The Edicts of the Last Empress, 749-770: A Translation from Shoku Nihongi

This is a study and translation of the Imperial Edicts in Shoku Nihongi (Chronicles of Japan, Continued) from the years 749-770, the reign of the Last Empress of Nara Japan, Kōken/Shōtoku Tennō. These edicts, known as Senmyō, were inscribed in Old Japanese while the narrative of the chronicle was classical Chinese. The Empress Kōken, also known in the latter part of her reign as Empress Shōtoku, was the daughter of the great Buddhist Emperor Shōmu. After he abdicated, she took the throne and eventually took Buddhist holy orders. Yet in her edicts she wrestled with the problems of combining Shinto traditions of divine sovereignty with Buddhist doctrines of divine protection of the state, and also classical Chinese ideas about proper governance. She was the last in a series of six ancient female sovereigns who ruled Japan from the years 592 to 770, interspersed with male rulers. After her death, no more women held the throne until the 18th century. As a powerful woman ruler, she fought off almost continual challenges to her power from male nobles, including conspiracies and outright rebellions. During her reign the Great Buddha statue (Daibutsu) in the Great Eastern Temple (Tōdaiji) in Nara was dedicated. She founded the Great Western Temple (Saidaiji in the western part of the capital. Toward the end of her reign her advisor, the Buddhist monk Dōkyō, attempted to make himself emperor, but she sought an oracle from the Shinto shrine of Hachiman in distant Kyushu to resolve the matter. Hachiman decreed that only those of imperial blood could become emperors. In the edicts the Emperors and Empresses proclaimed themselves "Manifest Gods (Akitsumikami)" and the texts are important evidence not only for Shinto in ancient Japan, but also its relation to Buddhism and Chinese thought. This volume includes a translation of Senmyō #12-#47, along with the original kanji text and a transliteration into Romanized Japanese.

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