EM 14: SURVEY IN AFRO-ASIAN LITERATURE
WEEK 7: THE ANALECTS – CHINESE
LITERATURE
The Analects are a collection of the teachings and
thoughts of Confucius; they also contain
fragments of dialogues between the great Chinese
philosopher and his disciples. The name in
English derived from the word "analect" which
means a fragment or extract of literature, or a
collection of teachings.
In Chinese, the book is literally called "discussion
on the words [of Confucius]." The Analects are
believed to have been collected by the disciples of
Confucius and not by the sage himself.
Some scholars have proposed dates as late as 140
BC for the text's compilation. Liu Xiang (Han
Dynasty Scholar) two versions of the Analects :
Lu version contains 20 chapters
Qi version contains 22 chapters, including
chapters that are not found in the Lu version
Both versions had in common; the Lu version had
more passages. Each version had its own masters,
scholars,
Emperor Jing of Han (r. 157 – 141 BC) Third
version (the “old text version”) it was hidden in a
wall of the home then believed to be Confucius
when the home then believed to be Confucius
when the home was in the process of being
destroyed by King Gong of Lu (r. 153-128 BC) to
expand the king’s palace
The new version did not contain the two extra
chapters found in the Qi version, but it split one
chapter found in the Lu and Qi version in two, so
it had twenty-one used chapters, and in order of
the chapters was different
The old text version got its name because it was
written in a character system not used since the
earlier Warring State period (i.e. before 221 BC),
when it was assumed to have been hidden.
Huan Tan scholar of Han Dynasty, the old text
version had four hundred characters different from
the Lu version (from which the received text of
the Analects is mostly based), and it seriously
differed from the Lu version in twenty-seven
places. Of these twenty-seven differences, the
received text only agrees with the old text version
in two places
Emperor Cheng of Han, Zang Yu (d. 5 BC)
synthesize the Lu and Qi version by taking the Lu
version as authoritative and selectively adding
sections from the Qi version, and produced a
composite text of the Analects known as the
"Zhang Hou Lun". This text was recognized by
Zhang Yu's contemporaries and by subsequent
Han scholars as superior to either individual
version, and is the text that is recognized as the
Analects today
Before the late twentieth century the oldest
existing copy of the Analects known to scholars
was found in the "Stone Classics of the Xinping
Era", a copy of the Confucian classics written in
stone in the old Eastern Han dynasty.
Archaeologists have since discovered two
handwritten copies of the Analects that were
written around 50 BC, during the Western Han
dynasty. They are known as the "Dingzhou
Analects", and the "Pyongyang Analects"
The Dingzhou Analects was discovered in 1973,
but no transcription of its contents was published
until 1997. The Pyongyang Analects was
discovered in 1992. Academic access to the
Pyongyang Analects has been highly restricted,
and no academic study on it was published until
2009.
The Dingzhou Analects was damaged in a fire
shortly after it was entombed in the Han dynasty.
It was further damaged in an earthquake shortly
after it was recovered, and the surviving text is
just under half the size of the received text of the
Analects. Of the sections that survive It shorter
than the received Analects, implying that the text
of the Analects was still in the process of
expansion when the Dingzhou Analects was
entombed. There was evidence that "additions"
may have been made to the manuscript after it had
been completed, indicating that the writer may
have become aware of at least one other version of
the Analects and included "extra" material for the
sake of completeness.
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 EM 14: SURVEY IN AFRO-ASIAN LITERATURE
The Pyongyang Analects is similar to the
Dingzhou Analects; but, because of the secrecy
and isolationism of the North Korean government,
only a very cursory study of it has been made
available to international scholars, and its contents
are not completely known outside of North Korea.
Scholars do not agree about whether either the
Dingzhou Analects or the Pyongyang Analects
represent the Lu version, the Qi version, the old
text version, or a different version that was.
ANALECTS OF CONFUCIUS
ANALECTS (Lunyu) simplified Chinese,
traditional Chinese:
Lún Yǔ; literally "Selected Sayings“ also known
as the Analects of Confucius, is the collection of
sayings and ideas attributed to the Chinese
philosopher Confucius and his contemporaries.
1. Do not do unto others what you don’t want
others do to you.
2. Men are born pretty much alike, but through
their habits they gradually grow further and
further apart from each other.
3. To know what you know and know what
you don’t know is the characteristics of one who
knows.
4. It is easy to be rich and not haughty; it is
difficult to be poor and not grumble.
5. Do not worry people about not knowing
you, but strive so that you may be worth knowing
If a man would be severe towards himself and
generous toward others, he would never arouse
resentment.
6. A man who does not think a plan long
ahead will find trouble right by his door.
7. To repay evil with kindness is the sign of a
generous character. To repay kindness with evil is
a sign of criminal.
8. When you see good man, try to emulate his
example, and when you see bad man, search
yourself for his faults. Don’t criticize other
people’s fault; criticize your own.
9. The superior man is always candid and at
ease (with himself or others): the inferior man is
always worried about something.
10. A gentleman is ashamed that his words are
better than his deeds.
11. Reading without thinking gives one a
disorderly mind, and thinking without reading
makes one flighty.
12. That type of scholarship which is bent on
remembering things in order to answer people’s
questions does not qualify one to be a teacher.
WEEK 8: INDIAN LITERATURE
INDIA - is the world’s 7th largest country located
in South Asia
- Second most populous country about 3,000
km (1,865mi) wide, shoreline about 7,000km
(4,350mi) along Bay of Bengal.
- India and Bharat are both official names
- Derived from Indus river used by Greeks
- India civilization grew up in the Indus
Valley 4000 to 2500 BC
- Divided into three main topographic
regions:
1. Himalayan Mountain system on the North
2. Northern plain, drained by the Indus,Ganges
and Bramaputra rivers in North central India
3. Peninsular India in the South
PEOPLE: - over thousand years, countless group
have migrated into the subcontinent and many of
these groups have maintained distinctive cultures
down through years. The earliest Indians may
have migrated from Australia and the Pacific
Islands.
LANGUAGE: - more than 200 languages are
spoken in India
- FOUR (4) MAJOR LANGUAGES:
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 EM 14: SURVEY IN AFRO-ASIAN LITERATURE
1. Indo-Arab –branch of the Indo-European · Free and open
group (the major linguistic family in Europe)
· 8 years in primary
2. Dravidian language group
· 2 years in lower secondary
3. Hindi – the fourth most widely spoken
· 2 years in upper secondary
language in the world
· Compulsory in 6-14 years old
4. Indo – Aryan language
· University are large with cluster of
affiliated colleges.
RELIGION:
FOUR MAJOR RELIGIOUS
HISTORY OF INDIA:
TRADITIONS have emerged from this area:
The history of India as a sovereign state
1. Hinduism – 83%
under its own constitutional government began on
2. Jainism (and Islam) – 11% August 15, 1947, when the subcontinent was
partitioned into the two states of India and
3. Buddhism - less than 1%
Pakistan. Pakistan became an Islamic state while
4. Sikhism – India opted to become a secular state.

Indian Caste system – major social system that
groups people according to birth
1. Brahmins – priests, the highest caste
2. Kshatriyas – warriors and kings
3. Vaishyas – merchants
4. Shudras – manual laborers
CASTE SYSTEM:
Some people do not fall into any caste,
these are called dalits or untouchables.
