Yamataikoku Totally Explained

Everything about Yamataikoku totally explained

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. [Thisjourney] 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 [northernKorea] 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's 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's I who rule everyone it's I who rule everywhere, and so I think you'll tell me where you live, what you're 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 (for example, 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's 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 don't 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 isn't 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 can't display) is replaced with the customary j.

Characters	Modern Chinese	Early Middle Chinese	"Archaic" Chinese	Middle Chinese
邪馬臺	yémǎtái	jiamaɨ'dəj	jama:t'ḁ̂i	jæmæXdoj
邪馬台	yémǎtái	jiamaɨ'dəj	jama:t'ḁ̂i	jæmæXdoj
邪摩堆	yémóduī	jiamatwəj	jamuâtuḁ̂i	jæmæXtwoj
大和	dáhè	daj^hɣwa^h	d'âiɣuâ	dajHhwaH

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).

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