Yamataikoku
Encyclopedia
or is the Sino-Japanese name of an ancient country in Wa (Japan)
during the late Yayoi period
(circa
300 BCE – 300 CE). The (297 CE) Chinese
history Sanguo Zhi first recorded Yemetaiguo (邪馬臺國) or Yemayiguo (邪馬壹國) as the domain of shaman Queen Himiko (died circa 248 CE). Generations of Japanese historians, linguists, and archeologists have debated where Yamataikoku was located and whether it was related to "Japan".
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 word yi 壹 "one" (the anti-forgery character variant for 一 "one") as a miscopy, or perhaps a naming taboo
avoidance, of tai 臺 "platform; terrace" (a variant of 台). This history describes ancient Wa based upon detailed reports of 3rd-century Chinese envoys who traveled throughout the Japanese Archipelago
.
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.
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 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).
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
).
"Chinese characters" to represent Japanese phonemes. For instance, using Chinese jiā (加 "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 か in hiragana
and カ 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 written in Japan. The "Birth of the Eight Islands" section phonetically transcribes Yamato as what would be in Modern Standard Chinese 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.
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.
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
.
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.
Yamatö or Yamato2, which has been assocated with Yamatai. The latter umlaut
or subscript diacritics distinguish two vocalic types within the eight vowels of Nara period
(710-794) 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
(250-538) when kanji were first used in Japan, Yamatö was written with the ateji
倭 for Wa "Japan". During the Asuka period
(538-710) when Japanese place names were standardized into two-character compounds, Yamato was changed to 大倭 with a 大 "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 夜 "night" or ya or ja 耶 (an interrogative sentence-final particle in Chinese), ma or ba 麻 "hemp", and tō or to 登 "rise; mount" or tō 騰 "fly; gallop". In contrast, the Man'yōshū uses Japanese kun'yomi readings of yama 山 "mountain" and to < tö or ato 跡 "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 邪 "a place name", which was used as a jiajie graphic-loan character for yé 耶 "interrogative sentence-final particle" and xié 邪 "evil; depraved". The second is written with mǎ 馬 "horse" or mó 摩 "rub; friction". The third syllable of Yamatai is written tái 臺 or 台 "platform; terrace" (cf. Taiwan
臺灣) or duī 堆 "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.
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
i̯ (which some browsers cannot display) is replaced with the customary IPA j.
Roy Andrew Miller
describes the phonological gap between these Middle Chinese reconstructions and the Old Japanese Yamatö.
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). Tōdō Akiyasu reconstructs two pronunciations for 䑓 – dai < Middle dǝi < Old *dǝg and yi < yiei < *d̥iǝg – and reads 邪馬臺 as Yamaikoku.
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".
or Yamato Province
in the Kinki region of central Honshū
. Imamura describes the controversy.
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
, which was thought to be a possible candidate for the location of Yamatai. 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).
A 2009 archeological discovery strongly suggests that the country was located around Hashihaka in Sakurai, Nara
.
Wa (Japan)
Japanese is the oldest recorded name of Japan. Chinese, Korean, and Japanese scribes regularly wrote Wa or Yamato "Japan" with the Chinese character 倭 until the 8th century, when the Japanese found fault with it, replacing it with 和 "harmony, peace, balance".- Historical references :The earliest...
during the late Yayoi period
Yayoi period
The is an Iron Age era in the history of Japan traditionally dated 300 BC to 300 AD. It is named after the neighbourhood of Tokyo where archaeologists first uncovered artifacts and features from that era. Distinguishing characteristics of the Yayoi period include the appearance of new...
(circa
Circa
Circa , usually abbreviated c. or ca. , means "approximately" in the English language, usually referring to a date...
300 BCE – 300 CE). The (297 CE) Chinese
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
history Sanguo Zhi first recorded Yemetaiguo (邪馬臺國) or Yemayiguo (邪馬壹國) as the domain of shaman Queen Himiko (died circa 248 CE). Generations of Japanese historians, linguists, and archeologists have debated where Yamataikoku was located and whether it was related to "Japan".
