There is a genre of Japanese literary works that is similar to "historical novels" and is called "era novels". Different from historical novels, era novels only borrow the shell of historical times, exert imagination and creativity, and fill in a variety of overhead characters.
Shuhei Fujisawa, along with Sima Liaotaro and Shotaro Ikeba, is known as one of the three great masters of fiction in the post-war era. His name is not well-known in China, but the film adaptation of his novel, "The Guard of the Dusk", won the Best Asian Film Award at the 23rd Hong Kong Film Awards and was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and the depiction in the film has become a window for many people to understand the Japanese samurai.
Recently, Yilin Publishing House launched the first five masterpieces of Fujisawa Shuhei's works (all twelve): the short story collection "Dusk Kiyobei", "Hidden Sword Lonely Shadow Copy", "Hidden Sword Autumn Wind Copy", the long novel "Cicada Time Rain", which is known as the "Fujisawa Literary Pyramid", and the essay collection "Novel Surrounding" by writers recalling his writing life. This is the first time in China that a large-scale work has been entered into Fujisawa Shuhei's works, except for "Dusk Kiyobei", the rest are the first time that the simplified Chinese version of Chinese has been launched.
At the just-concluded Shanghai Book Fair, Li Changsheng, a well-known essayist in Japan and the main translator of Shuhei Fujisawa's works, together with Shanghai cultural celebrity and writer Xiao Bao, book critic and writer Zhang Mingyang, visited the Pujiang store of Shanghai Jiantou Bookstore. As one of the earliest people in China to love Fujisawa's works, the three guests shared with readers what they saw as the literary world of Fujisawa Shuhei and talked about the deep differences between Chinese and Japanese martial arts culture.
From left: Xiao Bao, Li Changsheng, Zhang Mingyang, on the samurai novels of Shuhei Fujisawa.
Samurai literature and martial arts literature
Shuhei Fujisawa's period novel, Li Changsheng believes is more suitable for being called "samurai novel". Shuhei Fujisawa's novels are mainly set in japan during the Edo period, which can basically be called the "samurai era", and even if you write about Ichii life, you will be a samurai as the protagonist, or there may be samurai appearing. In addition, "samurai novels" are more acceptable to readers than the less typical word "era", "the samurai is already the image of Japan in our minds." The image of China is that of a scholar, a scholar, etc., and the West is a knight, so the novel called samurai is more representative of Japan. ”
Many people compare Japanese samurai novels to Chinese martial arts novels. "The way Japanese samurai novels are written is very different from Chinese martial arts novels." Li Changsheng stressed that samurai novels are by no means martial arts novels.
"The Tokugawa shogunate and the Edo period, written by Shuhei Fujisawa, were very important periods of Japanese rule for more than 200 years, followed by the Meiji Restoration. At that time, the samurai were a very important class of actual existence. Xiao Bao explained that at that time, in Japan, the samurai class accounted for about 10% of the population. In the later period of the Tokugawa shogunate, the status of the samurai was very similar to that of the European military nobility, who did not fight wars, participated in social life in the fiefdoms of various daimyōs, and many of them changed to members of the bureaucracy.
In contrast, Chinese martial arts novels, especially in the new school of martial arts, Liang Yusheng, Jin Yong, and Gu Long, wuxia novels are completely the imagination and creation of the literati themselves.
"I think Chinese martial arts novels are basically based on the imagination of weak cultural people. For example, they created a so-called jianghu, and this jianghu does not exist. In the new school of martial arts, the author usually creates several jianghu sects that last for hundreds of years or even thousands of years, the jianghu sects are lined up, the people in the martial forest despise the powerful, transcend politics, and can exist with the identity of the jianghu, Xiao Bao believes that this is completely inconsistent with reality, "Chinese reality is dependent on politics, but in the new school of martial arts novels, the literati write a special transcendent politics, self-contained, and even above politics. This is because Chinese cultural people have been politically oppressed for a long time, and then they set themselves up in their imaginations to be particularly clever. ”
But Shuhei Fujisawa's samurai novels are very realistic. Xiao Bao believes that this is the biggest difference between samurai novels and martial arts novels, "The samurai in Fujisawa Shuhei's novels are very practical in their kung fu, all of which are kung fu that ordinary people can practice, unlike the one-move style in martial arts novels, even if you have a hot weapon, you may not be able to fight." ”
In addition, Shuhei Fujisawa's writing about the relationship between samurai and politics is also very practical, although the character stories are fictional, reflecting the specific situation of Japanese history at that time, while Chinese martial arts novels are full of romance imagined by the literati.
The first five works by Shuhei Fujisawa were published in the translation
Pride is all in ordinary people
In ordinary samurai novels, what moves people's hearts is a real emotion. All three guests were impressed by the samurai master Inoguchi Kiyobei depicted in the short story "Twilight Kiyobei".