Untouchables also known as Harijans. Dalits have
traditionally been tasked with work such as
cleaning streets and working with human and
animal corpses and waste. Caste-based
discrimination is now illegal in India, and
affirmative-action policies aim to improve
standards of living in lower castes, but inequalities
persist.
EDUCATION:
· 1950 and 1988 – India literacy was
doubled.
· Literacy is higher on man than woman.
Mahatma Gandhi- the father of modern
India was assassinated on January 20, 1948 by the
militant Hindu who believed him to be too kind to
Muslim. During Gandhi’s first decade in office
agriculture production increased. India exploded
in 1974, its first nuclear weapon and Sikkim
became state of India.
In June 1975 – Gandhi persuaded president
Fakhuruddin Ali Ahmend to evoke as state of
emergency that gave her near-dictatorial power -
opposition leads were jailed without trial and
many constitutional freedoms were curtailed. In
March 1977, Gandhi suddenly called new
election, perhaps to legitimatize the powers she
had taken under the emergency. Surprisingly, a
coalition of parties ranging in ideology from
socialist to conservative Hindus (the Janata party)
won control of the Lok Sabha. Morarji Desai, a
long time opponent of Gandhi became prime
minister. President Ahmed died that same year and
Nelan Sanjavi Reddy was elected president. The
Janata party almost immediately began to break
apart and Desai resign as prime minister in July
1979.
Gandhi was born in Pobandan India on
October 2, 1869- his father was a chief minister
for the maharaja of Porbandan, and the family

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 EM 14: SURVEY IN AFRO-ASIAN LITERATURE
came from traditional caste of grocers and
moneylenders. His mother was a devout adherent
Jainism, a religions in which ideas of nonviolence
and vegetarianism. Gandhi stated that he was most
influenced by his mother. He married by
arrangement at 13. He went to London to study
law when he was 18. He works for an Indian firm
in South Africa. He experiences overt racial
discrimination. He assumed leadership of protest
campaign and gradually developed his techniques
of nonviolent resistance known as Satyagraha.
Gandhi also fought to improve the status of the
lowest classes of society, the castes untouchables,
whom he called Harijans.
He believed in manual labor and simple
living. Non-violence or non-injury is a percept
common to three faiths, HINDUISM, JAINISM,
and BUDDHISM:
1. HINDUISM – adherent to the prescription
against violence toward living things can escape
from the cycle of rebirth and the doctrine also
form a basis for vegetarian.
· MACAULAY –established English
language schooling of Indians
· Michael MADHUSUDAN DUTT and
JAYASHANKAR PRASAD (1889- 1937)
introduced black verse in sonnet into Indian
poetry.
· ARUNACALA KAVI – developed a
utilitarian prose style
· MADHUSUDAN DUTT – wrote the first
plays modeled on Western Drama
· SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE –
introduced the short story to vernacular writing in
India.
· LAKSMINATH BEZBARUA and
MUHAMMAD IQBAL – major poets of the
period
HISTORY OF INDIAN LITERATURE falls into
TWO PERIODS:
1. The Verdic Period

2. BUDDHISM – non-violence manifests in 2. The Sanskrit Period

the Buddha’s emphasis on compassion and is also RELIGIOUS WORKS
part of the faith’s moral codes.
· POETRY –:
3. JAINISM – non-violence is a core religious
duty and followed so strictly that the most 1. The RIG VEDA –a book of sacred hymns
Orthodox devotes cover their faces with mask to 2. The YAJUR VEDA – a book of knowledge
prevent accidentally harming insect. and melodies for the hymns.
SANSKRIT LITERATURE: 3. The SAMA VEDA – descriptions of the
· ORAL TRADITION produced the Vedic materials for sacrifice
holy text. 4. The ATHARVA VEDA – contains magic
· Mahabharata and Ramayana – two great spells and other folk knowledge
books, sources for countless literary · The BRAHMANAS
· 400 B.C. – Panini produced his Sanskrit · The UPANISHADS
grammar
· MAYA
· Second Century AD – Prakrits being used
in literature · THE SUTRAS

· Middle Ages Sanskrit – used in religious

context by priesthood SECULAR WORKS:
· Ghazal – stylized form of lyrical folk song 1. EPICS:
and notable exponents of the form.

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 EM 14: SURVEY IN AFRO-ASIAN LITERATURE
· The Mahabharata SACRED WRITINGS:
· Bhagavad gita · The Vedas – collections of Sanskrit hymns
(written down 1200-900BCE, but based on older
· Nala and Damayanti
oral versions)
· The Ramayana
· The Upanishads – which means the inner
2. DRAMAS: or mystic teaching that were passed down from
guru (teacher) to disciple (student).
3. The toy clay cart
4. Sakuntala or the fatal ring
MAHABHARATA – Sanskrit for Great Story, is
5. The Jatakas one of the great epic poems of ancient India.
6. The Panchatantra · It was written between 300 BC and AD 300
7. Romanorum · The story is about the battle of one family
8. The Hitopdesa over a kingdom in northern India.

9. The Sukasaptati · The Bhagavad Gita (Song of God) is

KARMA AND REINCARNATION:
· REINCARNATION – is the belief that the
soul repeatedly goes through a cycle of being born
into a body, dying, and being reborn again in a
new body.
· KARMA – a force that determines the
quality of each life, depending on how well one
behaved in a past life.
· HINDUISM – says we create karma by our
actions on earth. If you live a good life, you create
good karma. If you live a bad life, you create bad
karma.
MOKSHA:
· Each time a Hindu soul is born into a better
life, it has the opportunity to improve itself
further, and get closer to ultimate liberation. This
liberation is called Moksha.
· One attains Moksha when one has
“overcome ignorance”, and no longer desires
anything at all.
· The ones who reach this state no longer
struggle with the cycle of life and death.
· The way to get to Moksha is to not create
any karma.
contained in the Mahabharata. It is a dialogue
between Krishna and the hero Arjuna on the
meaning of life.
RAMAYANA – was written in 3rd century BC,
and tells story of Rama, and his wife, Sita. Rama
and Sita are generally seen as ideal examples of
great manly heroism and wifely devotion.
· Reciting the Ramayana is considered a
religious act, and scenes from the epic are
portrayed throughout India and Southeast Asia.
HINDU LIFE GOALS
· HINDUISM –is about the sort of life one
should lead in order to be born into a better life
next time and ultimately achieve liberation. There
are four legitimate goals in life:
1. DHARMA – appropriate living
2. ARTHA –the pursuit of material gain by
lawful means
3. KAMA –delight of the senses.
4. MOKSHA – release from rebirth
· HINDU DUTIES: Each Hindu has 4 daily
duties:
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 EM 14: SURVEY IN AFRO-ASIAN LITERATURE
1. Revere the deities
2. Respect ancestors
3. Respect all beings
4. Honor all humankind
WEEK 9: HEBREW LITERATURE
HEBREW comes from Middle English word
‘EBREU” which comes from the Old French
derived from the Latin word “HEBRAES”
· Hebrew were the ancestors of Samaritan
and Jew. Jews were the descendants of the
Hebrews. Hebrews claim to be the descendants of
biblical patriarch, Abraham.
· Hebrews live in the Ancient Middle East.
Around 1,400 BC, they settled in Canaan
(formerly known as Israel), the country of the
Eastern coast Mediterranean Sea, the territory of
modern Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria.
