Inoue Yasushi's Historical Novels On Chinese Themes

Inoue Yasushi (1907~1991),is a well-know novelist, critic and poet. His life is closely related with the Chinese culture, which he has had a huge desire to learn since he was still a child. When he becomes a writer, his works are mainly characterized by the settings of Chinese history. Inoue Yasushi, the president of Japanese-Chinese Cultural Communication Association, takes great efforts to make Chinese's culture, which he loves so much, become open to more and more people from his unique perspective. He contributes a lot to a better understanding and communication between two cultures in the period when two countries are hostile to each other and difficult to remove the barrier of cultural communication. Inoue Yasushi devotes all his life to the dream of bridging the two different cultures. If Pearl S·Buck is the most significant writer for Chinese culture in America since Marco Polo in 13th Century, undoubtedly, it is the Inoue Yasushi in Japan. However, Inoue Yasushi has not received the recognition that he really deserves for certain reasons, which is distinct contrast to his great contribution he has made in promoting the spread of the Chinese culture. He should be highly thought of, no matter from literary or historical perspective, for his contribution that can be found in his about one hundred novels, poems and essays.The paper is aimed at breaking the previous limitation of the study of Inoue Yasushi from the perspective of literature only and studies the relationship between Inoue Yasushi and China and Chinese culture from the perspective of history. Starting from the study of his literary works, the paper will go further to dig out the profound cultural meanings in them in order to emphasize the complicated relationship between him and China, and the his developing process connecting himself and China. Any literary work is determined by the political, economical and social background, in which the writer creates it, therefore, the interaction of those factors is also the focus in the paper. Consequently, the study in the paper is by no means a simple case study. It studies Inoue Yasushi's literary works in the historical background of Japanese and Chinese contemporary cultural conflicts and development in order to bring people much more insights in the study of this field.By focusing on the research situation and existing problems in Chinese literary world, we would explore all-sidedly, deeply and systematically Inoue Yasushi's creation of historical novels on Chinese subjects. I would, based on the first hand materials and the research achievements of Chinese and foreign scholars, expound the creation theories and practices of Inoue Yasushi's historical novels on Chinese themes, and the process of acceptation by Chinese academic field to restate some final conclusions from the aspect of theoretical speculation.The second and the third chapter in the introduction discuss elaborately the history and current situation of Inoue Yasushi's literature in China and their spread and influence in other countries as well. The detailed information is attached to the body as an appendix. Meanwhile, I also make a collection of Inoue Yasushi's related document and his annals after classifying which provides us objective and exhaustive evaluation of him and some correction of his family background, literary creation and cultural communication which were once mistaken. The annals provides the paper with substantial information and the combination of which and representation characterizes it, which embodies the real value and charm of the paper, a significant information for people to know and study Inoue Yasushi.Inoue Yasushi is a productive writer and his creations involve extensive fields. The literature concerning China's history is only a small part of his entire achievement. Therefore, the first chapter introduces the panorama of his creature and provides some evaluation of his historical novels concerning China's history. The second chapter introduces the sources, writing techniques of his creation in Japan's literary fields and through the analysis of his"The roof tile of Tempy?", reveals the writing characteristics of his literature concerning China's history. In this chapter, his literature concerning China's history is classified and writing characteristics, together with their cultural meaning are dug out. The third chapter, there is special purpose for choosing"The paley-loitering wolves"to analyze, although it is not so famous compared with his other novels, such as"The roof tile of Tempy?","tun-huang","lou-lan". Even"The roof tile of Tempy?"is real start of his literature concerning China's history, but"The paley-loitering wolves"is the best one to embody his creative spirit, functioning as a transitional one. Through the study of his"The paley-loitering wolves", his literature concerning China's history can be fully understood and appreciated.Inoue Yasushi once wrote in the article titled"to Chinese Readers"that he read Confucius'Analects in his 70s and was totally fascinated. Then he began the writing based on Confucius'Analects. Unfortunately, he was diagnosed esophagus cancer and made an operation of esophagus resection when he just delivered the first part of his Confucius to the publisher(1986年9月29日)and he continued his creation as soon as he recovered. He determined to finish his Confucius according to his understanding in the rest of his life. He has been struggling with the fate, just as Confucius in his creation, trying his best to finish. Whether will death defeats Inoue Yasushi or he defeats death,finishing his last creation? He wrote in the essays that Confucius'spirit, which insisted his own belief and realized his great outstanding achievement during the hardest times, was his anchor all the time. It seems that Inoue Yasushi realizes that maybe this is his last creation, so input all his talent and even his life in it. From this sense, Inoue Yasushi's last creation may be considered as his will in literary form. The fourth chapter analyzes his Confucius and further expounds his creation concerning China's history.Meanwhile, by using the research methodology of comparative literature such as influence study, parallel study, cross-discipline and cultural study, I would interpret the ideological connotation implicated in Inoue Yasushi's literary works. Moreover, I would, from the multi-dimensional view of comparative literature and the research of Inoue Yasushi's historical novels on Chinese themes, pay attention on his achievements on aesthetics, literary theories, literary critics and literary history.In writing this paper, following the principles of collection and innovation, the plain and modest style, accurate opinions, clear minds, precise demonstration and proper statement would be tired to get. And the innovation in this field would be managed to achieve. So that the paper would become an effective textual practice for the academic field to cognate and understand the study of Inoue Yasushi's literary works.Generally speaking, based on the theories and research methodology of comparative literature, the ideas and problems implicated in Inoue Yasushi's literary texts would be explained all-sidedly, systematically and deeply, to try to give a general comment on the clear understanding of the process of its development.