About Murasaki Shikibu

One of the best novelists to come out of Japan's Heian era is Murasaki Shikibu. The Tale of Genji, one of the earliest and greatest stories in existence today, was the subject of her debut novel. Importantly, Shikibu was a member of the Fujiwara dynasty and the daughter of a Japanese provincial governor. She went on to become a well-known scholar. Since of her brilliance, Murasaki understood things more rapidly than her brothers did when they were younger. Her father lamented that she wasn't a boy because she would have made him proud (Kimbrough 2). The Tale of Genji was one of Murasaki’s works that she wrote after the 1000 year that followed the Heian era in Japan.

Contrary to that, Genji, who turns out to be the hero in the play, is the son of the emperor and one of his favorite concubines, Kiritsubo. In the novel, a Korean sage claims that Genji would have a brilliant future (Kimbrough 2). However, his mother, Kiritsubo faces jealousy from her rivals leading to her illness that made her succumb to death. Despite the fact that the emperor grieves over the loss of Kiritsubo, he finds himself another concubine, Fujitsubo, who reminds the ruler of his former love. Importantly, Genji lacks the support of the court making the emperor to view him as a typical person by assigning him a member of a different clan, which does not belong to a royal family. On the contrary, the emperor’s oldest son becomes a crowned prince.

Genji grows up to become a gifted young person admired by most people from Lady Kokiden’s family, but, at the same time, most people fear him (Kimbrough 9). The first part of the narrative followed the exploits of Genji, his friendship and arranged marriage to Aoi, his best friend’s sister. After the emperor dies, the crowned prince, who happens to be Lady Kokiden’s only son, succeeds him. The amorous intrigues portrayed by Genji causes a scandal at a court making him leave the village to reside in Suma for quite some years. In the next portion of the tale, Genji meets up with the former-governor of a state called Harima together with the daughter that most people refer to as The Akashi Lady. Therefore, this prompts Genji to return to the capital, an act that makes the emperor resign for Fujitsubo’s son, who happens to be Genji’s secret son as well (Kimbrough 8). As a result, Genji gains back his position at the court and the Akashi Lady gives birth to a girl. Genji does not forget to thank the deity for offering him protecting throughout the challenges that he faced while living in Suma. After returning to the city, Genji marries Murasaki and different other women while, at the same time, his influence at the court increases steadily (Kimbrough 2). Genji later marries a third person who happens to be a princess and gives birth to a son that grows to become a nun for Buddha.

Contrary to that, The Pillow Book is a story that contains different observations and musings that Sei Shonagon recorded when she worked as a court lady during the 990s and the 1000s in the Heian era in Japan (Sei and Meredith 45). The book consists of personal thoughts, poetry, interesting and amusing events, as well as, the opinions of her social groups. Despite the fact that the book comprises of own work, the writings of Shonagon and the poetic skills makes it and interesting literature piece, which is a valuable historical document. One important factor to consider in the book is the fact that it does not contain a real plot. However, the characters and the themes in the book are recurring. Importantly, some of the repeated themes in the novel include position, beauty, and nature, while the recurring characters include the Empress, the Emperor and other courtiers (Xiugui 48). The life that Shonagon describes in the Pillow Book comprises of taking care of the Empress while, at the same time, doing all she could to prepare for the festivals and special occasions (Sei and Meredith 45). In some few instances, Shonagon goes to visit her parents and family, but the palace feels like her native home after working there for several decades.

Besides that, some of the entries in the book are stories about the things that happened at the palace and the stories that other people told her. Most of the narratives in the novel are myths and fables from the past while the poetry in the book helps to fill in a conversation or bridge gaps existing in relationships while in other cases, the poems help in making an apology. On the contrary, some of the entries in the book are lists that have headings such as “Embarrassing Things” (Sei and Meredith 49). Long lists of descriptions or a story would accompany some of the things that led to feelings of embarrassment while other things would be nouns followed by periods. However, the lists are not dull since they captivate a reader entirely. Further, the styles of writings that Shonagon uses are enjoyable since she is happy and a light-hearted as well. Shonagon does not deal with things that may have gone wrong, an act that portrays her optimistic nature.

