First, early ancient literature
Around A.D., Japan basically ended its primitive society. At first, a group of small chiefs appeared in some places. In the 4th and 5th centuries, the powerful emperor who rose in Yamato (now part of Nara Prefecture) gradually unified Japan and established the "Yamato regime". The establishment of Japanese centralized imperial power system is closely related to the acceptance of China culture and technology. China's ancient culture, production technology and Chinese characters were introduced into Japan through the Korean Peninsula or through direct contact. Especially after the 7th century, the Japanese central government had more direct contact with the Sui and Tang Dynasties in China, and sent more than a dozen large-scale missions to the Tang Dynasty, as well as overseas students and monks to study in China. This measure lasted for more than 200 years, which is enough to show the enterprising spirit of ancient countries in the rising stage. Of course, the main purpose of ancient Japanese aristocrats was to strengthen their rule and create their own aristocratic culture.
The earliest written documents in Japan appeared in the early 8th century, namely "Nara Period" (7 10-784). The representative works of written literature in this period include Ancient Stories and Chiba Collection. At that time, Japan had not created "pseudonyms", and both books were written with the help of Chinese characters. The former Chinese characters are not only used to express meaning, but also to express sound; The latter Chinese characters are mainly used as phonetic symbols.
Historical Records is a work that records ancient myths and legends. Written in 7 12 ad. As can be seen from the preface of this book, it was written under the order of the emperor, with the purpose of trying to prove the authority of the emperor's lineage with myths. For this political purpose, there are many boring explanations about the lineage of God in ancient records. Even so, it can't hide the literariness of some vivid myths and legends in the book Ancient Stories.
Myth is the ancient people's explanation of natural phenomena through beautiful fantasies, or the expression of people's desire to dominate nature; Historical Records is no exception. Many of its chapters or fragments, such as The Story of Starfish and Xing Shan in the first volume, tell the story of a dispute between a fisherman and a woodcutter, and then go to Xing Shan to marry Poseidon's daughter. In this story, the natural phenomena of drought and flood tides are also explained with beautiful imagination. The Story of Vowing Marriage by the Order of Austria is mainly developed by several groups of love songs. The middle volume contains many ancient ballads of group fighting, and the second volume records the fighting legends between ancient tribes. All these, as the original literary works reflecting the atmosphere of Japanese ancient national life, have vivid and vivid image power.
In the second half of the eighth century, a collection of peace songs, Ye Wan Collection, appeared. The book * * * 20 volumes, The Song of Harmony (Note: The Song of Harmony is the name used by the ancient Japanese to distinguish the poems inherent in the nation from those of China. Generally speaking, Song refers to the former; Poetry refers to the latter. The chorus has only a fixed poetic style and no rhyme. Long song (Note: Long song's music numbering method is 5.7.5.7...7.7, of which 5.7 can be repeated many times with unlimited length. ) and short melody (note: the rhythm of short melody is 5.7.5.7.7 * * * 3 1 syllable. ) and other genres) * * * more than 4,500 songs.
The compilation methods of Ye Wan Collection vary from volume to volume. Some volumes are arranged in chronological order, while others are divided into three categories according to their contents: miscellaneous songs, elegies and songs of mutual listening (in a broad sense, songs that give answers, and in a narrow sense, songs that defend the people (songs that soldiers guard the border).
Ye Wan Collection has signed works and anonymous works. Some of anonymous's works belong to folk songs; Many of the works named are the creations of so-called famous "singers". There are about 450 authors with concentrated signatures.
Except for a few legendary authors (some can be traced back to three or four hundred years ago), the activities of famous "singers" are mostly concentrated in the period from the beginning of the seventh century to the middle of the eighth century. This hundred years can be subdivided into three periods. Most of the early writers were emperors, such as Shu Ming, Zhong Ming, Emperor Tianzhi and King Ota. This period was a period of preparation and expansion of the centralized state in ancient Japan. These people's singing styles are all famous for their simple style and frankness. The background of composing music is often related to the historical turmoil at that time.
