不被下候: When was it common, and what were the rules?


In [a shrine graffito](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File%3aShochu-
rakugaki.jpg) written in 1559, two carpenters complain:

> 其時座主ハ大キナコスデオチヤリテ一度モ焼酎ヲ不被下候  
>  'At that time, the high priest (stingy bugger!) gave us not even a drop of
> shochu to drink.'

The form of the main verb `不被下候` includes `不` (negation) and `被`
(passivisation), followed by the verb with `そうろう`. Thus, `くだされずそうろう` "(we)
were not given". The order of the morphemes as is pronounced is inverted from
the order as is written.

Meanwhile, a shochu manufacturer has a product
[不被下候](http://www.sakasho.com/hp-kudasarazusouro.html) in reference to this
legendary act. They give the reading `くださらずそうろう`.

  * When was it common to write in this manner?
  * In what other ways was Japanese verbal morphology mapped onto kanji in this way?
  * Which of the readings くださらずそうろう and くだされずそうろう is correct?




As sawa and Gradius say, this is part of the kundoku tradition, but I feel
that this particular example is more usefully identified as [sōrō
bun](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%80%99%E6%96%87), which is a Medieval-
through-Modern phenomenon and has a couple of distinguishing characteristics,
most notably:

  * Use of sōrō 候 at the end of sentences (hence the name of the style)

  * Use of Japanese rather than Chinese word order, with the exception of certain multi-character groups like 不被下候 (verbs were particularly prone to this because Japanese verb morphology is synthetic; to express "(verb) + passive/honorific + not + polite" you need four different Chinese characters. So this sort of multi-character group was written in Chinese order due to the influence of kanbun, but it was read as a purely Japanese verb (that is, its meaning was interpreted as a gestalt, and a Japanese "reading" was assigned).

Re your last question, I would certainly expect /kudasarezu/ rather than
/kudasarazu/ for 不被下, but I'm not confident enough in my understanding of the
ins and outs of sōrō bun to declare the latter "incorrect".




As sawa and Gradius say, this is part of the kundoku tradition, but I feel
that this particular example is more usefully identified as [sōrō
bun](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%80%99%E6%96%87), which is a Medieval-
through-Modern phenomenon and has a couple of distinguishing characteristics,
most notably:

  * Use of sōrō 候 at the end of sentences (hence the name of the style)

  * Use of Japanese rather than Chinese word order, with the exception of certain multi-character groups like 不被下候 (verbs were particularly prone to this because Japanese verb morphology is synthetic; to express "(verb) + passive/honorific + not + polite" you need four different Chinese characters. So this sort of multi-character group was written in Chinese order due to the influence of kanbun, but it was read as a purely Japanese verb (that is, its meaning was interpreted as a gestalt, and a Japanese "reading" was assigned).

Re your last question, I would certainly expect /kudasarezu/ rather than
/kudasarazu/ for 不被下, but I'm not confident enough in my understanding of the
ins and outs of sōrō bun to declare the latter "incorrect".