ANCIENT HEBREW LITERATURE
· Literature in Hebrew begins with the Oral
Literature of the Leshon Hakodesh or the “Holy
Language”. The most important work of Ancient
Hebrew is the Hebrew Bible
named Tanakh. Mishna – primary rabbinic
codification of laws as derived from the torah, it
was written in Mishnaic Hebrew.
MEDIEVAL HEBREW LITERATURE
· During the medieval period, the majority of
Jewish and Hebrew was composed by Islamic
North Africa, Spain, Palestine, and Middles East.
Many works of medieval philosophical literature
such as Maimonides Guide to the Perplexed and
the Kuzari, as well as many works of fiction, were
written in Judeo-Arabic.

· Hebrew is a member of the Canaanite group

of Semitic languages. They lived in tents. –
· One work of fiction which was written in
Wealthier people live in the houses built in of sand
Hebrew was the “Fox Fables” by Berechiah ben
dried mud bricks, the roof of the house was flat.
Natronai H-Nakdan. Hebrew fables which
The church of the Hebrew was called Jerusalem
resemble Aesop’s fable.
Temple (the 1st temple was built by King
Solomon) It was covered with gold. (Jerusalem
Temple)
· Much medieval Jewish poetry was written
· Hebrew food was similar to the food of in Hebrew, including the liturgical Piyyutim in
other Mediterranean people. They ate homemade Palestine in the 7th and 8th centuries by Yose ben
bread that the lady of the house would bake in the Yose, Yanai, and Eleazar Kalir. This liturgy was
big clay (the yard, lentils, cheese, olives, and fresh compiled in book from “the siddur” by rabbis
fruits) Meat and fish were also available. The including Amram Gaon and Saadia Gaon.
popular drink was wine.
· Hebrews wear fringes (edge of garment)
MODERN HEBREW LITERATURE
and tekhelet ribbon. Tekhelet was translated in the
King James version (KJV) to mean blue, however, · In addition to writing traditional rabbinic
it means violet in Hebrew, not blue. It looks like a literature in Hebrew, MODERN Jews developed
Tyrian purple. new forms of fiction, poetry and essay writing
which are called “Modern Hebrew Literature.”
HEBREW LITERATURE
· It consists of ancient, medieval and modern
writings in the Hebrew language. It is one of the 18th CENTURY
primary forms of Jewish Literature. It was
produced in many different parts of the world
throughout the medieval and modern eras.
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 EM 14: SURVEY IN AFRO-ASIAN LITERATURE
· “La-Yesharim Tehillah” – it is an allegorical
drama – 1st product of modern Hebrew Literature.
It was written by Moses Hayyim Luzattor
· Moses Mendelsshon’s translation of the
Hebrew Bible into German inspired interest in the
Hebrew language that led to the founding of a
quarterly review written in Hebrew. “Shire
Tif’eret” and “Mosiade”- poems made by
Nephtali Hirz and Wessely
19th CENTURY
· In the 19th century Galicia poets, scholars,
and popular writers who contributed to the
discrimination of Hebrew and to the emancipation
of the Jews of Galicia.
· Joseph Perl- writer and educator. In 1819,
he published Revealer of Secrets, the 1st Hebrew
novel.
· Nachman Krochmal – a philosopher,
theologian, and historian.
· Solomon Judah Loeb Rapoport – a rabbi,
poet, and biographer.
· Isaac Erter – a satirical poet, whose
collection of essays, “Ha-Tzofet le-Bet Yisrael, is
one of the purest works of modern Hebrew
Literature.
· Meir Halevy Letteris – a lyric poet, Julius
Barasch – a notable Jewish author in Romania.
20th CENTURY
· Hayim Nahman Bialk – one of the pioneers
of modern Hebrew poets. Yitzhag Shami- novelist,
Palestinian Jewish native of Hebron. 2004 – he
was recognized by Palestinian Academic Society
as one of the important Palestinian writers.
· Leah Goldberg – prolific writer and pioneer
of Israel Children’s Literature.
CONTEMPORARY HEBREW LITERATURE
· My Michael and Black Box –novels by
Amos Oz. The Lover and Mr. Mani – by A.B.
Yehoshua. Anton Shammas – Israel author who
published the Hebrew novel “Arabesque.”
SAMPLE HEBREW LITERATURE:
SUMMARY OF THE STORY OF RUTH
A woman by the name of Naomi packed
up and moved from Judah to Moab due to a
terrible famine that was affecting her family. She
and her husband moved there with their two sons,
who eventually took wives while living in Moab.
Tragically, Naomi lost her husband and
two sons. Broken and empty, Naomi decided to
move back to Bethlehem in Judah. Her daughter-
in-law Ruth came with her, since she had also lost
her husband. Keep in mind that Ruth was a
Moabite woman, and she was now moving to
Judah as a foreigner. This was a big
deal in their culture, but she was committed to
Naomi as her daughter-in-law, and she wanted to
follow after the God of Israel.
While in Judah, God worked out an
amazing plan for a man named Boaz to take Ruth
as his wife, give her a child, and provide for her
and Naomi. What’s remarkable about this plan
was that Boaz was qualified as a “kinsman
redeemer” to take her as his wife. “Kinsman
redeemer” is a custom in those days, based upon
Deuteronomy 25:5-6, that directed that a relative
of a man who dies should marry that man’s widow
in order to perpetuate his lineage through this
woman.
According to God’s remarkable
sovereignty, it turned out that Boaz was a relative
to Ruth’s husband who had passed away; so, he
was qualified to marry her and perpetuated his
lineage. So, even in the midst of Ruth and
Naomi’s awful affliction, God still had a plan to
take care of them.
WEEK 10: PERSIAN LITERATURE
THE PERSIAN LANGUAGE
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 EM 14: SURVEY IN AFRO-ASIAN LITERATURE
The Persian Language between Arabic and pre-Islamic past in aspects including its meter
Turkish Modern Persian, a derivative of Old (attuned to Arabic), its lexis, and major themes.
Persian, “belongs to the Indo-Iranian branch of the
Through a diachronic study of classical Persian
Indo-European languages.” This ancestry makes
poetry we can study the consequence of
its grammar and vocabulary similar to those of
loanwords and syntactical arrangements from
Kurdish and Pashto. Persian also includes many
Arabic. Furthermore, as Arabic vocabulary has
loanwords from Arabic. The script is modified
itself changed significantly through time, it is
from Arabic, and like Arabic it has a highly
essential to keep in mind the deviations in norm
developed calligraphy, a leading Islamic art form.
and the different semantic relations of the same
This script is just as vital to the structure of the
words when used in Persian and Arabic in
poetry, and it is thoroughly blended with Persian
different historical periods.
prosody and poetic metaphors.
An additional factor in the transition of Middle
The Persians also absorbed themselves in Muslim
Persian to Persian was the geographical range of
culture through Arabic. Their most distinguished
this language in the awakening that accompanied
scholars and the clerical classes at court were
the Arab invasion. Following the path of the Arab
skilled in both languages. Bilingualism among
conquest, Persian spread from its heartlands to
leading cultural figures was a noteworthy feature
Central Asia (Transoxiana). For their conquests,
of the time. Far from bringing to an end the use of
the Arabs enlisted native peoples in their armed
the Persian language, both spoken and written, in
forces. These local populations did not speak a
Persia or elsewhere, the Arab invasion of Iran in
consistent Persian and in many cases did not even
the seventh century merely heralded a process of
use Persian among themselves.
evolution.
