Attacks of the "barbarians&#34

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Marl\n Gälik

Interliterariness in East-West Interplay

Interliterariness is understood here as a substantial characteristic of literature in its

intemational relations. As a process it is oriented towards more or less geoliterary

development and it is usually an expression of the human mission implicitly included in the outstanding works of the East and West.

Its history starts in the oral forms of the mythical stories of the most ancient Orient. In ancient epics we find the possible relationships and affinities in the Gilgamesh, Mahäbhärata, Rämäyarm, Iliad and Odyssey. Another remarkable period during which interliterariness could operate was the Hellenistic era especially the last three centuries B.C. Whereas the previous

impulses were reaching West from the East their direction became now an opposite one.

During the Middle Ages the direction of literary stimuli had again reversed. Attacks of the

"barbarians" on the Greek-Roman civilization resulted in an almost complete destruction of the World of Antiquity. As an individual work the most salient was the Sanskrit collection of stories Pancatantra which became one of the most widely spread books in the world after

the Bible. The West had found itself again during the Renaissance. The Europeans proved to

be quite flexible in adopting cultural and literary achievements of the East, using often the

method of literary exoticism, but not always, see Goethe's West-Östlicher Diwan or

Flaubert's Salammbo. Later on, mostiy in the second half of the 19th century, the countries of Asia and North Africa started to respond to the cultural impact of the West. Major works which could be characterized as the valuable outcome of the new East-West synthesis did not

emerge until the next phase of development in the efforts by Futabatei Shimei [Japan],

Rabindranäth Tagore [India], Lu Xun [China], Kateb Yacine [Algeria], Sädeq Hedäyat [Iran]

and others. East-West synthesis takes place, in a parallel manner, also in Westem literatures,

although to a lesser extent: Th. Mann, B. Brecht, H. Hesse, just to mention those from the

German speaking world.

ANDREW T. Tsubaki

Japanese Traditional Theatre and Shakespearean Plays

It was back in 1916 when W.B. Yeats wrote At the Hawk's Well after being introduced

indirectly to a theatre form of Nö by a young Japanese dancer, Michio Ito. Yeats' creation epitomizes how such an influence can be an enriching experience to a sensitive artist.

After World War II, as Japanese traditional theatre forms became better known. Westerners'

interest in them grew. A number of productions of Kabuki, Nö and Kyögen took place,

particularly in United States universities and colleges, where a serious study of theatre has developed and provided not only a fine base for nurturing theatre artists but also an ideal

environment for experimenting with a variety of production methods which have frequentiy

resulted in revitalizing the interest in classical works by exploring different ways of presenting them.

A parallel trend has also been observed among professionals. Most recentiy, a Theatre du

Soleil production of Twelfth Night, directed by Ariane Mnouchkine, caught particular

attention in the U.S.A. for its sensational and Kabukish performance style, when presented A. Wezler/E. Hammerschmiclt (Hrsg.): Proceedings ofthe XXXII Intemational Congress for Asian and Nonh African Studies, Hamburg, 25th-30lh August 1986 (ZDMG-Suppl. 9).

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in Los Angeles in conjunction with the 1984 Olympics.

Among the Japanese traditional theatre forms, Kabuki ist most well known, due to its

spectacular acting styles, colorful costumes, makeup and wigs. Its use of inflection in the dialogue is quite unique and powerful in its own way. The stylized acting gives a variety of possibilities to strengthen the directorial concept and seems to bring extra life to performances such as Shakespearean and Greek plays, when and if they are done properly and wisely.

Centering on the experience of directing King Lear at the University of Kansas, the author

will discuss the pros and cons of introducing Kabuki elements into Shakespearean

productions. The presentation is supplemented by slides, films and audio-tapes.

PETER T. Suzuki

Classical Japanese Poetry Forms in the Wartime Internment Camps for Japanese Americans

During World War II, when some 110,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans were placed in

internment camps, many among them wrote and created a "new" literary genre, owing to the unusual circumstances surrounding their lives. One such genre developed around classical

Japanese poetry, namely, tanka (waka), haiku, and senryu. Tanka, which came into being in

the 8th century, are poems of 31 syllables of a pattem that is divided into 5-7-5-7-7 syllable

"lines."

