Many people's evaluation of "The Tale of Genji" is relatively negative, and many readers feel that the book is confusing.

Indeed, it is easy to get confused if you don’t read this book carefully. After all, this book is known as the "Long River Novel" and is a huge work, just like China's "Dream of Red Mansions". It is said that the West has "Sha Xue", China has "Red Xue", and Japan has "Gen Xue". The book "The Tale of Genji" is known as the "soul of the Yamato nation" in Japan, and the Japanese regard it as "the soul of the Yamato nation". national treasure".

Of course, the quality of books is not Japanese. Many people feel that "The Tale of Genji" is not as good as "A Dream of Red Mansions". Personally, I think that apart from personal preference, another reason is that people have relatively little understanding of Japanese national culture. After all, it is not our own culture.

Objectively speaking, "The Tale of Genji", which was written between 1001 and 1008, was written much earlier than Lao Cao's "A Dream of Red Mansions", and its influence in the world cannot be underestimated.

The social background described in this novel is the Heiankyo period, which was the period when Japan's feudal hierarchy was most prosperous. The author of the novel, Murasaki Shikibu, used nearly a million words to write the history of the four emperors of Japan (Tonghu Emperor, Suzaku Emperor, Lengquan Emperor, and Konami).

The book uses nearly 400 characters to show the daily necessities, food, clothing, housing, transportation, political economy, cultural customs, religion and other aspects of Japan at that time. Perhaps what impresses many people about this novel is the shocking and deformed love story of the aristocratic prince Genji.

Genji lost his mother when he was a child. In order to make up for his lack of mother's love since childhood, his father, Emperor Kirintsubo, made him get close to his stepmother, Fujitsubo. However, he never expected Genji to care about her. The stepmother's feelings, from attachment to love, are simply treasonous.

Such a deformed love is of course destined not to be recognized. In order to continue this special affection for his stepmother, Genji looked for shadows of Barnacles in other women. As a result, this young man is not loyal to one person, but falls in love with everyone he sees. He can be called a "love saint".

Although the novel mainly depicts the corrupt life of the Japanese emperor and nobles, there are also descriptions of common people, middle- and lower-class people, palace maids, etc.

Many people regard this book as a gaudy novel. In fact, in addition to describing the romantic relationship between men and women, it also reflects the social economy, folk customs, aesthetic taste, and culture of the Heian Kyo period in Japan. Thoughts and the status of women, etc. Moreover, this novel also fully reflects the Japanese aesthetic culture of mourning for things. According to statistics, "sorrow" appears thousands of times in the book, which shows how "focused" the Japanese are on aesthetics in this area.

For example, in the first chapter of the novel "Tonghu", it is written that since the time of changing clothes, the emperor has cried "shaking the world, weeping ghosts and gods", and this feeling gives people The feeling is not vigorous, but a sense of sound and silence. It is written in the book:

"The cries were as loud as the chirping of insects, which brought tears to the palace people."

Through the text, you can deeply feel the emperor's love. Broken with grief, Lao Ma's vision of "a heartbroken man is at the end of the world" suddenly appeared on the page.

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For another example, when Genji’s old father Tonghuyuan died, the novel wrote:

“The snowflakes were falling and the wind was freezing.” Looking at the white snow, I recited mourning poems such as "Iwai is frozen and it's too late, the bustling garden has become empty and lonely, and the silhouettes of people are gradually sparse and never return."

Through the text, readers can instantly feel an infinite sense of sadness and the Japanese’s strong cultural atmosphere of mourning for things.

Another example is the book’s description of Zi Shang’s corpse:

“The rich black hair is still shiny and beautiful even if it is allowed to flow.”

Another example is that Genji built the Rokujo Residence, decorated the courtyard with spring, summer, autumn and winter landscapes, and then placed his beloved woman in the Rokujo Residence. This is an extremely beautiful picture, and it also deeply embodies the Japanese culture. The human spirit of mourning for things.

There are too many similar sentence descriptions. The cherry blossoms, fog, frost, snow, sunshine, etc. written in the book all reveal a kind of people's emotional perception and feeling of nature. Change, either joy, sorrow, sorrow, or sorrow...

In "A Dream of Red Mansions", there is also such a spirit of material sorrow, but it is not as good as the Japanese who have reached their "peak perfection" the point. If we have to talk about the embodiment of the spirit of material sorrow in "A Dream of Red Mansions", then Lin Daiyu has to mention it.

In her, this spirit has been vividly expressed. For example, "Daiyu buries flowers" is a very classic scene. Because of pity for peanuts, a flower burying ceremony is held for nothing. Most people think that they are full and have nothing to do. Usually only people with delicate minds can understand this state of mind.

In short, as a world classic, "The Tale of Genji" still has many remarkable things. Only by reading it carefully can we understand its literary and aesthetic value.