The authors in the middle period were active after the middle of the seventh century and the beginning of the eighth century. Among them, the representative authors were persimmon Ma Lu, Takashi Negro, Prince Gui Zhi, Yishan Yiliang, Escort, Shiro Yamabe, Li Jincun, Gao Qiao Worm Ma Lu and others. These people were all nobles or lower-middle-class officials at that time. Their singing styles have their own characteristics, which have contributed to the completion of the form of harmony songs and the perfection of artistic techniques. Persimmon himself, Ma Lu, has been called "Song Saint" since ancient times. He is good at mastering Long song's style and has created many nostalgic songs and elegies, such as Song of Palace Funeral, Song of Abandoned Capital Crossing the River, Song of Wife, Song of Dead Wife, etc. His nostalgic songs, with the theme of the court, show admiration and yearning for the rise of ancient countries, with a vigorous and powerful tone, gloomy and tragic. The songs about my wife's parting and mourning, which express my personal feelings, are meaningful and have deep sadness. He is good at using antithesis and pillow words (note: "pillow words" are unique modifiers in harmony songs, also known as "articles" Each pillow word is associated with a specific modifier, which plays a role in enriching association and adjusting tone. ), rich in words, fluent in phonology and sincere in temperament. Black people in Gaoshi and red people in Yamagata are good at writing songs about scenery. Their natural scenery is full of emotion and fresh style. Gao Qiao worm Ma Lu is good at writing legendary songs. The ninth volume contains long songs with folk love stories as the theme, such as "Singing the Song of Hepu Daozi", "Singing the Song of Winning Deer" and "The Song of Seeing the Virgin in the Tuyuan", which depicts the events and characters delicately and vividly, and is unique.
Among these "all-leaf singers", what needs to be put forward in particular is the beautiful memory of the mountain. When he was young, he was an attache sent by Ambassador Tang to our country. Most of his Long song are accompanied by long preface written in parallel prose, which shows his profound Chinese accomplishment. His famous Long song's Song of Questions and Answers about Poverty is the only work that directly reflects the sufferings of the people under the rule of ancient legal countries. The full translation of this song is as follows:
Rainy night, cold sleet day. It's hard to resist the cold on a cold winter night. Crude salt drinks wine, while fermented grains talk about heating. Frequent nasal congestion, bent back and repeated coughing. It's hard to resist the freezing cold with a moustache twisted. Cover me with linen and put on my rags. Although I have everything, I can't resist this cold night. Those who are poorer than me, listen to me and ask a few questions: my wife and children are crying, and my parents are hungry and cold. In this tragic time, why celebrate the New Year?
Although the world is vast, it is difficult for me to be alone. Although the sun and the moon are bright, do you shine on me? Is it all over the world, or am I alone? God gave birth to me occasionally, and farming was never idle. Wearing a cotton-free coat, the cloth hangs over the shoulders. Ragged as seaweed, how to keep out the cold? The low house is falling down, and the rice shop is sleeping in the wetland. My wife and children are squatting at my feet, and my parents are snuggling on the pillow. The whole family is big and small, sighing. There are no fireworks on the stove, and cobwebs are hung on the pot. I have been hungry for many days, and I can't remember three meals. The sound is as thin as a thread and as soft as cotton. It never rains but it pours. The manager was very angry and shouted in front of the house, holding a cane in his hand, urging Tian to pay taxes. The world is like this, how can I be fired in my life?
[Anti-Song] (Note: Anti-Song-Influenced by China's "Restored Words", attached to the Long Song, satirized the main contents of the Long Song again in the form of a short song. ) worry about the world! The shame of the world! I hate flightless birds and want to fly without wings.
This song has various interpretations. Generally speaking, the first half of this song tends to be understood as the private complaint of the ancient literati about the poverty situation. He pushed himself and others and even thought about the sufferings of farmers who were worse than himself. The second half is the answer on behalf of farmers, telling the tragic situation of farmers who had no recourse under the ancient Sakata system.
