Cheng Hsuan 鄭玄 (127-200 A.D.), a famous Confucian scholar in China, following the Wei-shu 緯書, advanced a theory which is called Wu-ching Kan-sheng Shuo 五精感生説 ; namely, that Wu-ti 五帝 mentioned in Chou-li 周礼 live on the five stars of T'ai-wei 大微 and together send down semen in order to have someone bear the ancestors of the kings. It is known that this Wu-ching Kan-sheng Shuo has had a great influence on Chiao-ssu 郊祀, one of the most important national religious rites in China up to the beginning of the 20th century. However, it seems that so far no scholar has carefully compared this theory with the institutions of the actual rite in the Hou-han 後漢 period. The present article, in the 1st chapter, tries to clarify how Cheng Hsuan prescribes for the performance of the rite of Kan-sheng-ti 感生帝 in his annotations (注) to the Confucian scriptures (経典). Chapter two verifies that the results of the survey in the 1st chapter are closely connected with the actual institutions of Ming-t'ang Tsung-hsiang 明堂総饗, which might have been regulated by the authorities as a part of Chiao-ssu in the Hou-han period. Chapter three considers the import of Kan-sheng-ti. In conclusion, the author advances a new view that because it is supposed that Cheng Hsuan intended to dignify Ming-t'ang Tsung-hsiang by naming "Yuan-ch'iu Ssu-t'ien" (圜丘祀天), a verse of Chou-li Ch'un-kuan Ta-ssu-yueh 周礼春官大司楽, and also because in the Hou-han period in the ceremony of Ming-t'ang Tsung-hsiang, Kuang-wu-ti 光武帝, the founder of the Hou-han dynasty, was worshipped as well as Wu-ti, it may be ascertained that Cheng Hsuan, by naming "Yuan-ch'iu Ssu-t'ien" as an authentic precedent of Ming-t'ang Tsung-hsiang, mystified the birth of Kuang-wu-ti. Cheng Hsuan, by doing so, probably created notions of the emperor's sacredness and inviolability in order to place great emphasis on absolute authority of the Hou-han dynasty. Therefore, a view comes to the forefront that Cheng Hsuan might have schemed to promote the authority of religious rites of the Hou-han which originally had no authentic precedents in Ku-wen 古文 and / or Chin-wen 今文 by mixing Ku-wen and Chin-wen and also by adding the Han's religious rites in his annotations. Thus, it is the opinion of the author that a certain "common sense" prevailed in the academic Communities of Japan and China regarding to the various materials of the Han history including culture and institutions which are seen in Cheng Hsuan's annotations ; i.e. that 'Cheng Hsuan drew inferences from the existing conditions' might be gradually broken down and corrected in the future, when scholars release themselves from the fixed idea that Cheng Hsuan's annotations should be understood as faithful annotations to Confucian scripture.

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This paper covers empirical studies done on the configurations those referred to as in the three districts of Kaga, Noto and Ecchu in the Hokuriku region during Japan's early modern period. ATAMAFURI generally indicates poor peasants in Kaga-han,who made their living by renting land or by day labour and odd-jobs. However, the author shows that this generalization has been made only from the ruling class' viewpoint. In the Kan-ei era (1624-1644), Kaga-han built a political strategy to divide peasants into two groups: those who held land, and ATAMAFURI who were landless tenant farmers or poor odd-jobs workers. Therefore, the post towns and mountain/fishing villages where ATAMAFURI resided were considered as impoverished villages without arable land. Detailed case studies on the involvement of ATAMAFURI and the social organization of the villages in the area of the inner Noto has uncovered the fact that the ruling class' viewpoint is quite different from reality. The inner Noto area containing seaside villages inhabited by ATAMAFURI were not impoverished communities, but rather had urbanized features. For instance, Kawai-machi, Fugeshi-machimura, Wajima, where 71 percent of the community people consisted of ATAMAFURI had developed as the center port of the sea area a-long the Japan Sea since the medieval period, and had influential shipping interests. Fortunes were accumulated through Various occupations such as fishing and salt making shipping, commerce and industry not only in Wajima but also in almost all the villages occupied by large ATAMAFURI populations. They as leaders of the non-agricultural sectors furthered the growth of the urban sector of society. This fact is confirmed empirically in the case of Tokikuni-mura. A shipping agent in Tokikuni-mura under the name of Shibakusa-ya had, in spite of being an ATAMAFURI, many servants to run his business operating large ships in a wide area. As the financier he was as wealthy as the key families of the region. Not only many shipping interests, but some financiers, malt makers, sake brewers and salt manufacturers were included among the atamafuri the inhabitants of Tokikuni-mura. ATAMAFURI is therefore only a local term to identify landless peasants in some districts, but such peasants wers also, categorized as mizunomi as is generally known. It will be possible to make major alterations to the existing historical understanding of this class as well if there can be found any MIZUNOMI who engaged in non-agriculture fields and became wealthy like the cases of ATAMAFURI.

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