Kindle Edition of Senmyō: Old Japanese Imperial Edicts in the National Histories
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Ross Bender
Jul 18, 2025, 4:45:06 PM7/18/25
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The Old Japanese edicts in Shoku Nihongi have been intensively if not exhaustively studied. Remarkably, the readings that Motoori Norinaga assigned to them in the eighteenth century are still essentially in place today. Senmyō 宣命, due to Norinaga’s prescribing of the canon, has come to be the categorization for these sixty-two imperial rescripts. However, little to no attention has been paid either in Japan or the West to a larger number of Old Japanese edicts in senmyōtai appearing in the later national histories. According to the distinguished scholar of ancient Japan, Sakaehara Towao, this is still the case in Japan. In addition, the four ninth-century official court histories inscribed in classical Chinese have received nothing like the interest that has been devoted over the years to Nihon Shoki and Shoku Nihongi. Stylistically these later senmyō are very much like those in Shoku Nihongi, inscribed in Old Japanese with large and small characters. One difference is that while those in the eighth century are all characterized as shō 詔, some of these have different labels such as sakumei 策命, kōmon 告文,or senmyō.
The Rikkokushi 六国史, or Six National Histories, constitute an important genre of Japanese history. Beginning with the Nihon Shoki, or Nihongi, appearing in 720, they are official court chronicles commissioned by the emperors, compiled by scholars and aristocrats, and inscribed in classical Chinese. In this they differ from the earlier Kojiki, compiled in 712 and inscribed in Old Japanese. While Nihon Shoki begins as a mythohistory, describing the origins of Japan in the Age of the Gods, in later sections it becomes an authentic historical record centered on the imperial court. The latter five volumes, taking the history of the court, first in the capital of Nara and then in Kyoto, to the year 887, are generally regarded as accurate and reliable chronicles.
Rikkokushi – Nihongi, Shoku Nihongi, Nihon Kōki, Shoku Nihon Kōki, Nihon Montoku Tennō Jitsuroku, and Nihon Sandai Jitsuroku, whose narrative is classical Chinese, are occasionally interspersed with sections in Old Japanese, including poems. Shoku Nihongi contains sixty-two senmyō; there are over one hundred fifty more in the remaining histories. As the term jitsuroku indicates, these chronicles were in imitation of the Chinese dynastic histories in which the “veritable records” constituted one source for the accounts of an imperial reign. The Chinese of the chronicles is that of the Sui and early Tang dynasties, known as “Middle Chinese.”
This is a translation of the Old Japanese imperial edicts from 697-887. The volume also includes texts and transliterations of the sixty-two Shoku Nihongi senmyō.
The Rikkokushi 六国史, or Six National Histories, constitute an important genre of Japanese history. Beginning with the Nihon Shoki, or Nihongi, appearing in 720, they are official court chronicles commissioned by the emperors, compiled by scholars and aristocrats, and inscribed in classical Chinese. In this they differ from the earlier Kojiki, compiled in 712 and inscribed in Old Japanese. While Nihon Shoki begins as a mythohistory, describing the origins of Japan in the Age of the Gods, in later sections it becomes an authentic historical record centered on the imperial court. The latter five volumes, taking the history of the court, first in the capital of Nara and then in Kyoto, to the year 887, are generally regarded as accurate and reliable chronicles.
Rikkokushi – Nihongi, Shoku Nihongi, Nihon Kōki, Shoku Nihon Kōki, Nihon Montoku Tennō Jitsuroku, and Nihon Sandai Jitsuroku, whose narrative is classical Chinese, are occasionally interspersed with sections in Old Japanese, including poems. Shoku Nihongi contains sixty-two senmyō; there are over one hundred fifty more in the remaining histories. As the term jitsuroku indicates, these chronicles were in imitation of the Chinese dynastic histories in which the “veritable records” constituted one source for the accounts of an imperial reign. The Chinese of the chronicles is that of the Sui and early Tang dynasties, known as “Middle Chinese.”
This is a translation of the Old Japanese imperial edicts from 697-887. The volume also includes texts and transliterations of the sixty-two Shoku Nihongi senmyō.
Ross Bender
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