Asian Literature: Incorporating Cultural Influence
Asian literature is a form of art that incorporates terms from various Asian nations, including China, Japan, Korea, India, and other Asian countries. In Asia, literature is regarded as an important component of the society that is influenced by various societal factors. The value and inheritance play a role in the classification of Asian writing. For instance, Tu (124) makes the case that China is renowned for using literary techniques to impart moral lessons while also expressing aspiration through stylistic devices in poetry. Novels, prose, verses, and poems are all types of literature that use various tunes and rhyme systems in their lines and words. The influence of the harmony between Heaven and human in Asian literature is demonstrated by Confucianism, which brings about different relationships between words and meaning (Rozman 14). The report focuses on two elements of Confucianism - benevolence and righteousness - and how they influence Asian literature. The report considers literary texts as the primary sources for the arguments presented.
Research Objective
The primary objective of this study is to examine the influence of benevolence and righteousness in Asian literary texts such as novels, books, and stories.
Research Questions
1. What is the relationship between benevolence and Asian literary texts?
2. How does righteousness influence Asian literary texts?
Review of Literature
Benevolence and righteousness are primary virtues of Confucianism whose ideas have been used in different Asian countries to bring peace. In the process of cultivating true Confucian literacy, the youths are trained in moral education and philosophical studies as well as on other broader subjects to ensure that they have extensive knowledge of literature, music, and fine art (Bol 68). In China, Confucian values are regarded as a critical cultural force that guides leadership practices. However, social roles, as well as situational constraints, are crucial especially when a leader is making judgments or when settling disputes. Benevolence emerges as the most important virtue out of five Confucian values that include righteousness, wisdom, propriety, and trustworthiness. Based on Hoobler (36), Benevolence or humanity is experienced in the inner part of the mind that is in love to demonstrate the compassion of humans in avoiding harm or envying someone. The benevolence calls for someone to be amiable to avoid wrangling with other people or doing evil things.
Based on Confucius, it is fundamental for everyone to have humanity by seeking benevolence in good faith, which helps to gain the virtue. Subsequently attaining benevolence is based on someone's action rather than being promoted by others. The study by Vajpeyi (42) proves that the ideal state of benevolence can be attained through active pursuit of the subject. For this reason, the Confucius thought of benevolence is viewed as a conscious innermost emotional behavior among the individuals in the society. The theory of "four ends" is also used to show the thought of pursuing the benevolence value in the heart (Rozman 39). On the other hand, Confucian theory considers benevolence affection as well as the complacency of knowing how to deal with the relationship between human and society, human and human, human and self, as well as human's self-development.
In literary texts, benevolence is applied as a Golden Rule, which indicates that what someone does not wish for oneself, he/she should not do it for someone else, while what one regards desirable for oneself should be granted to others (Sin 21). In Confucian view, benevolence is viewed as a virtue that enhances harmony in texts through expressing the interest of self and other individuals. Benevolence is followed by the righteousness virtue that incorporates elements of thinking and acting from an individual viewpoint. The virtue calls for rational action as well as self-restraint that enable one to overcome temptations and fortitude to do what is right. Righteousness or honesty demonstrates the underlying moral leadership capacity. Through righteousness, individuals can identify what is right or fit as well as distinguishing right from wrong. Honesty is closely associated with an ethic of responsibility since it acts as a center of social and personal relationships without claiming individual's rights and emphasizing on doing what is right for oneself and others (Kelly 52). The virtue requires daily behavior to be guided by rules and regulations based on rites and propriety, rather than only individual's restriction but also cultivating the sense of holiness in texts such as novels and narratives.
Righteousness also plays a significant role in showing the meaning of life through sharing truthfulness and faith that enables the individual to overcome sufferings and construct strong relationships among individuals. The virtue has been used to show the attention of humans to the rational spirit. For instance, The Analects of Confucius book speaks about the Heavenly way of promoting and respecting righteousness as a primary virtue of Confucius (Huang 72). In many cases, righteousness is expressed as an anthropocentric strategy towards faith and truth, where humans demonstrate the ability to cultivate themselves and transform their lives and the entire world. In Confucianism, righteousness is humanistic that gives narratives a role to better the world in the hand of humans rather than spiritual beliefs. The virtue has helped Taiwan and HK to retain Chinese traits and to adopt western literary practices.
