This essay describes the serious humor in The Pillow Book. I think it is a quite interesting question to consider, Sei Shonagon is an interesting person. She writes about nature, about festival, her friends, her life, and it’s like an intelligent woman being sarcastic and talking to herself, which is kind of cute.
http://www.kyotojournal.org/the-journal/in-translation/on-translating-a-classic/
http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/special/japan_600ce_genji.htm
Above is the webpage I found about the Tale of Genji
“In general, courting in the Heian period took place freely among men and women of equal rank. The man would send a poem to a lady he had heard about and wait for a reply. If the reply was favorable and, more important, artistic, then he might call upon the lady. She would remain hidden behind a screen, surrounded by her ladies-in-waiting. Poems would then be passed back and forth through the screen. If the man was to gain admission behind the screen he would be acknowledged as her lover. Until this moment, however, the two would not meet face to face. Note that Yûgao and Genji do not look on one another until after they have become lovers .”
This is the historical fact about Heian court, which is accurate, but obviously, women at that period didn’t control their fate. After the courting, some men just left and never came back, leaving the women waiting. Like the girl Genji met in his exile. But for men, they can choose to take them with him or just leave.
The question is:
1. Genji had a tender spot for women, he treated women nicely, even the women he didn’t like a lot, he would see to it that they were taken good care of, which is a good quality at that time period. This might not be considered a good quality for man today.
An ideal young man should be loyal and respect women, be optimistic and work hard to improve himself.
2.Yes. The tale was affected by the fact that the writer was a woman. Lady Murasaki pity the fate of those women. A man might describe Genji as an unreal person who was too emotional and less practical.
3. The author used a lot of description about the surroundings and about the flowers, and even used poems, haikus to describe the feelings of characters.
4. Nature is used on almost everywhere to describe their emotions. For example the flowers and trees.
Although Jane is not a traditional Japanese girl, she and Sei Shōnagon still have a lot in common. They both are fearless and true to themselves. They both don’t care what others might think about them. They both record their life. They both have their own value system, and they are stubborn. Sei Shōnagon was a kind court lady but she still tells the truth, what she liked and what she hates. Jane is more complicated but she also express her feelings to her friends and to Sloan. They both have lovers and they enjoy their dates.
When we look at Sei Shōnagon’s Pillow Book, we can tell that her heart is filled with joyness and happiness. She hates something and expresses her contempts but she loves the world. But Jane experienced more pain. She can’t have baby and she lost the baby she already had in her belly. So we could imagine her sorrow. But to Sei Shōnagon, she never had that problem.
From the book, My Year of Meats, our main character is an independent woman named Jane.
Jane is an American born half Japanese woman, she is raised in U.S.A. She doesn’t resemble a Japanese girl at all. Her values are pure American style, she does not think she should be tied with a man, or get married. In her mind, she can do anything she likes. She is fearless and she is fierce. Her decision of telling the world the truth about meat industry is so brave. This book is a record of her life. Just like Sei Shonagon’s Pillow Book, she likes documentary, another type of recording, telling the truth.
When I read the book, I found that Sei Shonagon’s pillow book are so ramdon. On one day, it was a peom, then a longer article. She recorded her life in this pillow book. They might be small things, but some of them seem very charming. Here’s a piece about different ways of speaking.
Different Ways of Speaking
A priest’s language.
The speech of men and of women.
The common people always tend to add extra syllabus to their words.
Peaks
Yuzuruha, Amida, Iyataka.
There are also those pomes that are included in My Year of Meats, like Things That Make One’s Heart Beat Faster, and Hateful Things.
She wrote about the cat that lived in the palace and it was such an interesting piece. Perhaps she was the only person noticed and wrote down such small things with tenderness.
Another piece, Festival.
She wrote about dragon boat festival, how she loved the scent of herbals, and how joyful she was.
I think she was a very delightful young woman, she was spontaneous and she had tenderness to see the small things in her life and wrote about them. She loved life, she loved everything, everything was interesting to her, and worth recording.