The late author of Ye Wan Ji was Noguchi and her great companion Sakamoto Langnu. At this time, the era has entered the late period of the legal country, and the ancient society exposed various contradictions and began to embark on the process of disintegration. Tomo no Yakamochi's singing style reflects the characteristics of this declining period. His short songs are characterized by sadness and lingering. Sakamoto Langnu wrote some beautiful love songs.
The songs of anonymous in Ye Ji account for about one-third of all works. The most distinctive of these songs is more than 200 "East Songs" (folk songs in the eastern part of the state) included in 14. Most of these folk songs take love as the theme, not only with simple and natural language, but also with various labor scenes as artistic means such as comparison and stimulation, which makes these folk songs interesting and full of the life breath of working people. Some songs also express their feelings of being faithful to love and not afraid of parents' violent interference. Volume 20 contains 92 "anti-people songs" (songs of soldiers guarding the border). These songs reflect the sadness of soldiers who were forced to leave their parents and wives and stay away from the frontier under the ancient emperor system. In addition to some of the songs mentioned above, Ye Wan Collection also contains many works reflecting all aspects of ancient social life.
In a word, the value of Ye Ji in the history of literature lies not in its antiquity, but in its reflection of the depth and breadth of ancient life and its profound and sincere style. After Ye Wan Ji, harmony songs gradually degenerated into leisure products of nobles, who used harmony songs as social almsgiving and courtship tools, or used them in court "singing opera" (a game of fighting and harmony songs). During the Heian and Kamakura periods, harmony songs were also exclusive to nobles and monks, and became a means for them to express their delicate feelings.
During this period, in addition to the above Historical Records and Chiba Collection, there should also be Prose Local Records. Local Customs was originally compiled by local officials at that time under the instruction of the emperor's regime, but it contains many fragments of local legends and ancient stories. Although these ancient legends were collected by local officials and their handwriting was simple, they were often full of the life interest of the ancients. Some legends were later inherited and developed by folk stories.
In this period, in terms of phonology, in addition to the ballads preserved in Ye Ji and Records of Ancient Events, there is also a religious ballad, The Message of Blessing, which is a lyric poem used to pray for God in ancient times, and some of its lyrics reflect the rhythmic beauty and vivid metaphor in ancient ballads.
Second, the late ancient literature.
Ancient times started from the beginning of the ninth century to the end of the twelfth century. Japan usually calls this period peacetime. During this period, the ancient country has undergone a qualitative change, and the land ownership system of Sakata system was gradually replaced by the manor system of private ownership of large land. The emperor gradually lost power, and the Fujiwara family took control of the central government. The enterprising spirit of the ancient aristocrats gradually disappeared. The royal family, Fujiwara clan and all the aristocratic classes living in Ping 'an were huddled in the capital, and they lived a luxurious life with the wealth scraped from manors all over the country.
In the early period of Ping 'an, the creation of harmony songs turned into decline. Among the nobles, there was a heyday of imitating Chinese poetry and Chinese, and many Chinese poems or collections of poems were compiled, such as Beautiful Wenhua Collection and Guo Jingji. What they devote themselves to is how to imitate the flowery rhetoric and skills of China's poems and Chinese. As for the content, it is completely inseparable from the empty palace life. Therefore, these Chinese poems have little to do with the development of Japanese national literature except the imitation ability of the nobles at that time.
On the other hand, "Hiragana" and "Katakana", which evolved from China cursive script, were created from the early days of Heian. Later, a mixed writing method of pseudonyms and Chinese characters was created. At this point, Japanese national literature has gained the means of free expression. This has played a very important role in the emergence and development of heian period's prose "Story Literature".
The earliest story literature written under a pseudonym was Bamboo Story. The exact date and author of this book are unknown, probably written in the second half of the ninth century to the first half of the tenth century. This is a work with the nature of a folk story, telling the story that the goddess of the Moon Palace descended to live in an old man who chopped bamboo. Several big noble proposed to her, but she refused and mocked her. Finally, she returned to the Moon Palace. Judging from the conception of this story, the plot is simple, similar to folk stories or fairy tales. However, in terms of details, because the author portrayed the ugliness of five aristocrats who proposed to their heavenly daughters with humor and irony, this earliest story-telling literature brought all new things to Japanese literature in terms of delicate plot description, prominent characters and critical spirit to aristocrats. Japanese literature broke away from fragmented ancient legends and developed into short stories with complete structure.
