formation and education. The panel will focus on four specific case studies, examined through a philological analysis of primary sources which have not been taken into consideration in Western scholarship: the State officials' examinations essays contained in Keikokushū (Collection for Ruling the Country, 827); the Yōshi kangoshō (Notes on Chinese Words by Master Yako), a Sinitic-Japanese lost dictionary dating back to the early 8th century; the Shikyōruijū (Private Collection of Teachings Sorted by Theme, 770) by Kibi no Makibi; the teaching in Japan of the Flower Garland Sutra (Sansc. Buddhâvataṃsaka-sūtra, Jap. Kegonkyō), one of the most important Buddhist texts of Nara period.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Wednesday 25 August, 2021, -Maria Chiara Migliore (University of Salento)
Paper short abstract:
The paper will analyse the State officials' examinations essays contained in Keikokushū (Collection for Ruling the Country, 827). Dated from 707 to 757, they all deal with ideological questions, and are essential to the understanding of the Confucian paradigms applied in the Nara period.
Paper long abstract:
Nara period official's education system was based on the Laws on Education (Gakuryō 学令), Section 11 of the Taihō ritsuryō (Taihō Era Penal and Administrative Code, 701). The 22 articles of laws concerned the State Academy, an institution belonging to the Ministry of Ceremonial (Shikibushō), its teachers, students, the curricula (the way of Classics and the way of Mathematics), the examinations, etc. After the 9-year course, the students had to pass the final examinations, writing two essays on a given subject (taisaku 対策). Twenty four of these officials' essays, dated from 707 to 757, have been handed down in the anthology Keikokushū 経国集 (Collection for Ruling the Country, 827); they deal with subjects as Confucian virtues, the importance of rites and culture, the behaviour of a sage and faithful State official, the ideological differences between Confucian and Taoist ideologies. These essays are essential to understand how theoretical questions were studied and assimilated, and what kind of knowledge and competence were required for officials. The analysis of the taisaku could help to understand which kind of Confucian paradigms were applied in the Nara period, how Japanese elite adapted and/or re-formulated the Chinese cultural system, and in which degrees and aspects the educational system affected Japanese administrative careers of State officials, in terms of stipends, career advancements and access to positions of real power.
Antonio Manieri (University of Naples L'Orientale)
Paper short abstract:
The paper will deal with the Yōshi kangoshō (Notes on Chinese Words by Master Yako, 720 ca.). It will be argued that its lexical domains are all related to technical and practical knowledge and that it was of particular interest for some low-rank officials working as clerks in specialized offices.
Paper long abstract:
The Yōshi kangoshō 楊氏漢語抄 (Notes on Chinese Words by Master Yako) is a Sinitic-Japanese lost dictionary dating back to the early 8th century and probably compiled by Yako no Muzane (early 8th cen.); it survived only in indirect tradition thanks to its quotations in the later Sinitic-Japanese dictionary Wamyōruijushō 和名類聚抄 (Categorized Notes on Japanese Words, 934 ca.). Fragments from this dictionary help us to reconstruct not only some aspects of the Old Japanese that are not otherwise known, but also some domains of technical and practical knowledge.
After introducing the typology of its lexicographic structure, the paper will focus on the terms in Vernacular contained in the Yōshi kangoshō, which are not otherwise found in refined prose and poetry. It will be shown that the lexical domains covered by the Yōshi kangoshō fragments are all related to technical and practical knowledge (in fields such as medicine, hippology, agriculture, textile craft, cuisine, etc.).
Taking some examples from the fields of hippology and textile sectors, extracted by means of materials digitized in online databases (Mokkanko, Komonjo Database, etc.), the paper will elicit how this technical vocabulary was actually used in practical documents (on paper or on mokkan). It will be argued that the Yōshi kangoshō was of particular interest for some low-rank officials working as clerks in specialized offices.
Arthur Defrance (E.P.H.E.)
Paper short abstract:
This paper aims to show another side of the transmission and production of knowledge in the Nara period, that of the private transmission of knowledge, as embodied by Kibi no Makibi (695-775), a promoter of both Chinese-style state-run education and education outside the ritsuryô state.
Paper long abstract:
The aim of the paper is to understand another side of knowledge in the Nara period, namely the private education (shigaku 私学), through the figure and writings of Kibi no Makibi (695-775), who travelled twice across the sea to China and became the tutor of princess Abe (the future Shōtoku tennō). Great reformer of the State Academy (Daigakuryō), he also had a vision of education outside of the ritsuryō system, as is manifested in his founding of what could be one of the first private teaching institution (the Nikyōin) and in a fragmentary work in Chinese left to his family, the Shikyōruijū 私教類聚 (Private Collection of Teachings Sorted by Theme), which emphasises the need to acquire practical knowledge alongside a more traditional form of knowledge, grounded on the Classics.
Shinobu Kuranaka (Daito Bunka University)
Paper short abstract:
The paper will focus on the lectures on the Flower Garland Sutra (Jap. Kegonkyō 華厳経) that took place at the Konshuji (named Tōdaiji in 742) in preparation for the Eye-Opening Ceremony of the Tōdaiji Great Buddha.
Paper long abstract:
Even if the officials' education was regulated by the State Academy, we don't have enough information about the circulation of Chinese texts and about the actual state of knowledge transmission in other milieux not strictly connected to ritsuryō. The most relevant case is that of Buddhist institutions: for example, the Daianji, the largest Nara State monastery, inherited Buddhist knowledge directly from 7th-century Chinese monks Xuanzang, Daoxuan, and Daoshi of the Ximing Monastery in Chang'an. The Daianji, which should be well considered as an academy, included also facilities where several monks coming from the continent were hosted, and it functioned as the pivotal institution for the study of the Buddhist canon. These monks were invited by other monasteries to give lectures and explain the Buddhist texts, all events that were not regulated by ritsuryō.
As the educational methodology was that of "reading and learning", the reception of Chinese sources should be investigated also by taking into consideration the dedicated lectures and commentaries. In this paper I will clarify how Buddhist texts were studied in Daianji and transmitted to other monasteries: in particular, I will focus on the lectures on the Flower Garland Sutra (Jap. Kegonkyō 華厳経) that took place at the Konshuji (named Tōdaiji in 742) in preparation for the Eye-Opening Ceremony of the Tōdaiji Great Buddha.