天下無双 tenka musō Without Equal Under Heaven
Said in three lives of the Shiji, each time of another, and each time the story puts it to the test.
Abstract
天下無双 tenka musō, peerless, without equal in all the world, is defined in デジタル大辞泉 as 天下に並ぶものがないこと, having nothing in the world to stand beside it, and read てんかむそう, in older use also てんかぶそう [1][2]. The 精選版 日本国語大辞典 lists the Shiji 史記's life of the general Li Guang as a Chinese text that uses it [1], and the Shiji, of which a first draft is thought finished about 91 BCE in the 日本大百科全書, uses it in three of its lives in the Wikisource text: of a white fox-fur robe a lord had already given away and then had to have stolen back, of a prince whom his brother-in-law had at first heard called peerless and then called a reckless man, and of Li Guang, of whom an official, Gongsun Kunye, said it in tears, fearing he would be lost, before the emperor moved him to another governorship [3][4][5][6][7]. Its first Japanese instance in that dictionary, read here at the page of a 1915 printing, is the court diary Chūyūki 中右記 for 1106, of the robes the court ladies put on display: 過差美麗天下無雙, extravagant, of a beauty without equal in the realm, in a clause the diarist ends 云々, it is said [8][1]. In every source quoted here where the speaker and the one spoken of can be told apart, the phrase is said of someone or something other than the speaker, and in the Shiji the story then tests it, so I read it as a large word that one person gives another and that asks to be lived up to.
Overview
The sense. デジタル大辞泉 defines 天下無双 as 天下に並ぶものがないこと, with the example 天下無双の剣士, a swordsman without equal; the 精選版 日本国語大辞典 as 天下第一で、並ぶもののないこと。また、そのさま, first in the world, with nothing to stand beside it; or such a state; JMdict gives peerless; unequaled [1][2]. It is a noun that also works as an adjective (形動 in 日国; adj-na and adj-no in JMdict), so one says 天下無双の剣士 [1][2].
The words. 天下 in its first sense in デジタル大辞泉 is 天が覆っている全世界, the whole world that heaven covers, and in the 精選版 日本国語大辞典 天の下の意, what lies under heaven; without equal under heaven renders the characters, in all the world the sense [9]. 無双 is 二つとないこと。並ぶものがないほどすぐれていること, there being no second; being so excellent that nothing stands beside it, in デジタル大辞泉, which reads it むそう and also ぶそう; 日国 cites the Zhuangzi's chapter on Robber Zhi among its other texts for it [10]. 双 is 二つ, two, a pair, and in 無双 二つならぶ, two standing side by side: 無双 is nothing to make a pair with it [11]. 雙 is the older form of the same character, the one デジタル大辞泉 gives in brackets beside 双 and the 字通 as its 旧字; the Wikisource text of the Shiji, the 1915 printing of the Chūyūki and the 1896 dictionary below all write 雙 [11][3][8][12].
The reading. デジタル大辞泉 heads the word てんか‐むそう and adds 古くは「てんかぶそう」とも, in older use also tenka busō; 日国 enters both, its first instance for てんかぶそう being the Amakusa Aesop of 1593, written in Roman letters tenca busǒ, and its first for むそう in the word 無双 the 信心録 (ヒイデスの導師) of 1592, musǒ [1][10]. In 1896 a Japanese-English dictionary entered both readings, each marked as a Chinese word and each with a 天下 example [12]. Today's form is tenka musō.
The text in English. Burton Watson renders the Shiji's line on Li Guang There is no one in the empire to match Li Guang for skill and spirit [6]. The 1896 dictionary of Brinkley, Nanjō and Iwasaki gives, under busō, Tenka busō no shi, a gentleman whose equal is found nowhere in the world, and under musō, Tenka musō no yūshi, a soldier who finds no equal in the world for bravery; a matchless warrior [12].
The historical record
The word 無双 in the Zhuangzi. 無双 alone, without 天下, is a word of its own, and 日国 cites the Zhuangzi 莊子's chapter on Robber Zhi for it among its other texts [10]. There Confucius tells the robber that of the world's three virtues the highest is 生而長大，美好无雙, to be born tall and handsome beyond compare, so that young and old, high and low, all who see him delight in him [13]. This history dates neither the chapter nor its order against the Shiji.
