The phenomenon of talented women coming forth in large numbers in the Heian Dynasty has profound social roots. In the past 400 years, from Emperor Kanmu's move to Beijing to the establishment of Kamakura shogunate, aristocratic culture has gradually developed and flourished. The powerful Fujiwara family established "photo politics" and further consolidated its position through marriage with the royal family.
In order to let their daughters enter the palace as concubines in the future, senior nobles often recruit talented women from famous families to take charge of their daughters' education, and after entering the palace, they will also choose female officials with both talent and learning to accompany them. Middle-class aristocrats also catered to this demand and spared no effort to train their daughters into queen ladies. The collision of these talented women led to the emergence of many literary salons in the harem at that time, which led to the wave of female literature.
Because of the low status of women at that time, their names were usually unknown to outsiders, so today people can only call them by their father, son, husband's identity, official position and so on. However, it is these unknown women who have left many chapters in history.
Needless to say, the world-famous Tale of Genji includes Dragonfly Diary, Collection of Springs, Diary of Springs, Pillow Grass by Qing Shaoran, Diary of Purple Department by Murasaki and Diary of by going up one flight of stairs by Sugawara Takashi.
These works either trace the author's life experience, or depict colorful court life, or record comments on people and things, or express memories of past love. Graceful brushwork, full of gas field and rich and colorful content. Then, let's follow these works and approach the spiritual world of talented women in the peaceful dynasty thousands of years ago.
Tomoko Fujiwara, the author of Diary of a Dragonfly, is a beautiful and noble family, and her status is also very prominent. His husband Fujiwara and his family are both important officials of the ruling party and the opposition party. He forced the Huashan emperor to abdicate with one move, and made an emperor born of a daughter as the emperor. As a consort, he monopolized the power, thus opening the prosperous time of Fujiwara family.
Later, his sons, Daolong and Daochang, successively held the positions of Regent and Guan Bai, and married their daughters into the palace respectively, while a group of talented women, such as Qing Shaoran, Murasaki Zhibu and Hequan Department, were the queen's maids at this time. In other words, Dao Gang's mother is the "predecessor" among talented women in the Ping 'an Dynasty, regardless of her qualifications or status.
The husband is in a high position, the son is in the side, and he enjoys the splendor and talent. He can be described as the "winner of life" of that era. However, The Diary of a Dragonfly tells a completely different story. The diary reviews the life from proposing marriage to getting married for more than 20 years, and shows readers the image of a dissatisfied woman struggling in marriage.
"Dragonfly" is a ephemera with a short life, just like an ethereal world. The author sighs:
The reason why she is so upset is that her married life is not satisfactory. In the era of leaving marriage, the only thing a woman who lives in a boudoir can do every day is to wait for her husband's arrival. Tao Gang's mother is such an infatuated traditional woman. She hopes that her husband only loves himself, and even the New Year's wish is "My husband comes every day for 30 days every month".
In the days when her husband doesn't visit, she can only stay alone in the empty boudoir during the day, hanging together like peas and carrots; Tears in the wind at night, sad for the moon. After waiting day after day, you often get excuses from my husband, insincere letters, and even rumors of finding another lover.
How many times did she hear her husband come to the community, dressed up and greeted him in front of the door, but only heard the rumble of cars that didn't enter the door. On a stormy night, she saw her sister and her lover lingering, and heard the maids say that "when the old man and his wife are in love, there is more rain to visit." I can't help crying.
She tried to write a touching long letter to her husband, tried to cynically refuse her entry, and even wanted to become a monk, but she couldn't change her husband's romantic nature and had to continue sighing for the rest of her life.
Dragonfly Diary depicts the image of an aristocratic woman struggling in marriage with realistic brushstrokes. Pain, because of deep feelings, this is probably the fate of a woman in love.
Entering the imperial era, cultural development reached a climax. The unprecedented system of "one emperor and two emperors" makes the harem competition rise to the cultural level, and various cultural salons are in full swing. Talented women, Murasaki shikibu, He Bu and Chi Nan all came from the harem during this period.
Yan was the daughter of Qingyuan, a famous singer in Qing Dynasty, and later entered the palace to serve the Queen Ding. With her profound knowledge and astute personality, she became a well-known talent in the palace.
His masterpiece Pillow Grass is a collection of essays that records the thoughts and feelings of daily court life. There are more than 300 paragraphs, most of which are short and pithy, ranging from 500 to 600 words to one or two sentences. The content is divided into three categories: clustering chapter, random chapter and memory chapter (diary chapter).
"Clustering" is to list and evaluate things with the same nature in the world. This kind of article is relatively short, which reflects the author's close observation and unique views. Random thoughts is an essay, including the description of natural scenery and the observation and thinking of daily life. The word "をかし" appears many times in this article, meaning "interesting, interesting and wonderful". Qing Shao Na said, "Everything, whether it's vegetation, birds and insects, whether it's hearing or occasional perception, can't be indifferent." Everything in the world, life, she can enjoy it and write it out.
