“Yuan”（Japanese :“en”)，literally meaning “relationship by fate”，is a word still in current use both in China, including Taiwan, and Japan. The concept “yuan” was originally based on Buddhism, which was introduced into China supposedly toward the end of the Former Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-8 A.D.) and into Japan in the middle of the sixth century (538 or 552). Here I intend, chiefly by examining “yuan” in the romances of Tang (618-907) and in the tales of the Heian Period (794-1185), to give an outline of Chinese and Japanese fatalisms from the viewpoint of comparative study.

　In China, from Later Han (25-220) onward, a great many Buddhist texts, mainly of Mahāyāna, were translated into Chinese, and the early Tang period (618-712) was the culminating point of Chinese Buddhism. However, since Chinese had have a strong fatalism “tian” from ancient times, “yuan” had no choice but to supplement the weak point of the preceding fatalism. In the romances of the Tang Dynasty, in fact, “tian” and “yuan” were compatible with each other.

　Japanese, on the other hand, did not have such a strong preceding fatalism as “tian”，so they seem to have comparatively with ease accepted “yuan”. As a matter of fact, we can see the word “sukuse” (relationship by fate originating from the previous life) frequently appear in the tales of the Heian Period. This also shows that Japanese had a remarkable tendency to receive “yuan” as a sort of the concept of time.

　“Sui-Hu-Zhuan” has many variants throughout East Asia including Japan. “Sui-Hu-Hou-Zhuan” is the one, which was written after 1661 in Qing dynasty of China. This story begins from where “Sui-Hu-Zhuan” story ends, and tells the continuation of the latter. The remaining gangsters of “Sui-Hu-Zhuan” reassembled again to fight with Nuzhen Race. After the fight, the story tells, the gangsters went out from China and arrived in Thailand.

　Then in Thailand, they had to fight with Tibetans, Myao Race, and then with a group of Siamese Subjects who employed the Japanese mercenaries for taking aim at the throne. In this story, some images permeated with historical characteristics of the different ages appear. One example of these can be found in the image of Japanese warriors. It reflects behaviors of the Japanese during 14th to 17th century. The other example can be found in the mixed images of Southeast Asian Countries engaged in successive wars to the throne, which involved overseas Chinese merchants together with some Chinese Subjects of fallen Han Race Dynasties. This is to say, that the story reflects, using the framework of “Sui-Hu-Zhuan”, the Asian recognition and sentiment toward the Era of the Great world Trade and Navigation.

　Similarly, early modern Japan had “Onna-Suiko-Den” written after “Sui-Hu- Zhuan”. According to this story, Japanese male and female gangsters went to Persia, where they attempted to do business. But male gangsters were captured by both Persians and Japanese, so women fought and helped them. This story also reflects the Era and the change of economy from agriculture to commerce. Generally speaking, we often find in Japanese variants the themes related with commerce, and replacement of male characters by the female.

　Early Modern Korea also had a variant of “Sui-Hu-Zhuan” It was named “Hong-Gil-Dong-Jong”. Hong-Gil-Dong was an illegitimate child. He was about to be killed, and escaped from home. Then he became a leader of gangsters and went out of the country to an uninhabited island, where he made a utopian country. Finally, he became a king of another larger and civilized island.

　The author of this story Ho Gyun, who was an anti-confucianist, was killed because of suspicion of a revolutionary plan. “Hong-Gil-Dong-Jong” has the inclination to the idea of Korean Jitsugaku (a school of pragmatic thought) in 18th century. This also can be understood as reflecting the progress of commodity circulation and the growth of commerce, which Confucianism had prohibited. All of these cases of China, Korea and Japan were the products of change in economic basis and consciousness in Asia in the Era of Navigation.

　In 1982, Shimazaki Tōson translated Shakespeare’s Venus and Adonis, and published it in the Jogaku Zasshi as “Natsukusa”. When the Bungakukai School of writers made its first appearance in 1893, Tōson published three dramas, Hikyoku biwa hoshi, Hikyoku cha no kemuri, and Shumon no urei in succession. We can see how Tōson was greatly influenced by Hamlet. Many striking parallels can be found in these works in terms of plot development, characterization, theme, and solution. Tōson was strongly influenced by Shakespeare in two areas at this time.

　Tōson’s first introduction to Shakespeare was Venus and Adonis, from which he learned “passion” as a literary motif. He called it shin’en (which means wild horses and passions and flighty monkeys of desires), and used it in his poems over and over again. This motif can be found in his poems such as Yosaku no uma, Natsukusa, Tenma, Genkyo, and his short story Wara zori as well. Hamlet was Tōson’s second exposure to Shakespeare. He pursued the contradictions existing in himself and society by regarding his consciousness of suffering as Hamlet’s. The hero’s look of melancholy, ennui, and sorrow which Tōson depicted in Hakai, Haru,and Sakura no mi no jukusuru toki reflects Hamlet’s internal world.

