FROGS, MORE FROGS .
By Rembrandt F. Wolpert, Belfast
In Carmen Blacker's book. The Catalpa Bow — A Study of Shamani-
stic Practices in Japan\ one finds an account of the Kaeru-tobi Gyoji, the
'Leaping-Frog Event', held annually in the precincts of the Zaö-dö temple in
Yoshino, Nara Prefecture. Dr. BLACKER writes:
Again, there are matsuri in which not only the trance utterance but even the trance itself has been lost. All that remains is the peculiar behaviour, enacted in mime, of what was once the inspired frenzy of the medium. An example is the Kaeru-tobi Gydji, performed by yamabushi in Yoshino at the beginning of July. One of their number, disguised as a green frog, leaps and hops in a manner accountable only as a mime of what was once the odd levitation pe¬
culiar to trance behaviour in Japan. The moral tale which now 'explains' the rite is clearly a later invention.
The festival is held every year on the 7th day of the 7th month, a date on
which the rest of Japan — together with the rest of the Far Eastern world —
celebrates the Star-festivaP. Cf. table XIV.
The moral tale to which I assume Dr Blacker refers, a tale presented to
any curious visitor to the village, and which can be bought on souvenir-
cards, together with many representations of frogs, is as follows:
In the years of the (Japanese) emperor Shiralcawa a group of yamabushi
made a pilgrimage up Kimpu mountain; one of their group, however, was an
evil man, and arriving at the top of the mountain blasphemed the Buddha.
Instantly the heavens darkened, an eagle appeared and carried the wicked man to its eyrie. On hearing the wails and cries of the culprit, the abbot of Kimpu-san took pity and the man was transformed to live in a mountain as a frog. Eventually the reciting of sutras will deliver the evil man from his pun¬
ishment, and he will regain human shape.'
Hägen Blau in his exemplary work on Saruga/cu und Shushi'* refers to an
article, published in Japan by the local folklore-society of the area, in which the
' Carmen Blacker: The Catalpa Bow — A Study of Shamanislic Practi¬
ces in Japan. London 1975, pp. 254—255.
2 In Japan called the Hoshi- or Tanabala-fest'ival.
Translation from a set of six bookmarks bought for 200 Yen in Yoshino in 1984; the folder is entitled Yoshino-yama — Kaeru-tobi gydji no yu- rai.
* Hägen Blau : Sarugaku und Shushi — Beiträge zur A usbildung drama¬
tischer Elemente im weltlichen und religiösen Volkstheater der Heian- Zeh unter besonderer Berücksichtigung seiner sozialen Grundlagen.
Wiesbaden 1966, p. 146.
498 Rembrandt F. Wolpert
popular story is restated', and in which the festival is traced back to an old
yamabushi tradition from the reign of emperor Shirakawa-tennö (1072—1086).
However, 1 should like to look at the 'Leap-Frog' Festival from a different angle, and to start with the calendrical date.
As in China, the 7th day of the 7th month is an important national festival
in Japan^. In the time of the oldest reports of the 'Leap-Frog' Festival,
namely from the 10th and 11th centuries A.D., the 7th month was also the
time of a Wrestling Festival, the Sumo no sechie, about which we also have
detailed reports from very early on.* Along with the obvious wrestling, this
festival abounded in performances of music, of dance, and of pantomime.
Alongside Japanese art-forms, entertainment music and acrobatic feats,
originally acquired from the Asiatic continent, played an important role;
there was music and dance from Korea and North-Asia, music from Tang-
China and Central Asia, and there was Sangaku, Chinese sanyue, an old
form of entertainment from China, something perhaps best compared with
our circus-acts. And among these reports about entertainments performed at
the time of the Wrestling Festival in July, we find descriptions of a dance-
pantomime, in which the performers are dressed as frogs. One source states:
... one pulls over various things, among others, one puts on the form of a frog; one blows Kikkan, and so on, and for the dance one plays this music .. P
Other historical reports confirm the performance at the Wrestling Festival
of special acts from the enterainments borrowed several centuries earlier
from the Asiatic mainland, repeatedly indicating a connection between a
dance-pantomime and figures dressed up as frogs.