Inoguchi Kiyobei is an invisible master, but he does not have the appearance of a master. In the novel, he is completely a small person under the pressure of daily life. Wellhead does a grassroots job in the finance department, and Shilu only has 50 stones. He had a bedridden wife, so he took on all the housework himself and woven bamboo baskets to supplement the household. At night, I was so tired that I often dozed off with an abacus at work, so I got the nickname of "Dusk Guard".
The samurai in Shuhei Fujisawa's writing are ordinary people who shoulder the burden of daily life like Kiyobei Inguchi. Li Changsheng summarized the samurai image in Shuhei Fujisawa's novels as "office workers", or simply "civil servants". The samurai had a strong midlife crisis in middle age. Contrary to what most people think, the samurai are a class, and they can do whatever they want, not everyone knows how to do martial arts.
People like Kiyobei Inguchi are at the bottom of the samurai class. "The advantage of Fujisawa's novel is that it has heroic pride in it, but heroic pride flashes on these people who are usually ignored by everyone." In Xiao Bao's view, "Dusk Qingbing Guard" is a typical example. The Anti-Hori faction plotted to assassinate Hori and needed to find a capable killer, so they went to The Kiyobei guards, and the reason for his refusal was that he had to take care of his wife after work at 7 p.m. and couldn't find time. In order to accommodate the dusk Qingbing guards, the last group of people looked at the venue and delayed until 8 o'clock, and the Qingbing guards came to the venue before they officially launched the attack.
"He didn't see it as particularly great, it was a moment when he did it." Xiao Bao believes that this is a positive inspiration for ordinary people, and in daily life, ordinary people can also have a heroic side, which is a very proud part of the novel.
"It's a very interesting setting." Zhang Mingyang mentioned that the reason for Qingbingwei seems absurd to many readers, but when we think about it carefully, we feel absurd because we have read more Chinese martial arts novels and thought that Qingbingwei insisted on very unimportant things, "Why do family trifles prevent a very important, so-called harm for the people, why doesn't it emphasize that the great hero is for the country and the people?" In fact, on the other hand, the daily life is a very small thing, and one thing cannot be delayed. ”
Li Changsheng believes that Qingbingwei embodies the human touch in Japanese samurai novels, and the strong sense of humanity is also the national nature of Japan, "Many people have seen "Late Night Canteen", in fact, "Late Night Canteen" is also a samurai novel, and the owner of the shop inside is actually similar to a samurai, showing his human touch. ”
Talk to the audience.
Literature of "good knife and hidden"
In Fujisawa's samurai novels, martial arts are rarely expressed, but when they appear, they play a decisive role, which is called "good sword and hiding".
In "Dusk Kiyobei", it is only at the end, when dusk Kiyobei assassinates Hori Shogun, that he first reveals his martial arts, and the description is only a few sentences: "Kiyobei greeted Hori shogun. Hori turned around and pulled out the knife. Kiyoshi drew his sword and slashed, the knife technique seemed to be very brisk, but as soon as the knife hori fell. ”
"One of the characteristics of Fujisawa is that it is not mainly about describing martial arts, it is written about life as a whole, and finally this killing is a means of solving." Li said in a long voice. Under such a concept, each of Fujisawa's novels will set up a contradiction, and killing people is only a means to solve the problem after the contradiction intensifies.
Xiao Bao believes that there is another meaning of "good sword and hiding", that is, the inherent responsibility of the samurai should be revealed at key moments, but the samurai will not give this sense of responsibility a particularly high ideological meaning, "Their concept at that time was to call Shun Tian Ying Ren. That is, to recognize the whole society first, and then tolerate coexistence, so that slowly integrate into this society, not like China for The Way of Heaven, feel that there is injustice in society, I will immediately overthrow a regime in the name of The Way of Heaven, change a dynasty, and do something decisive. Such an idea makes Fujisawa's novels full of human complexity and subtlety, which is the author's experience of the human world.
Fujisawa's depiction of the life of a samurai who "hides a sword is so real, but his samurai is full of humanity and is not the same as the "spirit of Bushido" that people think of. Li Changsheng explained that the Edo period written in Fujisawa's novel was a peaceful era in Japan, closed to the country, and there was no war for almost 200 years. By the Time of the Meiji Restoration, the Emperor regained power, the Edo period was completely repudiated, and the "Bushido spirit" of loyalty to the Emperor appeared, "In the past, the Japanese people had a very low evaluation of the Edo period, but in recent years, there has been the so-called 'Edo fever', which is to re-identify and rethink the value of the Edo period." ”
Koho also believes that the so-called "Bushido spirit" is not the original idea of the Japanese samurai, "In the Edo period when Fujisawa wrote, many things were spontaneous, but there was a kind of original beauty." ”