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Primers, Commentaries, and Kanbun Literacy in Japanese Literary Culture, 950-1250CE

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Primers, Commentaries, and Kanbun Literacy in Japanese Literary Culture, 950-1250CE Primers, Commentaries, and Kanbun Literacy in Japanese Literary Culture, 950-1250CE Jennifer Guest Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2013 © 2013 Jennifer Guest All rights reserved ABSTRACT Primers, Commentaries, and Kanbun Literacy in Japanese Literary Culture, 950-1250CE Jennifer Guest This project seeks a new perspective on issues of literacy, literary language, and cultural contact in the literature of premodern Japan by examining the primers used to study Chinese-style literature in the Heian and early medieval periods (c. 900-1250CE). Much of Heian literary production was centered on kanbun: “Chinese-style” writing that resembled classical Chinese and mobilized allusive connections to classical Chinese texts, but was usually read based on classical Japanese vocabulary and syntax. The knowledge gleaned from introductory kanbun education forms an important and little-researched common thread linking readers and writers from a wide range of backgrounds – from male and female courtiers to specialized university scholars to medieval monks and warriors eager to appropriate court culture. While tracing the roles of commonly-studied kanbun primers and commentaries in shaping Heian literary culture and its medieval reception, I consider key aspects of premodern Japan literacy – from the art of kundoku (“gloss-reading”) to the systems of knowledge involved in textual commentary and the adaptation of kanbun material. Examining the educational foundations of premodern Japanese literary culture demonstrates that kanbun and other literary styles functioned as closely entangled modes of literacy rather than as native and foreign languages, and that certain elements of classical Chinese knowledge formed a valued set of raw material for literary creativity. Chapter 1 outlines the diversity of premodern Japanese literacy and the key primers and encyclopedic reference works involved in kanbun education. Chapter 2 focuses on a primer for learning written characters, the Thousand Character Classic (Qian zi wen), discussing its varied reception in the contexts of calligraphy practice, oral recitation, and commentarial authority and offering translations from the tongue-in-cheek literary showpiece Thousand Character Classic Continued (Zoku Senjimon, 1132). In Chapter 3, I examine the role of kanbun knowledge in Sei Shōnagon’s Pillow Book (Makura no sōshi, early 11th century), which foregrounds the social and creative roles of introductory kanbun material as a vocabulary of conversational quotation among both men and women. Chapter 4 turns to Condensed Meaning of the New Ballads (Shin gafu ryakui, 1172), a ground-breaking anecdotal commentary on Bai Juyi’s poetry, to discuss the way that kanbun texts were interpreted and reinvented through commentary. Chapter 5 discusses an innovative poetic adaptation of a kanbun primer, Waka Poems on the Child’s Treasury (Mōgyū waka, 1204), which makes use of poetic topics and historical anecdotes as effective ways of organizing kanbun knowledge and also suggest the potential for introductory education to spark literary creativity across genre boundaries. I conclude with a brief look at the relevance of premodern Japanese kanbun education for broader questions about literary language and for comparisons involving other transregional classical languages like Latin. By illustrating the processes by which elements of Chinese literary culture were adopted and adapted throughout East Asia, this project provides fertile ground for exploring issues of literacy and cultural interaction that underlie all forms of literature. Primers, Commentaries, and Kanbun Literacy in Japanese Literary Culture, 950-1250CE Jennifer Guest Table of Contents……………………………………………………………………………...i Acknowledgments………..………………………………………………………………….iii Introduction………………..………………………………………………………………....1 Chapter 1: From Primers to Encyclopedias: an Overview of Heian Kanbun Education……………………………………………….……………………………..13 The Diversity of Kanbun Literacy – Kanbun in Heian Literary Culture: Competing Narratives – Pathways to Kanbun Literacy: the State University and Beyond – Cornerstone of Literacy: the Thousand Character Classic (千字文) – The Human Face of History: the Child’s Treasury (蒙求) – A Cosmology of Five-Character Lines: Li Jiao’s Hundred-Twenty Compositions (百二十詠) – Drama and Social Criticism: Bai Juyi’s “New Ballads” (新楽府) – A Poetic Sourcebook: the Japanese and Chinese-style Chanting Collection (Wakan rōeishū) – Organizing Knowledge: Topical Encyclopedias and Handbooks – Conclusion Chapter 2: Perspectives on a Primer: the Thousand Character Classic and its Reception……………………………………………………………………………...67 Origin Narratives – The Thousand Character Classic as Written Characters – The Thousand Character Classic Given Voice – The Thousand Character Classic as Textual Authority – Imagining a Primer: Miyoshi no Tameyasu’s Thousand Character Classic Continued – Conclusion Chapter 3: Kanbun Knowledge in Sei Shōnagon’s Pillow Book………..