Chinese texts
The oldest accounts of Yamatai are found in the official Chinese dynastic Twenty-Four HistoriesTwenty-Four Histories
The Twenty-Four Histories is a collection of Chinese historical books covering a period from 3000 BC to the Ming Dynasty in the 17th century. The whole set contains 3213 volumes and about 40 million words...
for the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220 CE), the Cao Wei
Cao Wei
Cao Wei was one of the states that competed for control of China during the Three Kingdoms period. With the capital at Luoyang, the state was established by Cao Pi in 220, based upon the foundations that his father Cao Cao laid...
Kingdom (220-265 CE), and the Sui Dynasty
Sui Dynasty
The Sui Dynasty was a powerful, but short-lived Imperial Chinese dynasty. Preceded by the Southern and Northern Dynasties, it ended nearly four centuries of division between rival regimes. It was followed by the Tang 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 word yi 壹 "one" (the anti-forgery character variant for 一 "one") as a miscopy, or perhaps a naming taboo
Naming taboo
Naming taboo is a cultural taboo against speaking or writing the given names of exalted persons in China and neighboring nations in the ancient Chinese cultural sphere.-Kinds of naming taboo:...
avoidance, of tai 臺 "platform; terrace" (a variant of 台). This history describes ancient Wa based upon detailed reports of 3rd-century Chinese envoys who traveled throughout the Japanese Archipelago
Japanese Archipelago
The , which forms the country of Japan, extends roughly from northeast to southwest along the northeastern coast of the Eurasia mainland, washing upon the northwestern shores of the Pacific Ocean...
.
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
Cao Rui
Cao Rui , formally known as Emperor Ming of Wei, was the second emperor of the state of Cao Wei during the Three Kingdoms period of Chinese history. He was a son of Cao Wei's first emperor Cao Pi according to Liu Song dynasty historian, Pei Songzhi, but was a son of Yuan Xi according to modern...
, 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
Baekje
Baekje or Paekche was a kingdom located in southwest Korea. It was one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, together with Goguryeo and Silla....
and Silla
Silla
Silla was one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, and one of the longest sustained dynasties in...
, and the Chinese commanderies at Lelang, Daifang, Kuaiji (present-day Zhejiang
Zhejiang
Zhejiang is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. The word Zhejiang was the old name of the Qiantang River, which passes through Hangzhou, the provincial capital...
province), and Dan'er (present-day Hainan
Hainan
Hainan is the smallest province of the People's Republic of China . Although the province comprises some two hundred islands scattered among three archipelagos off the southern coast, of its land mass is Hainan Island , from which the province takes its name...
).
Japanese texts
The first Japanese books were mainly written with the Man'yōgana system, a rebus-like transcription that phonetically uses kanjiKanji
Kanji are the adopted logographic Chinese characters hanzi that are used in the modern Japanese writing system along with hiragana , katakana , Indo Arabic numerals, and the occasional use of the Latin alphabet...
"Chinese characters" to represent Japanese phonemes. For instance, using Chinese jiā (加 "add"), which was pronounced ka in Japanese, to write the Japanese mora
Mora (linguistics)
Mora is a unit in phonology that determines syllable weight, which in some languages determines stress or timing. As with many technical linguistic terms, the definition of a mora varies. Perhaps the most succinct working definition was provided by the American linguist James D...
ka. Irregularities within this awkward system led Japanese scribes to develop phonetically regular syllabaries. In many cases, the new kana
Kana
Kana are the syllabic Japanese scripts, as opposed to the logographic Chinese characters known in Japan as kanji and the Roman alphabet known as rōmaji...
were graphic simplifications of Chinese characters. For instance, ka is written か in hiragana
Hiragana
is a Japanese syllabary, one basic component of the Japanese writing system, along with katakana, kanji, and the Latin alphabet . Hiragana and katakana are both kana systems, in which each character represents one mora...
and カ in katakana
Katakana
is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji, and in some cases the Latin alphabet . The word katakana means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana scripts are derived from components of more complex kanji. Each kana represents one mora...
