Introduction: In 1968, Yasunari Kawabata won the Nobel Prize in Literature for his works such as Snow Country, Chizuru, and Ancient Capital, which "expressed the essence of the Japanese psyche with excellent sensibility and superb narrative skills." These three novels highlighted by the Swedish Academy of Letters are also often regarded as "winning works" and Yasunari Kawabata's masterpieces (in fact, there is no so-called award-winning work, the Nobel Prize in Literature is a total achievement), and "Snow Country" is the most respected of these three works.
"Snow Country" is not as good as "Thousand Cranes" in terms of narrative, and it is not as thorough as "Ancient Capital" in terms of returning to tradition, which is undoubtedly obvious. However, "Snow Country" is the most beautiful and lyrical one in Kawabata Yasunari's works, and some commentators even lamented that "there is no "Snow Country" after "Snow Country". In "Snow Country", closely associated with aesthetics and lyricism are futility and nothingness, and Yasunari Kawabata is even labeled "nihilistic" because of this.
《Snow Country》
However, it is worth noting that the "nothingness" in Yasunari Kawabata's works is quite different from the "nihilism" of the West. Yasunari Kawabata pointed out in his acceptance speech that year: Some critics say that my works are nihilistic, but this is not the same as the nihilism of the West; I think this is fundamentally different in the "mind".
The author believes that the "nothingness" in Yasunari Kawabata's works is directly inherited from the idea of "material mourning" in traditional Japanese culture. This is not only reflected in Yasunari Kawabata's admiration for "Material Lamentation" and "The Tale of Genji", but also in the text of "Snow Country", which is discussed below.
1. Yasunari Kawabata's admiration for the Tale of Genji
In his 1968 acceptance speech, I Am in Beautiful Japan, Yasunari Kawabata spoke highly of the Culture of the Heian Dynasty, represented by The Tale of Genji:
Japan absorbed the culture of the Tang Dynasty of China, and then it was well integrated into the style of Japan, and about a thousand years ago, it produced a splendid Heian Dynasty culture, forming the beauty of Japan... In particular, "The Tale of Genji", it can be said that since ancient times, this is one of the best novels in Japan... "The Tale of Genji" has penetrated deeply into my heart. For hundreds of years, Japanese novels have longed for or carefully imitated this masterpiece.
Yasunari Kawabata
On other occasions, Yasunari Kawabata repeatedly emphasized that "the mourning of the Heian Dynasty became the source of Japanese beauty" and "sorrow and beauty are connected." In "Tribute to Kensaku Shimagi", Yasunari Kawabata even wrote: From now on, I did not want to write a word except for the sad beauty of Japan. Through these remarks, it is not difficult to see that "material sorrow" and "sadness" are extremely important aesthetic concepts in Yasunari Kawabata.
It is worth noting that "material sorrow" is not the same as "sadness", it is a broader concept than "sorrow". Yasunari Kawabata pays special attention to the "sad" side for two main reasons: one is because "mourning" is the most prominent trait of "material mourning", and the other is because it is influenced by its own "orphan root". Yasunari Kawabata lost his mother at the age of two and lost his father at the age of three, lost his grandmother at the age of seven, lost his sister at the age of ten, and lost his grandfather, the only relative, at the age of fifteen, these experiences made Yasunari Kawabata prematurely feel the impermanence and brevity of life, so that the seed of "sorrow" took root and sprouted in his heart early, so that it accompanied his life.
Yasunari Kawabata and his girlfriend, the two are engaged, but the woman broke the marriage contract, which also caused a great blow to Yasunari Kawabata
2. What is "material mourning"?
In The Tale of Genji, "mourning" appears more than a thousand times, and "thing lament" appears more than a dozen times. However, "material mourning" as a literary or aesthetic idea was not established until the Edo period. At that time, honju Nobunaga, the master of retro-sinology, pointed out in his analysis of traditional Japanese literary works: From the shindai to the present, and to the end of the world, the waka of chanting is nothing more than the word of material sorrow; as for "Ise", "Genji" and other things, if you explore their original meaning, you can also say that material mourning can be covered.