　Further, when Tōson began to write novels, he dealt with Shakespeare again. There are striking differences in Tōson’s influence from Shakespeare in his earlier period as a poet and in his later period as a novelist. Tōson was faced with a great turning point in his literary life with the disclosure of his wife’s love affair and the moral decadence of his lineage. Therefore, Tōson’s dealing with Shakespeare in his novels again shows how great an impact Shakespeare had on his development and the motifs of his literature.

　Therefore, the primary purpose of this thesis is to examine what Tōson learned from Shakespeare and how it is related to Tōson’s imagination and literature. This paper also will establish the hypothesis that Tōson pursued the meaning of “the modern self” through the influence of Shakespeare.

　Mori Ogai (1862-1922) gave some lectures on psychology during his stay at Kokura in Kyushu. In these lectures he seems to have introduced the theory of Wundt and Külpe. But in the early stage, his lectures were based Lehrbuch der empirischen Psychologie als inductiver Wissenschaft (10. Aufl., Wien, 1891) by Gustav A. Lindner (1828-87), who belonged to the Herbart school.

　On inspecting this book of Ogai’s, I could find many underlined sentences and some notations. This indicates that he was especially interested in the idea of “Vorstellung”，or “Schwelle des Bewusstseins,” and also that he introduced the theory of Wundt’s “Psychophysischer Parallelismus.” Furthermore, it appears he became aware of the function of impulsion.

　These lectures on psychological theories perhaps reflect Ogai’s literary and academic ideas which led him to produce a new type of literary work.

　In the relationship between Ogai and psychological theories of the West, we can trace another example that Western learning influenced Japanese literature and opened a new area in understanding human nature.

　While studying in Germany (1884-88), Mori Ohgai attended the general assembly of Allgemeiner Deutscher Frauenverein, the first unified organization for the liberation of women in Germany, and his interest in the movement for women’s liberation was strengthened. When he came back to Japan, he supported the publication of Seitoh (Blue Stockings), a magazine issued in 1912 by Hiratsuka Raicho aiming at women’s liberation.

　This paper attempts to examine the roles played by Ohgai’s Saezuri in the discussion of women’s liberation around the year 1911. In May 1911,quite a few Socialists represented by Kohtoku Shusui were arrested on charge of High Treason, and some were executed in January 1912. The government therefore came to regard as dangerous not only socialism but ideas and thoughts that promoted awareness of individualism and liberalism—ideas dangerous enough to shake the foundations of an imperial state. The movement of women’s liberation was considered a dangerous thing.

　In 1911, Kawada Shiro’s Women’s Problems based on John Stuart Mill’s claim for women’s liberation was banned. On the other hand, Uesugi Shinkichi’s Women’s Problems (1911), in which Uesugi looked upon women’s liberation as radical and dangerous, was widely accepted. It was then that Ohgai published his Saezuri, in which he, in a form of commentary on current affairs, explained that the Women’s liberation movement in Europe was but a moderate, not a radical, thing, and that it was succeeding. He claimed that it would be against the general world tendency if Japan was to suppress the movement toward the liberation of women.

　Японские читатели впервые узнали сочинение крупного советского ученого М.М. Бахтина (1895—1975) в 1968 году, когда его книга “Проблемы поэтики Достоевского” вышла в свет в Японии на японском языке (перевод Арая Кеидзабуро). В течение 20 лет после этого, у нас появились на японском языке все его сочинения: в 1973 году— “Творчество Франсуа Рабле и народная культура средневековья и ренессанса” (перевод Кавабата Каори), в 1976 году—“Марксизм и философия языка” под именем В.Н. Волошинова (перевод Кувано Такаси), а в 1979 году вышел в свет первый том собрания сочинений Бахтина в 8 томах (издательство Синдзидайся), публикация которого завершилась весной 1988 года. Более того, каждый перевод его сочинений вызывал восхищение и повышал интерес японского читателя к его творчеству. Такое редкое в мире положение активного принятия сочинений Бахтина в нашей стране было обусловлено следующими обстоятельствами: (1) в японском славяноведении уже была почва для понимания движения русских футуристов и основ литературоведения русских формалистов. Это и помогло скорому переводу сочинений Бахтина на японский язык. (2) Американский неокритицизм и французская семиотика (сочинения Т. Тодорова и Ж. Кристеевой) подготовили определенный слой читателей, которые могли понимать поднятые Бахтиным вопросы. (3) Амбивалентное отношение Бахтина к советскому структуральному литературоведению, которое начинало выдвигаться на первый план в начале 1960 годов.

