mmflv

Chinese-Eastern Comparative literature studies: The Case of China-Korea-Japan         John J. Deeney

u     Quataion1: East-East (Intra-Asiatic) CL studies: reorientation (p.185)

u     Quataion2: East Asia: literature played a vital role in maintaining society and culture; renovation is innovation→Tradition is the source of renew imagination of literature

I.        Purpose: Chinese-Eastern studies: suggest some possible blueprint for CL studies between china, Japan and Korea (south Asia and India are not included) (p.186)

II.     Preliminary notions:

A.     Cultural infrastructures for social suprastructures→ society’s real strength rest most solidly upon a network of cultural factors. (p.186)

²      The danger of Asia: being over-run by technology and scienticism.

B.     The role of translation is essential

²      Western CL scholars work harder on the literature of the same root, while Eastern CL scholars don’t. (p.187)

III.   The intimate relationship of the Chinese language with Korean and Japanese

²      The position of Chinese language is similar to the role of Latin played in medieval Europe.

A.     Korea: (p.188):

1.       2 BC: Chinese characters and classics were first imported.

2.       T’ang dynasty (AD 7-10): Korean scholars went to China; civil service examinations were introduced.

3.       AD 15: the sage King Sejong世宗大王: Korean alphabet has being created (in hunmin chonhum訓民正音or han’gul(1443-44)→28 letters, “the easiest script in the world and the only alphabet in the far East”) → Ch’e Malli崔萬里against it

4.       Before AD 15: Korean used the Chinese characters. (薛聰Sol Ch’ong(692): explain the text→ hyangch’al鄉札: Transcribe the meaning, idu吏讀: Transcribe the sound)

B.     Japan: (p.189)

1.       AD 5-7: kanji漢字were introduced in the 6^th century

2.       AD 9: kana假名 (Japanese syllabary was invented)

²      AD 7-19: Japanese literature was written in two language ,Chinese (kanshi 漢詩, kanbun漢文) and Japanese.

IV.  China-Korea-Japan literature studies: Traditional approaches of CL: Influence (p.190)

A.     The influence of genre: Korea (kasa歌辭sijo詩調), Japan (waka和歌haiku俳句)

B.     The influence of thematology:

1.        Peter H. Lee’s celebration of the continuity: themes in classic East and Asian poetry: 5 main  topics (praise, nature, love, friendship, time) and microtheme (topoi) under each topic→ex. Sky river, carpe diem, not finding him

2.       Burton Watson: Japanese literature in Chinese: poetry and prose in Chinese by Japanese writers of the early period (vol.1) and the late period (vol.2). →the nature feeling of kanshi 漢詩

V.     Examples: Chinese: 李白,鄭之常, Japanese: Sugawara no Michizane菅原道真, Korean: Ch’oe Ch’ung崔冲(p.192-95)

VI.  Japanese and Korean works used Chinese characters and forms (p.195)

A.     Peter H. Lee: praised

B.     Burton Watson: it was not until the late nineteenth (清) that Chinese people notice the Japanese works of Tokugawa period (AD 17-19)

C.     Yu Yueh俞樾: Compiled a selection of kanshi by Tokugawa poets, praised

VII.    Watson’s view of applying Chinese characters to express Japanese emotions (p.196)

A.     The Japanese to compose in a foreign language made them more conscious and appreciative of their own language

B.     Adapt and absorb Chinese devices, themes and ideas

C.     Chinese literature refines and improves the Japanese literary expression

D.     The works which composed in Chinese may not have been composed in the native languages

E.      Advanced beyond the level of mere imitations of Chinese writings

VIII. interdisciplinary approaches in East-East CL: (p.196)

A.     two efforts in CL studies:

1.       literary history: Earl Miner help Chinese scholar to reformulate Japanese views

2.       literary theory: Kukai空海(Kobo Daishi弘法大師) systematized the rules of composing poetry.

IX.   The ways to introduce Eastern literature into university (p.197)

A.     Translation

B.     Histories of national literatures and literary theories

C.     Teacher and student exchange programs

D.     Comparative literature organizations and conferences

E.      Research and publications