Told Round a Brushwood Fire Princeton Library of Asian Translations
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TOLD ROUND A BRUSHWOOD FIRE PRINCETON LIBRARY OF ASIAN TRANSLATIONS Advisory Committee: Professors Marius B. Jansen, Earl Miner, James Morley, Thomas Rimer TOLD ROUND A BRUSHWOOD FIRE The Autobiography of Arai Hakuseki Translated and with an introduction and notes by JOYCE ACKROYD PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO PRESS To Professor Furukawa Tesshi UNESCO COLLECTION OF REPRESENTATIVE WORKS JAPANESE SERIES This book has been accepted in the Japanese Series of the Translation Collection of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Publication assisted by a grant from The Japan Foundation Original work: ORITAKU SHIBA NO KI English translation © Unesco 1979 Translated from the Japanese by Joyce Ackroyd All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Printed in Japan Copublished by Princeton University Press and University of Tokyo Press CONTENTS Acknowledgments vii Notes on the Translation ix Introduction 1 Told Round a Brushwood Fire Preface 35 Book 1 37 Book II 93 Book III 185 Notes 279 Biographical Notes 309 Appendix 1 Glossary of Titles, Offices, and Names 317 Appendix 2 The Sexagenary System and Era Names 325 Appendix 3 Measures 326 Appendix 4 Pedigrees 327 Appendix 5 Selected Chronology 331 Maps 337 Index 341 [v] ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This translation was first based on the very faulty unannotated version in the Arai Hakuseki ZenshU (ed. Ichijima Kenkichi, Naigai Insatsu K.K., 1906), but later corrected by comparison with a microfilm copy of the Arai Jippitsu Bon. In making this compari son I consulted Hani Goro's Iwanami Bunko transcription (1939), with the additional assistance of the corrections to this transcrip tion supplied by Furukawa Tesshi, now Professor Emeritus, Univer sity of Tokyo. For commentaries and readings I have relied on the annotated editions of Professors Miyazaki Michio (Shibundo, 1963) and Matsumura Akira in the Nihon Koten Bungaku Taikei series (Iwa- nami Shoten, 1964). For aid with some obscure passages I have had recourse to the modernized versions of Professor Furukawa in the Edo %uiso Shu (Chikuma Shobo, 1960), and of Professor Ku- wabara Takeo in the Nihon no Meicho series (Chiio Koronsha, 1969). I have also extensively consulted Professor Miyazaki's Arai Hakuseki no Kenkyu (Yoshikawa Kobunkan, 1957), as well as numerous other studies. For some time I benefited greatly from the personal guidance of the late A. L. Sadler, Professor Emeritus, Sydney University. Dis cussions with colleagues at the Australian National University and at Queensland University yielded some interesting suggestions. I have occasionally made bold to differ from all my mentors, whether persons or written sources, and take full responsibility for any errors of judgment. Finally, I should like to record my gratitude to my conscientious and painstaking editor, Nina Raj, for her acute scrutiny of my manuscript. NOTES ON THE TRANSLATION Transcriptions For Japanese, the Hepburn romanization system has been em ployed, long vowels being indicated by a macron. The syllabic "n" is followed by an apostrophe. The reading "bei" has been pre ferred to "hyoe." For Chinese names and words, the Wade-Giles system has been used, and for Korean names that of McCune and Reischauer (The Romanization of the Korean Language, YWCA Press, Korea, 1939). Italics Words, other than titles, bureaux, and geographical names, appearing in the translation in their original Japanese form are given in italics. Hakuseki's Notes Hakuseki distinguished short and long notes by writing small in double columns. In the translation, short notes are enclosed in parentheses, long notes appear in indented paragraphs. Word Form In word form, convenience rather than consistency has been the aim. Thus samurai, hatamoto, bugyo, and daimyo (with one excep tion) are used as plural as well as singular. However, the forms daimyo s\ shogun's, shoguns, sho guns', and Koho's are tolerated, al though it is recognized that, strictly, these are neologisms. When single Japanese words are quoted in the text, they are placed within quotation marks in the translation. NOTES Names and Titles The Japanese samurai had (1) a sept or clan name (as Mina- moto); (2) a surname (as Arai); (3) a childhood name (as Hi-no- Ko); (4) a personal or familiar name (as Kageyu); (5) and a given or legal name (as Kimmi). They often adopted a literary pseu donym (as Hakuseki). On retirement, some became lay priests and adopted a Buddhist name (as Joshin). The shogun was given a posthumous name (as Bunsho-In). Nicknames were often employed, as Yoshu and Koho. Unless unnaturalness results, names and titles are given in the order in which they appear in the text: surname, title, sept name or personal name (where given), given