A'i^ tsu'gi''te' In rapid succession

To'mo^ra' ko^ko' yoVi' One after the other

I'de^ yu'ke''ba' friends depart,

Ko'ko^ro' o''no'zu'to' I feel the involuntary

Shi'ma^m' o"* o'bo'yo' tugging of the heartstrings

The above tanka deals with the policy in the permanent camps of having people move

voluntarily out of them, a policy which often led to the break-up of families, however.

Haiku emerged in the 16th century; they have the same stmcture as tanka except that haiku

are made of 17 syllables. Also, tradifionally, they dealt with nature. Senryu are stmcturally the same as haiku but are satirical poems.

Examples of the three types of poetry composed in the camps are analyzed first on the basis of linguistic stmcture. In the use of English words in Japanese, strict mles can be discemed

as seen in such stmctural principles as the canonical form (CVCV, etc.), the insertion of

anaptyctic vowels and paragoges, rhoticization of Ts, etc. Likewise, these principles are

followed in the camp poems (e.g., in one tanka, tree > turi; in a senryu, sage bmsh > seiji burashi, etc.).

A thematic analysis of the poems show that, as in traditional tanka and haiku, the camp

analogues, too, dealt with nature, but, with, e.g., the focus on the flora and fauna of the surroundings where the camps were situated. Furthermore, a favorite theme in traditional tanka is war; but the camp tanka dealt almost exclusively with how the lives of these people were affected through the War Relocation Authority (WRA) policies, the all-Nisei regimental

combat team (The 442nd), and the like. Camp senryu, on the other hand, were often

A. Wezler/E. Hammerschmidt (Hrsg.): Proceedings of the XXXII International Congress for Asian and North African Studies, Hamburg, 25ih-30th August 1986 (ZDMG-Suppl. 9).

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bittersweet expressions commenting on life behind barbed wire.

The phenomenal outpourings of these internees through poetry should help put to rest the

prevalent notion that the camps were solely arenas of political activity and unrest where the humanities hardly flourished.

The poems cited in this paper are heretofore unpublished works which I found in the WRA

files in the National Archives, Washington, D.C, where 1 have done extensive research over a number of years in an effort to throw light (through publicafions) on littie-known aspects, including the humanities, of the wartime camps for Japanese Americans.

Relevant Literature:

Peter T. Suzuki, 1976, "The ethnolinguistics of Japanese Americans in the wartime camps"

Anthropological Linguistics 18: 416-27.

—, 1977, "Wartime tanka: Issei & Kibei contributions to a literature East and West"

Literature East & West 21: 242-254.

—, 1978, "Japanese [hs:], American English [hrn:], and Dutch [X] and intercultural

communication" Amhropological Linguistics 19: 420-430.

Rama D. Datta

Hume and Buddhism: An East-West Dialogue

Both Hume and the Buddha initiate an ontology of momentary particulars rather than etemal

üniversals and a philosophy of mental states rather than substances. The Buddha denied the

existence of a self or soul and reduced the Upanisadic concept of substantive ego to a

phenomenal aggregate of five interdependent elements (khandas in Pali and skandhas in

Sanskrit). For the Buddha, there is feeling, perceiving and willing, but there is no one to feel,

to perceive or to will. David Hume seems to be making a point much like the Buddha when

he says:

" when 1 enter into what I call myself, I always stumble on some particular

perception or other ... I never can catch myself at any time without a perception ....".

(Treatise, p. 252).

This seems to be a revolt against the Aristotelian concept of soul substance. In Humean

terminology, a word is meaningful only when it refers to an idea. An idea, in its turn, can

only be derived from a preceding impression. Thus the term 'self is not meaningful unless

there is an idea annexed to it along with a preceding impression. Unfortunately, Hume

couldn't find any idea or impression of a simple and individual self. Hence he concludes that the essence of a thinking being consists in the relation of perceptions. Our commonsense belief in the continued existence of perceptions cannot be justified and is neither derived from reason nor from the senses. Just as Hume's view of self is a corollary of his view of identity in general, so the Buddha's discussion of pseudo-identity of physical objects is followed by

the question of a person. As there is no substance, only dharmas exist and they exist

momentarily; they are like moments in a continuum.

