On The Acceptance Of Ming Dynasty Poetry By Chinese Poetry In The Edo Period

Chinese poetry in Japan, from the time of development, imitate Chinese poems, because they are the ones that Japanese produce by Chinese. It is the rule that though produced by Japanese, the poems cannot develop without following the style of Chinese poems. In accordance with the development of time, in the earliest time of the Nara Period, Japanese poets show great passion of learning poems from Literature Selection or in the early Tang Dynasty; in the Heian Period, Japanese poets learn poems of Bai Juyi who lives in the mid-Tang Dynasty; then, in the era of Kamakura and Muromachi, Japanese poets learn from Song and Yuan Dyansties poetry; they study Ming and Qing Dynasties poetry in the Edo Period. There can be found out its sources and characteristics in every period, which originate from the poems of certain school or period of China. Taking Chinese poetry in the Edo Period for instance, most of the time, poets are influenced greatly by the style of Ming Dyansty poetry. There forms Ken'en School led by Sorai Ogyu and Xingling School represented by Hokuzan Yamamoto and Kouko-shisha under such influence. The former one adapts the thoughts of "back to ancient" from seven poets in the Ming Dynasty, creating literary works obeying the style of works before the Qin and Han Dynasties, and imitating the style of Tang or Ming Dyansty poetry; the latter criticizes Ken'en School, taking the thoughts of nature and spirit of Gong'an School as theory, and thinking that poems should be related with reality and express feelings, advocates Song Dyansty poetry while taking positive viewpoint for Tang Dyansty poetry. These two schools are most representative. To certain extent, it should be said that they basically reflect the development of Chinese poetry in the Edo Period. This dissertation, thus, through the outlook of positivism, focusing upon the influence of thoughts and literary works of Seven-poet School in the Ming Dynasty and Gong'an School on the poetic circles of the Edo Period, discusses Chinese poetry' acceptance of Ming Dyansty poetry in the Edo Period and reveals its development under the influence of two schools. The dissertation would reveal the situation of the poetic circles through relative Chinese works' prevalence in Japan and Chinese poems edited by Japanese, rather than limiting itself within the comparison of the theories of poems. It, combined with works, simultaneously reveals the social culture, psychological mechanism of acceptance of Ming Dyansty poetry and the difference in the process of its acceptance from China.This dissertation consists of three chapters.The first chapter, as literature review, mainly discusses the development of Ming Dyansty poetry, the development and feature of Chinese poetry in the the Edo Period, and the input of Chinese works—the connection of Ming Dyansty poetry and Chinese poetry in the Edo Period. In description of development of Ming Dyansty poetry, the dissertation focus on the thoughts of literature of Seven-poet School and Gong'an School in the Ming Dynasty; exposes separately the development, style and representatives of the poems in three stages in accordance with the trichotomy of Kiichirou Kanda; then points out the characteristics of the poetic circles, which include the rise of poem communities, the edition of volumes, the emergence of poems and poets. These characteristics are similar with those of the poetic circles in the Ming Dynasty. The dissertation analyses five reasons for the prosperity of Chinese poetry, which are the improvement of printing and the development of press, the literary policy by the Tokugawa Shogunate, more famous for knowledge, the accumulation of Chinese literature in previous dynasties, and the input of Chinese works. In the following, the dissertation, by studying the input of Chinese works—the connection that Chinese poetry in the Edo Period accept Ming Dyansty poetry, further discusses the input of the works of the Ming Dynasty in early period of Edo Period, finding that the volumes of the works are considerable and the rate of input is shocking. That helps the poetic circles can keep abreast with Chinese literary field.The second chapter deeply discusses the spreading and acceptance of Seven-poet School of the Ming Dynasty—the most influential poem school—in the poetic circles in the Edo Period. The chapter firstly setting foot from the literary works and some literature bibliography makes a study of the prevalence of Seven-poet School of the Ming Dynasty, finding out that almost at the beginning of the Edo Period the school is known around Japan, where the main literary works of the school basically emerge. In the following, the chapter