One specific account for an entry Kikkan -4o ^1", which literally means
'well-sweep', as found in a 13th-century Japanese Court-Music handbook,
provides us with a series of links:
At the Wrestling Festival one plays this piece as counter (-piece) to Kenki-
kodatsu (Chinese: Jianqi kuntuo). While the dancers come out, one blows
the 'Chaotic Prelude', ranjö (Chinese: Luanxuf . (Gloss in text: There is run¬
ning around.) Two people as kings and twenty as attendants^ leap about
strangely while the music is blown, then bow out, and retire. Their costume is
5 Sasatani RÖZÖ: Kaeru-tobi. In: Yamato no minzoku. Nara 1959, pp.
321—336.
* Sumai-no-sechie, first recorded for the year 734 under Shömu-Tennö
(724—749) in the Shoku-Nihongi, reign of Shömu-Tennö, Tempyö 6th
year, 7th month, 7th day; see Hägen Blau: op. cit. p. 64—65 and foot¬
note 375, p. 397.
' Zappi beisuroku. Gunsho ruiju vol. 19, p. 189.
* For a discussion of Ranjö, see Laurence Picken (ed.), R. Wolpert, A.
IVlARETT, J. Condit, E. Markham, Y. Mitani, N. Nickson: Music
from the Tang Court. Vol. 4. Cambridge 1987, p. 83, and Fasc. 5, forth¬
coming.
9 Banshu, Westerners?
Frogs, more Frogs . 499 like the Hassen-cosinme (Konron-hassen)'" (Chinese: Kunlun baxian). ... At the Wrestling Festival it is the after-dance to Sarugaku. ... Furthermore, it matches the rFo"-song Chikara naki kaeru, 'Weak Frog', it is said. This piece is an extremely secret piece.
An earlier report of a boys' wrestling-match contained in a 10th-century
diary further corroborates our interconnections. It describes courtiers and
boys mixing at the end of the wrestling. They performed juggling acts —
and, finally, the piece Kikkan^^. Moreover, the earliest musical source con¬
taining notation for the piece Kikkan, a collection of tablatures for trans¬
verse flute compiled by Yamanoi no Motomasa (1079—1138)''*, also refers
(in a short preface to the notation) to the customary performance of Kikkan
at the Wrestling Festival in July.
The equation of the music for the dance-pantomime Kikkan with that of
the ryo-song, 'Weak Frog', from the Saibara repertory of Japanese Court
Song, is listed in many sources. This Saibara-song, as contained in the 12th-
century musical sources, has the short and rather simple text:
"Weak frog, weak frog — boneless worm, boneless worm."'' (s. example I)
Musical notation for the piece Kikkan, which was always played at the
Wrestling Festival by performers dressed up as frogs, is contained in the same musical source'* that contains the Frog-song 'Weak Frog'. It is included in the
repertory of Komagaku, music introduced to Japan from the Asiatic mainland
via the Korea ot the Three Kingdoms some time before the 9th century A.D.
Until recently, equations such as that between our song, 'WeakFrog', and an¬
other item from the Japanese Court-Music repertory, such as our Kikkan from
the 'Korean Music' repertory, were regarded by both Japanese and Western
See below, p. 505.
" For a brief distinction of the Japanese modes ryo and rilsu, see E. Mark¬
ham: Saibara — Japanese Court Songs of the Heian Period. Vol. 1.
Cambridge 1983, p. 6.
'2 Kyökunshö, maki 5. Nihon shisö taikei. Vol. 23, p. 106.
'3 See Hägen Blau: op. cit. p. 136.
For details on the so-called Motomasa no fue-fu, see Fükushima Kazuo (English precis by S. Nelson): Musical Notations of Japan — Descript¬
ive Catalogue of Ihe Eighth Exhibition, Research Archives for Japanese
Music. Ueno Gakuen College, Tokyo 1983, p. 2 (Japanese version) and
p. 3 (English precis); only late copies of the manuscript are known. The equally problematic Kaichü-fu (dated 1095, one year after the death of its alleged author) also contains the piece Kikkan in flute tablature, vir¬
tually identical with that contained in the Motomasa no fue-fu.
" Fujiwara Moronaga (1137—1192): Sango-yöroku, maki 4.
