COMMENTS ON “A PRELIMINARY STUDY ON A
MIRROR OF JAPAN (RI BEN YI JIAN)”
Yi Yang[1]
Commented Article: Tong, Jie; Ma, Ji. A preliminary study on A Mirror of
Japan (Ribenyijian). Trans/Form/Ação: Unesp journal of philosophy, v. 45, n. 4, p. 117-136, 2022.
After
Emperor Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty’s reign, as the problem of Japanese pirates
became more and more serious, books devoted to the study of Japan began to be
published. Among them, the most important ones are A Brief Survey of Japan
(Ri Ben Kao Lue), A Compilation of Japanese Maps (Ri Ben Tu Zuan), A
Mirror of Japan (Ri Ben Yi Jian), A Survey of Japan (Ri Ben Kao), A
Record of Japanese Customs (Ri Ben Fen Tu Ji), and A Biography of
Japanese Pirates in Qiantai (Qian Tai Wo Zhuan). Among them, A Mirror of
Japan is a special one. In addition, there are also special books to
introduce the general situation of Japan, such as A Collection of Coastal
Military Maps (Chou Hai Tu Bian), Resistance to Japanese Pirates in Ming
Dynasty (Huang Ming Yu Wo Lu), the Compilation of Coastal Defense (Hai
Fang Zuan Yao) and the Continuation of Coastal Defense Category in Zhedong
and Zhexi Regions (Liang Zhe Hai Fang Lei Kao Xu Bian). As Zheng Shungong,
the author of the book A Mirror of Japan, once visited Japan twice, so many
contents in the book are based on his own experience and knowledge. Therefore,
his research on Japan had gone beyond the similar literature of the Ming
Dynasty in breadth, depth and accuracy. Moreover, the record and analysis of
the Japanese pirates in the book are of great research value. Before the
publication of Huang Zunxian’s Annals of Japan (Ri Ben Tu Zhi), A
Mirror of Japan was one of the highest level monographs on Japan in ancient
China.
By
comparing the same words in “Japanese kaolue”, “Chou Hai Tu Bian”, “Japanese
Kao” and “Japan Yijian”, Tong and Ma (2022) also draw a new conclusion:
firstly, the message annotation of “Japan Yijian” is closer to the standard
Japanese pronunciation, and many of the Japanese original pronunciation are
mainly Japanese training (Japanese original pronunciation), or both Japanese
training and pronunciation.
Secondly,
there are also some mistakes in the “Japanese kaolue”, “Chou Hai Tu Bian”,
J”apanese Kao” and “Japanese Yijian”, such as the word “Shao”. The “Japanese
Yijian” is marked with the pronunciation of “Xiao” to “make the gills easy”.
Thirdly,
the Japanese words used in the first book of Japan are rather biased. For
example, the word “head” is used in the first book of Japan, and the words
“Atama”, “keshulai”, “kechenglai” and “kechenglai” are respectively used in the
first book of Japan, and the pronunciation of the corresponding words in the
first book of Japan is relatively rare.
Fourthly,
Xue Jun, the author of “a brief survey of Japan”, was born in Ningbo
Prefecture. The message in “the preparation of sea charts” was revised by Zheng
Ruozheng, the author, who asked Ningbo businessmen and envoys to Japan. Zheng
Shungong, the author of A Mirror of Japan, is a native of Huizhou. This
is reflected in the Chinese pronunciation of the same words in each book. There
are great differences in pronunciation due to the differences between Ningbo
Dialect and Hui Dialect.
Fifthly,
for example, the Chinese word “cow” and the message of “Japan Yijian” are
pronounced “bird world”. In other books, it is “Hu Shui”. This should be due to
the difference of the author's native place and dialect pronunciation, which
leads to the deviation and discrepancy in the translation of the same Chinese
vocabulary.
However,
the author of this study focuses on three aspects of the structure of this work
and its main content features. The tremendous amount of material given by the
work, the author's personal research and understanding of Japan, and how the
Japanese people saw the Japanese invaders are these three key elements. The
author intends to present this work, which has not been widely circulated in
later generations, for the contemporary reference (BU, 2019, p. 190). In
general, this work gives the impression that there is a lot of ambiguity in the
introduction and study of A Mirror of Japan, so that this book left me
with an impression of uncertainty. For the time being, I cannot have a more
holistic grasp of the work. For this reason, I believe that the author's study
of the book lacks a regular research paradigm and a complete research
procedure.