Nevertheless, the Persian of the time served as a
In this process Middle Persian, the language of
lingua franca for these recruited men. They spread
the Sassanid court (circa. 225–651/ 823–1249),
this new version in the occupied provinces, from
evolved into Persian, which became the language
Azerbaijan to Central Asia, to the detriment of
of early literary landmarks such as Firdawsī’s
other Iranian languages and other dialects of
Shāh-nāma and Bal‘amī’s translation and
Persian. Such was the case 3 Copyright © 2015 by
adaptation of Ṭabarī’s History, and which in turn
Bahman Solati, all rights reserved. Iran Chamber
developed into Modern Persian. If the Persians
Society has the privilege to publish this article
played more than just a passive role in Arabic
on www.iranchamber.com. of Sughdian, a
literature, and even in the greater formulation of
language belonging to an ancient culture that was
Islamic traditional culture, this is in great measure
mainly overwhelmed by Persian.
because the entire extent, and not merely a part, of
the ancient Sāsāniān empire, with all of its Therefore Persian became, in time, the court
institutions and cultural traditions, fell to the lot of language of the first semi-independent Muslim
the Arab conquerors. They conquered the Persians territories, most particularly those established in
but did not do away with the age-old cultural the Greater Khurāsān. With the arrival of
institutions of that people; on the contrary, the translations and interpretations of the Qurʾān,
Arabs were in their turn conquered, culturally Persian began to display its flexibility as a
speaking, by the Persians. language for transmission of religious and
spiritual considerations as well as administrative
The Middle Persian language itself survived
and cultural concerns. The geographical growth of
among populations of Zoroastrians in Persia in the
the language was now from a new course, from
first three centuries after the rise of Islam, and
Bukhara to Tabriz, and from Ghazna to Shiraz.
substantial religious texts in Middle Persian
For a while the province of Fārs in southern Persia
survive from this period. But classical Persian
sustained many of the distinct qualities of Middle
poetry relies heavily on tradition and cultural
Persian, while Central Asia, the first site of the
memory, displaying strong connections with the
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 EM 14: SURVEY IN AFRO-ASIAN LITERATURE
new culture inspired by Islam, was for ten
centuries the heartland of scientific and literary
Persian. Throughout these lands, however,
substantial elements of pre-Islamic Iranian culture
were maintained, a critically important fact in the
overall history and culture of the Islamic realm.
Persian delivered to the Muslim world a wealth of
Iranian art, stories, traditions, and mythologies as
well as history, ethical teaching, political
guidance, and religious essays rooted in the pre-
Islamic period. The abundant literary
accomplishments of the Abbasid age and the
notable sparkle of Muslim mysticism are indebted
to the Iranian input, completed through the
medium of the Arabic language. Ṭabarī (d.
923/1521), in his two enormous works History
and Tafsir (commentary on the Qurʾān), and the
great anthologist and scholar from Nayshābūr,
Abū Manṣūr Ṭaʿālabī (d. 440/1038), in his
creative writings on literature and ethics and
behavior, are expressive representatives of this
deeply rooted Persian presence. By start of the
ninth century, Persian was being shaped from a
somewhat different direction, this time by the
Turks. Soon after the Umayyad period, High
Turkish officials and ranked officers were a
relentless feature of the Persian political and
military structure, always close to the rulers. In the
northeastern provinces of Persia, the system of
ghulāms (slavery) demanded the association of
Turks in Muslim militaries. They became
Muslims, adopted the Persian language, and began
to move up the military ladder. Conquerors of a
state that in one century extended from Baghdad
to Anatolia and to the Indus, the Turks in turn
were won over by Persian culture, while
maintaining control of their new states for
centuries. After them, Mongol and Mughal patrons
nurtured the same customs and explored the same
heritage. If Tamerlane gathered an elite coterie of
scientists, artists, and men of letters in Samarqand
by force and oppression, his heirs through
generous sponsorship shrewdly made the Herat of
the fifteenth century a supreme center of the
Persian literary world. The prevalent admiration
and impact of the ample poetry of ʿAbdu’l
Raḥmān Jāmi (d. 894/1492), spreading from Herat
to India and into the Near East is a noteworthy
sketch of this cultural proliferation. Even today,
Istanbul remains a treasury of Persian
manuscripts. Settling between two seas and a gulf,
the Iranian highland provided a perfect setting for
the exchange of cultures―its own spreading west
to the Mesopotamian rivers and east to the Oxus
(Āmū Daryā) and the Indus.
The Beginnings of Persian Poetry
In Persian literature, the difference between
poetry and prose has always been obvious and
rather deliberate, with poetry almost always taking
precedence. It distinguishes itself from prose not
only through rhyme and rhythm but also through
the ingenious play between clear connotation and
inherent nuance. For Ehsan Yarshater, 4 Copyright
© 2015 by Bahman Solati, all rights reserved. Iran
Chamber Society has the privilege to publish this
article on www.iranchamber.com. a fairly
extensive prose literature, mainly of narrative,
anecdotal, and moralizing kind also flourished, but
it is overshadowed by poetry in terms of quality
and quantity alike. In fact, poetry is the art par
excellence of Persia, and her salient cultural
achievement. Despite their considerable
accomplishments in painting, pottery, textiles, and
architecture, in no other field have the Persians
succeeded in achieving the same degree of
eminence.Abū ‘Abdullāh Jaʿfar Rūdakī (d.
342/940), originally from Rūdak near Samarqand,
was committed to the court of the Sāmānids Naṣr
b. Aḥmad (r. 266–94/864–92) at Bukhārā. Also a
singer artist and a musician, he stands without a
doubt at the summit of the history of Persian
poetry. His surviving works (the versified Indian
Bidpai fables otherwise known as Kalila va
Dimna), composed at the court of the Sāmānids in
Bukhārā, are the first chefs-d'oeuvre of Persian
poetry, serving as a model for later
generations.This testifies to how a great poet
created his art at the beginning of the eleventh
century. As we have seen, a division of labor was
still at work―poet, copyist, and storyteller were
three different functions. Minstrels and wandering
musicians in the West followed similar patterns.
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 EM 14: SURVEY IN AFRO-ASIAN LITERATURE
Arabic poetry began before the arrival of Islam in
fifth and sixth centuries, and its first centuries
following the rise of Islam have been the subject
of abundant debate and investigation. The
historical patterns of Persian poetry are quite
different. The Parthians of the pre-Islamic era
were minstrels who often performed at traditional
events and banquets, telling epic tales and reciting
lyrical poetry. They offered material and
motivation for later works of classical Persian
literature such as Vis u Rāmin, the tale of two
lovers. Some Zoroastrian and Buddhist texts have
also survived from the early days of Persian
literature. The Iranians certainly added richness to
Arabic literature in various fields. Arabic literature
reached its summit during the ‘Abbāsid culture
(ca. 750–860/1348–1458), to which Iranians had
made a vital contribution: the prose writer
‘Abdullāh b. al-Muqqafa‘ (killed ca. 142/759–60),
the jurist and first of four authorized Imāms
Ḥanīfa (d. ca. 150/767), the linguist Sibavayhī (d.