Further, the novel, A Dream of Red Mansions, places its focus on the Chia family. The two dukes in the family are Duke Jung-Kuo and Duke Ning-Kuo. Besides that, Chia-Fu was one of the eldest grandsons of Ning-Kuo, the Duke, who dies at a young age leading Chia Ching, the second grandson to take the title of his dead father (Xiugui 54). Since Chia Ching has the mandate to set up his religious life, he gives up the title to his son Chia Chen leaving Chia Ching to devote his life to studying about religion with the hopes that he will become immortal once he dies. The novel is from China and revolves around one family (Xiugui 54). From the three stories, this paper will compare the symbolism and metaphors in the three narratives.

In The Tale of Genji, the story dwells on Genji and his tender way of living his life. Genji takes quality time in writing poems about the women that he finds attractive. However, the majority of women are negative about their relationship with Genji, as they fear suffering after having an affair with Genji. The book uses metaphors and symbolism to illustrate the happenings of the story (Kimbrough 2). The narrative is a critical work of Japan literature, and most of the authors have cited it as an inspiration to other writers. Besides that, the story is written in a mysterious nature with different factors such as the horrible world intriguing a reader. The women that Genji is attracted to, in the narrative, reciprocate similar feelings towards him. As a result, this gives a reader the notion of the facts that Genji is a charming and charismatic man. In addition to that, Genji’s affairs with the many women are often outside the court, and the behavior is detrimental to his position at the court (Xiugui 53-54). Therefore, Genji’s affairs are concealment and go through so much trouble to maintain.

Further, every affair that Genji had is entirely different from the other making the story appear metaphorical. Moreover, Genji does not show any particular ideal for all the women in his life since he pursues different women who have no relation to each other (Kimbrough 4). Genji’s thoughts of love are shallow. An example is that in the novel, there was a princess that he sent love letters constantly after hearing her play music. Such an example symbolizes Genji as a person who loves for a reason since he has a flawed belief of love. Genji acknowledges love with a fluttery feeling when it is an insightful word (Kimbrough 2).

Contrary to that, the women in the Heian era were housebound according to the customary laws at the time. As a result, the women are conservative seen only two men; their father and their husband were allowed to see them. They spent most of their time in isolation, and when they left the house, they would ride on cartridges driven by horses that had a little slit where they could glance out. Besides that, the women had the freedom to visit occasional pilgrimages to the temples of Buddha or the Shinto shrines as well. Despite the solitary life of the women in the novel, one option exists that would give them a different kind of lifestyle. The law, according to the novel, allowed the women to join the service of the court and later become a lady-in-waiting for the Empress of the region, which enabled them to have several relationships with men (Kimbrough 5). Therefore, this symbolizes women as people that need to be caged and prevented from interacting with the world for them to preserve themselves for their future husbands.

Further, the men during the Heian era were free to do all that they wanted as opposed to the women. The people that held the top positions could have the freedom to marry as many women as they wanted. Such men had several concubines evident from the emperor’s relationship with a mistress leading to the birth of Genji (Xiugui 50). The first wife of the top-ranking people in government would be used for political reasons. The men in the era found no interest in the physical appearances of a woman and had a difference. Seduction was critical in the tale, which symbolized the fact that men would acquire their wives based on their seduction strategies. Therefore, this explains the poetic nature of Genji in trying to woo a woman (Kimbrough 2). People see Genji as a hero since he had the ability to take care of his women regardless of his diminished status in the society. However, the law did not allow the men to marry two wives formally. The law did not have any influence in preventing the people from visiting different women.