About 91 BCE. The Shiji, in three lives. Sima Qian's history, of which the 日本大百科全書 says that a first draft is thought to have been finished 前91年ごろ, about 91 BCE, and the 百科事典マイペディア that it 前91年ごろ完成したとみられる, is thought to have been finished about 91 BCE [5], uses the four characters in three lives: a full-text search of the Shiji at Wikisource for 天下無雙 returns those three chapters and no others [3][4][7]. It is the earliest text in which this history has read the phrase; a fuller search of the Chinese canon is beyond this history's reach. The English of chapters 75 and 77 below is mine.
- The fox-fur robe (chapter 75, the life of Lord Mengchang 孟嘗君, who died in 279 BCE in デジタル大辞泉 [14]). Held in Qin by King Zhao, who plans to kill him, Lord Mengchang sends to the king's favorite to plead for him, and she names her price, his white fox-fur robe; but 此時孟嘗君有一狐白裘，直千金，天下無雙，入秦獻之昭王，更無他裘, at that time Lord Mengchang had one white fox-fur robe, worth a thousand pieces of gold and without equal in the world; on entering Qin he had presented it to King Zhao, and there was no other robe [3]. The lowest of his retainers, a thief, steals it back from the king's storehouse by night; the favorite pleads; the lord is freed, and at the frontier pass at midnight, where the law opens the gate at cock-crow, another retainer crows like a cock and the gate opens [3]. There was only one such robe, and it had already been given away.
- The prince (chapter 77, the life of the Prince of Wei, Lord Xinling 信陵君, who died in 243 BCE in デジタル大辞泉 and 日国 [15]). The prince seeks out two men living hidden, one among gamblers and one in a broth seller's house, and goes about with them; Lord Pingyuan says to his wife, the prince's sister, what he had heard and what he now hears: 始吾聞夫人弟公子天下無雙，今吾聞之，乃妄從博徒賣漿者游，公子妄人耳, at first I heard that your brother the prince was without equal in the world; now I hear he goes about recklessly with gamblers and broth sellers. The prince is a reckless man [4]. The prince answers that he had heard of these two as worthy men, and that Lord Pingyuan's hospitality was only show and not a search for worthy men; Lord Pingyuan apologizes, and when his retainers hear of it, 半去平原君歸公子, half of them left Lord Pingyuan and went over to the prince [4]. The praise he had heard he now takes back, and the event bears it out.
- The general (chapter 109, the life of General Li Guang 李廣). Gongsun Kunye, director of dependent states in Watson's rendering, in tears before the emperor, says 李廣才氣，天下無雙，自負其能，數與虜敵戰，恐亡之, and the emperor moves Li Guang to a governorship [7]. Watson: "There is no one in the empire to match Li Guang for skill and spirit and yet, trusting to his own ability, he repeatedly engages the enemy in battle. I am afraid one day we will lose him!" The emperor therefore transferred him to the post of governor of Shang Province [6]. The sentence that calls him peerless goes on to the reason to fear for him: trusting his own ability, he keeps engaging the enemy.
1106. The Chūyūki. The diary of Fujiwara no Munetada 藤原宗忠, which runs from 1087 to 1138 in デジタル大辞泉 [16], is the first Japanese instance 日国 gives for 天下無双, quoting 女房等毎日打出過差、美麗天下無双 under 嘉承元年（1106）七月五日 [1]. In the 1915 printing of the diary, read at the page, the entry for the fifth day tells of the retired emperor's return from the Ōi palace to the Toba palace, and reads [8]:
女房等毎日打出過差美麗天下無雙云々、上皇以御船渡御、是依密儀不及廣、仍不能參入、不見子細
The ladies' robes put out each day were extravagant and of a beauty without equal in the realm, it is said. The retired emperor crossed by boat. As this was a private occasion it went no wider, so I could not attend and did not see the details. 打出 is a word 日国 gives as 打出の衣, the sleeves and skirts of court ladies' costumes pushed out from beneath the blinds or curtains (簾, 几帳) of a hall or carriage to adorn a formal occasion [17]. 過差 is 度を過ごすこと。度を越して華美であったり、ぜいたくであったりすること, going past the measure; being showy or extravagant beyond the measure, and 日国's first instance for it, from 953, is 件事似過差、可停止, this looks like excess and should be stopped [18]. 日国's first Japanese 天下無双 praises a display that the same clause calls excessive, and the clause ends 云々, it is said; the entry goes on that the retired emperor crossed by boat, privately, so the diarist could not attend and did not see the details [8].
