Hakuchi (era)
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Hakuchi (白雉) was a Japanese era name (年号, nengō, lit. "year name") after the Taika era and before Shuchō. This period spanned the years from February 650 through December 654.[1] The reigning emperor was Kōtoku-tennō (孝徳天皇).[2]
History
The era began in 650, the sixth year of the nengō to be changed to Hakuchi (meaning "white pheasant").[4]
In Japan, this was the second
nianhao);[5] although some scholarly doubt has been cast on the authenticity of Taika and Hakuchi as historically legitimate era names.[6]
Timeline
| Timelines of early Imperial reign dates
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The system of Japanese era names was not the same as
Imperial reign dates
.
Events of the Hakuchi era
- 650 (Hakuchi 1): Kōtoku commanded that all prisoners were to be granted liberty throughout the country.[4]
- 654 (Hakuchi 5, 1st month): A great number of rats moved into the province of Yamato; and this was construed as a sign that the capital should be moved.[3]
- 654 (Hakuchi 5): Kōtoku died at the age of 59 after a reign of 10 years—five years during Taika, and five years during Hakuchi.[7]
Notes
- ^ a b Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Hakuchi" in Japan Encyclopedia, p. 280, p. 280, at Google Books; n.b., Louis-Frédéric is pseudonym of Louis-Frédéric Nussbaum, see Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Authority File Archived 2012-05-24 at archive.today.
- ^ Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). Annales des empereurs du japon, pp. 47-50., p. 47, at Google Books
- ^ a b Brown, Delmer et al.. (1979). Gukanshō, p. 267.
- ^ a b Titsingh, p. 49.
- ^ Nussbaum, "Taika" at p. 924, p. 9247, at Google Books
- ^ Bialock, David T. (2007). Eccentric Spaces, Hidden Histories: Narrative, Ritual, and Royal Authority from the Chronicles of Japan to the Tale of the Heike, pp. 56–57, p. 56, at Google Books; excerpt at p. 57, "Whether the era name of Taika and Hakuchi are viewed as evidence of an actual precedent set by Kōtoku or as the work of chroniclers belonging to a later reign around the time of Nihon Shoki's editing, the practice of assigning era names inaugurated a new phase in the consolidation of the court's expanding political power."
- ^ Varley, H. Paul. (1980). Jinnō Shōtōki, p. 133; Titsingh, p. 50.
References
- Bialock, David T. (2007). Eccentric Spaces, Hidden Histories: Narrative, Ritual, and Royal Authority from the Chronicles of Japan to the Tale of the Heike. Stanford: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0804751587; OCLC 237216457
- Brown, Delmer M. and Ichirō Ishida, eds. (1979). Gukanshō: The Future and the Past. Berkeley: University of California Press.
- Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005). Japan encyclopedia. Cambridge:
- Nihon Odai Ichiran; ou, Annales des empereurs du Japon. Paris: Royal Asiatic Society, Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland. OCLC 5850691
- ISBN 9780231049405; OCLC 6042764
External links
- National Diet Library, "The Japanese Calendar" -- historical overview plus illustrative images from library's collection