Sei Shonagon and the Pillow Book
https://books.google.com/books?id=H-F5iZeCMfQC&pg=PA24&lpg=PA24&dq#v=onepage&q&f=false
“One ought not to be unkind to a woman merely on account of her plainness, any more than one had a right to take liberties with her merely because she was handsome”
― Murasaki Shikibu, The Tale of Genji
“If like the leaf of the wisteria through which the sun darts his rays transparently you give your heart to me, I will no longer distrust you”
― Murasaki Shikibu, The Tale of Genji
“It is indeed in many ways more comfortable to belong to that section of society whose action are not publicly canvassed and discussed”
― Murasaki Shikibu, The Tale of Genji
“The hanging gate, of something like trelliswork, was propped on a pole, and he could see that the house was tiny and flimsy. He felt a little sorry for the occupants of such a place–and then asked himself who in this world had a temporary shelter.
[Anonymous, Kokinshuu 987:
Where in all this world shall I call home?
A temporary shelter is my home.]
A hut, a jeweled pavilion, they were the same. A pleasantly green vine was climbing a board wall. The white flowers, he said to himself, had a rather self-satisfied look about them.
‘I needs must ask the lady far yonder,” he said, as if to himself.
[Anonymous, Kokinshuu 1007:
I needs must ask the lady far yonder
What flower it is off there that blooms so white.]
An attendant came up, bowing deeply. “The white flowers far off yonder are known as ‘evening faces,” he said. “A very human sort of name–and what a shabby place they have picked to bloom in.”
It was as the man said. The neighborhood was a poor one, chiefly of small houses. Some were leaning precariously, and there were “evening faces” at the sagging eaves.
A hapless sort of flower. Pick one off for me, will you?”
The man went inside the raised gate and broke off a flower. A pretty little girl in long, unlined yellow trousers of raw silk came out through a sliding door that seemed too good for the surroundings. Beckoning to the man, she handed him a heavily scented white fan.
Put it on this. It isn’t much of a fan, but then it isn’t much of a flower either.”
― Murasaki Shikibu, The Tale of Genji
“The wood-carver can fashion whatever he will. Yet his products are but toys of the moment, to be glanced at in jest, not fashioned according to any precept or law. When times change, the carver too will change his style and make new trifles to hit the fancy of the passing day. But there is another kind of artist, who sets more soberly about his work, striving to give real beauty to the things which men actually use and to give to them the shape which tradition has ordained. This maker of real things must not for a moment be confused with the maker of idle toys.”
― Murasaki Shikibu, The Tale of Genji
“Would that, like the smoke of the watch-fires that mounts and vanishes at random in the empty sky, the smouldering flame of passion could burn itself away”
― Murasaki Shikibu, The Tale of Genji
I think lady Murasaki didn’t like the flame of passion but instead she thought that life is too short and anything could happen, that fate is so uncertain. I guess that’s why she had a bad impression about Sei Shonagon. Because she is serious about a lot of things, when she saw others indulged themselves on short period of passion, her sense told her not to be too emotional but to see the world calmly.
“Even those people who have no sorrow of their own often feel melancholy from the circumstances in which they are placed.”
― Murasaki Shikibu, The Tale of Genji
“The dews that wet the tender grass, At the sun’s birth, too quickly pass, Nor e’er can hope to see it rise In full perfection to the skies.” Shiônagon, who now joined them, and heard the above distich, consoled the nun with the following:— “The dews will not so quickly pass, Nor shall depart before they see The full perfection of the grass, They loved so well in infancy.”
― Murasaki Shikibu, The Tale of Genji
Some of the pomes that are translated into Chinese, and I just post them here for my own reading.