166/782), the disbeliever, poet, and satirist al-
Bashshār b. Burd (killed 167/783), and the poet
Abū Nuvās (d. 198/810) can be numbered among
its most brilliant exponents. A Persian poem is
shaped to delight the eye as well as the ear.
Behind the art are rules and skills that already
appear to be deeply rooted in the works of Rūdakī.
References by Shams-i Qays Rāzī (d. circa
628/1226),39 however, suggest that there was a
period of less skillful literary production before
Rūdakī emerged. At first, the obstacles appeared
to be of a practical nature; theory was to follow. In
practice, in terms of rhythm, one moved from a
pre-Islamic poetry dependent on interchanging
strains, seldom returning to the ictus (stress on a
syllable in a line of verse), to a poetry based on
the variation of long and short syllables, as in
Arabic poetry. We are better able to reconstitute
these moments of change and retrenchment, in
which the ancient rhythms were reinterpreted as
new rhythms, and doctrines of Arabic rhyme
triumphed once the Arabic alphabet was accepted.
In the poems of Rūdakī, the new technique seems
thoroughly concealed in writing that is certain and
vibrant, yet malleable for this period. It was not
until the twentieth century that Rūdakī’s prosody
became outdated and called into question. By
supporting different schools of poetry, the era’s
princes contributed to the formation of enduring
mores, such as the Khurāsānī, ‘Irāqī, Azerbaijani,
and Hindi (Indian). Court poets ever since Rūdakī,
or poets reciting their verses on religious
occurrences or in Sufi congregations since at least
Abū Saʿid Abu’l Khayr (d. 440/1038)42 in early
eleventh century, had to present themselves before
an audience and prove their worth. The spectators
were able to judge the poet’s art and technique
immediately, and they particularly valued his
ability to extemporize in public. Creativity
(badiha-sarāʾi) could elicit instant appreciation for
a great poet such as Farrukhī (d. 429/1027). Art, 5
Copyright © 2015 by Bahman Solati, all rights
reserved. Iran Chamber Society has the privilege
to publish this article on www.iranchamber.com.
technique, and improvisation were means through
which the poet encountered the expectations of his
audience and, drawing on his own erudition to
exert his authority, sought to reshape prevailing
poetic traditions.
Technical Rudiments of Persian Poetry
The fundamental unit of a Persian poem is a line
of verse comprised of two parts, each containing
the same number of syllables and set to the same
rhythm. In keeping with Arabic poetry, this distich
form is called a bayt (couplet), with the long and
short syllables arranged according to set
structures. The principles of these patterns are also
borrowed from Arabic, though we must bear in
mind that the great Persian meters are not very
common in Arabic and are most likely modified
from ancient Persian stress systems. Such is the
case of the quatrain, the rubāʿī, so typical of
Persian and known before Islam. It is also the case
for the mutaqārib, a reinterpretation of a stressed
rhythm found in Middle Persian and the meter
used for many famous long narrative poems in
Persian, including Firdawsī’s Shāh nāma. The
specific use of this meter and some others is in
itself a perfect illustration of the way literary
genres existed and differed markedly from each
other in their use of meters. The splendor of a
Persian poem, however, also lies in its public
oration (a fairly fresh and significant area for
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 EM 14: SURVEY IN AFRO-ASIAN LITERATURE
research), where many other factors interfere.
Sequentially, rhyme is needed for the poetic effect
of a Persian poem. It was the imitation of Arabic
poetry that led to its extensive use. A simple
voiced refrain at first, it soon became more
difficult and organized. In Persian poetry, the
arrangement of rhymes defines the poem’s form. A
form is considered to be classical when both parts
of the first bayt rhyme. The most common and
simple poem consists of two bayts (the quatrain),
the second of which must rhyme with the first.
Usually the first bayt (or distich) of the entire
poem conveys the rhyme, its two hemistiches
rhyming with each other. The mathnawī is a form
of unusual meter whose every hemistich rhymes
with its matching part and whose rhyme changes
with each line. It is consequently free from the
limitations of monorhyme and flexible enough to
be used in long poems. In contrast, in the ghazal,
also in a special meter, all the bayts rhyme, and
ghazals are, in contrast to mathnawīs, rather short.
The qaṣida, an older and more advanced form than
the ghazal, bear a resemblance to the latter in
form. They are also in monorhyme but can
conform significantly in length and generally
include three separate thematic portions. We
should note that the qaṣida, the ghazal, and the
quatrain were the three forms on which Persian
medieval handbooks dealing with bombast,
prosody, and poetic descriptions focused
(frequently echoing Arabic manuals), and
quotations from them were the center of
examination, giving them an advantaged place
relative to other vital forms, most particularly that
of the mathnawī and its diverse subject matter,
which received rather less consideration in the
earlier works on poetry.
SAMPLE OF PERSIAN POETRY: SOHRAB
AND RUSTUM
The poem begins with the scene where, the two
powerful armies of the Tartars and the Persians are
encamped along the banks of the Oxus River.
During the night the soldiers are asleep. The
following day, they are about to witness a great
battle. Sohrab, the hero of the Tartar army, fails to
sleep. In the grayness of the early dawn, he leaves
his bed and makes his solitary way through the
black tents of the great encampment to the
quarters of Peran-Wisa, commander of the Tartar
army. Sohrab is the youthful champion of the
Tartars. Hardly more than a boy, he had developed
into the mightiest fighter of the Tartar host. Young
in years and famous in arms, he is nevertheless
restless and discontented. Above everything else,
he wants to find his father whom he has never
seen, the incomparable Rustum, invincible
chieftain of the Persians.
Peran-Wisa awakens when Sohrab enters and asks
an unusual favor of him: Sohrab wishes to
challenge a leader of the Persians to single
combat. He hopes that his fame as a fighter will
thereby reach the ears of his father. Peran-Wisa
urges patience and questions his wisdom in thus
tempting fate. He fears that he would lose. He
advises him to uses the mean of non-violence to
find his father. But young as he is, Sohrab is not
ready to listen to him. Since he has heard that he is
the son of a famous warrior, he too wants to
impress his unknown father with his strength. Just
as a lions club cannot be held back, Peran-Wisa
realized that he could hold back Sohrab and grants
him the permission to fight a Duel.
The following morning, both the armies come out
form their camp. The hosts were ready to engage
themselves in the war. There is a scene where both
the armies await the order of their respective
commander. Just as they were about to engage in
the battle, Perena-Wisa appeared on the battle
front. He then announced that instead of war, there
would be a duel. This meant that one champion
form the Persian army and the other form the
Tartar army would fight with each other. This was
a death match where in the last man standing
would gain victory for his entire army.
Meanwhile in the Persian camp, Gudurz, one of
the member of the council goes to call Rustum to
face the champion of the Tartar army. But Rustum
says that the king himself should choose some
young men to meet up to the challenge put by
Sohrab. He admits that he is older than his
opponent. Therefore he refuses to take part in the
battle. Gudurz then taunts him by asking him a
rhetorical question as to what the people would
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 EM 14: SURVEY IN AFRO-ASIAN LITERATURE
say once Rustum says no to the challenge. He
warns Rustum to take heed lest the people would
consider his days concluded.
