Basic Information
Summary
Participants will be undergraduate and graduate students studying Japanese language and literature at National Taiwan University.
Host
KAKENHI Program “Development of the Next Generation of East Asian Classical Studies through International Collaboration: From the Perspective of the Frontier of the Realm of Chinese Characters”
Department of Japanese Language and Literature at National Taiwan University
Reports
A special lecture by Professor Tamura Takashi entitled “Wang Zhaojun and Japanese Classical Literature” was held at the National Taiwan University (NTU). Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the lecture was given online from Japan, but was attended by students and faculty members working in Japanese language and literature at the university.
How was Wang Zhaojun portrayed in Classical Japanese literature? First, Prof. Tamura observed how Wang Zhaojun was treated in textbooks. For example, from the depictions of Wang Zhaojun in the The Tale of Genji emaki and Xijing zaji [Miscellaneous Records of the Western Capital], it is clear that, at the time, not only was Wang depicted visually, but her tragic nature was well recognized. However, a examination practice question set taking up these two sources asked the student to discuss why Wang did not pay a bribe, and the correct answer was that it is because she had a just spirit and did not give bribes, citing Takasu Yoshijirō’s Tōzai meifu no omokage: kingen taishō (Hakubunkan, 1911). However, the main text does not say why Wang Zhaogun did not give bribes. Instead, without explicating how the marriage came about, it tells only that she married a Xiongnu chief, therefore, to use not giving bribes as a reason to claim that she held an injustice-disliking spirit is nothing more than just a figment of one’s imagination.
How then, has Wang Zhaojun been received in Classical Japanese literature? First, Prof. Tamura cited a description in the Konjaku monogatarishū [Anthology of Tales Old and New]. In the anthology, Wang Zhaojun does not give bribes because she knows she is beautiful, and the people of the time said that Wang Zhaojun is at fault. In addition, in the anthology’s depiction of the marriage, the focus is shifted to the emperor, who is portrayed as being in love with Wang Zhaojun. In this way, the focus of the narrative varies from work to work, though similar depictions are also made in the Toshiyori zuinō and the “Suma” chapter from The Tale of Genji. In the latter, specifically, it is written that Emperor Yuan admired Wang Zhaojun, and it has been pointed out that there exists another theory stating that Emperor Yuan loved Wang Zhaojun, which could have been transmitted in the Heian period.
Then, in the Utsuho monogatari, it is written that Wang Zhaojun was chosen because she did not give bribes, while other consorts are portrayed as ugly and Wang Zhaojun as more beautiful, contradicting the reason for her selection in earlier sources. In addition, an annotation to an alternative version of the Xijing zaji mentions the Yuefu jieti, and the Yuefu guti yaojie states that Wang Zhaogun relied on her appearance and did not give bribes. This way of reasoning was inherited in the Kan koji wakashū compiled during the Muromachi period (1336–1573), but in the Tō monogatari [Tales of the Tang] written at the end of the twelfth century, the reason why Wang Zhaojun was chosen was not bribes but the “jealousy” of other consorts over her beauty. Prof. Tamura here notes that it has been argued that the essential elements of Japanese literature were introduced here, and that the image of Wang Zhaojun was now close to how she was portrayed in the Meiji textbooks, confirming that the textbook image of Wang was created in this way.
After the lecture, Prof. Tamura introduced the “Digital Tale of Genji” project that he is currently working on. The project is to read, digitize, and typeset the printed edition of “The Tale of Genji” using AI so that it can be accessed from anywhere in the world, even by beginners of kuzushiji. While AI ultimately can read about 80% of the text, the question of how much AI understands and how to cover the remaining 20% may require differing approaches to the problem.
We would like to thank Prof. Takashi Tamura for a highly engaging lecture and all the students and professors who attended.
(MAI Matsubara, Project Researcher, University of Tokyo)
