Family Consciousness In The Tale Of Genji

The Tale of Genji,one of the classic works in the history of Japanese literature, was produced in the early 11^th century and has been considered the Japanese-version of Dreams of the Red Mansions. Its author Murasakisikibu was born in a noble family. The times she lived in was one of regency when the nobles attempt to exert their influence via marriage with the royal family. As a result, what is reflected in The Tale of Genji is the author's life experiences and the social realities such as the emphasis on family background in marriage. To some extent, the marriage of a woman is always closely tied with the ups and downs of the whole noble family.Most of the current research about The The Tale of Genji focuses on male characters' awareness of family status. Specifically, male characters' effort to carry out what their ancestors teach them and maintain their family status has been examined in previous research. Few studies, however, have systematically explored family status awareness from the perspective of female characters. There do have scattered accounts of identity awareness of single character, but these are far from enough in terms of both depth and width.During the historical period in which the author lived, the marriage patterns and living situation of a noble family decides that a close relationship exists between females and their father-side family. A female's marriage is decided by the status and power of her family; a female usually lives in and economically supported by her parents' home after she gets married. A female's children are reared in her parents' home; she is to be buried in the graves of her father side family after death. That is to say, the fate and living style of a female is, to a great extent, decided by the status of her family. At the same time, females play important roles in their father side family. This is a direct reflection of family status awareness. It is necessary and practical to systematically explore the family status awareness reflected in The Tale of Genji from the perspective of female characters.This thesis aims to focus on the female characters in the novel and the social and marital situation in their times with a view to better understand the family status awareness conveyed by these characters. This thesis falls into four chapters, and they respectively explore the novel from the following perspectives: females and the glory of the regency's families, females and family revival, females in declining noble families and their family beliefs, and females in declining royal families and their awareness of family status.The first chapter "females and the glory of regency families "centers on the roles played by such females as Kokiden,Aoinoue,Oborodukiyo in two families. Kokiden, the elder daughter of Udaizin, has already been in the royal family and given birth to the first son for the Emperor Kiritubo when he is still a prince. She plays a critical part in the realization of Minister of the Right's family's dream of regency" . In the process, Kokiden shows more brilliant political talents than her father. She helps her son to succeed to the throne and becomes the person who holds power in the reign of Emperor Suzaku. She successfully fulfils the responsibility she has to take for the glory of her family. However, the political attempts of Kokiden and her family goes against Emperor Kiritubo's beliefs of administering a country and poses a threat to the power of the emperor. Therefore, Kokiden as a character is created as a rival for the royal rulers. In contrast, Minister of the Left shows his determination to support the emperor through her daughter Aoinoue's marriage. Despite the fact that Aoinoue's marriage is a tragedy, her marriage and death helps Minister of the Left and Genji become close allies. As daughter of the regency families, Oborodukiyo shoulders the responsibility for the future glory of the Minister of the Right's family. But Oborodukiyo lacks the awareness of her own identity: on one hand, she has family responsibility to take; on the other hand, she gets into love with Genji and does harm to her family interests again and again out of love. From the description of Minister of the Left and Minister of the Right and their daughters, we can perceive that the Confucian beliefs of running a country the author wants to express in the novel.The second chapter "females and family revival" mainly deals with the complicated family background behind Kiritubo's entry into the royal family, and the reason why Akasinonyuudou places strict limits on Akasinoue's marriage. This chapter also explores the efforts made by the family to realize their ancestors' dreams of revival and the roles played by two females in the revival. In regency, the ministers send their daughters into the royal family in order to get power and achieve their political ambitions. However, it cannot be true of Kiritubo, for when she gets into the royal family, her father has passed away. Without support from her family, however much favor she can win, she is certain to get a tragic ending. Similarly, Akasinoue's marriage is also doomed to be tragic. But shouldering the responsibility of family revival, they have no choice but accept the unhappy marriage.The third chapter "'Amayonosinasadame'and females in declining families" centers on the implications of Amayonosinasadame and its influence in the novel, and explores the totally different life styles of two females, Utusemi and Yuugao, whose families decline. When their fathers are alive, both of them are ladies in noble families. But their fathers' early death changes their fate. Utusemi becomes the second wife of a local official; Yuugaois reduced to be the lover of Tounotyuuzyou and is forced to hide here and there by his wife's threat. It is these two females that come across Genji. Utusemi has a strong awareness of family status which comes from her pride in being born in a noble family and from her inferiority brought about by family declining. Besides that, her adherence to moral standards makes her hesitate to make decision facing Genji's proposal. It is hard for her to refuse flatly. But Yuugao is just the other way round. She almost has no awareness of family status, and attempts to get away from real society and get relieved through ideal love. Utusemi's refusal helps her win respect from Genji and get his protection after she becomes a nun whereas Yuugao died a violent death after enjoying temporary love. This shows the author's promotion of Utusemi's family status awareness and moral standards which is closely related to the Confucian female teaching.The fourth chapter "females in the declining families and their family status awareness" mainly explores the family status awareness of Hitatinomiya's two daughters and Suetumuhana. This novel creates a few royal people who are born into royal families but suffer a lot in their lives. Among them, Hitatinomiya and Hatinomiya are the most typical examples. To whatever extent their families have declined, they always remain calm and never lose the royal dignity. Before their death, they leave their daughters' words asking them to keep to family rules and not to bring disgrace to the family. They even require their daughters to be ready to give their lives for their family. Influenced by their father's family status attitudes, the two daughters from two families made their own choices. Suetumuhana keeps to what her father says and undertakes the responsibility of maintaining her family status. Ooikimi becomes the master in the family after her father's death, and finally chooses to sacrifice for her family. Nakanokimi brings hope to the revival of her family via her marriage with Prince Niou. Although the three females make different choices, they are all influenced by their fathers' family status awareness, protect their family's dignity and fulfill their responsibility as daughters.Based on what is mentioned above, we can see that the author places complicated and heavy family responsibilities on females from all walks of life. Different from the females in ancient China who are required to fulfill the duty of being a wife, the females in The Tale of Genji is trusted with more responsibility of being a daughter. They are more closely related to their parents' family than to their husbands' family. Besides, compared with the historical customs in the regency times, especially in the evaluation of females from regency families, the author fails to go beyond the constraints of traditional ideas. She combined Confucian notions of "faith" and "family piety" and other beliefs in her evaluation of females and their families so that the representation of family status awareness on the novel is both complicated and unique. As a result, this placing of responsibility on females partly overlaps with the historical customs at that time, and this also reflects the author's independent thinking of female-family issue.