—The civilization of Japan is an off-shoot or development of that of China, and the Japanese literature is based upon Chinese models and standards. The literary relation strikes one as in some respects similar to that which existed between Great Britain and the American Colonies, or later with the American States. The literature of Japan is described, however, as characterized by much more elasticity, variety, and creative originality than is possessed by that of China, and in place of stereotyping itself upon the models of old-time classics, it has shown from century to century a wholesome power of development.
At one time, says Karpeles, Japan possessed an alphabet of its own, but later, the Chinese characters were introduced, and were used together with the older alphabet. It is only the very earliest writings in which the Japanese characters alone are employed. The Japanese scribes have from the beginning worked with brushes rather than with pens, and in so doing, have been able to utilize such substances as silk, which would have been unsuitable for the work of the pen. The invention of paper, however, took place at an early date, possibly simultaneously with its first use in China. Printing from blocks, and later from type, was promptly introduced from China early in our era.
According to the native chroniclers, the earliest literary production of Japan was the work of the two gods Izanaghi and Izanami. These gods, having created the country, thought it was incomplete without some poetry, and the poetry was therefore added. Tsurayuki, a poet of the tenth century, takes the ground that all true expression of feeling is poetry. The nightingale sings in the wood, the frog croaks in the pool; each is giving utterance to a feeling, and each, therefore, is pouring forth a poem. There is no living being, he continues, who is not a producer of poetry. (This is as startling to us ordinary mortals as the discovery of Molière’s Monsieur Jourdain that he had been talking prose all his life without knowing it.) As poetry, says Tsurayuki, begins with the expression of feeling, it must have come into existence with the beginning of creation.[14] In the earliest times, he says, when the gods were poets, the arrangement of sounds into syllables had not been made, and rhythm had not been invented. These early divine poems or utterances of the gods are, therefore, very difficult to understand. Later, however, Susanoo-no-mikoto fixed sounds into syllables, and then, according to the tenth-century poet, Japanese literature had its actual beginning, but he does not give us the date of this useful piece of work. We are inclined to wonder what the wise Susanoo, etc., did about the announcing of his own name, say on really formal occasions, before the little matter of the invention of syllables had been accomplished.
While it is claimed that from prehistoric times there had been in Japan an active production and a wide distribution of poetry (folk-songs), the first collection of the “people’s ballads” appears to have been made as late as 700 A.D. At this time the Emperor, whose residence was at Nara, took an interest in literature, and during the quarter century from 700 to 725 A.D. lived “the noble poet” Yamabe-no-Akahito, and the “wise man of the poets,” Kakino-mo-to-Hito-Maro. (The god above referred to, who bestowed upon Japan the invention of syllables, seems to have done his work thoroughly.) The compilation which took shape during this period is known as the Man-yo-sin, or the “collection of ten thousand leaves.” The two later collections are known as The Old and the New Songs of Japan, and The Hundred Poets.
A special feature in the literature of Japan is the great number of poetesses. The fashion of women interesting themselves in the writing of poetry was initiated by the poetic Empress Soto-oro-ime, in the third century A.D.
The great epic of Japanese literature is the Fei-ke-mono-gatari, that is The Annals of the Fei-ke Dynasty, which is said to have been composed in 1083 A.D., and which was sung among the people by blind rhapsodists. An epic of later date, in twelve books, is credited to the poet Ikanage. The literary record shows a long series of tales and romances, which are described as possessing a graceful fancy and imagination much in advance of Chinese compositions of the same class.
The theatre has from early times played a very important part in the social life of Japan, and dramatic composers are held in high honor. The first dramas written for performance date from about 807 A.D. The people of Japan have from the early times of Japanese literature given cordial appreciation to literary producers, and especially poets and dramatists. The official recognition of literature and of men of letters appears, however, to have been much less distinctive and less important than in China. We do not find record of official positions and preferments being bestowed on the ground of proficiency in philosophy or literature, or by reason of a knowledge of the learning of the past; nor have the smaller government places been distributed by competitive examinations arranged for students of literature.
The distribution of literature among the people appears to have been from an early date very general, and the knowledge of the great classics has certainly been widespread. Of the methods by which such distribution was accomplished in the early centuries of literary production we know nothing. It seems probable from certain references by later authors, that in Japan, as in Greece, the rhapsodists and reciters were the principal distributors.