These words of Gudurz, triggers the warrior’s
spirit within Rustum and he decides to take part in
the duel. Gudurz then returned to the camp while
Rustum calls his followers and commands them to
bring his arms and his shield to take down his
opponent. He also bid his horse Ruksh to follow
him. The horse follows him like a faithful dog.
After this, Rustum makes his way towards the
arena.
Both the heroes make their way into the arena. At
this point Rustum tell Sohrab to back out. Rustum
tell this because he feels pity on the youth-hood of
Sohrab. Rustum also points out that Sohrab is like
a son to him, without knowing the fact that Sohrab
was his actual son.
Sohrab looks at the mighty figure and as he looks,
a strange hope is born in his breast. He runs
forward and kneeling before the mighty warrior
says, “Art thou not Rustum? Speak! Art thou not
he?” Sohrab was only told about the name of his
father. Therefore hoping to be his father he falls
on his feet catches his legs and asks him if he is
Rustum.
Rustum, thinks that it is a trick and rebukes
Sohrab’s amazement. He tells him of his fame as a
proof that he himself is Rustum. He narrates to
him the story besides wherein he “challenged once
the two armies camped besides the Oxus, all the
Persian lord, to cope with him in single fight: but
they shrank”. He taunts him to get up to his feet
and challenge him.
Sohrab gets up on his feet answers back saying
that he was not scared of him. “I am no girl, to be
made pale by words.” He also warns him saying
that thought he was young, yet victory itself was
not sure in whose court it would fall in and “only
even will teach us in tour”
With this conversation the two great heroes fight
for the honor of their kingdom. They fight with
spear and club and both have gained mastery over
their respective weapons. In the fight Sohrab gains
the upper hand. He manages to impress damage
on Rustums armor. Rustum in turn tries to fight
back by attacking Sohrab with his club, but
Sohrab being young and using his agility skills,
dodges the strikes form of Rustum. The strike hits
Rustum in return and Rustum falls to the ground.
Sohrab removes his sword from his sheath and
pierce Rustum.
Sohrab then taunts Rustum asking him to prove
his might. He reminds him that “Boy as I am. I
have seen battles too- Have waded foremost in
their bloody waves and heard their hollow roar of
dying men”. He then invites him to give his best
in the fight and not to hold back.
As Sohrab spoke, Rustum get up and gets hold of
his spear. He was full of rage and shouts back
“girl, nimble with thy feet, not with thy hands!”
He tells him that he will fight him with all his
might and he no longer feels pity for Sohrab
because he had shamed him in front of the entire
army with “light skipping tricks and girl’s wiles”.
At this point both the warriors rush towards each
other with all their strength ‘as two eagles on one
prey’ and dash each other. Rustum strikes the
Shield of Sohrab with his spear and manages to
make a hole through it but is not able to reach
Sohrabs skin. Sohrab strikes Rustums Helm
(helmet) with his sword. This way, there is a tough
fight between the two warriors each trying to get
the better of each other. Because of the fight, a
thick dust emerges from the ground and covers the
battle field and no one could see anything. Rustum
finally manages to pierce his spear through
Sohrabs body. Sohrab takes a few steps behind
and then fall to the ground for the last time.
Finally when the dust settles, the two armies see
Rustum standing on his feet while Sohrab lying on
the ground.
Rustum with a bitter smile begin to sarcastically
praise Sohrab. He tells that he was tough. He tells
him that he has made his father and his friends
proud for having faced a tough warrior as himself.
But at the end he calls him a fool for having
challenged him and getting killed by an unknown
man. He insults him by saying, “dearer to the red
jackals shall thou be than to thy friend, and to thy
father old”
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 EM 14: SURVEY IN AFRO-ASIAN LITERATURE
Sohrab then replies back to Rustum and tells him baby she bound the amulet of onyx on his arm and
that it was not an unknown man but Rustum who sent message to Rustum that a daughter had been
slew him. He also tells him that if there were 10 born instead. Rustum was disappointed for he had
more people as strong as Rustum against him he hoped for a brave son; but he sent five jewels for
would still defeat them. But it was the name of the child bade the mother to take good care of her.
‘Rustum’ which troubled him. Because of the He was busy in the battlefield and could not come
name he held back while fighting. He gives to see her.
Rustum the shock of his life when he ironically
When Rustum would still not believe that Sohrab
tells that his father ‘Rustum’ will avenge his
was his son, Sohrab then gives him a proof. He
death. Till now both the warriors have no idea that
loosened his belt and then removes the armor and
they are related to each other
shows him the seal which was given to him by his
Rustum rebukes this statement and tells that, “The mother. Rustum is shattered looking at the proof.
mighty Rustum never had a son”. Sohrab then He realizes that the Sohrab was his son and he
reveals that Rustum did have a son, it was he himself had killed him. In grief he utters out a
himself. He also reveals that Rustum was never loud cry, “O boy-thy father!”. He embraces
informed that he had a son. He also tells him that Sohrab and kisses him. But his grief is too much
he pities his mother “who in ader-baijan dwells for him to bear. He picks up his sword and is in
who with her father, who grows grey with age, the act of committing suicide. But then Sohrab
and rules over the valiant koords camp”. Rustum stops him by giving him solace. He tells him
finds it difficult to swallow the fact that the same “come, sit beside me on this sand, and take my
person who is dying in front of him was his own cheeks and wash then with thy tears and say – My
son. The poet then gives us a glimpse of the past. Son”.
One day Rustum was an honored guest at the
Ruksh, the same horse given by Tamineh to
king’s palace in a faraway city. Here he saw the
Rustum comes on the scene. Being an animal, he
king’s daughter, Tamineh, whom he loved for her
is able to comprehend the sad fate befallen on his
beauty and wisdom. So they were married, for the
master and his son. Sohrab ironically praises
king was glad to make an alliance with Rustum.
Ruksh for having privilege of spending more time
Time came when Rustum had to go back to his
with his father than his own son. Finally Sohrab
own city. He was sad and could not take his wife
makes his final wish to be carried to seistan and to
with him. He did not wish that his people should
be placed on a bed, and mourned for him. He also
know about his marriage for they expected him to
requests to put an inscription which read, ‘Sohrab,
marry a maiden of his own people. So he took a
the mighty Rustum’s son lies there, whom his
tender farewell of Tamineh and gave her an
great father did in ignorance kill’. Rustum
amulet made of onyx stone which he got from his
promises him that he would fulfill his last wish.
arm, and said: “If Heaven should grant thee a little
He also promises that he would let all his men go
daughter in my absence bind this onyx in her hair;
in peace without any bloodshed.
but if a son, place it upon his arm, then shall he be
strong of limb as Sahm, my grandsire, and At the end, Rustum drew out the spear from the
graceful of speech as Zal, my father.” side of Sohrab let him pass away peacefully.
After sometime, Tamineh gave birth to a lovely WEEK 11: JAPANESE LITERATURE
boy who smiled at the world from the moment he
came to it; and so they called him Sohrab, or the
child of smiles. He was as mighty as his father.
When he grew to nine years, he could fight and
ride better than any grown man in that land.
Tamineh was afraid for Rustum will be proud of
such a son and take him from her. While still a
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 EM 14: SURVEY IN AFRO-ASIAN LITERATURE
Japanese literature traces its beginnings to oral
traditions that were first recorded in written form
in the early eighth century after a writing system
was introduced from China. The Kojiki (Record of
Ancient Matters) and Nihon shoki (Chronicle of
Japan) were completed in 712 and 720,
respectively, as government projects. The former
is an anthology of myths, legends, and other
stories, while the latter is a chronological record
of history. The Fudoki (Records of Wind and
Earth), compiled by provincial officials beginning
in 713, describe the history, geography, products,
and folklore of the various provinces.