1468 to 1593. In Japanese prose. 日国 quotes the ひとり言 (1468) on 音阿彌, On'ami (1398–1467), a lead actor of the Kanze troupe of Yamato sarugaku and its third head in the 改訂新版 世界大百科事典 [19]: 音阿彌は、近くは天下無双の者なり, of late, On'ami was the one without equal [1]. For the reading てんかぶそう it quotes the Amakusa Aesop (1593), from its life of Aesop: ミニクイコト tenca (テンカ) busǒde (ブサウデ) アッタ ゴトク, as the ugliness was without equal in the world [1]. There the phrase is said of an ugliness.
1896. A Japanese-English dictionary. Brinkley, Nanjō and Iwasaki enter 無雙 twice, as busō (p. 101) and musō (p. 976), both marked as Chinese words, with Tenka busō no shi, a gentleman whose equal is found nowhere in the world, and Tenka musō no yūshi, a matchless warrior [12].
1940 and today. The 四字熟語を知る辞典 quotes 萩原朔太郎 in 1940, in a piece titled 名前の話: 天下無双の天才人や英雄人の相であり幸運第一の出世人となるのだそうだが, it is the mark of a genius or hero without equal in the world, and one will rise as the luckiest of men, so they say [1]. デジタル大辞泉's example today is 天下無双の剣士, and it notes that 無双 alone has a slang use, 俗に「無双する」の形で、非常に強い者が一人勝ちをする意, colloquially, in the form musō suru, a very strong one winning alone [1][10].
A reading
天下無双 says how far: nothing in the world makes a pair with it. The sources quoted here set that measure on a fur robe, a prince, a general, court robes, an actor, and once on an ugliness [3][4][7][8][1]. In each where the speaker and the one spoken of can be told apart, it is said of someone or something other than the speaker. And in the Shiji, which gives the phrase its three oldest uses that I have read, the story that follows tests it every time: the peerless robe is gone and has to be stolen back; the prince Lord Pingyuan had heard called peerless he now calls a reckless man, and his own retainers leave him for the prince; the peerless general is the one Gongsun Kunye weeps for, because he will not stop fighting [3][4][7][6]. In the first Japanese instance the peerless beauty is, in the same breath, 過差, excess [8][18]. So I read the phrase as praise that carries its own test. Given to someone, it says what the giver sees in them; taken as one's own standard, it says what one must answer to. Signed, 典.
Notes
双 and 雙. One character in two forms; 雙 is the older, 双 the form in common use today [11]. The scroll's text is written 天下無双, the form the dictionaries head [1][2]; the older printings quoted here write 雙 [3][8][12].
The 1106 line, as punctuated. 日国 quotes it as 打出過差、美麗天下無双, with a comma after 過差; the 1915 printing runs the characters together [1][8]. Read with the comma, 過差 and 美麗 are two things said of the ladies' 打出; read without it, one; either way both stand in the one clause.
Li Guang's line in Watson. Watson's note on the same page says that a short stretch of the Chinese text after this passage has been moved later in his translation, following the History of the Former Han; the passage itself is as quoted [6].
The count of three. It counts chapters. The Wikisource text of chapter 109 carries 天下無雙 a second time, in the verse of praise printed after the chapter under the heading 索隱述贊: 惜哉名將，天下無雙, alas for a famous general, without equal in the world; that is a verse appended to the chapter, not a speaker inside the story [7].
Chinese names are given in pinyin, the romanization Watson uses [6].
Japanese Scrolls by Master Calligrapher Eri Takase
References
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- JMdict (EDRDG), entry 1438530, 天下無双, at jisho.org. https://jisho.org/word/%E5%A4%A9%E4%B8%8B%E7%84%A1%E5%8F%8C
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- F. Brinkley, F. Nanjō and Y. Iwasaki, An Unabridged Japanese-English Dictionary, with Copious Illustrations, Sanseidō, Tokyo, 1896 (the year from the Internet Archive's record; the title page carries none), p. 101 (Busō) and p. 976 (Musō), read on the house's shelf; the scan at the Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/cu31924082117288
- 『莊子』 雜篇 盜跖, at Wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E8%8E%8A%E5%AD%90/%E7%9B%9C%E8%B7%96
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- 「打出の衣」, 精選版 日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E6%89%93%E5%87%BA%E3%81%AE%E8%A1%A3-2010869
- 「過差」, 精選版 日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E9%81%8E%E5%B7%AE-461536
- 「音阿弥」, デジタル大辞泉 and 改訂新版 世界大百科事典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E9%9F%B3%E9%98%BF%E5%BC%A5-41818