Natsume Sōseki's kanshi

Meiji period

– but are not as popular as his novels.

Beginnings

Natsume Sōseki first took up

Chinese studies, specifically the composition of kanshi (poetry in Classical Chinese), in school.^[1]

Later works

Sōseki considered himself an amateur kanshi poet, and ignored the practices of the professional poets of his day.^[2] He included some Chinese poetry in his early novel Kusamakura, and he had continued to compose them throughout his life,^[1] but his most significant works came from the last months of his life,^[2] during the writing of Light and Darkness.^[2] He also composed haiku during this period, but he is considered a minor haiku poet while his kanshi have been widely praised.^[2] While writing Light and Darkness, he wrote the novel in the morning and kanshi in the afternoon,^[2] supposedly to keep himself oriented during the "vulgarizing" experience of writing the novel.^[2]

His Chinese verse often did not meet the standard

rhyming were sometimes wrong.^[3]

Reception

Sōseki's Chinese verse has been widely praised.

poets from China;^[3] Sōseki's poems, on the other hand, are admired even by Chinese critics who dismiss traditional Japanese kanshi.^[3]

Japanese society since Sōseki's death in 1916 than with the actual literary value of the poems and novels in relation to each other.^[5]

References

^ ^a ^b Keene 1998, p. 306.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Keene 1998, p. 346.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Keene 1998, p. 347.
^ Keene 1998, p. 53, note 40.
^ Keene 1998, pp. 348–349.

Works cited

ISBN 978-0-231-11435-6
.

External links

[1]

[FOOTNOTEKeene1998306-1] Keene 1998, p. 306.

[FOOTNOTEKeene1998346-2] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Keene 1998, p. 346.

[FOOTNOTEKeene1998347-3] Keene 1998, p. 347.

[FOOTNOTEKeene1998p._53,_note_40-4] Keene 1998, p. 53, note 40.

[FOOTNOTEKeene1998348–349-5] Keene 1998, pp. 348–349.

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