The most brilliant literary product of this period
was the Man'yoshu (Collection of Ten Thousand
Leaves), an anthology of 4,500 poems composed
by people ranging from unknown commoners to
emperors and compiled around 759. Already
emerging was a verse form comprising 31
syllables (5-7-5-7-7) known as tanka. In 905 the
Kokin wakashu or Kokinshu (Collection of Poems
from Ancient and Modern Times) was published
as the first poetry anthology commissioned by an
emperor; its preface paid high tribute to the vast
possibilities of literature.
Heian Period: 794-1185
The Gengi Monogatari formed a critical part of a
noble woman’s education.
Artists lavishly illustrated scrolls depicting the
story, making the story expensive.
Because of this, less well-off noblewomen
dreamed about owning a copy.
During the Heian Period, the Japanese were
fascinated with Chinese culture. The Imperial
Court emulated Chinese fashion and customs
while they pursued the arts. A noble was expected
to be well-versed in literature, poetry, painting,
dancing, calligraphy, and more. Noble men used
the Chinese language in the same way that
Medieval European nobles and priests used Latin.
In Heian Japan, Women were not allowed to speak
Chinese. The period expected women to remain
separate from men. They would converse through
fabric blinders dividing rooms. Genji shows how
great the difference was between the genders by
having characters fall in love with each other
based on their handwriting.
Classical Japanese literature generally refers to
literature produced during the Heian period, what
some would consider a golden era of art and
literature. Genji Monogatari (early eleventh
century) by Murasaki Shikibu is considered the
pre-eminent masterpiece of Heian fiction and an
early example of a work of fiction in the form of a
novel. Other important works of this period
include the Kokin Wakashu (905), a waka-poetry
anthology, and Makura no Soshi (990s), the latter
written by Murasaki Shikibu's contemporary and
rival, Sei Shonagon, as an essay about the life,
loves, and pastimes of nobles in the Emperor's
court.
The 10th century Japanese narrative, Taketori
Monogatari, can be considered an early example
of proto-science fiction. The protagonist of the
story, Kaguya-hime, is a princess from the Moon
who is sent to Earth for safety during a celestial
war, and is found and raised by a bamboo cutter in
Japan. She is later taken back to the Moon by her
real extraterrestrial family. A manuscript
illustration depicts a disc-shaped flying object
similar to a flying saucer.
In this time the imperial court patronized the
poets, most of whom were courtiers or ladies-in-
waiting. Editing anthologies of poetry was a
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 EM 14: SURVEY IN AFRO-ASIAN LITERATURE
national pastime. Reflecting the aristocratic
atmosphere, the poetry was elegant and
sophisticated and expressed emotions in a
rhetorical style.
Above is Tomoe Gozen, a female samurai
legendary for her skill as a mo warrior and archer,
as well as her beauty. The central theme of the
story is the Buddhist law of impermanence,
especially as it applies to the fleeting nature of
fortune.
In the latter half of the twelfth century warriors of
the Taira clan (Heike) seized political power at the
imperial court, virtually forming a new
aristocracy. Heike Monogatari (The Tale of the
Heike),which depicts the rise and fall of the Taira
with the spotlight on their wars with the
Minamoto clan (Genji), was completed in the first
half of the thirteenth century [before 1219 ]. It is a
grand epic deeply rooted in Buddhist ethics and
filled with sorrow for those who perished, colorful
descriptions of its varied characters, and stirring
battle scenes. In former times the tale was narrated
to the accompaniment of a Japanese lute. The Shin
kokin wakashu (New Collection of Poems from
Ancient and Modern Times), an anthology of
poetry commissioned by retired Emperor Go-
Toba, was also completed around this time [ca
1205 ?]; it is dedicated to the pursuit of a subtle,
profound beauty far removed from the mundane
reality of civil strife
This period also produced literature by recluses,
typified by Kamo no Chomei's Hojoki (An
Account of My Hut) [1212] , which reflects on the
uncertainty of existence, and Yoshida Kenko's
Tsurezuregusa (Essays in Idleness) [ca 1330 ] , a
work marked by penetrating reflections on life.
Both works raise the question of spiritual
salvation. Meanwhile, the profound thoughts and
incisive logic of the Shobogenzo (Treasury of the
True Dharma Eye) [before 1237 ] , one of the first
Buddhist texts written in Japanese rather than
Chinese, marked a major development in Zen
thought. The Taiheiki (Chronicle of the Great
Peace), depicting the 50 years from 1318 to 1367
when two rival imperial courts struggled for
power, is a valuable historical record, while the
Noh plays perfected by Kan'ami and his son
Zeami are of great literary value. Zeami's Fushi
kaden (The Transmission of the Flower of Acting
Style) [1400] is a brilliant essay on dramatic art.
Medieval Japanese Literature is marked by the
strong influence of Zen Buddhism, where
characters are priests, travelers, or ascetic poets.
Also during this period, Japan experienced many
civil wars which led to the development of a
warrior class, and subsequent war tales, histories,
and related stories. Work from this period is
notable for its insights into life and death, simple
lifestyles, and redemption through killing.
Other notable genres in this period were Renga, or
linked verse, and Noh theater. Both were rapidly
developed in the middle of the 14th century, the
early Muromachi period.
Around this time the function of literature as a
means of social intercourse broadened.
Composing Renga (successive linked verses by
several people forming a long poem) became a
favorite pastime, and this gave birth to Haikai (a
sort of comedic Renga) in the sixteenth century. It
was the renowned seventeenth century poet
Matsuo Basho who perfected a new condensed
poetic form of 17 syllables (5-7-5) known as
Haiku, an embodiment of elegant simplicity and
tranquility.
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 EM 14: SURVEY IN AFRO-ASIAN LITERATURE
In the Genroku era (1688-1704) city-dwelling
artisans and merchants became the main
supporters of literature, and professional artists
began to appear. Two giants emerged in the field
of prose: Ihara Saikaku, who realistically
portrayed the life of Osaka merchants, and
Chikamatsu Monzaemon, who wrote Joruri, a
form of storytelling involving chanted lines, and
Kabuki plays. These writers brought about a great
flowering of literature. Later Yosa Buson
composed superb Haiku depicting nature, while
fiction writer Ueda Akinari produced a collection
of gothic stories called Ugetsu monogatari (Tales
of Moonlight and Rain) [1776] .
Literature during this time was written during the
largely peaceful Tokugawa Period (commonly
referred to as the Edo Period). Due in large part to
the rise of the working and middle classes in the
new capital of Edo (modern Tokyo), forms of
popular drama developed which would later
evolve into Kabuki.
Many genres of literature made their debut during
the Edo Period, helped by a rising literacy rate
among the growing population of townspeople, as
well as the development of lending libraries.
Although there was a minor Western influence
trickling into the country from the Dutch
settlement at Nagasaki, it was the importation of
Chinese vernacular fiction that proved the greatest
outside influence on the development of Early
Modern Japanese fiction. Ihara Saikaku might be
said to have given birth to the modern
consciousness of the novel in Japan, mixing
vernacular dialogue into his humorous and
cautionary tales of the pleasure quarters.