《空蝉》
蝉衣一袭余香在，睹物怀人亦可怜。
蝉衣凝露重，树密少人知。似我衫常湿，愁思可告谁？
《末摘花》
共见东山明月上，不知今夜落谁家？
月明到处清光照，试问今宵落哪边？
千呼万唤终无语，幸不禁声且续陈。
岂可禁声君且说，缘何无语我难知。
原知无语强于语，如哑如聋闷煞人。
夕雾迷离犹未散，更逢夜雨倍添愁。
雨中待月荒园里，纵不同心亦解怜。
朝日当轩冰著解，缘何地冻不消融？
白首老翁衣积雪，晨游公子泪沾襟。
冶游公子情可薄，锦绣春衣袖不干。
明知此色无人爱，何必栽培末摘花？
纵然情比春纱薄，莫为他人树恶名！
相逢常恨衣衫隔，又隔新添一袭衣。
梅枝挺秀人欣赏，底事红花不可怜？
《花宴》
若能看作寻常舞，贪赏丰姿不疚心。
你我皆知深夜好，良缘恰似月团圆。
妾如不幸归泉壤，料汝无缘扫墓来。
东寻西探芳名字，谣诼纷传似竹风。
朦胧残月归何处？刻骨相思恼杀人。
我屋藤花如拙陋，何须特地待君来？
石川高丽人，取了我的扇。我心甚后悔，可恨又可叹。……
暂赏朦胧月，还能再见无？山头凝望处，忧思入迷途。
但得心相许，非关月有无。山头云漠漠，安得入迷途？
https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/2212225-genji-monogatari
Locate your destination toward the sun.
Love dancing with the south wind.
Where are you flying to? What’s the meaning behind your beautiful name?
Teeth of lion.
Eyes following the wind, but one day your tears dry and turn white.
It’s a mild breeze, that
Take you across the river. Up and down.
To wherever you want.
Want to anchor down.
Much of dizziness.
Little of certainty.
Say nothing, rest in the tranquil night.
My Year of Meats is a book by Ruth L. Ozeki, the main characters are mostly women, women from Japan and American women. It’s a book of feminism, we can see how Akiko, Jane and other female characters grow to be strong women.
Comparing Japanese traditional female characters like women in The Tale of Genji, women like Murasaki, Aoi, Yugao; We can see that they don’t have control over their own life, they are like possessions belong to the men. But women from Ozeki’s book are stronger. Ozeki’s book records their life, the paths they choose. They start from different place, have different life, different paths, and they come to realization of their inner strength, they are not obedient any more. They stand up to fight for their own life.
Women from those two books are alike, they both are beautiful and strong. But under the circumstances, women from Heian court can’t live without their husband, they are pretty for a while and they die like flowers, very fast. All their value and talent are limited by men. Nevertheless, Lady Murasaki still wrote the famous book and Sei Shonagon had The Pillow Book to record their thoughts. They shine like other men, and even brighter in history.
Imagine you live in court in Heian period, who would you rather be?
Like we discussed in an earlier post, Lady Murasaki and Sei Shōnagon were from different political groups. And they were both talented female writers, poets. As they lived in the same court, favoring different queens, no wonder they didn’t like each other.
But Lady Murasaki’s comment about Sei Shōnagon was too harsh. She was like the well educated lady standing for the authority at that time. In her book, she praised the beauty of women, but she also related women’s fate with men. Genji got almost every women he wanted. Genji even built a palace for his lovers, he treated women nicely, but that’s all he could do to them. If you think he really loved Murasaki, think again! He married another woman, even it’s only political reunion. But it hurt Murasaki’s feeling, he didn’t notice or maybe didn’t care about her feelings, and it eventually caused her death.
At the mean time, Sei Shōnagon was the cat in the pigeons, she got to choose whoever she loved and she even wrote books about it. Her romantic encounters must have terrified those who valued traditional culture. Lady Murasaki might be one of them. Sei Shōnagon was too much ahead of her time, Lady Murasaki might be jealous or might just disliked her attitudes. She set a bad example for the ladies in court.
If we look at them using today’s value system, we might found Sei Shōnagon really cool and Lady Murasaki really mean. But eventually we are merely followers of our culture, limited by our times.
The Heian Court ----- Lady Murasaki and Sei Shanogan 