By 1 1 at the beginning of the century, aristocratic women had created many new prose literary genres: "essay literature" and "diary literature" based on the author's personal life experience, and "story literature" created by the author through novels and so on.
The eleventh century belongs to the middle period of the whole Heian period, and it is Fujiwara's "social official" (note: "social official" is the abbreviation of "Regent" and "Guan Bai". From the middle of the ninth century, Fujiwara family used the status of consort to gain political power. When the emperor came of age, Fujiwara was the Regent. When the emperor came of age, Fujiwara was renamed Guan Bai. This form of political power lasted until the middle of the eleventh century. ) politics, reaching its peak, began to embark on the turning point of decline. The corruption of the aristocratic class itself, the extension of local aristocratic forces and the rise of the emerging samurai class have made the central aristocracy pregnant with an increasingly deep crisis. However, in order to maintain their own rule, Fujiwara's family is still keen to create palace plots and constantly compete for the status of their own consorts in order to achieve the purpose of manipulating the puppet emperor. In addition to selling officials and titles, they are extremely extravagant and have completely lost their ability to deal with national politics. It is in this situation that the middle and lower aristocratic women created elegies for the whole aristocratic class in this period. Most of these aristocratic women come from middle-class aristocratic families, and their fathers and brothers are unwilling to succumb to Fujiwara's clan, preferring to be "garde nationale" and become officials familiar with local people's feelings; Or stay in the capital, with their own talents and knowledge, attached to the Fujiwara family, to maintain their unstable position. These middle-class aristocratic women were influenced by such a family atmosphere and cultural upbringing. At that time, Fujiwara family used to recruit talented middle-class aristocratic women as the daughters of the queen and as accompanying female officials. In this way, these aristocratic women in the middle and lower classes not only have the upbringing beyond the narrow vision of the nobles in Beijing, but also witness the real life of Fujiwara family and court, which gives these aristocratic women the creative motivation to examine the whole aristocratic life.
Haruki Murakami (see the second section of this chapter for details) is the most talented aristocratic female writer in this period. The Tale of Genji with more than 800,000 words is her masterpiece. This work is an encyclopedia of the peaceful aristocrats, revealing the life of the whole court aristocrats, describing the group image of aristocratic women and expressing deep sympathy for their tragic situation. At the same time, The Tale of Genji was published with Pillow Grass written by Shao Na in Qing Dynasty. This is a collection of essays or notes, which records some life fragments and experiences when she was a female official in the court. The author described the court life at that time with affirmation and praise. The work also adopts the form of "miscellaneous collection", which actively reveals the author's delicate feeling of natural beauty and his evaluation of aristocratic life interest. Although her observations and feelings are very keen and delicate, her criteria for evaluating nature and personnel have never left the position of the aristocratic class.
In addition to the above-mentioned two female authors, there are other works by aristocratic women, such as Diary of a Dragonfly written by Dooka Wood (written at the end of the tenth century, earlier than Tale of Genji), which describes the author's half-life experience and truly records his sufferings under aristocratic polygamy. This work undoubtedly has a lot of influence on Tale of Genji. In addition, there is The Story of Falling Objects (the author is unknown, before The Tale of Genji, the author was a male aristocrat), which describes the story that the stepmother of an aristocratic family abused his ex-wife's daughter, as well as The Story of Narrow Clothes and The Story of Yan Na on the Dam. The former is also a story about aristocratic love, but the ideological realm is far less than the Tale of Genji, and the latter is a collection of ten short stories, which pursues the novelty of the story content, indicating that story literature is embarking on the diversification of forms.