Manuscript-copy dated Karyaku 3rd year (1328), held in the Palace Li¬
brary, Tokyo, catalogued under 515.87, columns 710—720 (three ver¬
sions).
'* Sango-yöroku, maki 12, columns 565—568.
500 Rembrandt F. Wolpert
scholars as indications of suitabihty for successive performance. This view has been challenged.'^
Musical example 1: Chikara naki kaeru^^
m~^^"f^Tr - — r—r — irT' n J J ~f " 1
! U-4 — U-
Chi ka-ra na tti
-f^^f — p -11■* ^ -*
ka -e ru Ho ne na — ki
f ^ 1
Md Hll Z»
X X
gy^. !> , ^7 -=rr^
j X ' X ►* jx >< ><
jm-^'-JiJ -injn^i r
X X >•
r^ph-H
v-^ffl Ul^^ \i}J y \±J' H \J i^t} ^ '-^
l^s fefe
^/o . ti(T iia _ J'I nil - III"! tu
W SnM^ ''i 'l i 'i-p
Facsimile 1: Sango-Yoroku, Chikara naki kaeru
\ iV
I ^ -h
\<
C /I:
(sl VL"
T't*
>i- '.'Z-
r-.
t
1.
1V rL -t 3
^C' J-
' < •
■ -t t -t
>
L 1.
^3 7 .^.'•
t ü-
«w
ti-:
1- t^-
7 v-i:
L■V 1-
• a-
_J yt: J»V\ rO ■V
-9
\
•'L
»<r (
/fc'j '
^ y
■■-{
^
>1-
U «.
*' .1
r ■<. ii- ' ^ . t ^
,i- V. ►t • 'V
< £ iV^ t
« j
\ /J
■t t
-ii-
^
> y t V
ri- t 1,
. o-i L
M-,- -e
"'/i- f
?'
'V y
1.
A' .'I-
^\
J 7
t
■;-J -»i X l-l
V V
-H'
V
•e
»1- 1
/■'
±
I ■t L.
1- fV
" Elizabeth Markham: op. cit. Vol. 1, pp. 189—216.
'8 Elizabeth Markham: op. cit. Vol. 2, p. 281—283.
I
Frogs, more Frogs . 501
In example 2, the piece Kikkan, as notated in the 12th-century source
Sango-yöroku, is compared with the song of a 'Weak Frog', contained in the
same source: the melodies of the instrumental piece Kikkan and that of the
'Frog-Song' Chikara naki kaeru are — apart from a change in mode — the
same."
Musical example 2: Kikkan and Chikara Naki Kaeru
T^t U f (f-^Yrl.^ K,^^
1
i^T^Vr^
— iLJLJ Lid — tlU 1 [' -
P%1^ ff''l&lg1'' ^
'—' '-' L' ' — 1
\\J --j; 1 1
t
' — ^\SJ- ^
Facsimile 2: Sango-Yoroku, Kikkan O
^o { •5 O
■h
•L
■t {
f t
V -t v
3-^ i 0 'V-
'.^ -t
: 1-
L >
<
1 A L.
( o
K ■t
t i -3 /V
\ ^
\ ■ 1
-fc J,
I *
'V. I 0
^ s
-t
/ -C V {
t
'i V t
?k
>t T
Encouraged by the link between frog-music and the calendrical date, the
7th of the 7th month, we search for other pieces mentioned in connection
with the Wrestling Festival, and with our now discernible 'frog-dance', Kik¬
kan. We have already heard about Sangaku, Chinese sanyue (p. 498), and in
" The comparison of the two musical notations is taken from Elizabeth Markham: op. ck. Vol. 1, p. 214.
502 Rembrandt F. Wolpert
this context, about the piece Jianqi Icuntuo/Kenlci-liodatsu, the dance cou¬
pled with Kil<kan. In the Japanese music-compendia, Kenki-kodatsu (Chine¬
se: Jianqi kuntuo) is classed as an item from the Tang-music repertory. Ko-
datsu, in Chinese reading kuntuo refers in Tang Chinese sources to a type of
dance-pantomime from Central Asia^o. Sanyue was a genre popular at the
Chinese court, a genre comparable with the medieval European musica
irregularis^^ and as I have suggested, perhaps best related to our modern
circus-music. The music of sanyue accompanied jugglers, acrobats of all
kinds, dressage acts, horse-racing, football-matches, polo-games, and, as in¬
dicated by the title Jianqi kuntuo^^, sword-dances^'. And two further dances
from the Central Asiatic kuntuo genre have been preserved in the musical
sources for Tang music imported into Japan. The first, Lungu kuntuo, or
'Jugglers' Act', is an item completely in line with the circus attribution of the
Chinese sanyue. The other piece is entitled Caoniang kuntuo, and is describ¬
ed in Japanese sources as a striptease dance of young girls; — the literal
meaning of kuntuo, of course, is "drawers off"^''.