Impact of Benevolence on Asian Literary Text
Benevolence has been used as a way of expression in literary texts as well as a way of protecting individuals with a generous mind. In many cases, benevolence is applied as a reflection of the state of the inner part of the mind to show the ideal personality of an individual. Authors have been using this virtue to show truth preconditions and the beauty that describes the standard of someone (Rozman 45). The fact that people are the key research object and attention also manifests Confucius' benevolence, which further shows the ideological development. Additionally, benevolence is applied as a practical value in Confucius whereby it has tough, practical characteristics. Confucius focuses his attention on society by turning to reality. By doing so, he can pay attention to how all-round development of a man is realized in real-life settings. In this case, benevolence virtue is not metaphysical or speculative; it tells more about how to do something by being guided by specific behaviors.
Nevertheless, benevolence in Confucius literary text did not show any practical rationality, which is a philosophical sense as well as a sublimation of the personality of the general public. The virtue is applied by Confucius to demonstrate humanity liberation (Vajpeyi 26). From the arguments presented by Confucius, it is evident that humanity enables man to endure adversity for long or even enjoy prosperity for a long period. However, there is a clear indication that when creating a literary text, authors in the Asian nation incorporate wisdom that enables them to cultivate humanity to benefit the readers. Using the Confucius claim, when someone uses benevolence, the person is regarded to be free from evils. The argument has brought a perception in the literary world whereby wealth and honor are the key desires for a human (Huang 12). Nevertheless, there has been a need in China to adhere to moral principles when presenting a written text such as a novel or poem, the virtue of humanity has brought a new dimension that discourages human dislikes such as poverty and humble station.
Asian literary texts are currently designed to show man's wisdom and its activeness that indicates the tranquility of the man of humanity. Based on the concepts presented by Confucius, the man of benevolence enjoys a long live, while the man lives in happiness. The adoption of benevolence virtue in Asian countries such as China has resulted in the shift of moral authority through neo-Confucianism from the political system to the concept of self through enhancing the mind as a primary moral guidance that is supported by the action of the will (Holcombe 18). For instance, the literati in the Song and Yuan promoted limited literary texts that incorporate individual social responsibility among individuals from a different background. The concept of neo-Confucianism was brought about by Bol who argues that neo-Confucianism serves as history or even as a critical resource for thinking about the current world of Asian literary skills.
Regardless of the change in Confucianism in the 17th century, there has been a significant transformation of local elite authors in China who continue strengthening literary skills by presenting texts in a manner that promotes humanity. Authors such as Chuang Tzu take advantage of Confucianism to present his philosophy that brings about a new dimension of literary texts. For instance, he uses the phrase that describes limbs and organs being let away, which convinces the reader to believe the story was not taken literally (Bol 47). The story describes the process of achieving the highest level in the development of spirit contrary to the self-cultivation addressed in Confucianism (Hoobler 29). The story incorporates a brief complex and sophisticated parable such as that the device of zhang yan. Currently, stories mostly begin with a standard situation parody that incorporates learning as presented in the Analects where students express benevolence by reporting to the tutor on their progress as they seek further guidance.
Influence of Righteousness in Asian Literary Texts
Authors in Asian countries such as Japan and China use righteousness as a Confucianism virtue to demonstrate the element of suffering and prosperity in life and their relationship with the truth. The adoption of western culture in most of the Asian nations such as Japan has resulted in the application of the wisdom literature that is presented in the Old Testament. For instance, the book by Job has a substantial relationship with issues of righteousness, suffering, as well as prosperity. The virtues raise fundamental questioning on how they impact the texts presented in the book (Vajpeyi 58). However, focusing on righteousness, the virtue is commonly applied to contrast the element of prosperity, which is literary associated with wickedness. In many cases, righteousness is measured using the standard moral character of God.
