『日本書紀』における「曰」についての考察

Abstract

The book of The NIHONSHOKI was completed in AD.720 years. This book is regarded as the first written history book of Japan form the origin tale to the Jito Tenno emperor. The book has 30 volumes. The first two volumes consist with myths. Because of it is a history book, it takes many quotes not only quotes a lot of other historical books, but also quotes dialogues of many historical figures. When it takes quotation, we can see some specific Chinese characters such as “曰言云謂説” and so on. The most used of them is the word “曰”. I has found that the word “曰” in The NIHONSHOKI is used for two ways, the first is dialogue quotes and the other one is general quotes. The word “曰” in general quotes, can quote specific names that an author wants to quate, and can also quote articles. When it was used for quoting names, it mainly used for aristocratic class, such as the names of royal family. When it was used for quoting of some articles, it is mainly used to quote the origin of the articles. When it was used for quoting dialogue, it is mainly used for dialogue between the aristocratic people and the same class or the aristocratic class to the lower class.