The revision of knowledge: on the genesis of “national language dictionaries” (kokugo jisho) and the commercialisation of "knowledge" in 17th and 18th century Ôsaka

知识的修订：论“国语词典”（kokugo jisho）的起源和 17 世纪和 18 世纪“知识”的商业化

• 批准号: 427290130
• 负责人: Professor Dr. Stephan Köhn
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 德国
• 起止时间: 2018-12-31 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/427290130?language=en
• 关键词: revision; knowledge; genesis; national; language

Setsuyôshû is a new type of dictionary that emerges in the second half of the 15th century and becomes, with more than 800 published titles, one of the pillars of the publishing business in Ôsaka.Despite its financial success, most researchers doubt Setsuyôshû’s practical use as a “language dictionary”. Setsuyôshû is considered an anachronistic, impractical, and flawed print product. It is widely believed that reliable “dictionaries of national language” (kokugo jisho) do not come into life until the middle of the 19th century. However, the Otoko setsuyôshû nyoi hôju taisei (“Completion of the wish-fulfilling jewel: the time-saving collection for men”) published 1716 by Aburaya in Ôsaka seems to call for a revision of all previous research. The research project advocates the thesis that Yamamoto Joshû, the editor of this work, undertakes with his Otoko setsuyôshû a thorough revision of knowledge that has been uncritically passed on by former Setsuyôshû. On the one hand, Yamamoto verifies the given reading and writing of Chinese characters by consulting historical documents/dictionaries, and, on the other hand, updates the antiquated vocabulary by consulting contemporary dictionaries of colloquial language/dialects. Yamamoto’s Otoko setsuyôshû can be seen as a reaction to a fundamental paradigm shift that takes place in the linguistic, cultural, social and economic sphere in the early 18th century. With his innovative meta-level commentaries that impressively reflects a consciousness of language’s historicity, Otoko setsuyôshû must be considered the prototype of all kokugo jisho. A thorough philological and historico-cultural analysis shall reveal the eminent role this work has actually played in the history of Setsuyôshû.In a first step, the original woodblock-print of the Otoko setsuyôshû will be edited, translated, and annotated. During this process, Yamamoto’s meta-level commentaries will be systematically scrutinized to reconstruct a new stock of knowledge Yamamoto tried to implement for his contemporaries in the Setsuyôshû. In a next step, a comparison with the vocabulary of the Ekirinbon, the “forefather” of the Setsuyôshû, will shed light on revisions made by Yamamoto regarding words, pronunciation (i.e. reading), orthography (i.e. spelling), or forms of representation of Chinese characters as a reaction to the before-mentioned paradigm shift. In a last step, the historical context of production and reception of the Otoko setsuyôshû will be examined to gain new insights in highly competitive network-structures of publishing houses specialised on Setsuyôshû in Ôsaka and to get a better understanding of the growing significance of “knowledge” as a commodity in the daily life of the 18th century. This finally leads also to the crucial question of how and why “writing” begins to play such an eminent role in virtually all cultural, social, or economical spheres in terms of a modern “knowledge-based society” in 18th century Japan.

Setsuyôshû是15世纪下半叶出现的一种新型词典，出版了800多种，成为Ôsaka出版业务的支柱之一。尽管它在经济上取得了成功，但大多数研究人员对Setsuyôshû作为“语言词典”的实际用途表示怀疑。Setsuyôshû被认为是一个不合时宜的，不切实际的，有缺陷的印刷产品。人们普遍认为，可靠的“国语词典”（kokugo jisho）直到19世纪中叶才问世。然而，Aburaya于1716年在Ôsaka上发表的Otoko setsuyôshû nyoi hôju taisei（“完成实现愿望的宝石：为男性节省时间的收藏”）似乎要求对之前的所有研究进行修订。该研究项目主张的论点是，该作品的编辑山本Joshû与他的Otoko setsuyôshû一起对以前Setsuyôshû不加批判地传递的知识进行彻底修订。山本一方面通过查阅历史文献/字典来验证给定的汉字读写，另一方面通过查阅当代口语/方言词典来更新过时的词汇。山本的Otoko setsuyôshû可以看作是对18世纪初发生在语言、文化、社会和经济领域的一种基本范式转变的反应。Otoko setsuyôshû以其创新的元层次评论深刻地反映了语言的历史性意识，必须被认为是所有国语纪事的原型。深入的文献学和历史文化分析将揭示这部作品在Setsuyôshû历史上实际发挥的重要作用。第一步，将对《Otoko setsuyôshû》的原始木版进行编辑、翻译和注释。在这个过程中，山本的元级评论将被系统地仔细审查，以重建山本试图在Setsuyôshû中为他的同时代人实现的新知识储备。下一步，与Setsuyôshû的“祖先”Ekirinbon的词汇进行比较，将揭示山本对单词、发音（即阅读）、正字法（即拼写）或汉字表示形式的修改，作为对前面提到的范式转变的反应。在最后一步，Otoko setsuyôshû的生产和接受的历史背景将被检查，以获得新的见解在高度竞争的网络结构的出版社专门为Setsuyôshû和Ôsaka，并得到更好的理解“知识”作为商品在18世纪的日常生活中日益重要的意义。最后，这也引出了一个关键的问题：在18世纪的日本，就现代“知识社会”而言，“写作”是如何以及为什么开始在几乎所有的文化、社会或经济领域发挥如此重要的作用的。