The Classic Of Poetry And The Kokinshu

Since the origination of Japan, it has been heavily influenced by China. Despite having created their country with major influences from China, they eventually started crafting these ideas into their own versions, leading to major differences in cultures. These influences can be seen within, religion, Japanese poetry, and government structure. The government structure assimilated by the Japanese was the idea of a “state headed by a divine monarch” (Japanese 1074). For example, in early Japan the Yamato clan used its knowledge of language to initiate hegemony over a large portion of Japan. With their Chinese-influenced writing system, they connected the origins of Japans to gods such as Amaterasu through ancient literature. On the other hand
Although the Koinshu valued complexity and poetry elegance, the Classic of Poetry was centered on simplicity and distinctiveness; The Kokinshu still was inspired by the Classic of Poetry, one major theume between the two literary pieces is unrequited love. The poem 496 from The Kokinsh and Fishhawk from The Classic of Poetry both have similarities in content, intent and presentation. First off, in both poems the main character is longing for a woman. Based off the lines in 496, “Loving secretly / too hard for me to bear; / I shall let my heart / Reveal / to him its color, / The blush of the safflower” (496 Book 11). Within this poem the author is shows her love her from afar, and is ultimately not comfortable expressing their true feeling. The same concept can be seen within Fishhawk. These lines, “The fishhawks sing gaun gaun / on sandbars of the stream. / Gentle Maiden, pure and fair / fit pair for a prince,” show that this man sees this lady on the sandbar, possibly representing loving her from afar as well. Within these lines the narrator is deeply longing for this woman, “Watercress grown here and there / right and left we gather it. / Gentle maiden, pure and fair, / wanted waking and asleep / wanting, sought her, had her not / waking / sleeping / thought of her. Throughout the rest of the poem the narrator repeats his description of the entrancement he has experienced in seeing these women. Unfortunately, the melancholy, mood of the poem provides the sense that the man is not really able to succeed in pursuit of the women, his request for mutual love is neither denied or