Paper short abstract:

This talk examines the various roles of Chinese characters and glossing practices in interpreting and mediating between different types of poetic language within the eclectic context of medieval commentaries on the Japanese and Chinese-style Chanting Collection (Wakan rōeishū, early 11th c).

Paper long abstract:

As new patterns of literary education took shape from the twelfth century onward, the Japanese and Chinese-style Chanting Collection (Wakan rōeishū, early 11th c.), an encyclopedic anthology containing both waka poetry and couplets from Chinese-style sources, became a focal point for poetic study. Medieval commentaries on this anthology brought together an array of approaches to explaining lines of poetry - including vernacular glossing and paraphrase, composite and contradictory citations, anecdotal storytelling, and allegoresis - into a complex interpretive space that played an important role in the organization and transmission of literary knowledge. Most early commentaries focused on the Chinese-style material in the collection, but this talk begins with an exception: the Wakan rōeishū wadanshō (1405), which included a separate set of annotations on the waka poetry. Although it is framed as a record of spoken discussion about the text, this commentary makes frequent use of 'visual' glosses that interpret the vocabulary of waka poetry in terms of how it should be written in Chinese characters, suggesting the importance of gloss-based reading and writing in introductory education and in curating a network of links between different types of poetic language. On the one hand, annotations of this type can be related to a concern throughout this commentary with the written forms of characters, their potential for visual puns and hidden meanings, and the symbolic power of historical anecdotes about character decryption; on the other, they can also be situated within a broader context of character-based 'visual' glosses in poetics texts and dictionaries. In both senses, this work provides a starting point to consider the role of written characters in constructing meaning within the particular cross-genre context of medieval commentaries on the Wakan rōeishū, a realm of interpretation with implications for many other areas of literary culture.

Paper short abstract:

After introducing Minamoto no Tamenori's pedagogical/encyclopedic project in Kuchizusami, I will show how the learning of a complex stratified cultural knowledge, expression of diversified worldviews, is also facilitated by clear examples of formulaic texts with a strong illocutionay force..

Paper long abstract:

Kuchizusami (Fun by mouth) is a primer intended for memorization, compiled by the scholar-official Minamoto no Tamenori (?-1011) for the pupil Matsuo (then known as Fujiwara no Sanenobu, 964-1001), the first son of Fujiwara no Tanemitsu (942-992). The primer classifies contemporary cultural knowledge needed by young aristocrats into nineteen categories, called kyaku, and two additional sections. Tamenori, also a well-known poet, studied under Minamoto no Shitagō (911-983), an outstanding scholars of his time, and compiled a collection of Buddhist tales, the Sanbō ekotoba (The Three Jewels. Illustrated, late 10th century), and a collection of idioms, the Sezoku genmon (Proverbs of Our Time, 1007).

Sections in Kuchizusami consist of three main types of texts: lists of words, not different from those in Shitagō's Wamyōruijushō (Classified Notes on Japanese Names, 933 ca.); poems in Japanese or Chinese; and comments by the compiler.

In this paper, after introducing Tamenori's pedagogical/encyclopedic project, as explained in the Preface, I will focus on the role of the seventeen poems (seven in Japanese and ten in Chinese) chosen by the compiler. I will show how they facilitate the learning of a complex stratified cultural knowledge, expression of diversified worldviews and expressed also through clear examples of formulaic texts with a strong illocutionay force.

In particular, I will argue how worldviews that are included and thaught in Kuchizusami are those needed for public life, but that are also concerned with the personal well-being of the learner.

Paper short abstract:

In the shômono, there are some Chinese anecdotes which are modified from originals, and I suggest that these modifications often occur in romance relationships. It is concluded that there are differences in cultures and thoughts between Japan and China on the background to this phenomenon.

Paper long abstract:

Classical Chinese culture or literature has widely influenced Japanese culture and literature. In this research, anecdotes in Chinese historical texts are focused on. A wide variety of anecdotes has been adopted into pre-modern Japanese literary works, or it has impacted on Japanese thought and culture. In this situation, however, the images of anecdotes were not as original as they had been. Japanese own contents have often introduced into adopted anecdotes. In former research, these adoptions are studied mainly based on Japanese literary works. But the import of Chinese anecdotes into Japanese literary works varies from one work to another because of their characters, therefore we cannot consider pure influence of adoption of Chinese anecdotes.

This research focuses on the shômono (the commentaries written in kana on Chinese classic books). Since the shômono is compiled for lectures, it hardly contains editors' rhetorical features. Therefore, modifications in the shômono mean that the editors of the literature consider cited anecdotes in Chinese historical texts as shown in modified versions. In this research, anecdotes in Chinese historical texts are extracted from Kôshi-Kugi (a shômono on Huang Tingjian's poems). I point out there are some anecdotes which are modified from originals, and I suggest that these modifications often occur in romance relationships. It is concluded that there are differences in cultures and thoughts between Japan and China on the background to this phenomenon.

Huang Tingjian, who was the most popular poet among Japanese cultured people in the late middle ages also as Su Shi, strongly impacted on Japanese thought and literature. Kôshi-Kugi is one such example, for the editor Lin Sôji commented on Huang Tingjian's poems by compiling former annotations or shômonos in the late middle ages. In addition, Lin Sôji, who studied Japanese and Chinese cultures while he ran Manjû (traditional Japanese confection) shop, is known as one of the most erudite scholar in the late middle ages. Consequently, it is highly significant to read Kôshi-Kugi because to study this literature is to learn about the peak of Japanese culture in the late middle ages.