This complex of A:««/MO-dances, originally from Central Asia — and one
of them evidently a nudist affair — leads us to a Central Asiatic New Year
pustom and rite, first mentioned in Chinese sources for the year 579. The rite
has been described as most popular at the Chinese court under the reign of
the Tan^-emperor Zhongzong (684; 705—710), and is known in the Chinese
sources under several names, such as pohanxi, pohuwang jiegan, jigan, jie-
ganxi, and jiegan. What is immediately striking is that77ega«<f± ^|,the Chi-
2" Henry Serruy's: Hun-t'o: tulum, floats and containers in Mongolia and Central Asia. In : Bulletin of Ihe School of Oriental and African Slu¬
dies 44 (\98\), pp. 105—119, misses the musical point, and consequently fails to recognize Jianqi kuntuo as one title.
2' See Martin Gimm: Das Yüeh-fu tsa-lu des Tuan An-chieh — Studien
zur Geschichle von Musik, Schauspiel und Tanz in der T'ang-Dynastie.
Wiesbaden 1966, pp. 197—206.
22 A dance Jianqi kunluo/Kenki-kodatsu is frequently mentioned in Tang
sources; see Martin Gimm: op. cit., pp. 261—264; 1 am indebted to Dr.
Adele Schlombs, Heidelberg, for drawing my attention to the 'Sword
Dance kuntuo' being performed as a means to inspire the 8th-century monk and artist Huaisu.
23 The translation 'Sword Vapours' in Allan Marett: Tunes notated in
flute-tablature from a Japanese source of the tenth century. In: Musica Asiatica 1 (1977), p. 24, and footnote 100, fails to recognise the (consis¬
tently used) graphic corruption of the Charakter qi ^ for .g^, and con¬
sequently develops a most unlikely story. Similar graphic corruptions are frequent in the tradition of musical titles in China, as demonstrated for a
Buddhist repertory in Xue Yi-Bing and Wu Ben: Qu-Jia-Ying yinyue
hui' de diao cha yu yanjiu (An investigation of Qu-Jia-Ying village Music Society). In: Zhongguo Yinyue Xue 2 (1987), pp. 81—96.
2'' Music from the Tang court. Vol. 4, 1987, p. 2: "loose trousers off".
Frogs, more Frogs . 503 nese characters used for this popular rite, are the same as those used to write
our Kikkan, the dance-pantomime paired-off with kuntuo in the Japanese
sources.
The festival of cold-water-magic, jiegan, held in the twelfth lunar month, is described in legal documents that led in the year 713 to its prohibition — a prohibition that shared the fate of most prohibitions, namely that it was nei¬
ther effective nor did it last for very long. The prohibition goes back to a me¬
morandum submitted to the Chinese Imperial Throne by the poet Zhang Yue
(667—730). He urges a ban on the cold-water festivities, in his eyes, barba¬
rous, indecent habits, where one:
'Leaps about without a stitch on' and 'splashes water, throws mud'.^'
In both the edict of 713 and the account in the 'Old Tang Historical Re¬
cords'^*, we find the rite of splashing cold water and running naked in the
streets explained as an 'old custom' of Central Asiatic people. Perhaps we
should recall the striptease-act of young girls — something rather unlikely at
the refined Heian-coun of Japan, but mentioned for the piece Soro-kodatsu,
in Chinese reading, Caoniang-kuntuo. While this title has been translated
simply as 'Miss Cao'^^, and as 'Miss or Younger-Sister Cao's Dance'^*,
should it not mean 'The Kuntuo-act of the Girls of Cao ': Cao, or Caoguo,
being the Taw^-Chinese name for Kabudhan on the present-day Kazach-
Uzbek border, where, according to the Chinese sources, at New Year, one
danced naked in the streets and splashed others with water?
