<Articles>A Study of the Dragon

支那のシンボリツクな動物の中、最も著るしいものとして龍があげられよう。そのシンボライズする内容、その起原等の研究において、図像的表現の研究に、従来大きな片手落ちがあつたやうである。そのやうな研究を行ふ場合、より古い起原に近い形を知ることが必須であらう。漢以前の容器、その他の遺物の上に、常識的に見て龍の類ひと考へられる動物が色々にとりつけられてゐるが、虎に似たものもあれば、何ともつかぬ怪物としか見えぬものもあり、その内から龍を見出すには、常識以上の、考古学のカが必要である。龍の (広くいつて、殷周彝器を飾る文様の) 意義を考へる上の基礎作業として、龍の図像的表現の遡源を試みた。後漢代の碑、紀元前後の方格規矩鏡、前漢初の寿州出士鏡、戦国後半の金村遺物、春秋末の李峪出土品、それより少し時代の遡る新鄭出土品、と時代順に龍の姿を追及する。それから先は、頁数が切れたため収めえなかつたので、やや尻切れとんぼであるが、春秋末-戦国の龍の姿を明かに示しえただけでも収獲であらう。One of the most popular patterns of animal in ancient China was the dragon. But the studies in its origins and substance have heretofore made not a few mistakes. In such a study it goes without saying that we have to be aware of the nearest form to the original. On the pre-Han vessels and other remains, we find various kinds of dragon-like figures, but how can we distinguish them from other tiger-like monsters or from the will-o-the-wisps? Hence the archaeological methods become available and I attempted at the iconographical arrangement of dragons in order to be understandable to the significance of the ornaments on the bronzes of the Yin-Chou era. Mentions will be made one after the other on those remains : the stele of the Eastern Han, the mirrors with four sacred animals of cardinal points around the beginning of the Christian era, the mirrors from the Shou-Chou (寿州) district at the beginning of the Han period, the materials from the graves of Kin-ts'un (金村) in the latter part of the period of Warring States, the Li-yu (李峪) finds toward the end of the Ts'iun-Ch'iu era and the objects found at Sin-Ch'eng (新鄭) which belong to a little earlier period. Though I could not discuss more in detail in this brief essay, still it remains for me to confess my contentment that I have become aware of the form of the dragon during the Ts'iun-Ch'iu and those turbulent ages on the Continent