39-555: The Tale of Hōgen ( 保元物語 , Hōgen monogatari ) is a Japanese war chronicle or military tale ( gunki monogatari ) which relates the events and prominent figures of the Hōgen Rebellion . This literary and historical classic is believed to have been completed in the Kamakura period ca. 1320. Its author or authors remain unknown. The events which are recounted in the Hōgen story become
78-580: A "perfectly frozen, ' dead ' " language that was continuously used from the late Heian period (794–1185) until after World War II: Classical Chinese, which, as we have seen, had long since ceased to be a spoken language on the mainland (if indeed it had ever been), has been in use in the Japanese archipelago longer than the Japanese language itself. The oldest written remnants found in Japan are all in Chinese, though it
117-465: A genre of techniques for making Chinese texts read like Japanese, or for writing in a way imitative of Chinese. For a Japanese, neither of these tasks could be accomplished easily because of the two languages' different structures. As I have mentioned, Chinese is an isolating language . Its grammatical relations are identified in subject–verb–object (SVO) order and through the use of particles similar to English prepositions . Inflection plays no role in
156-453: A kind of lazy schoolboy's trot to a classical text; at its best, it has preserved the analysis and interpretation of large body of literary Chinese texts which would otherwise have been completely lost; hence, the kanbun tradition can often be of great value for an understanding of early Chinese literature. William C. Hannas points out the linguistic hurdles involved in kanbun transformation. Kanbun , literally "Chinese writing," refers to
195-418: A number of complementary strategies for capturing, preserving and disseminating the essential elements of their commonly accepted national history – chronicles of sovereigns and events, biographies of eminent persons and personalities, and the military tale or gunki monogatari . This last form evolved from an interest in recording the activities of military conflicts in the late 12th century. The major battles,
234-505: A prelude to the story which unfolds in Tale of Heiji . As in the Heiji story, multi-level and inter-related rivalries lead to war; and the main characters are presented in traditional status order: Emperors and former Emperors first, Fujiwara ministers second, and Minamoto clan warriors third. As in the Heiji story, the narrative structure is divided in three segments: The Japanese have developed
273-515: A ritual component, as they were thought to restore order to society and pacify the angry souls of warriors killed in battle, but they also functioned as wayside entertainment. Historically, warrior tales have achieved much acclaim through their recitations accompanied by the lute, hence leading to the widespread misconception that gunki Monogatari were originally written for the exclusive purpose of memorization and recitation. However, comparisons of carefully preserved original manuscripts reveal that
312-450: A speech which included not merely his personal name and title, but also his familial connections and accomplishments. The gunki monogatari puts a great deal of emphasis on the warrior ethic . This moral system includes, first of all, loyalty to one's lord and being valiant in the face of certain death. This is manifest in the self-sacrificial spirit of Heike Monogatari's Sanemori , who despite his age, repeatedly turns back to engage
351-535: Is a category of Japanese literature written primarily in the Kamakura and Muromachi periods that focus on wars and conflicts, especially the civil wars that took place between 1156 and 1568. Examples of this genre include the Hōgen Monogatari and the Heiji Monogatari . The most well known gunki monogatari is Heike Monogatari . Unlike their Heian counterparts such as Genji Monogatari , many of
390-420: Is a matter of considerable debate whether traces of the Japanese vernacular are to be found in them. Taking both languages together until the end of the nineteenth century, and taking into account all the monastic documents, literature in the widest sense of the term, and texts in 'near-Chinese' ( hentai-kanbun ), it is entirely possible that the sheer volume of texts written in Chinese in Japan slightly exceed what
429-507: Is a result of the text's oral transmission. The battle scenes themselves also reflect a connection with oral practices. For example, if we examine different versions of the Heike monogatari , we can see that earlier versions, such as the Shibu kassenjō , included only a general description of the battle itself, while later versions include individual warrior's actions. Furthermore, the later tales transform
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#1732858798583468-537: Is a system for writing Literary Chinese used in Japan from the Nara period until the 20th century. Much of Japanese literature was written in this style and it was the general writing style for official and intellectual works throughout the period. As a result, Sino-Japanese vocabulary makes up a large portion of the Japanese lexicon and much classical Chinese literature is accessible to Japanese readers in some resemblance of
507-516: Is impossible because of the deterioration of Buddhist law on earth ( mappō ). Key Buddhist ideas in the gunki monogatari include karma , the idea that current circumstances are punishments or rewards for past actions, and impermanence, the idea that all things on this earth cannot last long. These themes appear overtly in short sermon -like interjections in the text. Heike monogatari , in particular, can be conceived of as one long sermon on Buddhism. Kanbun Kanbun ( 漢文 ' Han writing')
