Yamataikoku

was an ancient country in Wa (Japan) during the late Yayoi period. The 297 CE Chinese history "Sanguo Zhi" first records "Yamataikoku" (邪馬臺國, or "Yamaichikoku" 邪馬壹國) as the domain of shaman Queen Himiko. While historians disagree over the location of "Yamatai", linguists concur that the name was an early form of Japanese "Yamato" (大和 "Japan; Japanese").

History

Chinese classic texts began recording Japanese Yamatai (邪馬臺) in the 3rd century CE, and Japanese classic texts began recording Yamato (大倭) around the 7th. As described in names of Japan, Japanese scribes changed the Chinese character for "Wa" "Japan" from the derogatory 倭 "Japan" (said to denote "dwarf" or "submissive") to the laudatory "Wa" 和 "harmony; peace" in the mid 8th century CE. Yamatai subsequently became a historical term and Yamato (大和) became the standard name specifically for "Yamato Province" (in present-day Nara Prefecture) and generally for "Japan".

Chinese texts

The oldest accounts of Yamatai and are found in the official Chinese dynastic Twenty-Four Histories for the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220 CE), the Cao Wei Kingdom (220-265 CE), and the Sui Dynasty (581-618 CE).

The ca. 297 CE "Wei Zhi" (魏志 "Records of Wei"), which is part of the "San Guo Zhi" (三國志 "Records of the Three Kingdoms"), first mentions the country "Yamatai" ("Yémǎtái" 邪馬臺) written as "Yamaichi" ("Yémǎyī" 邪馬壹). Most "Wei Zhi" commentators accept the "Yémǎtái" (邪馬台) transcription in later texts and dismiss this original "yi" "one" (a graphic variant of ) as a miscopy, or perhaps a naming taboo avoidance, of "tai" "platform; terrace" (a variant of ). This history describes ancient Wa based upon detailed reports of 3rd-century Chinese envoys who traveled throughout the Japanese Archipelago.

Going south by water for twenty days, one comes to the country of Toma, where the official is called "mimi" and his lieutenant, "miminari". Here there are about fifty thousand households. Then going toward the south, one arrives at the country of Yamadai, where a Queen holds her court. [This journey] takes ten days by water and one month by land. Among the officials there are the "ikima" and, next in rank, the "mimasho"; then the "mimagushi", then the "nakato". There are probably more than seventy thousands households. (115, tr. Tsunoda 1951:9)

The "Wei Zhi" also records that in 238 CE, Queen Himiko sent an envoy to the court of Wei emperor Cao Rui, who responded favorably.

We confer upon you, therefore, the title 'Queen of Wa Friendly to Wei', together with the decoration of the gold seal with purple ribbon. … As a special gift, we bestow upon you three pieces of blue brocade with interwoven characters, five pieces of tapestry with delicate floral designs, fifty lengths of white silk, eight taels of gold, two swords five feet long, one hundred bronze mirrors, and fifty catties each of jade and of red beads. (tr. Tsunoda 1951:14-15)

The ca. 432 CE "Hou Han Shu" (後漢書 "Book of Later/Eastern Han") says the Wa kings lived in the country of Yamadai (邪馬台國).

The Wa dwell on mountainous islands southeast of Han [Korea] in the middle of the ocean, forming more than one hundred communities. From the time of the overthrow of Chao-hsien [northern Korea] by Emperor Wu (B.C. 140-87), nearly thirty of these communities have held intercourse with the Han [dynasty] court by envoys or scribes. Each community has its king, whose office is hereditary. The King of Great Wa resides in the country of Yamadai. (tr. Tsunoda 1951:1)

The 636 CE "Sui Shu" (隋書 "Book of Sui") records changing the capital's name from "Yamadai" (Chinese "Yemodui" 邪摩堆) to "Yamato" ("Dahe" 大和).

Wa-kuo is situated in the middle of the great ocean southeast of Paekche and Silla, three thousand "li" away by water and land. The people dwell on mountainous islands. … The capital is Yamato, known in the Wei history as Yamadai. The old records say that it is altogether twelve thousand "li" distant from the borders of Lo-lang and Tai-fang prefectures, and is situated east of K'uai-chi and close to Tan-erh. (81, tr. Tsunoda 1951:28)

These ancient place names refer to the Korean kingdoms of Baekje and Silla, and the Chinese commanderies at Lelang, Daifang, Kuaiji (present-day Zhejiang province), and Dan'er (present-day Hainan).

