Kodai Nihon ni okeru chirisho. Wamyōruijushō shoin Yidu shanchuan ji o megutte

Wamyōruijushō (Categorized Notes on Japanese Words), compiled in 934 ca. by middle Heian period scholar Minamoto no Shitagō (911-983), is an encyclopaedic dictionary where terms are arranged according to semantic categories, with notes on sources, Chinese glosses, and notations in man’ yōgana of kun readings. Among more than 290 Chinese and Japanese texts quoted in the Wamyōruijushō, there are numerous texts which are quoted just once or twice in all the dictionary. Usually these texts are no more surviving, and they were cited by Shitagō not directly, but from other encyclopaedias. In this paper, I focus on two quotations, one from a book titled Yidu ji (Chronicle of Capitals) and one from a book titled Yidu shanchuan ji (Chronicle of Capitals, Mounts and Rivers), both being lost texts. I collect all the other quotations tagged with the two titles, and I try to clarify their nature. As a result, I show that the two titles refer to the same book, whose completed title is Yidu shanchuan ji. It looks like a detailed Chinese gazetteer explaining geographical and cultural information from several regions, including etymologies of place names. Its style recalls that of the Tang period (618-907) chronicle De Tang Xiyu ji (Great Tang Records on the Western Regions, 646) and of Japanese fudoki (8th century). In particular, I argue the following three points. First, the gazetteer was compiled by the Jin period (265-420) scholar-official Yuan Shansong (?-401). Probably, the book was lost after Song period (960-1279), since it is largely cited in Tang period leishu Yiwen leiju (Collection of Literature Arranged by Categories, 624) and Chuxue ji (Writings for Elementary Instruction, 728) and in Song period Taiping yulan (Imperially Reviewed Encyclopaedia of the Taiping Era, 977-983). In Japan, it does not appear in Nihonkoku genzai shomokuroku (Catalogue of Books Extant in Japan, 891) and the only two existing quotations are those occurring in Wamyōruijushō. Second, the two quotations in Wamyōruijushō are not direct citations, but second-hand citations from Yiwen leiju and Chuxue ji. Third, the Yidu shanchuan ji is a gazetteer, whose contents, as known by extant fragmenta, regard place names, geographical information, and folklore.