name. The Biographical Notes list names of personages appearing (1) several times in one episode under different titles; (2) in two or more episodes, often widely separated; (3) repeatedly throughout the work. In the text, the names of such personages are followed by a number enclosed in square brackets which refers to the corresponding numbers in the Biographical Notes. Those who appear in only one episode, and under only one title, and about whom information additional to that supplied in the text is available, are included in the notes to each book. Scions of the Fujiwara House (so indicated in the Biographical Notes) in the reading of their names used the first character only of Fujiwara (read as "To"). The courtesy title "Ason" after names, and "no" between sept and personal names, are regularly suppressed. "Dono" is retained only when it constitutes part of a specific title applied to a (usual ly) prominent personage, and "kimi" where it is part of a sobri quet. The reading "Den" is employed for Buddhist priests and lay- priests. Titles are listed in Appendix 1. In the relatively few cases possible, an English equivalent has been found for official positions, but usually the original Japanese word has been retained. Brief explanations of official positions are given in the notes and summarized in Appendix 1. Dates Dates, given in the text by sexagenary cycle and era are con verted to Western reckoning for convenience of comparison with world events. The sexagenary system is explained in Appendix 2. Japanese era names have been retained only where they refer to M NOTES a period, their equivalents in European reckoning being given in the notes, and in an alphabetical listing also in Appendix 2. Gregorian calendar dates enclosed in brackets have been inserted by the translator. It should be noted that (1) Hakuseki makes some mistakes: sometimes, for instance, he gives the right sexagenary cycle sym bols but the wrong year of the era; and (2) his method of refer ring to dates was sometimes vague. Such points are mentioned in the notes, where necessary. The conversion to the Western calen dar has necessitated some modifications to the text: e.g., where the Japanese is "the same (lunar) year," the English must occa sionally become "the following (solar) year". Where necessary, changes are indicated in the notes. When New Year's Day is mentioned without reference to the Western dates, it signifies the lunar New Year. Ages are left in Japanese reckoning, that is, they are calculated on the basis of a child being one year old at birth. Where actual years are given, calculations of lapses of time have been adjusted to the Western style of reckoning. Time Hours of the day, according to the Japanese system, have been converted to the rough Western equivalents. It is recognized that this device is highly inaccurate, as the Japanese system of telling the time marked off the hours of daylight and darkness by sunrise and sunset, and hence the Japanese hour, being a fixed fraction (one-sixth) of the intervals between, varied in length according to the season, each daylight hour being longer and each hour of darkness shorter in summer, and vice versa in winter. The hours of day and night were, of course, equal in length only at the spring and autumn equinoxes, and hence two Western hours long. It is a convention, however, to take the equinoctial two-hour intervals as the norm. Some authorities equate the Western equi valent to the beginning of the Japanese interval and some to the middle. I have followed Miyazaki in choosing the first alternative. Measures Measures have been left in their Japanese form to retain the flavor of the original. Metric and Imperial equivalents are given in Appendix 3. NOTES Departures from the Text Some liberties have been taken with the text where a literal translation would result in awkwardness. Owing to limitations of space, it has not been possible to include textual notes explaining choice of interpretation in doubtful cases. [χϋ] INTRODUCTION Told Round a Brushwood Fire {Oritaku Shiba no Ki) is the auto biography of Arai Hakuseki (1657-1725), the celebrated Con fucian scholar. An encyclopedist—he has been compared to Voltaire—and an administrative reformer in advance of his age, sometimes even hailed as the father of modern Japanese scien tific thought, he is considered by the Japanese to have been one of their greatest geniuses. The work is a vividly written chronicle, full of often quite ingenuous self-revelation, and ranks as one of the greatest autobiographies of Japanese literature as well as a unique historical adjunct to official records for the first half of the Tokugawa period. Because of Hakuseki's eminence as a scholar, his position as lecturer to the sixth Tokugawa Shogun, Ienobu, and his position of influence in the Bakufu administration, he was one of the leading kangakusha, or Confucianists, of the day.