Japanese texts

The first Japanese books were mainly written with the "Man'yōgana" system, a rebus-like transcription that phonetically uses kanji "Chinese characters" to represent Japanese phonemes. For instance, using Chinese "jiā" ( "add"), which was pronounced "ka" in Japanese, to write the Japanese mora "ka". Irregularities within this awkward system led Japanese scribes to develop phonetically regular syllabaries. In many cases, the new kana were graphic simplifications of Chinese characters. For instance, "ka" is written in hiragana and in katakana, both of which derive from the "Man'yōgana" 加 character.

The ca. 712 CE "Kojiki" (古事記 "Records of Ancient Matters") is the oldest extant book in Japanese. The "Birth of the Eight Islands" section phonetically transcribes "Yamato" as what would be Standard Mandarin "Yemadeng" (夜麻登). The "Kojiki" records the Shintoist creation myth that the god "Izanagi" and the goddess "Izanami" gave birth to the "Ōyashima" (大八州 "Eight Great Islands") of Japan, the last of which was Yamato.

Next they gave birth to Great-Yamato-the-Luxuriant-Island-of-the-Dragon-Fly, another name for which is Heavenly-August-Sky-Luxuriant-Dragon-Fly-Lord-Youth. The name of "Land-of-the-Eight-Great-Islands" therefore originated in these eight islands having been born first. (tr. Chamberlain 1919:23)

Chamberlain (1919:27) notes this poetic name "Island of the Dragon-fly" is associated with legendary Emperor Jimmu, who was honorifically named with Yamato as "Kamuyamato Iwarebiko."

The 720 CE "Nihon Shoki" (日本書紀 "Chronicles of Japan") writes Japanese Yamato with the Chinese characters "Yemadeng" (耶麻騰). In this version of the Eight Great Islands myth, Yamato is born second instead of eighth.

Now when the time of birth arrived, first of all the island of Ahaji was reckoned as the placenta, and their minds took no pleasure in it. Therefore it received the name of Ahaji no Shima. Next there was produced the island of Oho-yamato no Toyo-aki-tsu-shima. (tr. Aston 1924 1:13)

The translator notes literal meanings of "Oho-yamato" "Great Yamato" and "Toyo-aki-tsu-shima" "Rich-harvest (or autumn)-of-island".

The circa 600-759 CE "Man'yōshū" (万葉集 "Myriad Leaves Collection") transcribes "Yamato" as "yama" 山 "mountain" plus "tö" 跡 "track; trace". Take for example, the first poem in the book, allegedly written by Emperor Yūryaku.

O maiden with a basket, a pretty basket, with a scoop, a pretty scoop, maiden picking greens on this hillside: I want to ask about your house; I want to be told your name. In the sky-filling land of Yamato it is I who rule everyone it is I who rule everywhere, and so I think you will tell me where you live, what you are called. (tr. McCullough 1985:6)

Commentators gloss this 山跡乃國 as "Yamato no kuni" 大和の国 "country of Yamato". The usual Japanese reading of 山跡 would be "sanseki" in Sino-Japanese "on'yomi" (from Chinese "shanji") or "yama-ato" in native "kun'yomi".

Pronunciations

Modern Japanese "Yamato" (大和) descends from Old Japanese "Yamatö" or "Yamato₂". The latter umlaut or subscript diacritics distinguish two vocalic types within the eight vowels of Nara period Old Japanese ("a", "i", "ï", "u", "e", ë, "o", and "ö", see Jōdai Tokushu Kanazukai), which merged into the five Modern ones ("a", "i", "u", "e", and "o").

During the Kofun period when "kanji" were first used in Japan, "Yamatö" was written with the "ateji" 倭 for "Wa" "Japan". During the Asuka period when Japanese place names were standardized into two-character compounds, "Yamato" was changed to 大倭 with a "big; great" prefix. Following the ca. 757 graphic substitution of 和 for 倭, it was written 大和 "great harmony," using the Classical Chinese expression "dáhè" 大和 (e.g., "Yijing" 1, tr. Wilhelm 1967:371: "each thing receives its true nature and destiny and comes into permanent accord with the Great Harmony.")

