EALC 275: Masterpieces of East Asian Literature Lecture #13: The Tale of Genji 4 Oct.7, 2013Later chapters in the Tale of Genji • The chapters “Suma” and “Akashi” recount Genji’s journey into exile. • The narrative reached a high point during the purification ceremony for the Kamo Virgin. • Genji’s exile represents a low point in his career and his relationships with the different ladies he has gathered.Narrative Device: Gathering and Dispersal • Many longer narratives in East Asian literary traditions are structured by a narrative device of gathering and dispersal. • In the first three chapters, Genji rose in rank and favor and gathered different ladies into his household. • In the “Suma” chapter, Genji parts with each of them, one by one. • This is another example of the use of Yin-yang concept in East Asian literatureYin-Yang Concept in Daoism • Characteristics: • Perfect harmony, unity • Art of changes • Opposites exist within each other • Flourishing and decline in an endless cycleGenji’s decline... • Genji’s father abdicates • the crown price becomes Emperor • --decline of Genji’s political position • Fujitsubo’s son becomes crown princeAoi’s death • Childbirth: a vulnerable time • possessed by Rokujo’s vengeful spirit • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPzBt9UD1nE&feature=related • --Does Rokujo Lady intentionally possess Aoi? • Is Rokujo the villain of this story?Genji in mourning • Mourning in the public rituals • How do Genji’s feelings for Aoi seem to change on the brink of her death and afterwards? Why?Genji and Murasaki Consummation of their marital relationship • --Murasaki is now of marriageable age • --Genji observes the rituals of a secondary marriage How does Murasaki react to the change in their relationship?What happens in later chapters? • Genji gets in political trouble and is sent into exile. • And yet, later he is recalled and he goes on to have a long and successful political career. He returns with the Akashi lady who Murasaki shuns at first. • He becomes a member of the older generation, father of an empress (the Akashi Lady’s daughter), secret father of an emperor.Genji’s fate: mono-no-aware, 1 • Genji involved in new love affair with Akashi Lady. • He gathers all his important women to live with him into one mansion, musical concert (pp.218-220) • He begins to feel the transience of secular lifeGenji’s fate: mono-no-aware, 2 • He begins to feel the transience of secular life: • “From my infancy on, I enjoyed special treatment and was reared with the greatest partiality; and my present reputation and way of life are such as few have known. But I have also been unusual in another respect– in the sheer number of extraordinary misfortunes that have come my way. In the first place, I have lost one after another of the people who loved me; and now, left behind in my declining years, I still must cope with a host of painful thoughts…Mine has come to be a sad existence.” (p.221)Possession of Muraskai • Murasaki requests to retire from the world as a Buddhist Nun, but Genji refuses to let her go. • Murasaki is also possessed by the spirit of the now dead Rokujo Lady (pp.224-230): • “Flying through the sky, I’ve watched your care of my daughter, the empress, with pleasure and gratitude…My only remaining impediment to enlightenment is the old bitterness against you.” (p.226)Parting Poem of Muraskai • Murasaki • My life is like the dew • Clinging to a lotus leaf • Can I hope to live • As long as the dew may require • To vanish of itself? • Genji • Let’s stay together, • In the next world as in this, • Like sparkling dewdrops • On a single lotus leaf: • Don’t ever set yourself apart. 1. What does the dew represent? 2. What attitude do Murasaki and Genji take toward impermanence in their poems? 3. Does Genji’s poem remind you of other poems we have read this semester?Death of Muraskai • After continued sickness following the possession, Murasaki later dies in her 40s. • Genji never recovers from her death. He takes holy vows and becomes a Buddhist monk. • After Genji’s death, the novel shifts attention to a younger generation.Assessment of Muraskai • More than being a tale about Genji, the Tale of Genji is arguably actually much more about different types of court ladies. • The author gives this assessment of Murasaki: “There are women in the world who may be fine human beings, but who nevertheless incur universal envy and spite simply because fortune has blessed them; and there are others, born to high position, who cause suffering because of inordinate pride. But Murasaki was a remarkable person, as charming as she was efficient in every situation: her slightest action received general praise, and she enjoyed amazing popularity, even among people of no special discernment.” (p.241)Conclusions 1: Ideals of Courtly Love • 1. Feelings should be as beautiful as dress • 2. The qualities most valued in a lover were similar regardless of sex: beauty and grace, talent and sensibility, and personal thoughtfulness • 3. Especially stressed are the aesthetics of writing: calligraphy, the literary merits of the poems, the color and texture of the paper, the way it is folded, the selection of a twig on which to tie the note • 4. Most important is the “morning after letters”: a good indication of the seriousness and probable duration of the relationship • 5. Tears were important: a sign of depth of feeling and of a genuine awareness of the ephemeral nature of beauty, the transient nature of all that is good and beautifulConclusion 2: Politics Rule by “Cloistered Emperors” 1. The Fujiwara clan controlled power through marriage with the emperors; the Fujiwara women were empresses and consorts; “matriarchal power.” 2. To compete with the Fujiwara clan, abdicated emperors attained supremacy through the paternal family; “patriarchal power.” 3. The general policy of the abdicated emperors was to acquire for the imperial family the same type of assets enjoyed by the Fujiwara. As a result, the imperial family became the largest landholder in Japan. 4. Complicated power dynamic: sometimes more than one retired emperor; the imperial court; the Fujiwara clan; and the Buddhist temples.• Buddhism of this period was centered on a tripartite truth: 1) the truth that all phenomena