Documents and Fiction in Three Early Edo Biographies of Hideyoshi: Translations to and from Kanbun

Alexey Lushchenko

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Chapter 7 Documents and Fiction in Three Early Edo Biographies of Hideyoshi: Translations to and from Kanbun

äºCosmopolitan and Vernacular in the World of Wen æ

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Alexey Lushchenko

Alexey Lushchenko
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Page Range:: 221â244

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004529441_009

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Abstract

This chapter explores the relationship between official historical works and popular works of historical fiction produced in the early Edo period. It examines passages from the biographical text Toyotomi Hideyoshi fu è±è£ç§åè written in Literary Sinitic (kanbun) by Hayashi Razan æç¾å±± (1583â1657) in 1642 at the request of the Tokugawa government, with particular focus on its treatment of Hideyoshiâs early career, his personal qualities, and his negotiations and wars with Ming China and Korea. The image of Hideyoshi presented in this text deserves attention as a part of the Tokugawa historical project aimed at shaping representations of the past. Analysis of the network of texts about Hideyoshi produced in the seventeenth century, in kanbun and in Japanese, supports the claim that the divide between official and unofficial, historical and literary, cosmopolitan kanbun and vernacular Japanese, was rather fluid. Similar content appeared in works of different genres and could be recorded using multiple inscriptional styles interchangeably. At the same time, the kanbun version has its own peculiarities that supplement the content found in other versions. This chapter demonstrates that kanbun materials contain valuable data for the study of historical figures such as Hideyoshi, and for a deeper understanding of textual production and circulation in premodern Japan. I also suggest that, at least in the early Edo period, Literary Sinitic predominantly read in Japanese (by kundoku) was perceived in Japan not as âChinese,â but as a high formal register of Japanese.

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Cosmopolitan and Vernacular in the World of Wen æ

Reading Sheldon Pollock from the Sinographic Cosmopolis

ä¸ç¼ï¼ Language, Writing and Literary Culture in the Sinographic Cosmopolis, å·ï¼ 5

Cover Cosmopolitan and Vernacular in the World of Wen æ

ISBN:: 9789004529441

åºçç¤¾:: Brill

å°å·åºçæ¥æ:: 25 May 2023

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Front Matter

Part 1 Beginnings: Origins and Early Centuries of the Sinographic Cosmopolis

Part 2 Medieval and Early Modern Cases from China, Japan, and Vietnam

Part 3 The Special Case of Korea: From Late ChosÅn to Colonial ChÅsen

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æè¦æµè§æ¬¡æ°	1622	425	23
å¨ææµè§æ¬¡æ°	36	5	0
PDFä¸è½½æ¬¡æ°	12	3	0

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Chapter 7 Documents and Fiction in Three Early Edo Biographies of Hideyoshi: Translations to and from Kanbun

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Reading Sheldon Pollock from the Sinographic Cosmopolis

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