"Recalling Zhang" means recalling one's life in the harem, mainly describing the communication process with people headed by the queen and the evaluation of people and things. The language is humorous and pungent, full of personality. The stator harem in her works is full of open and harmonious atmosphere. The queen combines beauty and talent, and she herself has won the favor of the queen and the admiration of aristocratic children because of her superior interpersonal skills.
However, such a girl with a bright personality and a straightforward mouth was criticized by another talented woman of her time, Murasaki shikibu.
When Murasaki shikibu entered the palace, Qing Shaoran had left the palace, and there was no direct intersection between them. This kind of bad comment mainly stems from the differences of their personalities: Qing women are outgoing and straightforward, arrogant, boastful of talent and knowledge, and informal; Purple girls are deep and reserved, cautious, unsociable and don't like publicity ... The difference is self-evident. However, this criticized character is also the charm of being young and quiet. She is full of romantic poetry and the little girl's frankness and cuteness. It is this self-confidence, independence and cheerfulness that makes her stand out among many talented women in Pingan Dynasty, leaving a aura of words.
However, real life is not as beautiful as she wrote. She herself experienced two divorces, and the queen who served her suffered family changes. She died at the age of 24. After that, Shao Qing ran out of the palace and never heard from him again. Later generations attached many stories about her old age and poverty, but her real ending was unknown.
Murasaki shikibu, as the author of the first novel Tale of Genji in the world, is well known to the world.
Like Qing Shaoran, Haruki Murakami was born in the lower middle class, and his father Fujiwara was an official who was proficient in Chinese poetry and harmony. Murasaki shikibu was brilliant when he was young, especially famous for his mastery of Chinese poetry. At first, she married Fujiwara Xiao Xuan and gave birth to a daughter, who became three singers. Unexpectedly, her husband died less than three years after marriage, and she lived a widowed life early.
Later, Taoist Fujiwara heard that she had just learned, so she was recruited to the palace and became a female official in Akiko's girls' middle school. It is said that "Tale of Genji" was written by Tomomi Murasaki when he was in the palace.
As we all know, Tale of Genji tells the ups and downs of the aristocratic son Guangyuan in officialdom life and the joys and sorrows in love, which is a huge picture depicting the social life of Japanese aristocrats in heian period.
However, to understand the author Murasaki shikibu, we should start with Diary of the Purple Department. The diary mainly focuses on the childbirth events in the middle palace, describing the important events that happened inside and outside the palace during this period, which is mixed with the description of the appearance and temperament of famous talented women such as the queen and maid. It is also recorded in the diary of Tale of Genji that people speculate that Murasaki shikibu is the author of this immortal masterpiece.
Zhang Zi Zhong Gong is the eldest daughter of Miyazaki Hayao, served by Murasaki shikibu. When he entered the palace, he was canonized as the middle palace, standing side by side with the queen stator. After the early death of Stator, Akiko won the favor of the Emperor, and the family power became more and more stable. However, Murasaki shikibu's court life was not full of happiness, but "sad thoughts" appeared many times.
Murasaki shikibu is introverted, melancholy, thoughtful and self-reflective. The experience of widowhood prompted her to further reflect on her life, and she often hoped to become a monk. She once said:
Because of this introverted personality, Haruki Murakami's writing style is also implicit, and rarely shows his personal views and attitudes directly in his narrative. Many times, she is like drawing a beautiful picture, describing in detail the clothes, posture and manners of the characters in the picture, and she is like an outsider, leaving the pros and cons to the readers to evaluate.
Murasaki shikibu believes that the most important qualities of women are modesty, elegance, stability and self-love, while openness, boldness and publicity are her taboos. Therefore, it is understandable for her to say that she is outspoken and outspoken about her youth.
Murasaki shikibu is also very modest in his evaluation. She once said:
However, it is such a woman who feels that her life is of little value, but left a masterpiece "Tale of Genji" to future generations, which has comforted countless people for thousands of years.
He, together with Murasaki shikibu and Shao Qing, is also known as the "Three Talented Women of Peace", and she is also a talented and strange girl.
HeQuanBu is an elegant daughter who defended the country before Qian Yue. She grew up in a scholarly family and has a high literary accomplishment. She is good at composing harmony songs, especially love songs. At present, several collections of songs, such as Quan Ji and Quan Xu, have been handed down from generation to generation, and more than 240 of her works are included in the collection. She can be said to be the "Queen of Love Songs" of the Heian Dynasty.
Murasaki shikibu once commented on this colleague:
The so-called "disrespectful side" refers to the affectionate character of harmony and beauty. What is more famous than her love songs is her ups and downs in life.
He Quanshi's first husband was He Quanshou Orange Daozhen. They had a daughter and later became a singer's small-scale internal waiter. They soon separated, and then fell in love with the third prince of the Cold Spring Emperor. Unexpectedly, the prince died young at the age of 26. Legend has it that the prince died of illness because he went to have a tryst with the Quan family during the epidemic, and the Quan family was therefore branded as a bad woman.