studies the most prevalent school around Japan—Ken'en School's acceptance of representatives of Seven-poet School, such as Li Panlong and Wang Shizhen. Amongst the study, there is an interesting and similar situation that Seven-poet School is the one lasting longest and being most influential in the development of Ming Dyansty poetry, and Ken'en School also lasts for longest time and is most influential. The reason of this similarity should cause attention.Concerned with the acceptance of Seven-poet School by Ken'en School, the chapter firstly discusses that Sorai Ogyu, the founder of Ken'en School accepts the revival thought of Mr. Li and Mr. Wang. From the view of poem theory, Sorai Ogyu panegyrizes them. Their thoughts are the same, as "prose should follow that of the Qin and Han Dynasty, while poetry should follow those of the Tang Dynasty". Thus it is important to find out the reason of the acceptance of the revival thoughts rather than the poem theory of Sorai Ogyu. The chapter starts from the studying experience of Sorai Ogyu, and finds out the thoughts of literature of Li and Wang are identical with Sorai Ogyu's thoughts that he emphasizes on the formalism of original language and factualism formed in his early time. The thoughts of the former that the grammar of words and sentence must follow the grammar of language before the Qin or Han Dynasties greatly enlighten Sorai Ogyu who is at the turning point of study, and finally gives up the Confucian thoughts of the Song Dynasty and studies the Six Classics to find out their significance. The Six Classics are written by the primitive language. Literary creation by primitive language is a better way to be familiar with primitive language than reading. And literary creation is the best way to understand the emotion of human being. However, this motivation cannot explain fully the passion of Sorai on literature, nor the reason that he panegyrizes Tang Dyansty poetry. Therefore, it is necessary to explain from the viewpoint of emotion of human being. The emotion of human being, once set out, would unavoidably prevail, since Sorai makes that free from the moral viewpoint of the Zhuzi. This depressive emotion needs strongly expressive form of poems. And this kind of expression should be elegance. The style of comfort and leisure in Song Dyansty poetry cannot hold the emotion. While the elegant expression and elegant form of Tang Dyansty poetry can meet this emotion. The theory of Tang Dyansty poetry canonized by seven poets is accepted cheerfully by Sorai. However, that Seven-poet School advocates revival literature has strong criticism to literature. They strictly distinguish poem, literature, and different styles of poems, and further set the standard; Sorai's purpose of advocating primitive literature is different. The purpose of canonizing Tang Dyansty poetry lies on that he borrows the lyric form to express the unbounded emotion besides serving for Classics. As for Sorai, poets should focus their attention on the expression of literature itself, since contents are free from morality. The way of expression is most important, while the content give way to that. He thus believes that the nature of poems lies on words themselves—expression, rather than the meaning of words—content.Secondly, the chapter studies the thoughts of imitation of ancient literature creation of Nankaku Hattori, who is the representative of Ken'en School after Sorai. This part will be expounded through contrast of creation thought between the seven poets in the Ming Dynasty and Sorai. Nankaku's theory of poem creation is the same with Sorai's and the seven poets'. Though it is unnecessary to study, the creation works by Nankaku, taking poems of Sai XiaQu and Sai Shang Xing as representation, basically independent with practical situation and life in Japan, which is different from Tang Dyansty poetry and Seven-poet School. They create literature based on social reality. From that, we can find out that the reason that many poets of Ken'en School take such thought is they cannot fulfill their political ideal under the strict and rigid system of identity. Besides, literati aren't still recognized by the society. They can't find themselves in the order of reality, so they express their ambition in poems, imagining an unreal ancient world by poems, where they can form an order that can fully meet their self-desire. Seven-poet School imitates the style of ancient literature because of his ontological consciousness of literature, trying to use powerful ancient literature to change the mean style folded by theory of reasoning; Sorai imitates that because of getting the meaning of the Six Classics through studying ancient language; Nankaku imitates that because of realizing outstanding