546-486: Is that Heian literature takes the form of historical records while medieval tales truly fall under the category of monogatari . While both often focus around a sole warrior who caused a major societal disturbance, the medieval war tales have a unique focus on the personal thoughts and experiences of individual warriors. Heian literature focuses on the capital's view of provincial disturbances, but medieval war tales shift their perspective to focus on those actually involved with
585-534: The Heike Monogatari , the most famous war tale, was originally written pseudo-historically to chronicle the battle between the Minamoto and Taira families. In formulating this tale, the author borrowed heavily from existing oral narratives as well as diaries and other historical records. Since the original record was written to be read, not recited, it had to be revised for recitation. The current authoritative copy of
624-514: The gunki monogatari ethic represents a sort of combination of the two. This is possible primarily because the form of Buddhism espoused by gunki monogatari is Amida Buddhism, which teaches that anyone who repents for their sins and calls on Amida Buddha can be reborn in his Western Paradise and achieve enlightenment from there. This belief allows warriors, even as they commit acts of violence , to call on Amida's name. Furthermore, pursuing enlightenment in this life, according to Amida Buddhism,
663-409: The レ reten ( レ点 , '[katakana] re mark') denotes 'reverse marks'. The rest are kanji commonly used in numbering and ordering systems: As an analogy for kanbun changing the word order from Chinese sentences with subject–verb–object (SVO) into Japanese subject–object–verb (SOV), John DeFrancis gives this example of using a literal English translation—another SVO language—of the opening of
702-513: The Heike is a result of transcriptions of these oral recitations. The medieval war tales are written in a mix of Japanese and Chinese; the prose was Japanese but included numerous Chinese phrases, as opposed to mid-Heian warrior tales, which were composed in kanbun (Chinese prose). Although the texts are primarily written in prose, they also include occasional poems, usually waka . Another key difference between medieval war tales and their predecessors
741-407: The Japanese kanbun reading tradition a Chinese text is simultaneously punctuated, analyzed, and translated into classical Japanese. It operates according to a limited canon of Japanese forms and syntactic structures which are treated as existing in a one-to-one alignment with the vocabulary and structures of classical Chinese. At its worst, this system for reading Chinese as if it were Japanese became
780-562: The Latin-language Commentarii de Bello Gallico . DeFrancis adds, "A better analogy would be the reverse situation–Caesar rendering an English text in his native language and adding Latin case endings." Two English textbooks for students of kanbun are An Introduction to Kambun by Sydney Crawcour, reviewed by Marian Ury in 1990, and An Introduction to Japanese Kanbun by Komai and Rohlich, reviewed by Andrew Markus in 1990 and Wixted in 1998. The illustration to
819-557: The battlefield but condemned as unchivalrous if the enemy had already surrendered. The warrior ethic dictates a set course of action that warriors ought to pursue regardless of their personal sentiments or inclinations. An example of this is the classic battle between 'duty' and 'desire' which plays out in Atsumori's story in Heike Monogatari. Nevertheless, the aberrations between the actions of different characters in various versions of
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#1732858798583858-426: The characters, and finding suitable equivalents for Chinese function words . According to John Timothy Wixted, scholars have disregarded kanbun . In terms of its size, often its quality, and certainly its importance both at the time it was written and cumulatively in the cultural tradition, kanbun is arguably the biggest and most important area of Japanese literary study that has been ignored in recent times, and
897-402: The code of loyalty is echoed in the famous Atsumori-Naozane episode, where the exhortations of the warrior ethic outweigh Naozane's regret and forces his hand to kill. Besides prescribing the "right" moral code to pursue, warrior ethics also restrict and dictate warriors' actions on more superficial levels. For example, cutting off the heads of enemies as war trophies was considered the norm in
936-406: The enemy so as to protect the retreating Heike forces. This loyalty is firmly tied to the concept of personal honor; warriors would rather die and be praised posthumously than live on with a tainted name. The code of honor also rejects compassion when it conflicts with duty . This is illustrated in Heike monogatari when a young Genji warrior Yukishige turns on Takahashi and kills him despite
975-411: The fact that the latter had just spared his life on account of Yushikige's youthful resemblance to his own son. While pity for a youthful enemy on account of fatherly affection is a common refrain in the plot of gunki monogatari , Yushikige's single-minded loyalty to his camp at the expense of compassion is arguably closer to the rigid concept of honor espoused by the warrior class. This rigid adherence to
1014-566: The grammar. Morphemes are typically one syllable in length and combine to form words without modification to their phonetic structures (tone excepted). Conversely, the basic structure of a transitive Japanese sentence is SOV , with the usual syntactic features associated with languages of this typology, including post positions, that is, grammar particles that appear after the words and phrases to which they apply. He lists four major Japanese problems: word order , parsing which Chinese characters should be read together, deciding how to pronounce