At the end of the 12th century, two new genres appeared in literature. One is the glorious story and the big mirror, which are called "historical stories". The former describes the general situation of "Guan-She-Guan" politics from Emperor Uto (887) to Emperor Horai for about 200 years, but focuses on the autocratic period of Taoist Fujiwara, which describes his powerful half-life and various political events around him. The latter imitates the biographical style of China's Historical Records, narrates the simple imperial history, and then focuses on the biographies of important Fujiwara family figures who ascended the throne of the powerful minister. The Big Mirror criticizes the power struggle between nobles in the period of "social official politics".
Roughly at the same time as The Big Mirror and The Story of Glory, a collection of ancient and modern stories appeared. This is a brand-new work, and its content and style are completely different from the above-mentioned reflection of aristocratic life. The Book of * * * has a total volume of 3 1 (the existing books are incomplete), including more than 1000 short stories. In the history of Japanese literature, this literary form is called "talk literature" to distinguish it from "story literature" that reflects the life of the nobility. Most of the "speeches" collected in Story of the Past and Present belong to "Buddhist speeches", and their real value lies in the "secular speeches" below Volume 22. From this kind of "talk", we can see the appearance of the emerging samurai class in the late heian period and the life scenes of ordinary people. The characters in the works include farmers, fishermen, nobles, monks, warriors, businessmen, artists, prostitutes, thieves and other people from all walks of life at that time, which reflects the different behaviors of these people and the ideological state of all walks of life in the new historical period. This work is also innovative in language. It uses a bright and concise "mixture of harmony and Chinese", which is completely out of the delicate and emotional "dynasty style" of "story literature" Therefore, no matter from the content or the form of expression, it has opened up a new way for the literature reflecting the samurai class in the coming Kamakura era. The appearance of this work shows that aristocratic literature has tended to decline, while brand-new literature is in the dawn state.
Third, literature in the early Middle Ages.
The pre-medieval period mentioned here refers to the period from the end of the twelfth century to the end of the sixteenth century.
From the second half of 1 1 century, Fujiwara's authoritarian politics was flawed, the royal family regained power from Fujiwara, and history entered a "palace political period" (the abdicated emperor took power), but this could not save the decadent and doomed aristocratic rule. 1 157 "Yuan Bao Rebellion" and the ensuing "Rebellion", the local samurai class (armed landlord class) emerged from the manor system and squeezed into the central political stage. After nearly half a century of war, the emerging samurai class finally took control of the state power in the form of the battle between Genji and Shi Ping. This is the "Kamakura Shogunate" established by Genji. /kloc-at the beginning of the 0/4th century, the political restoration of the old emperor was planned by Kyoto nobles. It was not until 1338 that the samurai unified the whole country and established the Muromachi shogunate. Then in the middle of15th century, a large-scale war broke out within the samurai class. Ashikazu, a warrior living in the center, gradually lost the power to rule the whole country, and there appeared the "Warring States Period" in which princes fought endlessly for years. In this process of divide and rule, the political remnants of ancient nobles were finally eliminated, and the feudal system was gradually completed in Japanese society.
During this period, due to the rapid social turmoil, disputes between rulers continued, the ruling power weakened day by day, and the people's power rose and grew. Especially after the fifteenth century, peasant uprisings broke out in various places, and at the same time there was a trend that cities demanded autonomy. In terms of ideology, due to the loss of the authority of the rulers, the trend of thought of the times appeared, which made the literature of this period have the characteristics of clearly reflecting the rise of people's power.
The earliest and most representative literary genre in this period is "Military Tales Collection". In 1930s, Baoyuan story, Waheiji story and Pingjia story first appeared. Because the political turmoil at this time can not be separated from the form of war, these works focus on describing the image of emerging warriors galloping on the battlefield and dominating the situation. Although this kind of literature is generally called "the story of soldiers" or "the story of war", it actually reflects not only the scene of war, but also all aspects of class and politics that have entered a great historical turning point.
