魏志倭人传

《魏志倭人传》是日本对于中国史书《三国志》中记载魏国历史的《魏书》中《东夷传》篇中的〈倭人〉条的通称。《魏志倭人传》为西晋的陈寿所作，是现存对于古代日本的情况最早的纪录（约成书于3世纪后半，280年～290年间）。现存数种版本，以百衲本为最善本。

全文共1988字，描写了日本在大和王权建立以前（即弥生时代）的情况。当时的倭（后来的日本）是由许多小国构成，文中记述了各小国的位置、各国的生活样式以及各国的官名等等信息。由于其对各小国位置的记述可以有多种解释方式，这就是现今对于邪马台国所在位置的争议起源。总之该文详实记录了当时倭人的风俗习惯、倭国的动植物等资料，可说是现今研究弥生时代后期的古代日本时不可或缺的重要文献。

《魏志倭人传》中提及的主要国家

狗邪韩国

一大国

末卢国

伊都国

不弥国

投马国

邪马壹国

狗奴国

侏儒国

黑齿国

The Wajinden (Japanese: 倭人伝; "Treatise on the Wa People") is a Japanese term referring to the passages in the 30th fascicle of the Chinese history chronicle Records of the Three Kingdoms that talk about the Wa people, who would later be known as the Japanese people. It describes the mores, geography, and other aspects of the Wa, the people and inhabitants of the Japanese archipelago at the time. The Records of the Three Kingdoms was written by Chen Shou of the Western Jin dynasty at the end of the 3rd century (between the demise of Wu in 280 and 297, the year of Chen Shou's death).

Overview

There is no independent treatise called "Wajinden" in the Records of the Three Kingdoms, and the description of Yamato is part of the Book of Wei, vol. 30, "Treatise on the Wuhuan, Xianbei, and Dongyi". The name "Wajinden" comes from Iwanami Bunko who published the passages under the name Gishi Wajinden (魏志倭人伝) in 1951. Therefore, some believe that it is meaningless unless one reads not only the passages on the Wa but also the whole of the Treatise on the Dongyi ("Eastern Barbarians"). Yoshihiro Watanabe, a researcher of the Three Kingdoms, states that the accounts about the Korean Peninsula and Japan were not based on Chen Shou's first-hand experience, but was written based on rumors and reports from people who had visited the Korean Peninsula and Japan, and its authenticity is questionable. He further recommended that "the worldview and political situation of Chen Shou be examined not only by reading the Records and its annotations in full, but also by familiarizing with the Confucian classics that form the worldview to understand it.".

The Wajinden represents the first time a comprehensive article about the Japanese archipelago has been written in the official history of China. The Dongyi treatise in the Book of the Later Han is chronologically earlier than the Wajinden, but the Wajinden was written earlier.

The book describes the existence of a country in Wa (some say later Japan) at that time, centered on the country of Yamatai, as well as the existence of countries that did not belong to the queen, with descriptions of their locations, official names, and lifestyles. This book also describes the customs, flora and fauna of the Japanese people of the time, and serves as a historical record of the Japanese archipelago in the 3rd century.

However, it is not necessarily an accurate representation of the situation of the Japanese archipelago at that time, which has been a cause of controversy regarding Yamatai

On the other hand, there are also some researchers such as Okada Hidehiro who cast doubt on the value of the Wajinden as a historical document. Okada stated that there were large discrepancies in the location and mileage and that it lacked credibility. Takaraga Hisao said, "The Wajinden is not complete, and it cannot be regarded as a contemporaneous historical material because of the lack of total consistency and the long transcription period. Although it is certain that the Book of Wei predates the Records of the Three Kingdoms, there are many errors in the surviving anecdotes. In addition, Yoshihiro Watanabe stated that the Wajinden contains "many biases (distorted descriptions) due to the internal politics and diplomacy of Cao Wei at the time when Himiko sent her envoy and the world view of the historian.

Editions

Of the printed versions of the Wajinden that have survived, the one included in the Bainaben (百衲本; "patchwork") version of the Twenty-Four Histories from the 20th century during the Republican period of China is considered the best. The edition of Records of the Three Kingdoms that forms the Bainaben version is based on a copy from the Shaoxi period (紹熙; 1190–1194) of Southern Song dynasty.