Genji grows up to become a gifted young person admired by most people from Lady Kokiden’s family, but, at the same time, most people fear him. The first part of the narrative followed the exploits of Genji, his friendship and arranged marriage to Aoi, his best friend’s sister. After the emperor dies, the crowned prince, who happens to be Lady Kokiden’s only son, succeeds him (Murasaki, Shikibu, and Edward Seidensticker 75). The amorous intrigues portrayed by Genji causes a scandal at a court making him leave the village to live in Suma for quite some years. In most cases, this symbolizes that the children of the emperor would grow to become respectable people in the society due to the virtues instilled to them in their childhood. During the modern times, it is easy to debate the heroic nature of Genji since for a Japanese to be considered as a hero he needs to have had a decent job. Besides that, the fact that Genji had an affair with his stepmother shows that he is not respectable by the contemporary theories of Japan.

The Tale of Genji by Murasaki epitomizes the world in which it originates from (Murasaki, Shikibu, and Seidensticker 73). The narrative is primarily of its period, an era that has its roots in stylized literacy, subculture, and poetry, but had sufficient depth to make the claims of the earliest novel. Since the author wrote the story for the purposes of entertaining the Japanese court, the works tend to present difficulties to the readers in the modern world (Murasaki, Shikibu, and Seidensticker 76). Importantly, the Heian era comprised of complex grammar and that the naming of characters during the period was an offense. As a result, no character in the play is named in the narrative, but the narrators refer to the men in the book by their positions and the women by the color of their clothing. In most cases, this symbol shows that people in the era were considered successful if they help top-ranking positions in office while the outfit defined women. Mainly, this resulted in different terms of a particular character that varied with the chapter.

Besides that, another factor that was important in the narrative is the use of poetry, while conversing. In the Heian era, the modification of a classic poem in accordance with the situation was a typical behavior that helped to communicate varying allusions. The lyrics used in the narrative were in tanka form while, at the same time, most of those poems were used for the intended audiences. Most of the things in the novel symbolized the Japanese culture in the Heian era. Similar to most of the literature developed in the period, The Tale of Genji might have been written in kana symbolizing that a woman wrote it. Writing in the Chinese language was an act set aside for the men while women would use symbols of Chinese.

Contrary to that, The Pillow Book is an example of work that has lived in the past and uses a language style that most authors in the modern world want to use. The Pillow Book is a personalized series that contains musings on the life of the court. The author employs a technique referred to as Okashi, an aesthetic strategy and gives insight to behavior and etiquette in the Heian era. One of the similarities between The Pillow Book and The Tale of Genji is the fact that both of them refer to the same period in Japan history, the Heian Era (Sei and Meredith 56). The book is written in a different style known as zuihitsu, a style and technique that follows rambling and a calligrapher’s brush. Sei indicates that she wrote the book in a spirit of fun without the help of any person. Besides that, the title, Pillow Book, is not the original one since a scribe in the book later led to the selection of the title.

Importantly, the first sections of the book describe the four seasons and the way in which a person should view them. First, the book claims that it is beautiful in spring, arguing that the outlines of the springs have purplish cloud trailing over them, which is an example of metaphor in the book (Murasaki, Shikibu, and Edward Seidensticker 76). Further, the author compares the shining of the moon and the dark nights to the fireflies and the beauty of the rains as well. The title is a symbol of the ways that led to the title of the narrative. The author imagines the way life is for a woman living in their homes to serve their husbands symbolizing the role of the women during the Heian period, which was to take care of their husbands and only their fathers or husbands would see them. Importantly, this is similar to the symbol used in The Tale of Genji where women had the role to stay at home and tend for their husbands while the men had the ability to get jobs and marry more than one woman (Murasaki, Shikibu, and Edward Seidensticker 76). In the Heian period, a woman would have the freedom to sleep with several agents after she worked for the Empress of the area as a lady-in-waiting. Therefore, this is a symbol showing the fact that Sei was a lady-in-waiting (Sei and Meredith 45). Sei claims that when she sees the way in which the women in the society stay at home to take care of their husbands, she is filled with contempt. Therefore, this could symbolize that Sei loathes men.