The early Japanese texts above give three transcriptions of "Yamato": 夜麻登 ("Kojiki"), 耶麻騰 ("Nihon Shoki"), and 山跡 ("Man'yōshū"). The "Kojiki" and "Nihon Shoki" use Sino-Japanese "on'yomi" readings of "ya" "night" or "ya" or "ja" "interrogative sentence-final particle", "ma" or "ba" "hemp", and "tō" or "to" "rise; mount" or "tō" "fly; gallop". In contrast, the "Man'yōshū" uses Japanese "kun'yomi" readings of "yama" "mountain" and "to" < "tö" or "ato" "track; trace".

The early Chinese histories above give three transcriptions of "Yamatai": 邪馬臺 ("Wei Zhi"), 邪馬台 ("Hou Han Shu"), and 邪摩堆 ("Sui Shu"). The first syllable is consistently written with "yé" "a place name", which was used as a jiajie graphic-loan character for "yé" "interrogative sentence-final particle" and "xié" 邪 "evil; depraved". The second is written with "mǎ" "horse" or "mó" "rub; friction". The third syllable of "Yamatai" is written "tái" or "platform; terrace" (cf. "Taiwan" 臺灣) or "duī" "pile; heap". Concerning the transcriptional difference between "Yamaichi" 邪馬壹 in the "Wei Zhi" and "Yamadai" or "Yamatai" 邪馬臺 in the "Hou Han Shu", Hong (1994:248-9) cites Furuta Takehiko that "Yamaichi" was correct. Chen Shou, author of the ca. 297 "Wei Zhi", was writing about recent history based on personal observations; Fan Ye, author of the ca. 432 "Hou Han Shu", was writing about earlier events based on written sources. Hong says the "San Guo Zhi" uses "ichi" 壹 86 times and "dai" 臺 56 times, without confusing them.

During the Wei period, "dai" was one of their most sacred words, implying a religious-political sanctuary or the emperor's palace. The characters "ya" 邪 and "ma" 馬 mean "nasty" and "horse", reflecting the contempt Chinese felt for a barbarian country, and it is most unlikely that Chen Shou would have used a sacred word after these two characters. It is equally unlikely that a copyist could have confused the characters, because in their old form they do not look nearly as similar as in their modern printed form. Yamadai was Fan Yeh’s creation. (1994:249)

He additionally cites Furuta that the "Wei Zhi", "Hou Han Shu", and "Xin Tang Shu" histories use at least 10 Chinese characters to transcribe Japanese "to", but "dai" 臺 is not one of them.

In historical Chinese phonology, these Modern Chinese pronunciations differ considerably with the original 3rd-7th century transcriptions from a transitional period between Archaic or Old Chinese and Ancient or Middle Chinese. The table below contrasts Modern pronunciations (in Pinyin) with differing reconstructions of Early Middle Chinese (Edwin G. Pulleyblank 1991), "Archaic" Chinese (Bernhard Karlgren 1957), and Middle Chinese (William H. Baxter 1992). Note that Karlgren's "Archaic" is equivalent with "Middle" Chinese, and his "yod" palatal approximant "IPA|i̯" (which some browsers cannot display) is replaced with the customary "j".

Roy Andrew Miller describes the phonological gap between these Middle Chinese reconstructions and the Old Japanese "Yamatö".

The "Wei chih" account of the Wo people is chiefly concerned with a kingdom which it calls Yeh-ma-t'ai, Middle Chinese" i̯a-ma-t'ḁ̂i", which inevitably seems to be a transcription of some early linguistic form allied with the word Yamato. The phonology of this identification raises problems which after generations of study have yet to be settled. The final "-ḁ̂i" of the Middle Chinese form seems to be a transcription of some early form not otherwise recorded for the final "-ö" of Yamato. (1967:17-18)

While most scholars interpret 邪馬臺 as a transcription of pre-Old Japanese "yamatai", Miyake (2003:41) cites Alexander Vovin that Late Old Chinese "ʑ(h)a maaʳq dhəə" 邪馬臺 represents a pre-Old Japanese form of Old Japanese "yamato₂" (*"yamatə").

The etymology of "Yamato", like those of many Japanese words, remains uncertain. While scholars generally agree that "Yama-" signifies Japan's numerous "yama" 山 "mountains", they disagree whether -"to" < -"tö" signifies 跡 "track; trace", 門 "gate; door", 戸 "door", 都 "city; capital", or perhaps "tokoro" 所 "place".