　С этой точки зрения автор настоящей статьи исследует процесс принятия сочинений Бахтина в Японии.

　On the verge of death, Matsuo Basho (1644-1694) professed that his lifelong dedication to literature had been nothing more than an evil obsession hindering the devotion to Buddhism. His last haiku “On a journey, ill, and over fields all withered, dreams go wandering still” (trans. by Harold Henderson) has been interpreted from that point of view, which emphasizes the conflict between the Buddhist moral and his artistic idea of the Fuga.

　A close reading of Basho’s texts, however, shows that there is also a paradox intrinsic to the idea of Fuga itself. Fuga means the attitude of creating pure natural beauty pervading in life, not limited to works of art. As a pure “natural” effect is obtained only as result of high artificial endeavour, and as Fuga is to be taken as a whole way of life, there arises an inconsistency in the concept of Fuga.

　When we interpret Basho’s last haiku from that standpoint, his dilemma turns out to have a close relation with the philosophy of Chuang-tzu, and of modern art, especially objet d’art, whereas the prevalent reading from a Buddhist point of view only has a limited historical scope. My grammatical and linguistic analysis of Basho’s haiku conducted in accordance with the idea outlined here will lead to the rejection of almost all of the present translations of the haiku, including that of Henderson quoted above.

　Soseki is, normally, not regarded as a symbolist, nor his works regarded to be symbolic. Nonetheless, Mr. Miyai Ichiro points out that symbol is an essential element in exploring the true meaning underlying Soseki’s texts and comprehending his works correctly.

　Although Mr. Miyai says that Soseki’s symbolic style comes out naturally and independently, it seems that his style has some specific historical and theoretical backgrounds.

　In my essay, firstly, Soseki’s historical position is examined in relation to the literary circles in the Meiji era. In a sense, he was ahead of the contemporary critics who wrote essays on symbolism. Soseki’s library catalogue reveals his earlier interest in symbolism and his good knowledge of it. He had principal English books on symbolism which were hard to obtain and therefore were valuable information in the Meiji era.

　Concerning Soseki’s view of symbolism, the most crucial point seems to be the relationship between symbol and allegory. This point can be clarified by contrasting the two essays on Baudelaire written by two representative Japanese critics who are Soseki’s contemporaries.

　Secondly, the theoretical backgrounds which influenced Soseki’s view of symbol are investigated. Occidental concepts, such as the imagination theory, empiricism, the empathy theory, Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood are important. As for Oriental influences, Chinese poetry, Haiku theory and Zen Buddhism are crucial.

　After all, it is the Haiku theory that is most fundamental and decisive to our understanding of Soseki’s idea of symbol and his style. (Graduate Student of Japanese Literature Department of Sophia University)

　Shiga Naoya (1883-1971), who showed deep interest in discord between father and son, published a story named “Kurōdiasu no Nikki" (The Diary of Claudius) in 1912, which is, as the title suggests, a re-interpretation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet from the step-father’s viewpoint. It borrows extensively from the 1909 translation of Hamlet by Tsubouchi Shōyō (1859-1935), perhaps naturally, given Shiga’s often-mentioned perusal of the Japanese version.

　According to his repeated remarks on his recreation of the Hamlet story, Shiga attempted both to criticize Hamlet for accusing Claudius of the murder of his brother and to throw new light on the suspect through a certain measure of identification with the author’s own psychological condition. It seems that “The Diary” fails to work as a criticism, however, due to its inconsistency with the original play. Despite his close study of the play, Shiga omitted the confession of crime Claudius makes in the original. Yet in Shiga’s version there is no doubt that Claudius is guiltless, since the author sometimes takes the place of the diary writer, offering a persuasive and animated justification. In addition, Claudius is moulded into too idealistic, generous, imaginative and nervous a person to force his way to the throne and queen, and to be indifferent to the difficulty of his position and Hamlet’s suspicions. He shares the characteristics mentioned above with some of the son-protagonists appearing in Shiga’s novelettes which deal with struggles between fathers and sons. It is intriguing that Shiga, representative and advocate of sons, here supports a father with son-like characteristics. In that, “The Diary” is perhaps the most suggestive in its subject matter and distinctive in its mode of dealing with it among Shiga’s works. Together with his later recreation of Hamlet, “Hamuretto no Nikki” (The Diary of Hamlet), the work is worth re-consideration not only as reaction to the Shakespearean play but also as a reflection of Shiga’s recurrent problems.