The authors of Baoyuan Story and Pingzhi Story are unknown, so it is speculated that the two books may be written by one person. Baoyuan Story describes the Baoyuan Rebellion in history, and Pingzhi Story describes the Pingzhi Rebellion that reappeared three years later. These two works have the same theme, that is, through literary images, they faithfully and vividly reproduce the resolute, brave and positive and decisive actions of the emerging samurai class. The protagonist in the previous work is "no official" Bu Shiyuan, who is a Korean. Because of his wisdom and courage in the process of being exiled after the power struggle and failure of the imperial court, he finally defeated and committed suicide. The central figure in the latter work is Akkugenda Yiping, who wrote down his brave fighting actions and energetic samurai role. These two works have successfully shaped the heroic image emerging from the samurai class who undertook the new historical mission, and at the same time portrayed the cowardice and stupidity of the nobles in the dying stage. These two works are in sharp contrast with the literature created by aristocratic women in the early stage, showing essential differences. While focusing on the actions of the heroes of the new class, these two works do not ignore the other side of the samurai as the essence of the new exploiting class: these warriors are involved in intrigue and disputes within the nobility, and they kill their fathers, brothers, brothers and so on, which is extremely cruel and heartless. The faithful description of this aspect in the works effectively conveys the true face of history.
These two works inherit and develop the language innovation of Story of the Past and Present, which shows that the emergence of a new literature will inevitably require the language of the works to break through the past and create a brand-new artistic form.
The Tale of Ping is the story of the White-browed Army, which appeared later than the first two works. The content of this work also describes a great historical event in which the emerging samurai class fought desperately with the central aristocratic forces at the end of the Heian period and finally held the political power in the hands of this class. As far as literary achievements are concerned, it reflects the essence of the times, which is more profound than the first two works, and the hero it creates is also more vital.
The Story of the Ping Family, such as the title, is based on the fate of the Ping family and is a party to the dispute between the source and the Ping family. This work, with a strong Buddhist thought of pure land, exaggerates the fate of Pingjia in all kinds of literature, uses a sad tone and sighs strongly. It can be seen that the author's sympathy is obviously on the flat side. However, the author shows an ambivalent attitude towards this great historical turmoil. Of course, from the standpoint of aristocratic background, the author everywhere shows praise and sympathy for the so-called romantic attitude of the aristocratic descendants. But objectively, it reveals that the Ping family, which has lost its original samurai class attribute, has long been weak, and their demise has become a historical necessity. On the other hand, although the author thinks that the Genji clan rising in eastern countries are brave and rude warriors who don't know what romance is and even laugh at it; However, when describing their battle scenes, we can't help but cast a look of surprise, awe and admiration. The author vividly depicts their resolute and brave character, describes their fierce fighting actions, especially the heroic image of General Genji, and describes Yuan, Yuan Yijing and others. In addition to the literary processing of historical figures, this work has created many distinctive models, and also inserted many stories of "dynasty stories", such as "The Story of a King and Daughter" and "The Story of a Little Governor". These tragic descriptions of women's fate add a strong lyrical tone to this work.
This work, in terms of artistic language, has also opened up a brand-new situation for classical literature. It inherits the powerful Chinese style initiated by Baoyuan Story and Pingzhi Story, and organically combines the lingering and harmonious style in Dynasty Story since the Tale of Genji, creating a style of "confusing with Chinese" and combining rhyme with prose, which is of great significance to the development of literary language in the future.
These works, which appeared in the early Kamakura period, appeared under the political background that the samurai class gained political power. It strongly reflects the thoughts and feelings of the samurai class in the rising class. These works also have a common feature, which is the nature of rap literature. These works are constantly supplemented and polished between the original version and the widely circulated version, and in this process, there may be a blind artist who sings these works-"Master Pipa" to participate, which shows the popularity of this kind of literary creation. Because of this, the characters created in these works have been widely inherited by later operas and novels for a long time, which is a rich source of materials for later operas and folk literature. Until today, most of the typical figures widely circulated in Japanese classical literature come from these works.