Location

The location of Yamataikoku is one of the most contentious topics in Japanese history. Generations of historians have debated "the Yamatai controversy" and have hypothesized numerous localities, some of which are fanciful like Okinawa (Farris 1998:245). General consensus centers around two likely locations of Yamatai, either northern Kyūshū or Yamato Province in the Kinki region of central Honshū. Imamura describes the controversy.

The question of whether the Yamatai Kingdom was located in northern Kyushu or central Kinki prompted the greatest debate over the ancient history of Japan. This debate originated from a puzzling account of the itinerary from Korea to Yamatai in "Wei-shu". The northern Kyushu theory doubts the description of distance and the central Kinki theory the direction. This has been a continuing debate over the past 200 years, involving not only professional historians, archeologists and ethnologists, but also many amateurs, and thousands of books and papers have been published. (1996:188)

The location of ancient Yamataikoku and its relation with the subsequent Kofun-era Yamato polity remains uncertain. In 1989, archeologists discovered a giant Yayoi-era complex at the Yoshinogari site in Saga Prefecture. They excavated 33 ("Wei-style" Edwards 1998) bronze mirrors from this site, and the "Wei Zhi" above records presenting "one hundred bronze mirrors" to Queen Himiko. While some scholars, most notably Seijo University historian Takehiko Yoshida, interpret Yoshinogari as evidence for the Kyūshū Theory, many others support the Kinki Theory based on Yoshinogari clay vessels and the early development of Kofun (Saeki 2006).

References

*Aston, William G, tr. 1924. " [http://books.google.com/books?id=1IJrNAKBpycC&dq=subject:%22Mythology,+Japanese%22 Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 697] ". 2 vols. Charles E. Tuttle reprint 1972.
*Baxter, William H. 1992. "A Handbook of Old Chinese Phonology". Mouton de Gruyter.
*Chamberlain, Basil Hall, tr. 1919. [http://www.sacred-texts.com/shi/kj/index.htm The Kojiki, Records of Ancient Matters] . Charles E. Tuttle reprint 1981.
*Edwards, Walter. 1998. "* [http://www.archaeology.org/9805/newsbriefs/japan.html Mirrors to Japanese History] ", "Archeology" 51.3.
*Farris, William Wayne. 1998. "Sacred Texts and Buried Treasures: Issues in the Historical Archaeology of Ancient Japan". University of Hawai'i Press.
*Hall, John Whitney. 1988. "The Cambridge History of Japan: Volume 1, Ancient Japan". Cambridge University Press.
*Hérail, Francine. 1986. "Histoire du Japon - des origines à la fin de Meiji". Publications orientalistes de France.
*Hong, Wontack. 1994. " [http://gias.snu.ac.kr/wthong/publication/paekche/eng/paekch_e.html Peakche of Korea and the Origin of Yamato Japan] ". Kudara International.
*Imamura. Keiji. 1996. "Prehistoric Japan: New Perspectives on Insular East Asia". University of Hawai’i Press.
*Karlgren, Bernhard. 1957. "Grammata Serica Recensa". Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities.
*Kidder, Jonathan Edward. 2007. "Himiko and Japan’s Elusive Chiefdom of Yamatai". University of Hawai’i Press.
*McCullough, Helen Craig. 1985. "Brocade by Night: 'Kokin Wakashū' and the Court Style in Japanese Classical Poetry". Stanford University Press.
*Miller, Roy Andrew. 1967. "The Japanese Language". University of Chicago Press.
*Miyake, Mark Hideo. 2003. "Old Japanese: A Phonetic Reconstruction". Routledge Curzon.
*Pulleyblank, E.G. 1991. "Lexicon of Reconstructed Pronunciation in Early Middle Chinese, Late Middle Chinese, and Early Mandarin". UBC Press.
*ja icon Saeki Arikyo 佐伯有清. 2006. "Yamataikoku ronsō" "邪馬台国論争". Iwanami. ISBN 4004309905
*Tsunoda Ryusaku, tr. 1951. "Japan in the Chinese Dynastic Histories: Later Han Through Ming Dynasties". Goodrich, Carrington C., ed. South Pasadena: P. D. and Ione Perkins.