Of rewards or compensations given to the earlier Japanese authors there is no record. The national treasury does not appear to have been utilized as in China and Assyria. It is possible that the dramatists may have secured some share of the stage receipts, but it is probable that the other authors must have contented themselves with such prestige or honors as came to them from the readers of, or the listeners to, their compositions.
—In India, the typical early literature is the myth. There is no national epic in the Greek use of the term, in which are described the doings of heroic men. The literary productions are the work of poets whose imagination has been impressed with the immensity and with the mystery of the universe, and whose poetic fancies take the form of visions. These fancies or visions are concerned with the doings of the gods, while man plays but a small part in the narrative.
Sanscrit literature is said to date back to the fifteenth century B.C. The written characters have an origin common with that of the Greek letters. The oldest existing monuments of Indian script are the edicts of the King Açoka, cut into the stone at Girnar and elsewhere “so that they might endure for ever”. They date back to the third century B.C.
The first literary period of India presents the poetry of the Vedas, the sacred scriptures of the Sanscrit peoples. The hymns and invocations comprising the Vedas are supposed to have been collected about 1000 B.C. This is the date that has by many authorities been accepted for the collecting of the Homeric poems, and corresponds nearly with the time fixed for the writing of the Chinese Book of the Metamorphoses. It also tallies with the period to which is ascribed the production of the Persian Zend-Avesta.
The term Veda means knowledge, or sacred knowledge. The collection of the Vedas comprises four divisions. The Rig-Veda, or Veda of Praises or Hymns; the Sama-Veda, or Veda of Chants or Tunes; the Yajur-Veda, or Veda of Prayers; and the Atharva-Veda, or Brahma-Veda.
The second literary period, beginning about the fifth century B.C., is that of the Folk-Songs, in which the myth becomes legend, and the gods, approaching a little closer to the earth, assume more nearly the character of heroes. The third period is that of the classic poets, whose productions in lyric and dramatic poetry are ranked with the great works of literature of the world. This period appears to have reached its height of productiveness between the sixth and tenth centuries of our era.
The earliest prose works are the theological writings of the Brahmanic priests, which take the form of commentaries on the Vedas, and which elucidate the sacred texts, principally from a sacrificial point of view. The production of these theological commentaries is supposed to date back to the seventh or sixth century B.C.
Buddha, or Gautama, philosopher, poet, reformer, and redeemer of his people, began his work towards the close of the sixth century B.C. His teachings gave rise to an enormous production of theological literature in India, Ceylon, China, and Japan.
The information concerning the materials used by the earlier writers of India, and as to the methods by which their books were placed before the public, is very meagre. According to Louisy, the use of diphtherai, or dressed skins, prevailed to some extent. Prepared palm-leaves were also utilized, particularly by the Buddhist writers of Ceylon. There appears to have been no general or popular circulation of the manuscripts. These were costly, and were beyond the means of any but the very wealthy, while it was also the case that the knowledge of reading was confined to but limited circles.
It seems probable that the manuscripts were in the main prepared in the monasteries or temples, and that they were exchanged between the temples. The teachings of the writers were brought before the people by preaching or recitations. Certain of the princes also attached to their courts poets and philosophers, and practically the only libraries or collections of manuscripts outside of those in the temples, must have been those contained in the palaces of the few princes who possessed literary tastes.
There could have been no other way of securing for an author compensation for his work excepting through princely favors or from the treasuries of the temples.
—The first name that comes down to us connected with the literature of Persia is that of Zoroaster. The Persian form of his name is Zarathustra, meaning the gold-star. The date of his birth is said to be more uncertain than that of Homer, but he is supposed to have lived about 1000 B.C.
He is credited with the authorship of the Gâthas, hymns partly religious, partly political. To Zoroaster were also revealed the teachings which later took shape in the sacred scriptures of the Persians, the Zend-Avesta (commentary-lore). Of these scriptures, only one division, the Vendidad, has been preserved complete. Of the other parts only fragments remain. It is estimated that the Vendidad (which means the regulations against demons) represents about one twentieth of the original collection.
The oldest portion of the Avesta is the Yasna, or sacrificial liturgy. This is a grouping together of the commentaries surrounding the Gâthas. A third division is the Visparad, or the Seasons, in which are set forth the lists of the objects sacred to each season. A fourth division is the Yescht-Sade, or little Avesta, comprising prayers and hymns.
