RW: Professor Donald Keene, of Columbia University, had this to say about your new book, Bashô and the Dao: "She has been able to make a real contribution to our understanding of a major Chinese text, the Zhuangzi, in the formation of the ideals and practices of a major poetic genre." This is high praise, considering its source. And after having read your book, I have to agree. You've covered important ground and what you have written will have the potential to alter our understanding. What set you out on this course of study? What convinced you that Bashô and other Japanese haikai poets of his time were influenced by the Daoist philosophy in the Zhuangzi?
PQ: I have enjoyed Bashô's poetry since I was an undergraduate student of Japanese literature, but it was during my graduate studies at Columbia University that I developed a serious interest in the intertextual relationship between Bashô and the Chinese classics, particularly the Zhuangzi. Bashô's haikai has often been considered as purely Japanese, as intuitive and expressive. However, when I read his verses and prose closely in a seminar with Professor Haruo Shirane, I found Bashô's allusion to and use of Chinese texts striking. I became deeply interested in how Bashô was able to use the Chinese sources so extensively while creating a poetic art that was unmistakably Japanese. I decided to work in this direction for my dissertation research. Later when I discussed my dissertation topic with Professor Donald Keene, who was my dissertation advisor, he suggested that I focus on the Daoist influence in Bashô's poetry. Bashô's affinity to the Daoist ideas has long fascinated me so I enthusiastically engaged in the research. I am very grateful to Professor Keene whose insightful advice led me to this fertile field.
RW: What is the Zhuangzi? And what kind of philosophy does it espouse?
PQ: The Zhuangzi is the second foundational text of the Daoist philosophical and religious tradition, the first being the Laozi or Dao de jing. Since the third century C. E., there have been more than 60 commentaries of the Zhuangzi in East Asian languages and numerous studies and interpretations in other languages. The vast number of interpretations indicates that there are different opinions about what kind of philosophy the Zhuangzi espouses. To me, the Zhuangzi advocates naturalness and spontaneity as the fundamental way of the universe, through which individuals find paths to freedom.
RW: In my own studies I have seen the influence of Chinese poets, especially that of Tang Dynasty poets such as Li Po, Po Chu-l, and Du Fu. Their influence is evident in a cross-comparison of haiku penned by Bashô and his contemporaries. After reading your book, I have begun a study of the Zhuangzi, and can see the influence its teachings had on Bashô, Sanpu, Ransetsu, Kikaku, Shiko, and other major haikai poets of that era. Why do you think the Zhuangzi was a major influence on Bashô?
PQ: The Chinese influence in Bashô's poetry is not limited to Daoist texts, but Bashô's use of Chinese poetry shows a clear interest in the recluse poetic tradition and poetic principles that are deeply informed by the Daoist values and ideas. As I discussed in greater detail in my book, Chinese poetry and recluse traditions had never been monolithic; one could easily find Confucian, Daoist, and Buddhist trends in both. Bashô, however, clearly identifies himself with the spirit of carefree wandering (xiaoyaoyou in Chinese and shôyôyû in Japanese) celebrated by the Zhuangzi, and his use of Chinese poetry also favors those representing the Daoist traits. I think it is not an overstatement to say that without examining Bashô's reading of the Zhuangzi, his use of the Chinese poetry cannot be fully understood. I would say that Bashô's interest in the Zhuangzi and his reading of Chinese poetry are closely related. It was the conscious association of the Chinese poetic tradition and Daoist principles that distinguished Bashô's use of Chinese sources from his predecessors'.
RW: A follow-up question: The timing it seems was ideal. Bashô is credited with playing a major role in elevating haikai into an accepted genre in literary circles: infusing cultural memory, social context, and Daoist teachings into what had previously been light-hearted verse that was not taken seriously. He played a pivotal role in the legitimization of haikai. He took the genre where it hadn't gone before. Without the influence of the Zhuangzi, do you think Bashô would have achieved the success he achieved?
