Oriental Humor - Terebess

643 Pages·2008·26.86 MB·English

ORIENTAL HUMOUR

l
MAN PLAYJNG THE SAMISEN
This is part of Kyokugeizu Byobu, f\Il~li;ij!ffItl., some
screens portraying acrobats, the artist being unknown.
The picture belongs to the beginning of the Edo Period.
The player here is dressed as a warrior. It was customary
to play the samisen during acrobatics, partly to punctuate
the various crises of the tumblers, contortionists, pepper­
eaters, conjurers, tight-rope walkers, sword-swallowers, and
so on. The pattern of the samisen, the two swords, the
folding stool, and the outspread legs; and the harmony of
the face and the samisen makes this a worthy example of
early ukiyo-e. The plectrum is comically small for a large
hand, but the best thing is his face.
I
~1
• 4ii!i
@, 1959, by R. H. Blyth
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
First Printlng. J 959

Fourth Printing, 1968

Published by the Hckuseido Press
3-chome, Nishikicho, K.mda, Tokyo
Dedicated

(as all my books should have been)

to

DAISETZ SUZUKI

who taught me that I knew
•

PREFACE

By "Oriental Humour" is meant that of China, Korea. and
Japan. As far as China is concerned I have to thank two persons
for the Chinese humorous stories in Chapter VI. First, Mr. Maeno
of Kyoiku University. He most kindly and willingly lent me his
manuscript, in Japanese, a chronologiol anthology of Chinese comical
tales, so that I was able to cl100se tram it what I thought the best
ones. At the same time I came across a book published in Shanghai
in I956, A Historical Collection of Comical Stories, I1i!5f-t~~5*, by Wang
Lichi, :£:fiJ*if. From these Mr. Chen Yih-hsiung, a post-graduate
student of Waseda University, selected and translated some of the
most interesting and characteristic. \'Vhile the present book was
in the press I came across Chinese rVit and Humour, George Kao,
Coward-McCann, I94r. Like Lin Yutang's The Wisdom of China,
Michael Joseph, I944, it is somewhat nationalistic in tone. As for
the Korean humour, the memories of the fourteen years of my life in
Korea, together ,With various Japanese books given in the list of
reference books, emboldened me to do what I could. I am afraid
myoid Korean friends will be displeased, but I thought that some­
thing was better nothing to express my gratitude for all that I
learned in their land. I must also thank Mr. Y. T. Pyun, former
Prime Minister of South Korea, and former Prince Li, for their help.
I have to thank Miss Toshiko Chiba for even more help than
usual with the Japanese part of this book. My former student,
Miss Tatsuko Yamada, gave me overall assistance, and I\iliss Misako
Himuro, a post-graduate student of Waseda University, corrected
numerous historical, literary, and typographical blunders. (The
misses saved me from many a miss.)
The amount of space devoted to each country does not indicate
\ HI Preface
the amount of humour created by it, but only my knowledge of it.
In the case of Japan I feel on firmer ground, having already written
a book on Japanese humour. In this part are given translations of
the best of the old senryu, so far unpublished, and various other
typical aspects of humour tound in proverbs, games, caricatures,
ghost-stories and so on.
India should be included in this survey, but without a knowledge
of the language it is absurd to try to deal with the speakers or their
writings. However, in the Introduction something is said about India
as the chief origin of world humour. In conclusion I would like to
say that this book will hardly give the reader an accurate idea of the
national character or way of thinking of the present-day Chinese,
Koreans, and Japanese. The book intends to do something quite
different and far more important, to show how certain peoples have
seen and seen into the world of man and of nature, and to enable us
to see what they saw. The purpose of life is to know the purpose of
life j the purpose of life is to laugh with the infinite eternal laughter
of the gods.
R. H. Blyth
Tokyo
1st April 1959
Wi
CONTENTS
PAGE
Yll
IntrodL~ction 1
CHINA
PART ONE
CHAPTER I Chinese Humour r I
CHAPTER II The Chinese Classics 2r
Ch·\PTER III Chine;e Poetry 31
CHA1)TER IV Ghost Stories 40
CH,\PTER V Liehtse 4°
CH,\PTLR VI Proverbs 6~
I
CHAPTER VII Taoism 01
CHAPTER VIII Zen 87
CHAPTER IX Short Stories (to the Ch'ing Period) . 93
CHAPTER X Short Stories (from 1643) IL,5
KOREA
PART TWO
CHAPTER XI Korean I-Iumour ... Proverbs
C1IAPTER XII Korean Short Stories .
JAPAN
PART THREE
CHAPTER XIII Japanese Humour
CHAPTER XIV Chinese Influence on Japan
CHAPTER XV Japanese Literature I
X Contents
CHAPTER XVI Japanese Literature II . 260
CHAPTER XVII The History of Japanese Caricatme 234
CHAPTER XVIII Japanese Proverbs 297
CHAPTER XIX Yanagidaru I 312
CHAPTER XX Yanagidaru II 33 1
CHAPTER XXI Yanagidaru III 365
CHAPTER XXII Other Old Senryu . 39 f
CHAPTER XXIII Modern Senryu . 434
CHAPTER XXIV Ghost Stories 46 4
CHAPTER XXV Short Stories I (up to 1750) . 477
CHAPTER XXVI Short Stories II (after 1750) . 519
Epilogue 56 5
Chronological Chart of Japanese Humour
Bibliography
Index .
-

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Fly-lea f A Pilgrimage to l\/Ieguro \Vatanabe Kazan
Frontispiece A Samisen Player
FACING PAGE
PLATE I A Caricature of Indian Sages 5
PLATE II A Persian Elephant Ibn Bakcheesh 8
PLATE III Two Chinese Genii 29
PLATE IV Ksudapanthaka . Zengetsu 99
PLATE V Two \vrestlers
PLAT!, VI A Korean Basket 165
PLATE VII Landscape with a Poet Kang Hi I\n 178
PLATE VIII Flowers, Birds, Cats, Pups. Li Am 194
PL;',TE IX "Three Flat, Two Full" . Ogawa Haritsu T 99
PLATE X Scribbling from Horyuji
PLATE XI The Cat and the Ladle Buson and Okyo
PLATE XII The Hundred Days Law-Preaching Sengai
PL;',TE XIII Kanshin Sengai
PLATr, XIV Fan-Shaped Picture of Hokke Kyo
PLATE XV The Flames of Hell Tosa Mitsunaga 288
PLATE XVI Kagekiyo. . Torii Kiyonobu
PLATE XVII Two Blind Men on a Bridge Hakuin
PLAT8 XVIII Self-Portrait Hakuin
PLATE XIX Fudo (Vairocana) 377
PLAT8 XX Tengu and Geho
PLATE XXI The Hair-Cutter Kohogan Motonobu
PLATE.: XXII Himamushinyudo Toriyama Sekien
PLAT8 XXIII A Dwarf. Tosa Mitsunaga
PLATE XXIV \varriors and Beggars Tosa Mitsunobu