is a text on Japanese poetics written by
Fujiwara no Hamanari. One volume in length, it "is the oldest extant piece of poetic criticism in the Japanese canon".
[Rabinovitch, page 471]
Development
The text was commissioned by
Emperor Kōnin
was the 49th emperor of Japan, Emperor Kōnin, Tahara no Higashi Imperial Mausoleum, Imperial Household Agency according to the traditional order of succession. Kōnin's reign lasted from 770 to 781.
Traditional narrative
The personal name of ...
and completed in 772.
Title
The common title today is ''Kakyō Hyōshiki'' and is in reference to
Chinese Book of Songs (
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
''Shikyō''). However, chronologically the name does not fit, and some manuscripts do not include this title at all. Alternative titles include , which is likely to have been the original title, as well as based on the compiler's name.
Contents
The main focus of the text is an attempt to apply phonetic rules of
Chinese poetry
Chinese poetry is poetry written, spoken, or chanted in the Chinese language, and a part of the Chinese literature. While this last term comprises Classical Chinese, Standard Chinese, Mandarin Chinese, Yue Chinese, and other historical and vernac ...
to
Japanese poetry
Japanese poetry is poetry typical of Japan, or written, spoken, or chanted in the Japanese language, which includes Old Japanese, Early Middle Japanese, Late Middle Japanese, and Modern Japanese, as well as poetry in Japan which was written in th ...
. As the two languages are fundamentally different, the application is forced and unnatural.
The text defines seven types of , literally "poetic sicknesses" which are rhetoric faults that should be avoided when composing poetry.
*: the last character of the first and last verses are the same
*: the last character of the first verse is the same as the third or sixth character of the second verse
*: the last character of the other verses is homophonous with the last character of the third verse
*: the last character of the third verse is used in the other verses
*: the second and final syllables in a single verse are the same
*: the final character of the third and fifth verses are the same
*: with the exception of the final syllable of the third verse, when two or more
homophone
A homophone () is a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning or in spelling. The two words may be spelled the same, for example ''rose'' (flower) and ''rose'' (past tense of "rise"), or spelled differently, a ...
s are used consecutively
The text also defines three types of poetic forms:
*:
chōka and
tanka
is a genre of classical Japanese poetry and one of the major genres of Japanese literature.
Etymology
Originally, in the time of the influential poetry anthology (latter half of the eighth century AD), the term ''tanka'' was used to disti ...
*: irregular
*: mixed
Hamanari quotes 34 poems to illustrate the above points. Many of these poems are not found in poetry collections of the time such as
Man'yōshū
The is the oldest extant collection of Japanese (poetry in Classical Japanese), compiled sometime after AD 759 during the Nara period. The anthology is one of the most revered of Japan's poetic compilations. The compiler, or the last in ...
. These poems are quite valuable to
historical linguists
Historical linguistics, also known as diachronic linguistics, is the scientific study of how language change, languages change over time. It seeks to understand the nature and causes of linguistic change and to trace the evolution of language ...
as they are written in
Man'yōgana
is an ancient writing system that uses Chinese characters to represent the Japanese language. It was the first known kana system to be developed as a means to represent the Japanese language phonetically. The date of the earliest usage of t ...
, a script which preserves a historical phonological distinction known as
Jōdai Tokushu Kanazukai that was soon lost afterwards.
See also
*
8th century in poetry
Notes
References
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kakyo Hyoshiki
Nara period
Old Japanese texts
Japanese poetry
8th-century Japanese books