, both of which derive from the Man'yōgana 加 character.
The ca. 712 CE Kojiki
Kojiki
is the oldest extant chronicle in Japan, dating from the early 8th century and composed by Ō no Yasumaro at the request of Empress Gemmei. The Kojiki is a collection of myths concerning the origin of the four home islands of Japan, and the Kami...
(古事記 "Records of Ancient Matters") is the oldest extant book written in Japan. The "Birth of the Eight Islands" section phonetically transcribes Yamato as what would be in Modern Standard Chinese Yemadeng (夜麻登). The Kojiki records the Shintoist creation myth that the god Izanagi
Izanagi
is a deity born of the seven divine generations in Japanese mythology and Shinto, and is also referred to in the roughly translated Kojiki as "male-who-invites" or Izanagi-no-mikoto. It is also pronounced Izanaki-no-Okami....
and the goddess Izanami
Izanami
In Japanese mythology, is a goddess of both creation and death, as well as the former wife of the god Izanagi-no-Mikoto. She is also referred to as Izanami-no-kami.-Goddess of Creation:...
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
Emperor Jimmu
was the first Emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. He is also known as Kamuyamato Iwarebiko and personally as Wakamikenu no Mikoto or Sano no Mikoto....
, who was honorifically named with Yamato as "Kamuyamato Iwarebiko."
The 720 CE Nihon Shoki
Nihon Shoki
The , sometimes translated as The Chronicles of Japan, is the second oldest book of classical Japanese history. It is more elaborate and detailed than the Kojiki, the oldest, and has proven to be an important tool for historians and archaeologists as it includes the most complete extant historical...
(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
Emperor Yuryaku
was the 21st emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession.Yūryaku is remembered as a patron of sericulture.No firm dates can be assigned to this emperor's life or reign, but he is conventionally considered to have reigned from 456–479....
.
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 JapaneseOld Japanese
is the oldest attested stage of the Japanese language.This stage in the development of Japanese is still actively studied and debated, and key Old Japanese texts, such as the Man'yōshū, remain obscure in places.-Dating:...
Yamatö or Yamato2, which has been assocated with Yamatai. The latter umlaut
Umlaut (diacritic)
The diaeresis and the umlaut are diacritics that consist of two dots placed over a letter, most commonly a vowel. When that letter is an i or a j, the diacritic replaces the tittle: ï....
or subscript diacritics distinguish two vocalic types within the eight vowels of Nara period
Nara period
The of the history of Japan covers the years from AD 710 to 794. Empress Gemmei established the capital of Heijō-kyō . Except for 5 years , when the capital was briefly moved again, it remained the capital of Japanese civilization until Emperor Kammu established a new capital, Nagaoka-kyō, in 784...
(710-794) Old Japanese (a, i, ï, u, e, ë, o, and ö, see Jōdai Tokushu Kanazukai
Jodai Tokushu Kanazukai
is an archaic kanazukai used to write Japanese during the Nara period. Its primary feature is to distinguish between two groups of syllables as discussed below that later merged together.-Syllables:Following are the syllabic distinctions made in Old Japanese....
), which merged into the five Modern ones (a, i, u, e, and o).
During the Kofun period
Kofun period
The is an era in the history of Japan from around 250 to 538. It follows the Yayoi period. The word kofun is Japanese for the type of burial mounds dating from this era. The Kofun and the subsequent Asuka periods are sometimes referred to collectively as the Yamato period...
(250-538) when kanji were first used in Japan, Yamatö was written with the ateji
Ateji
In modern Japanese, primarily refers to kanji used phonetically to represent native or borrowed words, without regard to the meaning of the underlying characters. This is analogous to man'yōgana in pre-modern Japanese...
