So-mei and the Bemin System : The Structure of Personal Rule in Yamato Government

Abstract

The word so-mei 祖名 (or oya-no-na ; the name of one's ancestor) appears here and there in the Shoku-Nihon-Gi's "Senmyo" 続日本紀宣名 and the Man'syoshu 万葉集. The preceding research holds that so-mei means the magical souls of the legendary ancestors of each uji 氏, or their consciousness of norms and prestige based on their traditional service (tsukasa ツカサ) to generations of kings. Before Taika 大化 era, so-mei contained the idea of the possession of shinabe 品部. A centralized kingship ideology, that the possession of shinabe was subordinate to tsukasa, has been assumed, leading to the conclusion that so-mei is an idea expressing uji dependency on royal authority. However, an essential feature of the bemin 部民 system is control based on the direct mutual personal relationship among human groups. Therefore, the function of so-mei in bemin system must be related to the direct influence upon human groups under the control of each uji, regardless of dependency on the royal authority. Consequently, the idea of so-mei (or its origin na 名 ; Name) should be elucidated as an idea about the relationship of the rulers and ruled in the bemin system. This article first reexamines the expression na-wo-tatsu 名を立つ (obtain a name) in the Man'yoshu, and refutes understanding that so-mei meant prestige based on accomplishing duties given by the Emperor. The principal function of na is to determine the relation of the speaker and the spoken about. As many people related the stories about na from generation to generation, it began to create the authority of who spoke about and change the relationship from the speaker and the spoken about to that of the ruler and the ruled. Secondly, the author examines the expression koyo-no-akumei 後葉の悪名 (or nochi-no-yo-no-ashiki-na ; a bad name in later ages) in the Nihon-Shoki 日本書紀, the idea of no participating in the rise and fall of each uji or its occupation in the government. The stories about na, which become oral tradition and genealogy, produced self-consciousness among people at each level ; i. e, the ruler uji and the ruled shinobe, thus arranging human groups in a ruling order under the na ; i. e, o-mei 王名 (or kimi-no-na ; the name of the king) and so-mei. Thus, under such superficial ideology, it was the idea of na that operated to stratify and decentralize the ruling order of each uji. under the bemin system.