国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

I discovered the origin of the quotation. Since Wang Ch'i wrote at the close of the 16th cent.,
it is clear, however, that he did not use, for the T'ang period, any source which is not available
now. Pending further investigation, I can only say that the conception by looking into a well
and the location in Manchuria suggest a connection between the tale of that north-eastern « Kingdom
of Women » in northern Manchuria and the one of the third century, though the latter was said
to lie on an island of the sea.

The « Kingdom of Women » of the 3rd cent. to the north-east of China has been connected
with modern legends among the Japanese and Ainu. A fabulous island 女 護 島 Nyōgo-no-
shima, off the coasts of Japan, was said to be peopled only by women (cf. LEMARÉCHAL, Dict. jap.-
français, 600). The main text is that of B. H. CHAMBERLAIN, Language, Mythology... of Japan,
viewed in the light of Aino studies (in Mem. of the Imp. University of Japan, No. 1 [1887], 22) :
« A story, whose Aino version is clearly an echo of the Japanese, and the Japanese of the Chinese,
is that of the 'Land of Women', or 'Isle of Women'. The main feature of it is that these women
are murderous or even cannibals, who first make love to such stray men that may be stranded on
their shore, and then destroy them after dallying with them for a season. Or else the story goes
that they become pregnant after emerging from the bath, by standing opposite to the South (the
Ainos say the East) wind. This is a very ancient Chinese fable. The popular Japanese mind
localizes it in the Southern Island of Hachijō, where, — so it is said —, the women sometimes put
sandals on the beach, the heels turned seawards. Should any fisherman land and put on a pair
of these sandals, he becomes, for the time being, the husband of her to whom they belong. It
is difficult to escape with life from the lascivious importunities of these Amazons. The Aino version
has its peculiarities, which are curious enough, but unfortunately far too indelicate for reproduction
in print. » B. PILSUDSKI, in Materials for the study of Ainu language and folklore (Cracow, 1912,
91), says that « an old man assured me that there was a whole island inhabited by women like the
one in the tale [= No. 6, p. 85]. They were, however, able to bring forth children, by exposing
themselves to the East wind, by which they became pregnant. They used to kill all their male
children, and kept only their daughters. »

In fact, neither PILSUDSKI's tale No. 6, nor No. 5, has anything to do with the « Kingdom of
Women», as was noticed by LAUFER (loc. cit., 207); but the interesting point is that, like CHAMBERLAIN,
he heard from an Ainu the tale of the exposure to the eastern wind. It can hardly be doubted, however,
that the Ainu fable is of Japanese origin, and that the Japanese are in their turn indebted to the
Chinese, as remarked by CHAMBERLAIN. It must be pointed out, moreover, that the fable, as related
by CHAMBERLAIN, is of a composite nature, and combines the features of the cannibal she-demons
or rākṣasī of Indian, Mussulman, and Chinese folklore with the conception resulting either from a
bath, as in Kuo P'o's commentary on the Shan-hai ching, in the north-western « Kingdom of
Women » of the Liang ssŭ kung-tzŭ chi and in Hui-shên's pseudo-relation (cf. infra), or from expo-
sure to the wind, as in the tale of the south-eastern « Kingdom of Women » which will be discussed
further on. It is clearly a late aggregate of various legends.

Starting from the text of the Hou-Han shu, and combining it with a passage on a « Kingdom of
Women » in the chapter devoted by Ma Tuan-lin to Ta-Ch'in or the Mediterranean Orient (cf. HIRTH,
China and the Roman Orient, 84, 200-202), LAUFER (loc. cit., 206) declared that the latter text must