Tong
and Ma (2022) lack a more detailed introduction to the author and the
background of the writing of A Mirror of Japan. The author only briefly
and sporadically makes some introductions, as stated in the text: “There are
only a few articles on Zheng Shun Gong's biography and the writing of A Mirror
of Japan, such as Bian Li's biography of Zheng Shun Gong's hometown, his life
story and a textual study of his Ming dynasty mission to Japan.” In general,
the relevant introduction to the author is the first step in the study of the
work. Therefore, the reader lacks a solid foundation when reading this paper
and does not seem to capture the source of A Mirror of Japan. The author
of this paper should have started the paper with a relatively systematic
introduction to this area.
When
the author introduces A Mirror of Japan from the aspect of “great
information”, I think there are two mistakes: First, because the author devotes
a lot of space to analyzing the pronunciation of Japanese, which seems to
deviate from the theme of “great information”. This seems to be a deviation
from the “informative” theme. Additionally, if we follow the author's line of
reasoning in this section, we will discover the same departure from the theme,
such as the line of reasoning given after the citation of Japanese Studies,
and we will discover that the author appears to demonstrate that A Mirror of
Japan is not widely distributed and that the information is extremely accurate
and trustworthy (BROKAW, 2005, p. 3-54).
To
prove the “enormous amount of information” of A Mirror of Japan, the
author of this article lists some documents for comparison, as stated in the
article: “The largest number of messages recorded in ‘A Mirror of Japan’ is
almost as large as that of ‘A Mirror of Japan’. ‘A Brief History of Japan’ and
‘The Coastal Military Atlas’ ten times as many and with a slightly more
detailed classification.” However, the author of this paper gives the example
of “Japan Studies” again, but the statement that “[…] it is reasonable to
expect that the amount of information recorded in Japan Studies is greater than
that in A Brief History of Japan (BROKAW, 2015, p. 210-212). The Coastal
Military Atlas, and The Mirror of Japan” seems to suggesting the opposite.
The
author of this paper emphasizes the field survey of Japanese geography in A
Mirror of Japan, but in the actual introduction and argument of Japan, the
argument of this aspect is not very sufficient, but only from the point of
“preliminary introduction of Japan”, by comparing with other works. The
argument is single (BENEDICT, 2008, p. 47). I think that since this point is
one of the features of A Mirror of Japan, it is necessary to introduce
it from a richer perspective of humanities and society, even if the comparison
is relatively brief.
The
author of this article on “Japanese views and analysis of Japanese pirates” in
this section, the relevant content seems to be rarely covered, as stated in the
Tong and Ma (2022) text, A Mirror of Japan is a very detailed account of
Japan. Involves history, politics, territory, products, customs, culture,
language and so on (CHARTIER, 1996, p. 1-9). Many of the contents are what
Zheng Shun Gong saw and heard after his visit to Japan, which seems irrelevant
to the topic. Not only that, the text also introduces the Japaneses’
personalities, customs and habits themselves by citing Chinese literature and
writings, such as the “Hanshu”, the “Sui Shu”, and the “Study of Writing”. Even
if there is a discourse on Japanese pirates, the text also quotes the Chinese
Yang Shouchen's views on Japanese pirates.
References
BENEDICT,
A. Imagined Community: The Origin and Dispersal of Nationalism. China:
Lhai People's Publishing House, 2008.
BROKAW,
C. On the History of the Book in China. Berkeley：University of
California Press，2005,
p. 3-54．
BROKAW,
C. Empire of Texts, Book Production, Book Distribution and Book Culture in
Late Imperial China. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2015. p. 210-212．
Chartier, R. Gutenberg Revisited from the
West. Late Imperial China. v. 17, n. 1, p. 1-9, 1996.
TONG,
J.; MA, Ji. A preliminary study on A Mirror of Japan (Ribenyijian). Trans/Form/Ação:
Unesp journal of philosophy, v. 45, n. 4, p.
117-136,
2022.
Received:
25/08/2022
Approved: 30/08/2022