Thus in the Humean as well as the Buddhist map, the self is nothing but a bundle of

A. Wezler/E. Hammerschmidt (Hrsg.): Proceedings of the XXXII Intemational Congress for Asian and Nonh African Studies, Hamburg, 25lh-30th August 1986 (ZDMG-Suppl. 9).

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sensations. Tlie problem is with the missing string which could really make it a bundle. Both Hume and the Buddha try to supply the missing link by appealing to the so-called notion of

causation. The associative connections of resemblance and causation help us to ignore the

reality of succession and facilitate transition of the mind from one perception to another. This associative connection does not constitute any real bond among the perceptions; but they do help to overlook the numerical distinctness of the perceptions.

The similarity between the two theories becomes more clear when we consider the question of denial of self in the context of the problem of causation. It is almost impossible to deal

with the Humean theory of bundle of perceptions and the Buddhist doctrine of skandhas

without digging into the question of causation. It is the serial view of causation as expounded

by the Sauträntika Buddhists which seems to provide the closest Buddhist counterpart to

Hume's view.

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Phyllis Granoff

Jain Biographies of Nägärjuna

Or: Notes on the Writing ofa Biography in Medieval India

Jain sources preserve a distinct account of tiie life of the Buddhist Nägärjuna, who is regarded as a convert to Jainism and an alchemical wizard. Nägärjuna's life is told in all the major biographical collections of the Svetämbara Jains, the prabandhas that date mostly from the

13th and 14th centuries, and a 14th century pilgrimage text, the Vividhatirthakalpa of

Jinaprabhäsüri. The PrabarulhakoSa of Räja^ekharasüri (1349 A.D.) is typical of these

sources.

Nägärjuna is depicted as the son of a human princess and the snake king Väsuki, and his

birthplace is Mt. Satrunjaya, the most important pilgrimage site of the period. From his father he learns the essence of herbs and potions, but in order to leam to fly he betakes himself to the Jain teacher and wonder-worker, Pädaliptäcärya. Failing to leam the secret by subterfuge, he becomes Pädalipta's proper student, and in other accounts a pious Jain as well. Eventually Nägärjuna desires to make the elixir of immortality as a prelude to perfecting the virtue of charity. Again unsuccessful, he must bring a magical image of the Jina Pärsvanätha and the Sätavähana Queen herself to his place of operations, which will become another famous Jain holy site, Stambhana Tirtha. With this Nägärjuna succeeds, only to be killed by the queens's greedy sons who cut off his head with a blade of grass. The elixir is removed from its hiding

place on Mt. Satmfijaya by two Gods to prevent it from disturbing the balance of the

universe.

In its main features this Jain biography of Nägärjuna accords well with the legendary accounts

of the Buddhists in which Nägärjuna is likewise linked with snakes, alchemy, and a holy

mountain, is known for his charitableness, and dies an unnatural death. The life history is localized in the Jain tradition by several careful connections. Through his association with

snakes and alchemy, Nägärjuna is linked to Pädaliptäcärya, the famous Jain wizard who was

himself said to have been bom as a boon from the snake Goddess. He is then tied to two

pilgrimage sites, Mt. Satmöjaya, which was famous for its wells and streams yielding

immortality, and Stambhana with its magical image of the Jina Pärsvanätha, who was always

associated with snakes. This last connection explains why the biography is told in the

Vividhatirthakalpa as well as in the prabandhas.

Finally this paper suggests that the connection between biography and pilgrimage account,

between holy man and holy site, explored here and known elsewhere in Jainism, may have

been a cmcial one in the composition and dissemination of legends about holy men in

medieval India. Verification must await future research.

KOICHI Shinohara

Inscriptiorml Sources of Chinese Buddhist Biographies

Chinese Buddhist biographies found in the normative collections, "Biographies of Eminent Monks" by Hui-chao (519), "Further Biographies of Eminent Monks" by Tao-hsiian (645 and expanded later), and "Sung Biographies of Eminent Monks" by Tsan-ning, are for the most part based on stupa (ie., tomb) inscriptions. This paper examined the relationship between

A. Wezler/E. Hammerschmidt (Hrsg.): Proceedings of the XXXII International Congress for Asian and North African Sludies, Hamburg, 25th-30th Augusl 1986 (ZDMG-Suppl. 9).

Attacks of the &#34;barbarians&#34

Attacks of the "barbarians&#34