Reception and Commentary of Nihon Shoki, Japan's First Official History
Rewriting the Past: Reception and Commentary of Nihon shoki, Japan’s First Official History Matthieu Anthony James Felt Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2017 © 2017 Matthieu Anthony James Felt All rights reserved ABSTRACT Rewriting the Past: Reception and Commentary of Nihon shoki, Japan’s First Official History Matthieu Anthony James Felt This study traces the diverse interpretations of Japan’s oldest official history, the 720 Nihon shoki, from its earliest scholarly treatment in the ninth century until its enshrinement within the canon of Japanese national literature in the modern period. Elites in the early eighth century produced a number of texts that described the fundamental principles of the world and the contours of the Japanese empire, such as Kojiki (712), Kaifūsō (751), Man’yōshū (late 8th c.), and as the official court narrative, Nihon shoki. While each of these possesses its own “imperial imagination,” Nihon shoki is distinct because it heavily incorporates historical polities across Northeast Asia, especially on the Korean peninsula, in creating a narrative of ancient Japan in the world. Further, Nihon shoki, while written primarily in Literary Sinitic, also includes elements of the Japanese vernacular, and rather than delineating a single orthodox narrative, provides a number of alternative, conflicting accounts of Japanese mythology. These characteristics animated much of the debate surrounding the text’s proper reading and meaning as later commentators grappled with its exegesis. The dissertation comprises an introduction and five chapters. The first chapter analyzes the discourse surrounding the Nihon shoki in the eighth and ninth centuries, when lectures were periodically given on the text at court.
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