Gansho - Gansho

A letter. During the reign of Emperor Zhao of the Han Dynasty in China, the Xiongnu made a peace agreement with the Han, but captured the Han's envoy Su Wu and refused to let him go, insisting that he was dead. So the emperor negotiated with the Xiongnu by falsely claiming that a silk cloth containing a letter announcing that Wu was alive had been tied to the leg of a wild goose he had shot down in a garden, and Su Wu was finally able to return home, according to a story in the "Biography of Su Wu" in the Book of Han. It is also called gansatsu, ganshin, ganbaku, and in Japanese it is called kari no tamazusa or kari no tsumari.

[Yoshiyuki Tadokoro]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

手紙のこと。中国漢の昭帝のとき、匈奴(きょうど)は漢と和睦(わぼく)を結んだが、漢の使者蘇武(そぶ)を捕らえ、武は死んだと言い張って帰さなかった。そこで帝は、庭園で射落とした雁（ガン）の足に、武の生存を伝える手紙を収めた帛(はく)（絹布）が結んであったと詐(いつわ)って、匈奴と交渉し、ついに蘇武は帰国することができた、と伝える『漢書(かんじょ)』「蘇武伝」の故事による。雁札(がんさつ)、雁信、雁帛などともいい、和語でも「かりのたまずさ」「かりの便り」などという。

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