Not only in the twelfth lunar month, but also in the seventh lunar month,
water-splashing took place. At the Central Asiatic festival cahed samazhe or
sumozhe, people threw muddy water — or perhaps, as in India today,
coloured water — at one another. The festival is described in some detail by
the Buddhist monk Huilin (737—820) from Kashgar, at the Western edge of
the Tarim basin. According to Huilin, sumozhe ist a non-Chinese word, a
word from a far-western language, a word for the kuntuo head-gear, and as¬
sociated not only with striptease-acts but also with performances of the Ba-
tou and Damian pantomimes.It will come as no surprise then, that, in Ja-
25 Tang huiyao, ch. 34. Guoxue jiben congshu, p. 629.
2* Jiu Tangshu, ch. 198. Beijing 1975, p. 5310.
2'' Allan J. Marett: Tunes notated in flute-tablature from a Japanese source of the tenth century. In: Musica Asiatica 1, p. 25.
2* Music from the Tang Court. Vol. 4, p. 113.
29 See Huilin: Yiqie jing yinyi. Taisho Daizökyö. Vol. 54, No 2128, p.
576a, and my forthcorning Some Musical Terms from a Chinese
Buddhist Dictionary of 817 A. D.; see also Hans Eckhardt: Somakusa.
In: Sinologica 3,3 (1953), pp. 174—189; Liu Mau-Tsai: A:w/ic/ia undsei¬
ne Beziehungen zu China vom 2. Jh. vor bis zum 6. Jh. n. Chr. Vol. 1.
Wiesbaden 1969, p. 170; Jag Tsong-Yi and Paul Demieville: Airs de
Touen hoang. Paris 1971, pp. 41—42.
504 Rembrandt F. Wolpert
panese inusical sources preserving musics imported from or via the Tang
court between the 6th and 9th centuries A. D., sumozhe, in Japanese pro¬
nunciation somakusha, is the title immediately preceding the sword-dance
act Jianqi kuntuo. And to complete the picture, 7a«g-Chinese sources de¬
scribe the sumozhe as part of the cold-water festivities, as part of our jiegan.
Hans Eckardt suggests'" that, as a transliteration of the Pali word sama-
jia, sumozhe may refer back to the old Iranian New Year, Nauroz, in what is
calendrically for the Chinese, the seventh month. The Nauroz ceremony also
involved water, and the sprinkling of water over others." This connection
would perhaps explain the strange costume for somakusha as depicted in Ja¬
panese sources'^ showing a creature clad in traditional rain-outfit, and wear¬
ing a strange head-gear — perhaps a kuntuo-n\ask^^l The foreign customs
sumozhe, possibly a festival of the Old Iranian New Year in the Chinese sev¬
enth lunar month, and jiegan, the Central Asiatic New Year at the end of the
Chinese twelfth month, seem to have been fused, and perhaps con-fused in
China itself. For the Chinese, both were New Year customs from the Far
West, and both involved splashing others with water.'''
In different societies the animal directly linked with water and rain varies,
but, generally speaking, frogs are always and everywhere associated with wa¬
ter, and therefore with rain. As soon as rain, often much needed and desired
by the population, appears, frogs abound, even after many frogless years of
drought. This ability to survive, and the infallible appearance when the rain
comes, makes the frog a suitable symbol for fertility. So much so, that in one Central Asiatic fertility rite, frogs were even slit, and their blood splattered all over the place, including over people.
3" Hans Eckardt: Somakusa. In: Sinologica 3,3 (1953), pp. 182, 184; see
also Paul Pelliot: Tokharien el Koutcheen. In: Journal Asiatique 224
(1934), p. 104.
3' See J. Markwart: Das Nauroz, seine Geschichte und seine Bedeutung.
In: Dr Modi Memorial Volume, Papers on Indo-Iranian and Other Sub¬
jects. Bombay 1930.