self-expectation by ancient literature.It is not enough to discuss literature of Ken'en School from the perspective of theory of poem-creation. This chapter therefore analyzes the feature, disadvantage and advantage of the school through concrete literary works. On the aspect of poem creation, the way of imitation of Ken'en School is the same with the seven poets, since the school imitates the ancient literature and Tang Dyansty poetry. Some works are indeed similar with Tang Dyansty poetry, but the disadvantage is uninnovated. The school canonizing the seven poets, causing the literary works of the Ming Dynasty populate in the middle time of the Edo Period. Here, the chapter lists in detail the publication of literary works of the Ming Dynasty from Shoutoku to Meiwa, including the information of editors, proofreaders, writers of preface. These information can present us clearly that most of the publications are involved with the school. Especially the works by Li Panlong and Wang Shizhen are predominant. In the following, the chapter studies a series of problems of Selection of Tang Poems, edited by Li Panlong who has close relationship with the school, analyses the reason that such works can be popular for a long time, and finally makes a conclusion that there are many factors contribute to the situation.However, the school all the time imitates Tang Dyansty poetry, but the poems lack the emotion that can connect human being's reality. During the process of exaggerated emotion and unoriginal repetition, the inner reflection and observation are neglected. When the reserve and ambition beared by literati fade out with the popularization of Chinese poems and the establishment of literati, the psychological foundation of the dependence upon Tang Dyansty poetry also collapses. Therefore, since the middle of the 18^th century, in the places where the school is not so popular such as Tokyo and Osaka, voices of anti-school rises continues. Then under the counterview of Hokuzan Yamamoto and others, the school goes to decline. And the tendency of imitating Tang or Ming Dyansty poetry fades out.The third chapter discusses the popularity and acceptance of Gong'an School in the poetic circles of the Edo Period. The chapter firstly, from the literary works and some literature bibliography, makes an investigation of the popularity of Gong'an School before Ken'en School dominating the poetic circles. In the early time of the Edo Period, the acceptance of the literary works of Gong'an School is that Gensei, through the introduction of Chen Yuanbin, imitates the works and approves of the theory of poem-creation of Yuan Hongdao. He not only imitates the style of poems of Yuan Hongdao, but also draws Yuan's theory for reference. Besides, that Jyouzan Ishikawa and Zeigan Yanada draw thoughts from Gong'an School shows that at that period the poetic circles accepts the literature of the school.After the Sakushishikou by Hokuzan Yamamoto, The theory of expressing nature of human being from the school is widely accepted and used for criticizing Ken'en School and Seven-poet School. He advocates the theory in his works, and criticizes greatly Ken'en School and Seven-poet School. In this works, he inherits the theory from two aspects. One is that he admits poem-creation develops in accordance with time, and poems should not be valuated from the perspective of different period; the other is that he disagrees with the imitating the style of ancient poems, emphasing the expression of nature of human being and real scene, and approving of individualities. The school against Ken'en School and led by Hokuzan is regarded as Xingling School. Though, in his works, there are some words quoted from Anthology of Poetry of Dynasties written by Qian Qianyi, many directly or indirectly quoted words are from Yuan Hongdao's which cannot be found in Anthology of Poetry of Dynasties. That means that Hokuzan indeed studies the original works of Yuan Hongdao intensively. The purpose that he chooses the theory of Gong'an School is somehow only against Ken'en School, but his insisting on the theory and a series of literary creation show that his choose is not just contingent. The whole poetic circles is at the point of innovation, and his choose follows the situation. However, he does not regard himself as a poet. There is a strong political ambition bearing in his mind. Poems are just a psychological field for him to release his political passion. The "real scene" that he emphases thus is not just the reality in the eye, but the social reality. In other words, the "real scene" indicates the attention to social phenomenon, which is different from Gong'an School's passivism in the social reality. Though his works causes many disapproved voices due to the extreme