1053-613: The indigenous Japanese word meaning 'road'. Kanbun implemented two particular types of kana . One was okurigana 'accompanying script', kana suffixes added to kanji stems to show their Japanese readings; the other was furigana 'brandishing script', smaller kana syllables written alongside kanji to indicate pronunciation. These were used primarily as reinforcements to writing in kanbun . Kanbun —as opposed to Wabun ( 和文 , ' Wa writing') , Japanese text with Japanese syntax and predominately kun'yomi readings—is divided into several types: Jean-Noël Robert describes kanbun as
1092-425: The manner in which these battle scenes are conducted. Battle scenes commonly include descriptions of the warrior's clothing and armor , which is used both as a means of identifying the warrior and as a means of describing the warrior's personality. These descriptions were formulaic, but still effectively described the individual warrior's attributes. Another part of the warrior scenes was the hero announcing his name,
1131-410: The medieval warrior tales have no identifiable authors and are generally composed by multiple people. The authors did not write the stories entirely from start to end but instead edited and re-wrote them multiple times. There were two forms in which gunki monogatari were transmitted: through yomimono (written texts) and through recitation by blind priests known as biwa hōshi . The oral practices had
1170-806: The one least properly represented as part of the canon. A new development in kanbun studies is the Web-accessible database being developed by scholars at Nishogakusha University in Tokyo. The Japanese word kanbun originally meant ' Literary Chinese writings'—or, the Chinese classics . Kanbun compositions used two common types of Japanese kanji readings: Sino-Japanese on'yomi ('pronunciation readings') borrowed from Chinese pronunciations and native Japanese kun'yomi 'explanation readings' from Japanese equivalents. For example, 道 can be read as dō adapted from Middle Chinese /dấw/ or as michi from
1209-695: The original. The Japanese writing system originated through adoption and adaptation of written Chinese . Some of Japan's oldest books (e.g. the Nihon Shoki ) and dictionaries (e.g. the Tenrei Banshō Meigi and Wamyō Ruijushō ) were written in kanbun . Other Japanese literary genres have parallels; the Kaifūsō is the oldest collection of kanshi ( 漢詩 , 'Chinese poetry') . Burton Watson 's English translations of kanbun compositions provide an introduction to this literary field. Samuel Martin coined
The Tale of Hōgen - Misplaced Pages Continue
1248-578: The right exemplifies kanbun . These eight words comprise the well-known first line in the Han Feizi story (ch. 36) that first coined the term máodùn (Japanese mujun , 矛盾 'contradiction, inconsistency', lit. "spear-shield" ), illustrating the irresistible force paradox . Debating with a Confucianist about the legendary Chinese sage rulers Yao and Shun , the Legalist Han Fei argues that one cannot praise them both because that would be making
1287-517: The small skirmishes and the individual contests—and the military figures who animate these accounts—have all been passed from generation to generation in the narrative formats of the Hōgen monogatari (1156), the Heiji monagatari (1159–1160), and the Heike monogatari (1180–1185). In each of these familiar monogatari , the central figures are popularly well known, the major events are generally understood, and
1326-459: The stakes as they were understood at the time are conventionally accepted as elements in the foundation of Japanese culture. The accuracy of each of these historical records has become a compelling subject for further study; and some accounts have been shown to withstand close scrutiny, while other presumed “facts” have turned out to be inaccurate. Gunki monogatari Gunki monogatari ( 軍記物語 , Military chronicle-tale ) , or "war tales",
1365-415: The term Sino-Xenic in 1953 to describe Chinese as written in Japan, Korea, and other foreign (hence -xenic ) zones on China's periphery. Roy Andrew Miller notes that although Japanese kanbun conventions have Sino-Xenic parallels with other traditions for reading Literary Chinese like Korean hanmun and Vietnamese Hán Văn , only kanbun has survived to the present day. He explains how in
1404-461: The war tales betray differences in the way various editors and authors perceived the ideal warrior ethic; hence we must refrain from drawing definite conclusions about the fixed nature of the warrior ethic. The other chief value system that governs the ethic of gunki monogatari is Buddhism . First of all, it is important to note that Buddhism and the warrior ethic are not seen as necessarily opposed to each other. Despite their inherent differences,
1443-464: The war, often sympathizing with the defeated warriors. The authors of gunki monogatari do not hesitate to sympathize with the warriors or moralize about their actions. The general form of the warrior narrative usually consists of three parts, describing respectively the causes of the war, the battles themselves, and the war's aftermath. The texts are generally episodic, broken up into numerous small tales often focusing on select incidents or warriors. This
1482-412: The warriors from human figures into idealized heroes who embody the warrior ethic. These later accounts are probably fictional, a result of the tendency of oral tales to use real people and events and integrate them with prescribed themes to create effective performances. Thus the warrior tales are a mixture of historical fact and dramatic fiction . We can also draw links between the oral traditions and
1521-414: Was written in Japanese. As Literary Chinese originally lacked punctuation, the kanbun tradition developed various conventional reading punctuation, diacritical, and syntactic markers. Kaeriten grammatically transforms Literary Chinese into Japanese word order. Two are syntactic symbols, the | tatesen ( 縦線 , 'vertical bar') —linking mark that denotes phrases composed of more than one character, and
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