In the "Purple Essentials", honju Xuanchang gave a more detailed explanation of "material mourning":
The diversity of everything in the world, we see in the eyes, listen in the ears, the experience of physical practice, put all these things in the heart to taste, the heart to distinguish the feelings of these things one by one, this is to understand the feelings of things, is to understand the sorrow of things.
Image of Nobunori Motoi
That is to say, "material sorrow" is an emotion produced in the face of the diversity of all things, which is not limited to "sadness", but all possible emotions such as happiness, relief, pleasure, and sorrow. Influenced by aesthetic psychology, Japanese people pay special attention to experiencing and expressing "sadness", and "The Tale of Genji" is a work that focuses on expressing the feelings of "sadness" in "material sorrow".
Overall, the scenes, characters, and plots of The Tale of Genji vividly embody the idea of "material sorrow". The first volume of the Tale of Genji, Kiritsugu, focuses on the parting of life and death, with emperor Kirito being emperor but unable to keep his most beloved changing clothes, and Genji's sons being unparalleled but having to be demoted to vassal status. Later in the article, the parting scene also appears many times.
In fact, the mourning of the scene in "The Tale of Genji" is not only reflected in the sad scenes such as parting, but also in many cheerful scenes, which is mainly done by witnessing the joy of the scenery and thinking about the inner sorrow. The lament of the characters and plots is mainly reflected in Genji and Ziji, Genji is noble and talented but can't grasp everything around him; Ziji is raised to be a perfect woman but can't fully get Genji, and finally loses her life early.
In the "Ritual" that describes the death of Zi Ji, the feeling of "material sorrow" in "The Tale of Genji" can be said to rise to the extreme. In this time, Zi Ji witnessed the beautiful scenery of the good day but felt desolate, and then observed the ladies of her peers "for the last time" on the grand meeting, and finally the sad gift was "exposed on the green hagi, which was clearly not long; the occasional wind suddenly rose, dissipated and proved impermanent", and finally dawned.
The author said that the feeling of "material sorrow" in the "FaShi" has reached an extreme, which is by no means an exaggeration. This time, in fact, the process of showing Zi Ji's "knowing things and mourning" is to experience "desolation and loneliness" from the beautiful scenery of "cherry blossoms in full bloom and the sky is clear"; the second step is to feel that I am going to die forever after observing all kinds of human beings in the world - but after all, I am the only one who first disappears without any traces; the third step is to return to my feelings with Genji, thinking: I don't know how sad the Lord of Genji will be when he dies.
Stills from The Tale of Genji
This idea of "material mourning" is also present in Genji and Yumi's contemplation of Zi-hime. Zi Ji had wanted to "become a nun to fulfill his long-cherished wish", but Genji refused to let go. Later, Zi Ji prepared a grand festival, but failed to "remove the sin barrier" for herself, and Genji failed to keep Zi Ji. Zi Ji's private wish to "ask the monks to write a thousand copies of the Lotus Sutra" is actually as futile as many of the actions of the colt in the Snow Kingdom. Although the scene of the festival was grand and solemn, it did not bring relief to Zi Ji's heart, which was undoubtedly the same as the scene of the Snow Country could not redeem Shimamura. In addition, the aesthetic concept of nothingness and sadness in "Snow Country" can also be found in the depiction of the beauty of Zi Ji's death.
1. The beauty of Zi Ji's death and the beauty of nothingness in Snow Country
The nihilistic and sad aesthetic tendencies of Snow Country are mainly reflected in the depiction of the beauty of leaves and colts. The description of the leaves at the beginning of the novel is immersed in ethereal and illusory:
The figure is a transparent illusion, and the scenery is a hazy undercurrent in the night mist, and the two dissolve together, depicting a world of transcendent symbols... The light flashed from her face like this, but it did not illuminate her face. It was a cold light cast from afar, vaguely illuminating the area around her eyes. The moment her eyes overlapped the lights, she was like a glamorous and beautiful luminous worm flying in the afterglow of the setting sun.
Stills from Snow Country
The death of the leaf pushes this beauty of nothingness to the extreme:
Before the leaves spasmed, the first thing Shimamura saw was her face and her red arrow-plumed kimono. The leaves fell from their faces. The hem of the dress was lifted to one knee. When he fell to the ground, only his legs and stomach cramped, and the whole person was still in a coma. For some reason, Shimamura always felt that Ye Zi was not dead. Her inner life was deforming into something else.
