Gukansho - Gukansho

This is a history book written in 1219 (Jokyu 1) by the former head priest of the Tendai sect, Jien (Jichin Osho). It is a masterpiece that is said to be one of the three great historical treatises in Japan, along with "Jinno Shotoki" (by Kitabatake Chikafusa) and "Tokushi Yoron" (by Arai Hakuseki). It consists of seven volumes, with volumes 1 and 2 containing the "Han Family Chronicles" and "Teijin Chronicles," volumes 3 to 6 explaining the political history since Emperor Jimmu, with an emphasis on the period after the Hogen Rebellion (1156). The appendix, volume 7, provides an overview of Japan's political history and discusses the political form Japan should adopt in the future and the immediate policies it should adopt.

That is to say, Jien metaphysically justified the "modern end of the world consciousness" born among the court nobility with the emergence of the samurai through the "idea of ​​Buddhist eschatology," while he metaphysically justified the traditional "regent consciousness" of the Fujiwara clan through the "idea of ​​the assistance and promise of the ancestor gods (Amaterasu Omikami, Hachiman Daibosatsu, and Ameno Koyane no Mikoto)," and built his theory of history by combining these two groups of thought. In so doing, the binder he used for connecting these two groups of thought and four historical elements was the "idea of ​​adapting to the time and place," which is the idea of ​​changing ideals to fit reality and has been deepened as an ideological tradition at Mount Hiei since the time of Dengyo Daishi Saicho. Based on these ideas, he argued that the time had come to realize the Setsuro Shogunate, which united the Sekkanke and the samurai families, as the way of the future, and criticized the policy of Emperor Gotoba and his close aides to expel the Sekkanke and to overthrow the shogunate as going against the inevitability of history and the divine will of the ancestors. He did not abandon this idea even after the Jōkyū War (1221), and continued to add to the imperial chronicles in this book.

[Ishida Kazuyoshi]

"Masao Okami and Toshihide Akamatsu's annotated commentary on the Japanese Classical Literature Series 86: Gukansho (1967, Iwanami Shoten) " "Delmer M. Brown and Ichiro Ishida: The Future and the Past; a translation and study of the Gukansho (1979, University of Calif. Press) " "Ichiro Ishida: The Establishment of Gukansho and Its Philosophy" (Tohoku University Faculty of Letters Annual Research Report vol. 17, 1966)

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

1219年（承久1）、前天台座主(ざす)大僧正慈円(じえん)（慈鎮(じちん)和尚）が著した歴史書。『神皇正統記(じんのうしょうとうき)』（北畠親房(きたばたけちかふさ)著）、『読史余論(とくしよろん)』（新井白石(あらいはくせき)著）とともに、わが国の三大史論書といわれている名著である。7巻からなり、巻1～2に「漢家年代」「皇帝年代記」を置き、巻3～6で保元(ほうげん)の乱（1156）以後に重きを置いた神武(じんむ)天皇以来の政治史を説き、付録の巻7では、日本の政治史を概観して、今後の日本がとるべき政治形体と当面の政策を論じている。

　すなわち、慈円は、一方では武士の出現によって宮廷貴族の間に生まれた「近代末世の意識」を「仏教の終末論の思想」によって形而上(けいじじょう)学的に根拠づけ、一方では藤原氏の伝統的な「摂関家意識」を「祖神（天照大神(あまてらすおおみかみ)・八幡大菩薩(はちまんだいぼさつ)と天児屋命(あめのこやねのみこと)）の冥助(みょうじょ)・冥約の思想」によって形而上学的に根拠づけ、この両方の思想群を結合して彼の史論を構築した。その際、彼がこれら2組、四つの思想史的要素の接合剤としたのは、理想を現実にあわせて変化させるという、伝教(でんぎょう)大師最澄(さいちょう)以来比叡山(ひえいざん)の思想的伝統となって深化してきた「時処機(ときところひと)相応の思想」であった。こうした思想をよりどころとして、いまは摂関家と武家を一つにした摂籙(せつろく)将軍制が、末代の道理として必然的に実現されるべき時であると論じ、後鳥羽院(ごとばいん)とその近臣による摂関家排斥の政策と幕府討伐の計画は歴史の必然、祖神の冥慮(みょうりょ)に背くものと非難した。彼は承久(じょうきゅう)の乱（1221）ののちもこの考えを捨てず、この書の皇帝年代記に筆を加え続けているのである。

［石田一良］

『岡見正雄・赤松俊秀校注『日本古典文学大系86　愚管抄』（1967・岩波書店）』▽『Delmer M. Brown and Ichiro IshidaThe Future and the Past；a translation and study of the Gukansho (1979, Univ. of Calif. Press)』▽『石田一良「『愚管抄』の成立とその思想」（『東北大学文学部研究年報』17所収・1966）』

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