words, by careful study, these voices are concerned with Hokuzan's improper falsehood towards the literary works of Sorai, Nankaku, Li and Wang. He talks little about system, the development and theory of poem-creation. This indicates after Tenmei Period, Hokuzan's theory is popular, and it is difficult to negate the theory positively.After the time of Hokuzan, Kouko-shisha led by Kansai Ichikawa continues the theory, and makes it prevalent through the whole poetic circles in the Edo Period by a series effective literary creation. This chapter chooses three members of Kouko-shisha, Shihe Kansai, Shibutsu Ookubo, and Gozan Kikuchi, who is more outstanding in the theory of poem creation, and makes a study on their acceptance of the theory of Gong'an School. Kouko-shisha, though retains the theory, already makes some differences from Gong'an School. And their theories of poem-creation are influenced by Yuan Mei—the poet in the Qing Dynasty, due to their attention to him. That causes that some of their viewpoints cannot be clearly distinguished to belong to Gong'an School's theory or to Yuan Mei's theory.The school accepts the advocating of Gong'an School that they enlighten to Song Dyansty poetry, and canonizes Song Dyansty poetry, especially Southern Song Dyansty poetry. Therefore, with the decline of Ken'en School, Song Dyansty poetry replace those in Tang and Ming Dynasties, and become popular as the standard of poem-creation. Through the investigation of publication of Song Dyansty poetry and engraved volumes, it can be found that there are many works by Lu You, Yang Wanli and Fan Cheng, who are the three outstanding poets in the Southern Song Dynasty. And most of the publications are related with Xingling School. In order to clearly and directly show out the creation of poems under the theory, we deeply analyze some concrete poems. Through analysis, we believe that these poems indeed bear the style of Song Dyansty poetry, and most of them take daily life as the topic, which is different from the heroic style of Tang Dyansty poetry. Some of the poems, though imitate the words and expressive way of the Song Dynasty, should not be regarded as plagiarized "fake-poems of the Song Dynasty", because the contents are based upon the real lives, rather than the imaginative world. The purpose of the imitation is to find values of the poem again and make an affirmance of them.In the late period of the Edo Period, the influence from Ming Dyansty poetry gradually passes away, due to the surge of Qing Dyansty poetry and the tendency of the juste-milieu in the poetic circles. There are few to advance the theory of Gong'an School. And the whole poetic circles pays more attention to the theory of Yuan Mei. The attitudes of different schools of poets towards the theory of Gong'an School in the late Shogunate lie on criticizing and approving of reasonable thoughts. It can be said that the theory of Gong'an School, through the advocating of Xingling School, is already innerized into the poets existing in the later period in different degrees.In summery, Ken'en School led by accepts the thoughts of returning to the ancient literature of Li and Wang, and imitates the style of the ancient literature, and frees literature from Confucianism and reasoning morality. The school still pays highly attention to the expressive form and aesthetic feature of literature, requiring elegance of the form and words, and clangorous sounds. That greatly improves the attainment of the Japanese towards Chinese literature, and helps poets finding the ontological value of literature during their creation. From this aspect, the imitation of ancient of literature by the school is the necessary stage for the development of Chinese poems in Japan, though their works are criticized as independence from the reality and the creations of literature are the same. In the later development, Hokuzan Yamamoto and Kouko-shisha heighten the theory of Gong'an School, and criticize the plagiarizing style of Ken'en School, and advance that poems should describe the reality and express the real nature. Therefore, the poems of the late of Edo Period can get happiness of finding out the daily life and scenes in poems. At the same time, under the instruction of the theory of poem-creation, poets, taking Song Dyansty poetry as the copy, can fuse the customs and emotions into Chinese poetry, realizing the Chinese poetry Japaneserization and popularization. In short, Ken'en School advocates rhetoric, making the expression of Chinese poetry of the Edo Period uphold, while Xingling School advocates reality, making the poems having wider range and more real on the contents and topics. That is the significance of Chinese poetry of the Edo Period accepting Ming Dyansty poetry.