倭 for Wa "Japan". During the Asuka period
Asuka period
The , was a period in the history of Japan lasting from 538 to 710 , although its beginning could be said to overlap with the preceding Kofun period...
(538-710) when Japanese place names were standardized into two-character compounds, Yamato was changed to 大倭 with a 大 "big; great" prefix
Prefix
A prefix is an affix which is placed before the root of a word. Particularly in the study of languages,a prefix is also called a preformative, because it alters the form of the words to which it is affixed.Examples of prefixes:...
. Following the ca. 757 graphic substitution of 和 for 倭, it was written 大和 "great harmony," using the Classical Chinese
Classical Chinese
Classical Chinese or Literary Chinese is a traditional style of written Chinese based on the grammar and vocabulary of ancient Chinese, making it different from any modern spoken form of 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 夜 "night" or ya or ja 耶 (an interrogative sentence-final particle in Chinese), ma or ba 麻 "hemp", and tō or to 登 "rise; mount" or tō 騰 "fly; gallop". In contrast, the Man'yōshū uses Japanese kun'yomi readings of yama 山 "mountain" and to < tö or ato 跡 "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 邪 "a place name", which was used as a jiajie graphic-loan character for yé 耶 "interrogative sentence-final particle" and xié 邪 "evil; depraved". The second is written with mǎ 馬 "horse" or mó 摩 "rub; friction". The third syllable of Yamatai is written tái 臺 or 台 "platform; terrace" (cf. Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
臺灣) or duī 堆 "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
Chen Shou
Chen Shou was a historian during the Jin Dynasty period of Chinese history. He is best known as the author of Records of Three Kingdoms, a historical account of the late Han Dynasty and Three Kingdoms period.-Biography:...
, author of the ca. 297 Wei Zhi, was writing about recent history based on personal observations; Fan Ye
Fan Ye
Fan Ye |Liu Xuan]] and Russian gymnast Svetlana Khorkina for the longevity of their involvement in the sport.Fan Ye is best known for her work on the balance beam. Her biggest accomplishment in gymnastics is winning the 2003 World Balance Beam Title...
, 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
Historical Chinese phonology
Historical Chinese phonology deals with reconstructing the sounds of Chinese from the past. As Chinese is written with logographic characters, not alphabetic or syllabary, the methods employed in Historical Chinese phonology differ considerably from those employed in, for example, Indo-European...
, these Modern Chinese
Modern Chinese
Modern Chinese can refer to the following:*Modern Chinese history*Any or all of the modern varieties of Chinese, most commonly**Standard Chinese or Modern Chinese, sometimes known as Mandarin, the national language of the People's Republic of China...
pronunciations differ considerably with the original 3rd-7th century transcriptions from a transitional period between Archaic or Old Chinese
Old Chinese
The earliest known written records of the Chinese language were found at a site near modern Anyang identified as Yin, the last capital of the Shang dynasty, and date from about 1200 BC....
and Ancient or Middle Chinese
Middle Chinese
Middle Chinese , also called Ancient Chinese by the linguist Bernhard Karlgren, refers to the Chinese language spoken during Southern and Northern Dynasties and the Sui, Tang, and Song dynasties...
. The table below contrasts Modern pronunciations (in Pinyin
Pinyin
Pinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into...
) with differing reconstructions of Early Middle Chinese (Edwin G. Pulleyblank
Edwin G. Pulleyblank
Edwin George Pulleyblank FRSC is a sinologist and professor emeritus of the Department of Asian Studies at the University of British Columbia...
1991), "Archaic" Chinese (Bernhard Karlgren
Bernhard Karlgren
Klas Bernhard Johannes Karlgren was a Swedish sinologist and linguist who pioneered the study of Chinese historical phonology using modern comparative methods...
