A Master Of Japanese Popular Literature

"NANSOUSATOMIHAKKENDEN" is a long masterpiece written by Quting Bakin in the Japanese Edo period. It's magnificent structure, the plot design and the simple language style gain the public's recognition, known as the crown fiction in that period. The novel as the pinnacle of popular fiction in Japan for the masterpiece pulls the writing works to peak. It produced in the late Edo period, while the Tokugawa Bakufu adopted a series of reforms, that made the stability of social, development of economic and prosperity of goods. There has been the seeds of capitalism and working class. Confucianism has been attached the rulers' great attention, with combination of Buddhism became the two ideological pillars. Japan was deeply influenced by Chinese vernacular literature of fiction, the imitation of the Chinese fiction style promoted the development of the chrestomathy. Bakin completed the masterpiece with about twenty-eight years'hard work. Thoughts of advocating the good and warning against evil is repeatedly stressed in the book, and contains the conception of revering the emperor and pushing aside the vassals. The figure of samurai's typical character created by Bakin from the Japanese social background and his own experiences is deeply combined with the theme of the book especially the thoughts of advocating the good and warning against evil. The work was written as blueprint of "The story by Water Margin", not only modeled the structure, genre, content of the Chinese vernacular fiction, but also used the seven principles of unofficial histories uniting with Japan's national character and literary characteristics, made a "reborn" imitation of the Chinese novel style."NANSOUSATOMIHAKKENDEN" becomes an unique masterpiece in the history of Japanese literature, for the extensive social impact and high literary achievement.