The impact of righteousness in Asian literary texts is shown by the Indian novel "The Guardian" written by Pankaj Mishra. In this novel, the righteous republic is used as an interpretation of evolution for contemporary nationhood in India. The virtue of righteousness has made a significant contribution in the current literary texts since it enhances the understanding of the past as well as the present in the historical politics of India and China (Rozman 47). The element of truth in the novel enables the text to move beyond examining the contemporary Indian essence on ethnic traditions as well as nationalist identities. The virtue of righteousness is applied by Vajpeyl to describe the Indian self-category that describes the individual act in modern life. Narrating the truth in intellectual history helps in understanding the 21st-century literature view (Kelly 37). Righteousness has facilitated borrowing of ideas from one text or novel to another among Asian authors, which results in a combination of closely related literary texts as well as sociopolitical and methodological assessment.
In Confucius, the value of righteousness is applied as compelling elements that demonstrate the ideological mooring of China in making an independence movement in literary expertise. The virtue also impacts the examination system in countries such as China due to the emerging modern civil service as a result of Confucianism. The exam system has been used to test the literary skills understanding (Huang 61). However, the primary purpose of Confucianism is to replace the entire hereditary rule with learning and scholarship. As demonstrated by Confucius, righteousness has brought about moral ethics as a way to counter irrelevant texts in a book or story. On the other hand, righteousness is having a strong influence on Chinese society that is currently focusing on education and scholarship (Tu 12). In the current Chinese curriculum, much time is spent on learning new literary skills which have attracted the publication of many books, stories as well as researchers on Chinese literary texts.
Confucius applied heavy emphasis on righteousness, which has attracted literary practices in Asian countries such as China, South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan. The presentation of the element of truth in Asian publications has attracted the attention of many readers who are interested in reading the content. The move has increased the number of library sales, which has motivated others to publish more texts (Vajpeyi 17). However, in the process of writing texts that demonstrate righteousness, authors gain extensive experience that enhances the development of literary texts such as storybooks, novels, and narratives.
Conclusion
In summary, Confucianism plays a critical role in developing literary texts in Asian nations. The study considers benevolence and righteousness as primary virtues of Confucianism used mostly in China, Japan, and India to give literary texts a taste. Literature content has been acting as a philosophical element to cultivate Confucian literary text. East Asian modernity in China and Japan is one of the key consequences of benevolence and righteousness. The virtues have played a significant role in enhancing social roles in creating a text or a story according to the constraints as well as leadership practice guide. Humanity/benevolence is described as the most significant virtual that enables the text to capture the attention of readers. Confucius reveals that the idea of humanity describes respect among the readers as well as the value of oneself. The high number of publication in Asian nations such as China and Japan emerges from the desire to create more content due to the increased number of readers. Righteousness has been associated with the God's truth where authors establish an element of truth in their texts, which has increased the degree of reality in literary texts. On the other hand, humanity has been used by Asian authors to express individuals with generous minds as a reflection of the inner mental state.
Works Cited
Bol, Peter K. Neo-Confucianism in History. Cambridge, Mass. Harvard University Press. 2010.
Holcombe, Charles. A History of East Asia. Cambridge University Press, 2017.
Hoobler, Dorothy, and Thomas Hoobler. Confucianism. Infobase Publishing, 2009.
Huang, Chun-chieh. Humanism in East Asian Confucian Contexts. Vol. 9. transcript Verlag, 2014.
Kelly, Robert E. "A ‘Confucian long peace’in pre-Western East Asia?." European Journal of International Relations 18.3 (2012): 407-430.
Rozman, Gilbert, ed. The East Asian region: Confucian heritage and its modern adaptation. Princeton University Press, 2014.
Sin, To-chʻŏl. Confucianism and democratization in East Asia. Cambridge University Press, 2012.
Tu, Wei-ming, ed. Confucian traditions in East Asian modernity: Moral education and economic culture in Japan and the four mini-dragons. Harvard University Press, 1996.
Vajpeyi, Ananya. Righteous republic: The political foundations of modern India. Harvard University Press, 2012.