Jippensha Ikku wrote Tokaidochu Hizakurige,
which is a mix of travelogue and comedy. Tsuga
Teisho, Takebe Ayatari, and Okajima Kanzan were
instrumental in developing the Yomihon, which
were historical romances almost entirely in prose,
influenced by Chinese vernacular novels such as
Three Kingdoms and Shui hu zhuan. Two
Yomihon masterpieces were written by Ueda
Akinari: Ugetsu monogatari and Harusame
monogatari. Kyokutei Bakin wrote the extremely
popular fantasy/historical romance Nanso Satomi
Hakkenden in addition to other Yomihon. Santo
Kyoden wrote Yomihon mostly set in the gay
quarters until the Kansei edicts banned such
works, and he turned to comedic Kibyoshi. Genres
included horror, crime stories, morality stories,
comedy, and pornography -- often accompanied
by colorful woodcut prints.
Nevertheless, in the Tokugawa, as in earlier
periods, scholarly work continued to be published
in Chinese, which was the language of the learned
much as Latin was in Europe.
The Meiji period marks the re-opening of Japan to
the West, and a period of rapid industrialization.
The introduction of European literature brought
free verse into the poetic repertoire; it became
widely used for longer works embodying new
intellectual themes. Young Japanese prose writers
and dramatists struggled with a whole galaxy of
new ideas and artistic schools, but novelists were
the first to successfully assimilate some of these
concepts.
In the early Meiji period (1868–1880s), Fukuzawa
Yukichi and Water Margin authored
Enlightenment literature, while pre-modern
popular books depicted the quickly changing
country. Then Realism was brought in by
Tsubouchi Shoyo and Futabatei Shimei in the
mid-Meiji (late 1880s - early 1890s) while the
Classicism of Ozaki Koyo, Yamada Bimyo and
Koda Rohan gained popularity. Ichiyo Higuchi, a
rare woman writer in this era, wrote short stories
on powerless women of this age in a simple style
in between literary and colloquial. Kyoka Izumi, a
favored disciple of Ozaki, pursued a flowing and
elegant style and wrote early novels such as The
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 EM 14: SURVEY IN AFRO-ASIAN LITERATURE
Operating Room (1895) in literary style and later
ones including The Holy Man of Mount Koya
(1900) in colloquial Japanese.
Romanticism was brought in by Mori Ogai with
his anthology of translated poems (1889) and
carried to its height by Toson Shimazaki etc. and
magazines Myojo and Bungaku-kai in early
1900s. Mori also wrote some modern novels
including The Dancing Girl (1890), Wild Geese
(1911), then later wrote historical novels. Natsume
Soseki, who is often compared with Mori Ogai,
wrote I Am a Cat (1905) with humor and satire,
then depicted fresh and pure youth in Botchan
(1906) and Sanshirô (1908). He eventually
pursued transcendence of human emotions and
egoism in his later works including Kokoro (1914)
his last and unfinished novel Light and darkness
(1916).
Shimazaki shifted from Romanticism to
Naturalism which was established with his The
Broken Commandment (1906) and Katai
Tayama's Futon (1907). Naturalism hatched the "I
Novel" (Watakushi-shôsetu) that describes the
authors themselves and depicts their own mental
states. Neo-romanticism came out of anti-
naturalism and was led by Kafu Nagai, Jun'ichiro
Tanizaki, Kotaro Takamura, Hakushu Kitahara
and so on in the early 1910s. Saneatsu
Mushanokoji, Naoya Shiga and others founded a
magazine Shirakaba in 1910. They shared a
common characteristic, Humanism. Shiga's style
was autobiographical and depicted states of his
mind and sometimes classified as "I Novel" in this
sense. Ryunosuke Akutagawa, who was highly
praised by Soseki, wrote short stories including
Rashomon (1915) with an intellectual and analytic
attitude, and represented Neo-realism in the mid
1910s.
During the 1920s and early 1930s the proletarian
literary movement, comprising such writers as
Takiji Kobayashi, Denji Kuroshima, Yuriko
Miyamoto, and Ineko Sata produced a politically
radical literature depicting the harsh lives of
workers, peasants, women, and other downtrodden
members of society, and their struggles for
change.
War-time Japan saw the début of several authors
best known for the beauty of their language and
their tales of love and sensuality, notably
Jun'ichiro Tanizaki and Japan's first winner of the
Nobel Prize for Literature, Yasunari Kawabata, a
master of psychological fiction. Ashihei Hino
wrote lyrical bestsellers glorifying the war, while
Tatsuzo Ishikawa attempted to publish a
disturbingly realistic account of the advance on
Nanjing. Writers who opposed the war include
Denji Kuroshima, Mitsuharu Kaneko, Hideo
Oguma, and Jun Ishikawa.
World War II, and Japan's defeat, deeply
influenced Japanese literature. Many authors
wrote stories of disaffection, loss of purpose, and
the coping with defeat. Osamu Dazai's novel The
Setting Sun tells of a soldier returning from
Manchukuo. Shohei Ooka won the Yomiuri Prize
for his novel Fires on the Plain about a Japanese
deserter going mad in the Philippine jungle. Yukio
Mishima, well known for both his nihilistic
writing and his controversial suicide by seppuku,
began writing in the post-war period. Nobuo
Kojima's short story "The American School"
portrays a group of Japanese teachers of English
who, in the immediate aftermath of the war, deal
with the American occupation in varying ways.
Prominent writers of the 1970s and 1980s were
identified with intellectual and moral issues in
their attempts to raise social and political
consciousness. One of them, Kenzaburo Oe wrote
his best-known work,
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 EM 14: SURVEY IN AFRO-ASIAN LITERATURE
A Personal Matter in 1964 and became Japan's
second winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Although modern Japanese writers covered a wide
variety of subjects, one particularly Japanese
approach stressed their subjects' inner lives,
widening the earlier novel's preoccupation with
the narrator's consciousness. In Japanese fiction,
plot development and action have often been of
secondary interest to emotional issues. In keeping
with the general trend toward reaffirming national
characteristics, many old themes re-emerged, and
some authors turned consciously to the past.
Strikingly, Buddhist attitudes about the
importance of knowing oneself and the poignant
impermanence of things formed an undercurrent
to sharp social criticism of this material age. There
was a growing emphasis on women's roles, the
Japanese persona in the modern world, and the
malaise of common people lost in the
complexities of urban culture.
Popular fiction, non-fiction, and children's
literature all flourished in urban Japan in the
1980s. Many popular works fell between "pure
literature" and pulp novels, including all sorts of
historical serials, information-packed docudramas,
science fiction, mysteries, detective fiction,
business stories, war journals, and animal stories.
Non-fiction covered everything from crime to
politics. Although factual journalism
predominated, many of these works were
interpretive, reflecting a high degree of
individualism. Children's works re-emerged in the
1950s, and the newer entrants into this field, many
of them younger women, brought new vitality to it
in the 1980s.
Manga (comic books) have penetrated almost
every sector of the popular market. They include
virtually every field of human interest, such as a
multi volume high-school history of Japan and,
for the adult market, a manga introduction to
economics, and pornography. Manga represented
between 20 and 30 percent of annual publications
at the end of the 1980s, in sales of some ¥400
billion per year.

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