Besides that, Sei, in her book, indicates that a preacher requires being good-looking since for a person to understand the preaching, he or she needs to maintain eye contact with him as he speaks. Such a sentiment shows that Sei is a good listener since listening requires maintenance of good eye contact. Further, Sei indicates that during winter, one lies listening to their over and that it booms to hear the sound of a temple gong that emanates from the deep well (Sei and Meredith 45). Sei shows that he knows the traits that he needs to find a good lover since she indicates that a good partner needs to be as elegant as dawn. Therefore, this shows that unlike Genji, Sei knows the kind of lover that she wants. Genji, on the other hand, has different traits of women since he has different types of women, an act showing that he has no specifications for a suitable female.

Contrary to that, The Dreams of Red Mansions is another novel that tends to occupy a central place in the literary culture of Chinese. The novel creates the world that is peculiar to both location and time (Xiugui 54). Further, the story embodies the paradox of art. The story resembles the boxes of China. The primary frame in the novel is the myth of the Buddhist creation, which is a stone that takes up the residence on earth in the form of humans, an act showing the importance of the myth to the author. The stone appears in the shape of a youth hero, Jia Baoyu, which means precious jade. Baoyu is born with a jade that is in his mouth showing that he symbolizes the myth described in the first chapters of the book.

Further, the next frame that the story contains is about the decline of wealthy people’s fortunes primarily affecting the Jia aristocratic clan. However, the story is not related to the increasing and reduction in the incompetence of the Qing Dynasty, which was one of the last battlement of the ancient civilization. Lastly, one of the smallest frames displays a story regarding the apprenticeship of the novel’s hero who is a young hero, Jia Baoyu by indicating his progress from childhood all the way to maturity (Xiugui 54). The apprenticeship involves the struggle of the hero to achieve personal liberation, as well as, the inheritance from the sufferings that emanated from his attachment to his cousin. The sufferings symbolize an unlikely happy conclusion in a situation where one has an emotional attachment to his cousin showing that nothing good could come out of it. After the death of Black Jade, which turned out to be tragic, and his marriage to Precious Clasp, the young hero, becomes ill and is reduced to becoming an idiot. After he recovers, he successfully acquires the juren degree (Xiugui 54). Later, the hero receives an awakening from his experiences and comprehends an actual relationship to the world where he suffers no more and gains the freedom he needs and the inner peace that he sought for his entire life. Importantly, this is a symbol showing that one does not receive satisfaction before the realization of their worth in this life since the hero suffered before acquiring the inner peace that he desired. Later on, the hero rejects the world and becomes one of the monks.

To conclude, three novels, The Tale of Genji, The Dream of Red Mansions and The Pillow Book are discussed in this paper, including some of the metaphors and symbolism that the authors of these novels include in their works. The Tale of Genji narrates about the life of Genji who happens to come from a royal family and later abandoned has a way of maintaining his women. The two books, The Tale of Genji and the Pillow book are novels that symbolize and put emphasis on the role of the woman during the Heian era in Japan where a woman needs to stay at home and take care of his family while the law allowed their husbands to be polygamous. Besides that, the two novels have women writers who narrate their plight during the Heian period. On the contrary, The Dreams of Red Mansions focuses on the life of a young hero and the sufferings he underwent before realizing his purpose on earth. The three books use different kinds of symbolism as discussed and compared in this paper.































Works Cited

Kimbrough, Keller. "Mapping Courtship and Kinship in Classical Japan: "The Tale of Genji" and Its Predecessors." H-Net Reviews in the Humanities & Social Sciences, Mar. 2017, pp. 1-3. EBSCO host. Web. Apr. 29, 2017.

Murasaki Shikibu, and Edward Seidensticker. The Tale of Genji. New York: Knopf, 2007. Print.

Sei, Shōnagon, and Meredith McKinney. The Pillow Book. Columbia University Press, 2011.

Xiugui, Zhang. Dream of the Red Chamber (a Dream of Red Mansions): Notes. Lincoln, Neb: Cliffs Notes, 1991. Web. Apr. 29, 2017.