………….…….98 The Social and Political World of the Pillow Book – Kanbun Knowledge in the Pillow Book: an Overview – Tadanobu’s Excellent Memory: Kanbun Knowledge in Social Interaction – Conversational Kanbun in Sei Shōnagon’s Court – Talent and Beauty: a Dialogue with Fujiwara no Yukinari – Conclusion: a Wider Kanbun Context for the Pillow Book Chapter 4: Condensed Meaning of the New Ballads (Shin gafu ryakui): Bai Juyi’s Poetry Through the Lens of Commentary…………………………….…………………...128 The Deceptively Simple “New Ballads” – The “New Ballads” in Japan – The “New Ballads” and Commentary – Shingyū and the “New Ballads”: Kanbun for a Wider Audience – The Trained Rhinoceros: Exotic Topics in Shingyū’s Commentary – Shingyū and the Death of Yang Guifei – Conclusion Chapter 5: Between Poems and Anecdotes: Minamoto no Mitsuyuki’s Waka Poems on i the Child’s Treasury (Mōgyū waka)………………………………………..……….164 Tian Dan’s Oxen and Che Yin’s Fireflies: Two Summer Entries in Waka Poems on the Child’s Treasury – Mitsuyuki’s Life and Scholarship – Parallel Prefaces: a Wakan Frame – Mitsuyuki and the Tale of Genji – Mitsuyuki’s Literary Context and the Wakan Experiments of Fujiwara Teika – Conclusion: Anecdotal History and Topical Cosmology Afterword………..………………………………………………………………….….….195 Bibliography……..………………………………………………………………………...204 Appendix: Brief Guide to Condensed Meaning of the New Ballads (Shin gafu ryakui) and Waka Poems on the Child’s Treasury (Mōgyū waka)…………...……..…………...223 ii Acknowledgments This dissertation owes its existence to a great number of people. My co-advisors, David Lurie and Haruo Shirane, have both provided more advice, motivation, support, and intellectual inspiration than I can say; I could not have asked for better mentors throughout the many years of this project. During my time as a visiting MA student and doctoral researcher at Waseda University I was also very lucky to work with Kōno Kimiko, whose inexhaustible textual knowledge and enthusiasm for new angles of interpretation made her an ideal advisor and role model. Most recently, I am grateful to the members of my defense committee (Wiebke Denecke, Robert Hymes, and Jill Ross, in addition to my two co-advisors), who all contributed detailed and thoughtful feedback that I will be referring to for years to come. I will always be thankful to the students, faculty, and staff of the Columbia EALAC department who have made it such an incredibly supportive academic home for these past seven years. I also greatly appreciated the chance to spend time based at Waseda University, and am grateful to the Graduate Division of Literature (and to the university’s very welcoming international office) for being so generous with their resources and making so many logistic issues seem less daunting. During my time at Waseda, Jinno Hidenori gave me invaluable advice and food for thought on issues of translation, particularly related to the Pillow Book chapter. I also owe thanks to Satō Michio for allowing me to join his seminar on poetic prefaces and for sharing his deep insights into the world of Heian kanbun studies. I learned a great deal from my fellow participants in seminars at Waseda and Japan Women’s University, from Gotō Akio and the other members of the Chōya gunsai reading group, and from the members of Kōno Kimiko’s regular study groups on premodern commentaries. This project would have been impossible if I hadn’t been fortunate enough to have many exceptional teachers of modern and classical Japanese and Chinese over the years; at Yale, at Columbia, at summer programs in Beijing and Hakodate, and particularly at the IUP Beijing and IUC Yokohama language programs. I am especially grateful to Ōtake Hiroko at IUC, who read and discussed some key primary sources with me as well as striving to improve my academic speaking skills. The Richard U. Light Fellowship provided support for my early studies in Chinese and Japanese language as an undergraduate, without which I might never have been able to specialize in East Asian literatures; my research in Japan was funded by a Japan Foundation Fellowship, a Shincho Fellowship, and a Columbia University Mellon Traveling Fellowship. I am indebted to the Seikadō bunko and Naikaku bunko in Tokyo for allowing me access to their archives, and to the outstanding libraries at Columbia and Waseda University. In addition to my advisors and defense committee, I have greatly benefited from discussing this project and related
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