Abstract
Letters of Ouyang Xiu and Su Shi is rarely seen in China, but widely spread in Japan with various forms, such as reprinted edition, continued edition, annotated edition and Japanese-character interpretation edition. The transmission of early versions, Shōhō and Tenmei editions, paralleled that of ancient books in China, without intensive intercultural exchanges. Later, Jikujo resorted to the literary style and function of Letters to put forward a unique concept of essay in Japanese prose theory, making Letters a typical reduction of classics. At the same time, with the rising consciousness of Japanese culture and Nipponization of Chinese classics, the popularity of Letters increased, and the annotated versions by Ōtsuki Seishi and Nishikawa Bunchū emerged. When the heterogeneous cultural elements in Letters were further stripped away and classical Chinese was replaced by Japanese-character interpretation, it was finally integrated into Japanese culture. The versions and dissemination of Letters exemplifies how Chinese classics participated in the development of sinology in Japan.
Keywords
Letters of Ouyang Xiu and Su Shi, acceptance, sinology, essay, Japanese-character interpretation
First Page
153
Last Page
161
Recommended Citation
Ci, Bo. 2022. "The Reception and Variations of Letters of Ouyang Xiu and Su Shi in Japan." Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art 42, (4): pp.153-161. https://tsla.researchcommons.org/journal/vol42/iss4/16