" The best-known illustration is contained in the Shinzei-kogaku-zu, to be dated before 1159; for a discussion of the manuscript, and a reproduct
ion, see for example Eta Harich-Schneider: A History of Japanese
Music. London 1973, pp. 142—181; Somakusha is reproduced on page
162. See also Gunhild Gabbert: Die Masken des Bugaku — Profane ja¬
panische Tanzmasken der Heian- und Kamakura-Zeh. Wiesbaden 1972.
Vol. 1, pp. 278—283.
33 For referenees to these masks see Yiqie jing yingyi: loc. cit., and Jao Tsong-Yi & Paul Demieville: loc. cit.
3" The literal meanings of hun -'^ "muddy water", and kun
"trousers", both used in the binominal terms hunluo and kuntuo (in Ja¬
panese both read as kodatsu) — perhaps originally distinguishing be¬
tween the mid-winter and mid-summer New Year Festivals? — may well
have contributed to the general confusion.
Frogs, more Frogs . 505
Looking back again to the pieces performed at the Japanese Wrestling
Festival in the 7th month, we encounter the piece Konron Hassen, mentioned
before (p. 499) in connection with the costumes worn for the performance of
the frog-pantomime, Kikkan. Konron, or Konron Hassen, Chinese Kunlun
baxian, commonly translated as 'The Eight Sages of Kunlun' — although
never more than four dancers are mentioned or seen in illustrations!'' — has
attracted substantial discussion from both Japanese and Western scholars.
Some see it as Taoist hermits from the Kunlun-mountains in Central Asiatic
China, the mythical land of the Queen IVlother of the Western Paradise, the
Jade-mountain, where the elixir of eternal life can be found; others see in the four creatures links with garuda, a mythical Buddhist bird'*, interpreting the drop dangling from the bird-like beak" as representing the pearl carried by
the garuda, and form associations with Indian colonies in South-East Asia,
whose inhabitants were called Kunlun by the Chinese — a matter of regular
confusion. Another Japanese scholar suggests Konron as being of North-
Asiatic, Tungusic origin, since the old Japanese sources describe the "moss- costume" worn by the dancers as representing cold and rain. Perhaps, then, the drop on the nose could be the result of cold conditions?
Hägen Blau, with reference to Gigaku, yet another old theatrical form
imported to Japan from China, suggests that Kunlun/Konron was the centre
piece in an exorcist ceremony, reading the Japanese words Konron hassen as
the old form Kuro base, with the Japanese meaning of either 'the penis of the
demons', or 'black penis''**. The latter meaning is supported by the reading
given in the Japanese dictionary, Wamyö-ruijü-shö^'^, probably from the
10th century, following on from which Konron/Kuro base appears to be a
phallus-swinging act, suggesting naked dancers, and — again — a fertility
rite.
35 See Hans Eckhardt: Konron. In: Oriens Extremus 7,1 (1960), pp.
17—30; for an illustration of modern performance practice, see Bugaku Treasures from the Kasuga Shrine, Tokyo 1984, unpaginated (last colour reproduction).
3* The connection with the name Kerahami 'Devouring of the Worm' in¬
vites further speculation, beyond the scope of this short paper; see for
example Takano Tatsuvuki: Nihon kayo shi. Tokyo 1926, p. 474.
3' Detailed discussion and reproduction of masks can be found in Gunhild Gabbert: op. cit. Vol. 1, pp. 244—272, reproductions of masks; vol. 2, plates 38—41.
3" Hägen Blau: op. cit., p. 91.
3** Wamyo ruijüshö, compiled by Minamoto No Shitago (911—983). Ed.
Masume a., Tokyo 1954, p. 18.
506 Rembrandt F. Wolpert
To return to our annual Japanese festival of wrestling in the 7th lunar
month, it may be only amusing to hear that in Japanese sumo, the wrestlers,
when looked at from afar, are traditionally described as resembling a pair of
mating frogs. But could there be a connection between the bawdy, naked
New Year rites, popular at the medieval Chinese court and originating from
Central Asia, and the summer residence of Japanese emperors in Yoshino,
where originally Chinese entertainments bearing the names of these New
Year rites were heard and seen at the wrestling-match, and where songs of
frogs were sung to these Central Asiatic melodies? Could there have been a
gradual transformation and mixing-up of Court traditions and folk beliefs?