At this time, Shimamura suddenly remembered the scene when he first saw Leaf on the train, which was similar to the scene in "The Tale of Genji" in which Yumiha recalled after Ziji's death that he had inadvertently glimpsed her face when the wind started fifteen years ago. For many years, although Xi Wu did not have a special heart for Zi Ji, she always remembered her. After Zi Ji's death, Xi Wu found a kind of death beauty in her:
Madame Purple's hair was casually scattered, but the dense bushes were not at all chaotic, brilliant and beautiful. The light was very bright, shining the face of the Purple Lady white. Compared with the appearance of the zhu smeared powder before death, the appearance when lying unconsciously after death is even more beautiful.
Yumi was so immersed in this beauty that she wished she had died, attaching her soul to Zi Ji. In "Snow Country", Shimamura witnesses Leaf's loss of life, but he does not feel pain for it, but remembers the years he and Komako spent together, and feels that it is full of "unspeakable pain and sorrow".
Shimamura and Komako film and television images
2. The sorrow of Genji and Shikihime and the futility of Shimamura and Komako
Yasunari Kawabata once made such a statement about the creative psychology of "Snow Country": "Izu's Dancing Girl" or "Snow Country", I wrote it with the mood of gratitude for love, this performance, in "Izu's Dancing Girl" is simply expressed, in "Snow Country" is slightly deeper, made a painful performance.
Several of the relationships in "Snow Country" are indeed extremely painful, Komako is devoted to Shimamura but Shimamura sees her love as a futility; Leaf takes good care of the walking man but the walking man eventually dies early; Shimamura is attracted by the illusory and ethereal beauty of the leaf, but the leaf is as elusive as the lights in the car window.
Stills of the colt
In fact, the futility in "Snow Country" is not only reflected in the emotional aspect, but in the various behaviors of the characters. The heroine Komako becomes a geisha in order to cure the man's illness, but she does not lose faith in life, she insists on keeping a diary, reading novels, and practicing the sanji, but these actions do not bring her a better future, and the death of the yokai and Shimamura's disregard for her love have actually declared her actions to be futile. Shimamura's actions were futile, and he had an indifferent attitude towards everything but a fondness for Ye Zi, but Ye Zi died after agreeing to go to Tokyo with him.
Genji and Ziji in "The Tale of Genji", their lives are also particularly futile and sad. Zi Ji was raised by Genji and was trained to be the most perfect woman, and all the meaning of Zi Ji's life can be said to be in Genji, but the women around Genji are not the only ones. After Genji married the third princess, Zi-hime "has not tasted the taste of sleeping alone for many years, and now although she tries her best to endure it, she still feels lonely."
Zi Ji had the intention of making a family, but she was not allowed by Genji, and eventually had to retreat to the second place to organize a grand festival. The cherry blossoms are in full bloom, the sky is clear, and the beauty of the day is almost similar to the place where the Buddha and Bodhisattva live, but Zi Ji does not get comfort from it, but feels even more desolate and lonely, so that all thoughts are gray.
Genji film and television image
After Zi Ji's death, Genji said that she had been a monk for many years, and it was pitiful that she did not fulfill her wish when she came to this end. At this time, Genji only made a decision to make Ziji out of the family, which not only reflected Genji's selfishness, but also reflected his sadness. Zi Ji is actually not just Zi Ji, Genji also poured his feelings for barnacles into Zi Ji, and his feelings for barnacles actually contained an Oedipus complex. Genji desperately wanted to tie Ziji tightly, but he couldn't resist fate.
The impermanence of fate can be described as the source of sorrow in "The Tale of Genji", and it is also the source of sorrow in "Snow Country", just like the poem given by Zi Ji on her deathbed:
Exposed on the green hagi, it is clear that it is not long. Occasional winds rise and dissipate impermanence.
bibliography:
Hu Shu ,"A New Exploration of the Thought of "Material Sorrow" of Honju Xuanchang"
Murasaki Shikibu, Genji-ji
Ye Weiqu 《Kawabata Yasunari Commentary》
Kawabata Yasunari 《Snow Country》
Yasunari Kawabata, "I'm in Beautiful Japan"