Zuǒ jì 左記
The Left-Side Record by 守覺親王 (撰)
About the work
A single-fascicle historical-elegiac reflection by Shukaku Shinnō 守覺親王 (1150–1202), composed in the years immediately following the Genpei War 源平合戰 (1180–1185). Together with KR6t0197 Yòu jì and KR6t0199 Yù jì, it forms the personal trilogy of the great Ninnaji imperial-prince-monk. Where the Right-Side Record is moral-disciplinary, the Left-Side Record is historical-elegiac: it laments the fall of the Taira and the death of the young Emperor Antoku 安徳天皇 (1178–1185), whom Shukaku had personally served.
Abstract
Authorship and dating: the composition can be dated with some precision to the years immediately following Antoku’s death at the Battle of Dan-no-ura (3rd month, 24th day of Genryaku 2 / Bunji 1 = April 25, 1185). Internal evidence — the work refers to the recent war (“these past four or five years”) — sets notBefore = 1185, notAfter = 1202. A copyist’s colophon attributes the Left-Side Record to the same Ryūchū-transmission that preserved the Right-Side Record; the Edo-period transmission goes through Keichō 12 (1607) by Kyōi 恭畏 of the Ono branch.
Doctrinal content: the work opens with a poignant lament for the recent war and the disruption of the imperial order:
In these past four or five years, lord and vassal have lost harmony, and from above and below disorder has arisen. From this cause the country knows the lament of a doomed land and lacks the easy thoughts of a well-governed age. From the eastern barrier the clouds-outside crow-flock host has all gathered upon the autumn frost; from the waves of the western sea the fish-scale formations have all contended at the dawning moon. Blood has washed the roads, corpses have filled the lanes; how many tens of thousands have become souls weeping at ghost-tombs, or scale-corpses sunk in the waters — we cannot know. The Taira clan, who were once vassals of the matrilateral relatives, had their flowering glory upon their head; the Minamoto house, who are now generals of fortified citadels, have planted willows that gain at the tail. The former embracing fulness inevitably overflows; the latter gathering of constriction also realizes its fate. The pattern of waxing-and-waning rising-and-sinking — what but the lament of the Conditioned-Impermanent! From self-observing-mind comes record: there is none who does not shed tears and pull the heart in two.
He proceeds to record the death of the Cloistered Emperor’s son (=Antoku): “Regarding the former emperor’s affair, wishing to release the threads of remembrance, I now finally take up the brush and say:” He recounts that he had performed offerings on Antoku’s behalf at Chōraku-ji Shōnin (長樂寺聖人), and that beneath the Buddha-altar a strange box was found containing a single layer of the emperor’s robe (御衣). Inquiry revealed: “From the time of his obi-tying as a child through his enthronement, prayers and rites had been performed [for him] morning and evening, never interrupted, never forgotten in sleep or waking; even from his very first empowerment, this was the long-standing devotional commitment. After the imperial removal from the capital, even though we performed offerings for his return-journey, his imperial destiny had already exhausted itself, and the Buddha-power could not reach. At this time the emperor especially understood [his fate].” The text closes with grief at seeing the imperial robe itself.
The work is one of the most personal contemporary records of the Genpei War as experienced from within the imperial-Buddhist establishment and is a key document of late-Heian elegiac historiography.
Translations and research
- No complete Western-language translation located.
- The Genpei War as reflected in imperial-Buddhist circles is treated in Brian Ruppert, Jewel in the Ashes (2000), and Mikael Adolphson, The Gates of Power (2000). The literary aspect of Shukaku’s elegiac prose deserves more attention.