From the14th century, in the rural areas around the capital at that time, folk drama and artistic ability gradually appeared by performing drama to reward the gods. The latter gradually developed along the direction of music, dance, performance and other comprehensive arts, and later became a drama dominated by music, singing and dance-Neng. The former developed into a one-act drama with dialogue as the mainstay. At first, wild talk was improvised by actors, satirizing some social phenomena at that time. /kloc-around the 0/5th century, it gradually matured, resulting in many stereotyped traditional plays, whose scripts were fixedly preserved by the hands of various schools. Now, there are about 300 crazy scripts
The literary value of "Crazy Talk" is high because it reflects the rise of people's power at that time. Crazy Talk focuses on a prominent contradiction, satirizing and mocking all the evil forces that oppress the people by comedy or farce. Many of the so-called "Daming" dramas in the wild talk are mostly about the contradiction between "Daming" (the landlord warrior class around Kyoto in the middle ages) and his servants. In the play, the "big name" is portrayed as greedy, arrogant and stupid, while the servant is portrayed as smart, clever and witty. In drama conflicts, it usually ends with the failure of Daming and the victory of courtiers. Crazy talk also mercilessly exposes and ridicules the ugly behaviors of monks, such as cheating to collect money, drinking and fishing. He made a bold mockery of the concept of ghosts and gods that the rulers were willing to publicize and bound the people's consciousness. The female images in Wild Talk are also very provocative and enterprising. It is precisely because raving fully embodies the spirit of the times in the Middle Ages that it is deeply loved by the lower classes and developed with the support of the people. Of course, since the raving has been gradually stereotyped, its satirical spirit is no longer as spicy and sharp as when it was first improvised; During the Muromachi period, it became an accessory to the performance of "energy"-gibberish in behavior, which stopped as an ironic spirit of nonsense in life.
Another kind of literature and art in this period is couplet. This is an art form in which a harmony song is divided into two sentences and connected by different authors. Initially, it was developed after the meeting because of peaceful aristocratic competitions and songs. It was first popular among aristocrats and monks, and then infiltrated between the lower samurai and businessmen, forming an entertaining and social literary activity. Some people who take part in the chorus are called "Lianzhong". While composing the couplet, they evaluate and appreciate each other. However, various complicated rules of chorus appeared later, forming a "master" system for teaching and judging the quality of chorus. By the end of Muromachi, Lian Fang's first sentence was independent and developed into a haiku, while Lian Fang itself gradually lost its vitality. In a word, as a special creative activity, Liange is a reflection of the gradual popularization of literature in this period from its occurrence and development.
Another kind of literary creation in this period is essay literature. Representative works include Grass in vain published in13rd century, written by Ya Changming (1153-1216), and The Abbot published in14th century, Tian (/. Both authors were born in the declining aristocratic class, with high cultural accomplishment, and later became monks. They are aware of the doomed fate of their own class to a certain extent, but they can't unconditionally affirm the emerging samurai class, so they take a wait-and-see attitude and live a secluded life. The abbot recorded the natural disasters and personnel changes in the last years of Ping 'an, held a negative view on the struggle for power by foreigners, and also revealed the hermit's negative attitude towards life. Grass in vain is an essay collection with mixed feelings. The book is divided into 243 paragraphs with different lengths. The author's outlook on life is basically negative, but there are also some short and incisive moral stories, which are enlightening and show that the author attaches importance to rationality. These two works have long been regarded as models of ancient Chinese, because they are both confused with Chinese, and their words are precise and concise. Some negative, bystander thoughts and attitudes towards life in the book have had a considerable impact on later literature.
In the meantime, there are two other works worth mentioning. One is The Story of Zeng Ming written by14th century, and the other is The Book of Changes written by15th century. The former is about two warriors who avenge my father, and the latter is about the legendary and tragic life of Genji General Genyi Jing. Although these two novels are also included in the story of the army, they do not describe the large-scale group struggle of the samurai class like the Pingjia story, but the samurai life that has experienced hardships and ups and downs. These two works were actually processed and polished by collecting legends about these characters that were widely circulated among the people at that time. Because the characters in these two works