Nihon ryōiki: Its “Letters”, and their Relevance for the History

« previous chapter | next chapter »

Iscriviti alla newsletter

DC Field	Value
dc.identifier	ECF_chapter_7067
dc.contributor.author	Kōno Kimiko
dc.title	Nihon ryōiki: Its “Letters”, and their Relevance for the History of Literature
dc.type	Chapter
dc.language.iso	en
dc.description.abstract	Compiled in the early ninth century, Nihon ryōiki is a collection of accounts involving karmic retribution and miracles. The compilation was intended to guide readers on the Buddhist path. Much of the phraseology in Nihon ryōiki was quoted from or influenced by texts from the Chinese Buddhist canon or non-Buddhist Chinese classics. The text overall reveals a metadiscourse that associates certain personages with a saintly lineage, embodying the ideal form of the human being. However, this metadiscourse was not always faithfully recreated in subsequent writings that drew upon the text. This paper dwells on the classification of books like the Nihon ryōiki, which are today known as setsuwa anthologies. From an intertextual perspective, the study reexamines the relation between Nihon ryōiki and other texts, and discusses its historical significance. In light of this discussion, this article attempts to reevaluate the nature of ancient texts written in Chinese characters and the study thereof.
dc.relation.ispartof	Ca’ Foscari Japanese Studies
dc.relation.ispartof	Arts and Literature
dc.publisher	Edizioni Ca’ Foscari - Venice University Press, Fondazione Università Ca’ Foscari
dc.issued	2022-08-30
dc.dateAccepted	2022-03-21
dc.dateSubmitted	2021-12-14
dc.identifier.uri	http://edizionicafoscari.it/en/edizioni4/libri/978-88-6969-609-1/nihon-ryoiki-its-letters-and-their-relevance-for-t/
dc.identifier.doi	10.30687/978-88-6969-608-4/009
dc.identifier.issn	2610-8976
dc.identifier.eissn	2610-9395
dc.identifier.isbn	978-88-6969-609-1
dc.identifier.eisbn	978-88-6969-608-4
dc.rights	Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
item.fulltext	with fulltext
item.grantfulltext	open
dc.peer-review	yes
dc.subject	Book indexes
dc.subject	Inner scriptures
dc.subject	Intertextuality
dc.subject	Nihon ryōiki
dc.subject	Outer writings
dc.subject	Text

Chapter
open access peer reviewed

Nihon ryōiki: Its “Letters”, and their Relevance for the History of Literature

Kimiko Kōno Waseda University, Tōkyō, Japan

VIEW PDF DOWNLOAD PDF

abstract

Compiled in the early ninth century, Nihon ryōiki is a collection of accounts involving karmic retribution and miracles. The compilation was intended to guide readers on the Buddhist path. Much of the phraseology in Nihon ryōiki was quoted from or influenced by texts from the Chinese Buddhist canon or non-Buddhist Chinese classics. The text overall reveals a metadiscourse that associates certain personages with a saintly lineage, embodying the ideal form of the human being. However, this metadiscourse was not always faithfully recreated in subsequent writings that drew upon the text. This paper dwells on the classification of books like the Nihon ryōiki, which are today known as setsuwa anthologies. From an intertextual perspective, the study reexamines the relation between Nihon ryōiki and other texts, and discusses its historical significance. In light of this discussion, this article attempts to reevaluate the nature of ancient texts written in Chinese characters and the study thereof.

Published

Aug. 30, 2022

Accepted

March 21, 2022

Submitted

Dec. 14, 2021

Language

ISBN (PRINT)

978-88-6969-609-1

ISBN (EBOOK)

978-88-6969-608-4

Keywords: Book indexes • Outer writings • Intertextuality • Text • Inner scriptures • Nihon ryōiki

permalink: http://doi.org/10.30687/978-88-6969-608-4/009

Copyright: © 2022 Kimiko Kōno. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

References to this chapter

How to cite