Could such a muddle have transformed the phallic fertility-pantomime of
Kuro base to a sympathetic rain-magic, and from there, via the bird-like
mask Konron, with its shape resembling the Buddhist mythological bird, ga¬
ruda, into an angry eagle defending the Buddhist faith, and carrying our evil
yamabushi to its eyrie on a mountain-top, where he in turn is transformed
into a fertility symbol, a frog? I do not want to give an answer to these quest¬
ions, but I insist on finding the name of a mountain behind Yoshino interest¬
ing. The mountain on which our wicked yamabushi is doomed to live as a
frog bears the name of somakusha, Chinese sumozhe. This name takes us
right back to the Old Iranian New Year samajia, held in the 7th lunar month,
a festival already confused in Tang-China with the Central Asiatic New Year
festival jiegan. And, in Heian-Japan, jiegan/kikkan shares its melody with a
frog-song.
Abb.
VERZEICHNIS DER ABBILDUNGEN
1 (Tafel XIV): The 'Leaping-Frog Fesdval'. Yoshino 7. 7.
LIANG QICHAO'S „AUTOBIOGRAPHIE MIT
DREISSIG" (SANSHI ZISHU)
IM KONTEXT DER TRADITIONELLEN
CHINESISCHEN SELBSTBIOGRAPHIE
Von Mantred Frühauf, Bochum
China sah im ausgehenden 19. Jahrhundert den Verfall der Qing-Dyna-
stie. Die Auswirkungen des Taiping-Aufstandes, der wirtschaftliche Aderlaß
durch den Abfluß des Silbers als Folge des Opiumkonsums und immer neue
verlustreiche Konfrontationen mit den westlichen Staaten hatten das Reich
erschüttert. Die Reaktion der politisch und intellektuell führenden Kreise
Chinas war gespalten. Die Majorität verharrte auf den ahen Positionen und
versuchte, die auf sie einstürzenden Probleme mit weitgehend traditionellen
Rezepten zu kurieren, ohne zu erkennen, daß sich Dimension und Quahtät
der Probleme verändert hatten. Eine Minderheit war bestrebt, modernes
westliches Wissen — insbesondere sozialwissenschaftliche, naturwissen¬
schaftliche und technische Kenntnisse — in China einzuführen. Diese tasten¬
den Reformen setzten jedoch Kräfte frei, die weit über die ursprünglichen
vorsichtigen Modernisierungsversuche hinauswirkten: anstatt zu einer Re¬
form des traditionellen Staatswesens kam es binnen weniger Jahrzehnte zu
dessen Abschaffung.'
LiANG QiCHAO (23.2.1873 bis 19.1.1929) war eine der Persönlichkeiten,
die diesen Wandlungsprozeß in Bewegung setzen halfen. Als Schüler und
Mitarbeiter Kang Youweis^ erhielt er seine entscheidenden Bildungsein¬
drücke. Obwohl selbst noch ein Produkt des traditionellen — fast aus¬
schließlich literarisch orientierten — Ausbildungs- und Prüfungssystems, er¬
kannte Liang die Notwendigkeit seiner Abschaffung. UrsprüngUch ausge¬
hend von den Bestrebungen Kang Youweis, die Staatsform in eine konstitu¬
tionelle Monarchie umzuwandeln, dann jedoch in die Emigration getrieben
durch den konservativen Putsch des Jahres 1898, unterstützte Liang später
als politisch aktiv handelnder Mensch auch unmittelbar gewalttätige Aktio-
' Zum geistesgeschichtlichen Hintergrund s. Daniel H. Bays: China Ent¬
ers The Twentieth Century — Chang Chih-lung and the Issues of a New
Age, 1895—1909. Ann Arbor 1978; Joseph R. Levenson: Liang Ch'i-
ch'ao and the Mind of Modern China. Harvard 1953, Second Printing
1970; Y. C. Wang: Chinese Intellectuals and the West, 1972—1949.
Chapel Hill 1966 (Nachdr. Taibei 1976).
2 Kang Youwei, 1858—1927; Reformer der ausgehenden Qing-Zei, der
seine Reformvorschläge durch eine Neuinterpretation der alten konfuzia¬
nischen Klassiker zu rechtfertigen suchte, verfaßte die ,, Schrift über die Große Harmonie" (Datongshu).