1957), and Middle Chinese (William H. Baxter 1992). Note that Karlgren's "Archaic" is equivalent with "Middle" Chinese, and his "yod" palatal approximant
Palatal approximant
The palatal approximant is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is '...
i̯ (which some browsers cannot display) is replaced with the customary IPA j.
| Characters | Modern Chinese | Middle Chinese | Early Middle Chinese | "Archaic" Chinese |
| 邪馬臺 | yémǎtái | jæmæXdoj | ||
| 邪馬台 | yémǎtái | jæmæXdoj | ||
| 邪摩堆 | yémóduī | jæmæXtwoj | ||
| 大和 | dáhè | dajHhwaH |
Roy Andrew Miller
Roy Andrew Miller
Roy Andrew Miller is a linguist notable for his advocacy of Korean and Japanese as members of the Altaic group of languages....
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
Alexander Vovin
Alexander V. Vovin is an American linguist and philologist in the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, where he is a Professor of East Asian Languages and the acting chair of the department from August 1, 2009.Alexander Vovin earned his M.A...
that Late Old Chinese ʑ(h)a maaʳq dhəə 邪馬臺 represents a pre-Old Japanese form of Old Japanese yamato2 (*yamatə). Tōdō Akiyasu reconstructs two pronunciations for 䑓 – dai < Middle dǝi < Old *dǝg and yi < yiei < *d̥iǝg – and reads 邪馬臺 as Yamaikoku.
The etymology
Etymology
Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages and texts about the languages to gather knowledge about how words were used during...
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 KyūshūKyushu
is the third largest island of Japan and most southwesterly of its four main islands. Its alternate ancient names include , , and . The historical regional name is referred to Kyushu and its surrounding islands....
or Yamato Province
Yamato Province
was a province of Japan, located in Kinai, corresponding to present-day Nara Prefecture in Honshū. It was also called . At first, the name was written with one different character , and for about ten years after 737, this was revised to use more desirable characters . The final revision was made in...
in the Kinki region of central Honshū
Honshu
is the largest island of Japan. The nation's main island, it is south of Hokkaido across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyushu across the Kanmon Strait...
. 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
Kofun
Kofun are megalithic tombs or tumuli in Japan, constructed between the early 3rd century and early 7th century. They gave their name to the Kofun period . Many of the Kofun have a distinctive keyhole-shaped mound , unique to ancient Japan...
-era Yamato polity
Polity
Polity is a form of government Aristotle developed in his search for a government that could be most easily incorporated and used by the largest amount of people groups, or states...
remains uncertain. In 1989, archeologists discovered a giant Yayoi-era complex at the Yoshinogari site
Yoshinogari site
Yoshinogari is the name of a large and complex Yayoi archaeological site in Yoshinogari and Kanzaki in Saga Prefecture, Kyūshū, Japan. According to the Yayoi chronology established by pottery seriations in the 20th century, Yoshinogari dates to between the 3rd century BC and the 3rd century AD...
in Saga Prefecture
Saga Prefecture
is located in the northwest part of the island of Kyūshū, Japan. It touches both the Sea of Japan and the Ariake Sea. The western part of the prefecture is a region famous for producing ceramics and porcelain, particularly the towns of Karatsu, Imari, and Arita...
, which was thought to be a possible candidate for the location of Yamatai. While some scholars, most notably Seijo University
Seijo University
Seijo University（成城大学）is a private university in Seijo, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo, Japan. Seijo University has its origins in ‘Seijo Gakuen（成城学園）’, which was founded in 1917, by Dr. Masataro Sawayanagi, a former Minister of Education...
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).
A 2009 archeological discovery strongly suggests that the country was located around Hashihaka in Sakurai, Nara
Sakurai, Nara
is a city in Nara, Japan.As of 2007, the city had an estimated population of 63,321 with a density of 630.01 persons per km². The total area is 98.92 km².The city was founded on September 1, 1956....
.