著者

大橋 修一

出版者

埼玉大学教育学部

雑誌

埼玉大学紀要. 教育学部 = Journal of Saitama University. Faculty of Education (ISSN:18815146)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.60, no.1, pp.1-3, 2011

著者

大橋 修一

出版者

書学書道史学会

雑誌

書学書道史研究 (ISSN:18832784)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.2013, no.23, pp.1-8, 2013 (Released:2014-04-17)

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There is a book called The Truth about Cao Cao's Tomb (Henansheng Wenwu Kaogu Yanjiusuo 河南省文物考古研究所 [Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology], ed., Cao Cao mu zhenxiang 曹操墓真相, 2010; Japanese translation: So So bo no shinso 曹操墓の真相, 2011). This book covers the excavation of a tomb at Xigaoxue 西高穴 village that is considered to be Cao Cao's tomb and also discusses matters such as the truth about Cao Cao's death as recorded in historical sources. The Japanese translation is accompanied by a contribution by Watanabe Yoshihiro 渡邉義浩, who writes as follows: "The reason that I half believed that tomb no. 2 at Xigaoxue might be Cao Cao's tomb when I heard the first report lay in the location where it was discovered and the scale of the tomb. Why, then, did I half doubt it? The reason lay in the stone stele reading '魏武王常所用挌虎大戟', which the authors of this book have from the outset continued to cite as the prime evidence that tomb no. 2 at Xigaoxue is Cao Cao's tomb." With regard to this stele, Watanabe further writes: "I had the impression that the characters were not very well written, and I wondered whether Cao Cao would have had his name written in such a poor hand. For this reason I was half in doubt."  In this article I essay a rebuttal of Watanabe's view regarding this point. This is because, in the history of calligraphic styles used at the time, the characters on this stele are written in one of the most typical styles used in inscriptions, a transitional style that emerged in the shift from the Han clerical script to the Wei clerical script. More specifically, the style of brushwork known as "wavy momentum" (boshi 波勢), a distinctive feature of the contemporary Han clerical script, has disappeared, and the characters on the stele are drawing closer to the style known as Wei clerical script, underpinned by stylistic harmony. By analyzing in detail the clerical script of the final years of the Later Han as it changed from the Han clerical script to the Wei clerical script, I demonstrate that this stele is written in a calligraphic style representative of the time when Cao Cao lived.