However, the next year, she fell in love with the respected prince's younger brother, Prince Dundao. Wakayama's diary records the process from acquaintance to love. Despite the criticism of the world, the romantic Prince Dundao finally welcomed the Peace Spring Department into the court, which led to his wife's angry departure, and the reputation of the Peace Spring Department was even worse. However, the good times did not last long. Prince Dundao also died at the age of 27, and Heyan was lovelorn again.
After mourning, she entered the harem, became a female official, served Zhang Zi Zhonggong, and became colleagues with Murasaki Tombu, Yi Shi Jing Daole, Chilanweimen and others. Later, he remarried Fujiwara Yasuhiro, Fujiwara's family secretary, and went to Danhou with her husband. After returning to Beijing, I experienced the pain of my daughter's death. This talented woman, who is ups and downs in the sweetness and pain of love, seems to have a bleak evening scene.
He Quanshi is not only a talented singer, but also a passionate and beautiful woman. Several shocking relationships provided her with excellent creative materials and inspiration. His love for songs is not limited to technical routines, but bold and straightforward, novel and unique, and does not stick to the old pattern.
Some descriptions of love scenes are unrestrained, such as:
Novel metaphor is also one of the characteristics of his chorus. Once she was abandoned by her lover and went to your ship shrine to pay homage. She saw fireflies flying all over the sky, thinking that the soul was flying in her body, so she wrote this sentence.
Even when she was dying, her longing for the afterlife was to see her sweetheart again.
Everyone knows that "love fades when it is strong", but I don't know that such a passionate person can carry his passion through. With her love songs and the legend of beauty, people will always tell her all her life.
The famous female writer after the Emperor ascended the throne was Takaji Sugawara, the author of Ji Geng Diary.
The daughter of Sugawara's dutiful son has a famous ancestor-Sugawara no michizane, a famous writer and politician in the early period of Heian, who is honored as "God in the sky", and an equally famous aunt-Dooka Fujiwara, the author of Diary of a Dragonfly. Although her family is in decline, the family style of scholarly family has a far-reaching influence on her.
Diary of Ji Geng is a memoir written by the author in his later years, which records about 40 years from 13 to 52 years. It depicts an intelligent, restrained and dreamy image of a literary girl.
Filial piety standard daughter loves books since childhood. When she lived in Shanghai, she made a Buddha statue of a pharmacist and prayed every day, hoping to go to Beijing as soon as possible and read all the stories. She is sensitive and full of aura, often immersed in fantasy, clearly remembers every bizarre dream, believes in the immortality of the soul and pursues past lives.
The anecdote about her leaving home for Beijing is the most brilliant passage in Ji Geng Diary: the lonely pharmacist Buddha statue standing at the door of her house, the fragrant princess on the back of the guards of Zhi Zhu Temple, and the melancholy expression of the "wandering girl" singing in the moonlight on the mountain ... Even after reading for thousands of years, the scene seems vivid.
Maybe it's a spiritual Buddha. She finally got what she wanted. After going to Beijing, she got the whole book Tale of Genji. She was so excited that she couldn't put it down.
Even though she dreamed several times that the monk wearing the yellow cassock warned her to learn Buddhism, she didn't agree. She was addicted to the world of storytelling and fantasized that she was as upright as Saixixi in The Tale of Genji. Although she is humble and unattractive, one day a handsome son will take her to the other side of happiness.
However, the author's later experiences tend to be dull: moving, traveling, separation and reunion of flesh and blood, short palace life, endless love and unremarkable marriage.
For marriage, she didn't say a word, only said: "Busy chores, stories, completely forgotten." It was also at this time that she first sent out such a feeling:
According to the diary, her husband is well-off, loyal and considerate, and his children have grown up safely. They have their own wives and children, and their lives should be very happy. But somehow, her later words no longer have the previous spirituality, but just capture some fragments of life and express a few feelings. The cuckoo's singing in late spring, the lonely reed in early winter, the stormy waves in the journey ... the feeling that the prime of life has passed, the sadness of saying goodbye to friends ... the death of the wet nurse, the early death of my sister, the departure of my stepmother, the departure of my biological mother, the death of my husband, the marriage and career of my children ... The family separated, but only one person remained.
When the diary is written here, it is probably no longer necessary to record it.
Her life is the epitome of many women: she bid farewell to her fantasy-obsessed girlhood and lived an ordinary and stable life after recognizing the reality. As a wife and mother, it is a kind of happiness to change from a sentimental girl to a housewife with daily necessities. But in this happiness, people also feel a kind of sadness that things have changed.
These aristocratic talented women in peacetime have enjoyed the prosperity of the court and the hardships of marriage. The experience of life makes them examine their inner world more deeply and reflect on the meaning of life. They record their feelings, express their feelings and reflect their values through pens and paper. His works are not only a summary of personal life experience, but also a record of the style of the times, with charm beyond time and space.