PQ: Bashô's encounter with the Zhuangzi was not a coincidence. It was part of the haikai poets' long time effort to make the genre a legitimate and profound poetic form. haikai, or the comic linked verse, as the word is often translated, is a popular poetic genre composed by multiple authors in an alternation of seventeen- and fourteen-syllable brief verses. When haikai reflourished during the latter half of the seventeenth century, the haikai poets faced two seemingly contradictory demands. On the one hand, they had to go beyond the limits of the classical poetic conventions in order to reach a popular audience and to distinguish haikai from the classical linked verse (renga). On the other hand, they needed intertextual structures and a shared knowledge of codified poetic vocabulary to increase the capacity of each short verse and to make the poetic dialogue possible in a group composition. The latter demand decided that haikai, though a parodic, unconventional genre of popular culture, never completely broke away from the classical tradition. Instead, haikai poets constantly looked to the past for inspiration. However, the existing classical Japanese poetic tradition could not provide all haikai needed, because haikai relied essentially upon the use of haigon, the vernacular and Chinese words that were not part of the classical poetic diction. haikai poets, then, found the Zhuangzi a useful reference. The Zhuangzi had been known in Japan since the Nara period and had the status and popularity of a classic among educated people. It was envisioned as a source of poetic essence by the haikai poets for different reasons. Before Bashô, the Danrin School, and some Teimon school poets as well, already tried to include the Zhuangzi as an authoritative source of poetic essences. To the Teimon poets, the Zhuangzi was a model text for the allegorical expression of haikai. The Danrin, on the contrary, took the bold laughter, the deliberate reversal of conventional meaning, and the unrestrained imagination of the Zhuangzi as a congenial frame of reference for their characteristic haikai approach. Bashô studied with both the Danrin and the Teimon masters, but his adaptation of the Daoist ideas in haikai achieved a much higher level. As I mentioned earlier, Bashô was able to grasp the spirit and principles of the Zhuangzi through their embodiment in Chinese poetry. Beside the themes of individual freedom such as "carefree wandering," the Zhuangzi asserts an aesthetic conviction that sees beautiful qualities in ordinary and even "low" things/beings. This makes it immediately possible to discover profound meanings in the down-to-earth topics and vernacular language, which haikai poets took as the hallmark of their poetry. Bashô also incorporated the central idea of the Zhuangzi, naturalness and spontaneity, in his compositional theory to reduce the limitation of the rigid rules of the linked verse. Therefore, Bashô was able to use the Daoist classic ingeniously to appropriate haikai's popular, unconventional nature while at the same time imbuing its vernacular language and mundane themes with high cultural values. The haikai poets' adaptation of the Zhuangzi is an important phase in haikai's evolvement so it is hard to speculate if Bashô would have achieved the same success without the influence of the Zhuangzi. Yet, we can be certain that without the Zhuangzi, Bashô's haikai as well as the entire Chinese poetic legacy would be quite different.
RW: How did early haikai differ from haiku?
PQ: The origin of haikai traces back to the humorous poems found in the first imperially commissioned poetic anthology, Kokin waka shû. Haikai was later used to distinguish comic, popular linked verse (haikai no renga) from refined, classical linked verse (renga). haikai is also used in a broader sense to describe genres deriving from haikai or reflecting haikai spirit, such as haikai prose (haibun) and haikai travel journal (haikai kiôbun). Haiku, on the other hand, is a modern term. Around the end of the nineteenth century, Masaoka Shiki and others began to use the term haiku to refer to the autonomous, seventeen-syllable verse originating from the opening verse of a haikai sequence. Before the Meiji period, the opening verse of a haikai sequence was called hokku. Although autonomous hokku composition already became very popular by Bashô's times, a hokku was normally composed to set the tone and mood for a linked verse sequence.
RW: You say in your book, "By adapting the Zhuangzi to the context of
haikai travel journals, Bashô successfully recreated the landscape defined
by waka and renga poetry and opened a new horizon for the world of
haikai." Please elucidate.
PQ: Japanese literary travel journal (kikôbun) has been closely related to poetry. It characteristically weaves poems and the introductory narratives in a sequential order. The travel journals that existed before Bashô were often written in a first-person voice, with the traveler's itinerary revolving around the classical poetic toponym (utamakura or meisho) and the narrative centering on poems composed about them. This fusion with poetry simultaneously enriched and limited the literary representation of the landscape of the kikôbun; when centering on classical poetic diction, the geographical imagination of the travel journal was often defined by conceptions and conventions that had been molded by classical poetry rather than by the physical qualities of landscape. In classical Japanese poetry, each poetic toponym and seasonal word has an established essence (hon'i), which determines not only what but also how landscape should be portrayed. A writing that does not follow the conventions is seen as seriously flawed. In addition, the canonical literary travel journals bear a predominately melancholy tone inherited from classical poetry. Lament over the passing of seasons, the impermanence of life, and the chaos of the age are recurrent themes. When Bashô aspired to develop a new type of travel journal in haikai style, he had to represent a classically defined landscape through a popular haikai vision by using haikai language--vernacular Japanese that did not have the refined hon'i, and Chinese words that were not associated with classical Japanese poetic toponyms. In his task of reinventing the kikôbun as well as the poetic landscape, Bashô again referred widely to the Daoist classics, especially the Zhuangzi, to generate new poetic essences. As I mentioned earlier, the Zhuangzi appeals to haikai poets because it asserts an aesthetic stance that sees beauty in ordinary and even "low" things. This stance is based on a key notion, zaohua, or zôka in Japanese, which literally means "create and transform." In the Zhuangzi, the term designates both the working of the Dao - the natural way in which all phenomena come into being and transform -- and the accomplishment of the Dao -- the existence of all things and beings. This aesthetic stance allows Bashô to transform a haigon that does not have codified poetic essence into a poetic signifier, which translates the superficial meaning of a verse or text into the intended significance. It also allows Bashô to discover beauty in places and things that were not portrayed in classical waka or renga poetry and to reinvent the essence of a classical poetic toponym through a haikai perspective. From his first major travel journal, Bashô's haikai traveler appears as a carefree wanderer. Through his eyes, Bashô portrays the indescribable beauty of zaohua in his travel accounts.
