Bibliography of Song Studies in Japan (2008)

This Bibliography of Song Studies is a sequel to those published in JSYS 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, and 38. Part 1 is a state-of-the-field essay by Professor Sue Takashi 須江隆 on research on local gazetteers and stone inscriptions published in Japan since the 1980s. Part 2 is a list of books and articles published in Japan in 2008, compiled by Yamaguchi Tomoya 山口智哉. The research for this bibliography was supported by grants from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science awarded to Professor Hirata Shigeki.

Contents

1. 1. Updates on Song History Studies in Japan: Local Gazetteers and Stone Inscriptionsby Sue Takashi 須江隆

2. 2. Bibliography of Song History Studies in Japan (2008)compiled by Yamaguchi Tomoya 山口智哉

• Part 1: Updates on Song History Studies in Japan: Local Gazetteers and Stone Inscriptions *
• Sue Takashi

Introduction

A large-scale project on “Maritime Cross-Cultural Exchange in East Asia and the Formation of Japanese Traditional Culture: Interdisciplinary Approach Focusing on Ningbo 寧波,” headed by Kojima Tsuyoshi 小島毅 (University of Tokyo) and sponsored by a grant from the Ministry of Education, Sports, Culture, Science and Technology, has been in progress in Japan since 2005. As a member of this project, I have led a research group focused on the theme, “Regional and Historical Characteristics of the Southeast Coastal Area in Early Modern China from the Analysis of Local Gazetteers and Stone Inscriptions as Primary Historical Materials,” referred to as the “Group for Local Gazetteers and Stone Inscriptions.” We have been working to analyze regional historical documents such as local gazetteers and stone inscriptions. Our research aims at building a fundamental philology of the regional history of the southeastern coastal region of China by conducting a thorough investigation of local gazetteers and stone inscriptions, in order to reveal the regional and historical characteristics of the area from the Song to the Qing dynasties. To be more exact, we intend to conduct a thorough examination of local historical documents and materials extant in the target area and to organize them with focus on the Song dynasty, while also expanding the scope of our research up to the Qing dynasty. We will investigate the purposes for the compilation of each document or material and analyze them in detail, asking such questions as: when were these gazetteers and stone inscriptions compiled or made into regional records, who wrote or made them and for what purposes, and what distinctive characteristics do they have as historical documents or materials? In this way we propose to reveal the regional and historical characteristics of the target area, as well as the role of China’s southeast coastal region in China and the East Asian maritime region over time.

Local historical documents archive rich sources of local culture, including religion and belief, through descriptions of temples, shrines and monasteries, schools, bridge and waterway construction, and social welfare practices. However, despite progress in the study of Chinese regional history and the increasing use of these documents and materials of regional history by scholars in Japan and elsewhere, few of these studies apply comprehensive and systematic methods of analysis that take into consideration the distinctive value of these sources as historical materials. In this essay, I will review recent Japanese studies of Song history that use local gazetteers and stone inscriptions as primary sources of investigation. I will compare these studies with relevant previous works for the purpose of exploring the future potential for the study of regional historical materials and documents.

1. Studies About Local Gazetteers as Historical Materials

In Japan, studies of Song regional society have increased since the 1980s. This has been discussed in detail in the collaborative work by Oka Motoshi 岡元 司, Katsuyama Minoru 勝山稔, Kojima Tsuyoshi, Sue Takashi, and Hayasaka Toshihiro 早坂俊廣 (2001), as well as in the review by Oka Motoshi and others in this journal. ¹However, while increasing numbers of scholars have begun to engage in the study of regional society, resulting in dramatically increased use of local gazetteers, not many of these scholars have paid attention to the compilation process and purpose of local gazetteers, styles and contents...