RW: You state that "there has been no systematic study in any Western language on this issue. The absence of Western scholarship is not surprising, because the lack of attention to Daoism in Japan has been a general situation in Japanese studies." Why is this so? It seems too important an issue to go undiscussed.
PQ: The lack of attention to Daoism in Japan had both historical and political reasons. Since the medieval period, Confucian learning had prevailed among Japanese scholars, while the Daoist teaching was often treated as unworthy of serious contemplation because of its magical and folk character. In the early modern period, many National Learning (kokugaku) scholars disapproved of the study of Daoism in Japan. Although the intellectual environment of early modern Japan was not entirely hostile to Daoist teaching-even some of the National Learning scholars, such as Kamo no Mabuchi, made favorable comments on the Daoist classics Laozi and Zhuangzi-the National Learning movement as a whole laid the foundation for the elevation of Shintô to a state doctrine, which created a myth of Japanese uniqueness that denied any substantial Chinese influence on early Japanese thought and religious belief. In the 1930s and 1940s, Japan's militaristic effort to conquer Asia made the study of any Daoist influence in Japanese culture heretical because a critical analysis of Japan's cultural heritage would be considered a challenge to the uniqueness and supremacy of the "divine imperial state". Until the late 1970s, when Fukunaga Mitsuji published his extensive studies on the role that Daoism had played in shaping Japanese culture, Japanese Daoist scholars had primarily focused their studies on China. The lack of Japanese scholarship on this subject seems to have affected Western researchers. Until recently, the number of studies on Daoism in Japan in Western languages remained small compared to that on Confucianism and Buddhism.
Part of the reason for this lack of Western scholarship also has to do with the complexity of defining Daoism. Modern Chinese scholars use two terms to define Daoist thought and religion: Daojia sixiang (Daoist thought) and Daojiao (Daoist religion). The former is typically represented by early Daoist works, such as Laozi's Dao te jing and the Zhuangzi. The latter is a multifaceted mixture of the religious beliefs and practices that developed after the second century CE. In Western languages, however, the distinction between the two is often blurred by an inclusive term, such as "Daoism" in English. "Daoism" as the combination of the two is a rather vague and broad term. Over the course of history many important notions of Daoist teaching have blended with Confucian and Buddhist concepts, and it is often difficult to separate completely Daoist elements from Buddhist or Confucian sources on specific issues. In addition, the popular Daoist beliefs and practices combined in themselves many things that are integral parts of Chinese culture. As a result, to what exactly "Daoism" refers has been a subject of debate. The difficulty of this definition is further complicated when we look at Daoism in Japan, where both Daoist thought and elements of Daoist religion have mixed with indigenous Japanese thought and beliefs, to the extent that most Japanese people have never realized that there is any relationship between Daoism and Japanese culture.
Therefore, it has been difficult to reach a consensus as to which elements of Daoism were transmitted to Japan and what role Daoism played in Japanese culture. Despite these difficulties, it is great to see that developing the study of Daoism in Japan has been a vigorous movement among Western scholars in recent years. Recent studies in Western languages, however, have concentrated more on the religious aspects, while the studies of Daoist influence on Japanese literature remain very few.
RW: As you point out in your book, haiku poetry is not an overnight wonder. It has been around for hundreds of years. And the influence of Chinese philosophy and poetry on the genre is deep. You say that the adaptation of the Zhuangzi "provides specialists with important information about the Daoist impact on haikai poetics, and also attempts to help contemporary readers obtain a fuller understanding of the unique poetic form haikai and its great masters." How is this understanding helpful to contemporary readers and haiku poets?
PQ: When Andrew Riutta interviewed you, you said: "haiku needs to get back to the basics that made haiku, haiku. Much of what I read in modern English haiku today lacks soul. And depth. A lot of haiku today follows a formula, and rules set up by people far removed from the Japanese mindset, a mindset that in turn, was influenced by poets from China's Tang Dynasty. I am not saying we need to think like a Japanese to write haiku. But we need to do our homework." I think this is a very insightful comment. I hope my book could provide today's readers and poets with some help in doing the homework you mentioned. And I hope it can help the readers learn how the greatest haiku master Matsuo Bashô worked hard to make haikai a profound poetic art.
Peipei Qiu earned her MA in Japanese Studies at Peking University and
her MPhil and PhD in Japanese literature at Columbia University. She
joined the Vassar faculty in 1994 after teaching for two years at the
College at Lincoln Center, Fordham University. Qiu's works in English,
Japanese, and Chinese have been published in the United States, Japan,
and China. Her current research and teaching interests include comparative
studies of Japanese and Chinese poetry, women in Chinese and Japanese
literature, and Japanese language pedagogy. She is the recipient of a
number of honors and grants, including The Mellon Foundation
Grant, The Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Fellowship, Columbia
University President's Fellowship, The Japan Foundation Dissertation
Research Fellowship, Suntory Japanese Studies Fellowship, and The Japan
Foundation Fellowship for professional researchers.
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