The monotheistic or dualistic nature of the faith as originally taught by Zoroaster has, in the later religious writings and practices, been overlaid and obscured by the different phases of nature worship. Fire is accepted as the symbol of holiness, but, according to the views of the educated Parsees, is not itself the thing worshipped.
The existing canon of the Avesta was compiled and published under the direction of King Sapor II., who reigned 309-330 A.D. Among the poems of the Avesta we find the legend of which the hero is Rustem, who stands as the representative of Iran in its long contest with Turan.
The literature of Persia prior to the fourth century of the Christian era was probably controlled in great part by the priests. The exceptions would have been in the case of the court poets or court historians, writing under the incentive of royal remuneration. It is probable that songs and recitations were to some extent given to the public by minstrels or rhapsodists. There is some evidence also of the development in later centuries of the story-teller or improvisatore, who made a business of exchanging, for the pence of the public, stories partly original, but chiefly borrowed from older sources. The Oriental capacity for story-telling, and the Oriental readiness to devote an abundance of leisure time to listening to stories, is clearly indicated not only by modern practices, but also by the history of such collections as the Arabian Nights. Of this famous series of tales, neither the nationality nor the date of origin has been fixed with any degree of certainty. It is probable, however, that the collection first took shape in Bagdad about 1450 A.D., the date of the invention of printing. Von Hammer is of opinion that the Bagdad Tales are based upon a Persian collection called Hezar Afsaneh, The Thousand Fanciful Stories. From a passage in the Golden Meadows of El-Mesoudee (quoted by von Hammer) this Persian collection is known to have been in existence as early as 987 A.D.
It seems probable, as suggested, that the practice of publicly reciting poems or of narrating stories prevailed in Persia from a very early date, and constituted here, as in Greece, the first method for the distribution or the publication of literary compositions. The material employed for manuscripts was first diphtherai, or skins, and later papyrus and parchment.
—There is a similar lack of evidence concerning the existence among the Hebrews of anything that could be called literary property. The great body of the earlier Hebrew literature belonged, of course, to the class of sacred writings, best known to us through the books of the Old Testament and of the Apocrypha. In addition to these, and partly, of course, included with these, were the various collections of the law and of the comments on the law, while later years produced the long series of commentaries known to the reader of to-day under the general name of the Talmud. The various transcripts required of these writings of the law and the prophets gave employment to numbers of scribes, who, in the first place, apparently were usually connected with the Temple, and must have derived their support from the ecclesiastical revenues, but who later formed a separate commercial class, receiving payment for their work as done.
Professor Peters speaks of the age of Hezekiah as the golden age of Hebrew literature. He quotes the text, Prov. xxv., I, which says that “the men of Hezekiah translated” or transcribed, or wrote down the Proverbs of Solomon, as evidently an effort to collect and preserve the literary treasures of the past. He says, further:
“It is not unnatural to suppose that the writing down of Solomon’s Proverbs was for the purpose of a library in Jerusalem, such as the Assyrian kings had long since collected at Nineveh. The Book of Amos was edited (somewhere about 711 B.C.) apparently for this library ... and I suppose Hosea and Micah also to have been edited about this time and for the same purpose. It was the formation of this library at just this time and the desire to collect and preserve all the literary remains of the past, which led to the collection and preservation of so much of the literature of the Northern Kingdom, but lately brought into Judah by the Israelite emigrés. No tales of the valor of the heroes of Judah, no Judæan folk-lore ante-dating the time of David, have been handed down to us; this literature belonged to the Northern Kingdom. Literary and antiquarian zeal led to the collection and reception of these northern tales and poems into Hezekiah’s library ... where their use in historical works, owing to the awakened zeal for a knowledge of the past, was assured. So with the transfer of intellectual activity from Samaria, a new era begins in Judah, and soon the charming tales and poems of the north, preserved in the library of Hezekiah, begin to be woven into the more solid and ambitious works of the historians and lawyers of Jerusalem.
This literary awakening could not fail to act upon the priests. They were the custodians of those ancient religious and legal traditions, which, coming down from the age of Moses, had grown with, and been modified by, changing times and conditions. While some portions of the ‘law’ were written, presumably the larger part of it was handed down mainly by word of mouth.
Moreover, that which was written probably existed in various independent codes relating to different subjects. Some of these—such as a tariff of offerings, or tables of civil and criminal law, like those contained in the Book of the Covenant—may have been published, or set up at the Temple gates, where they could be read by the worshippers. The greater part of the ‘law,’ however, seems to have been the exclusive, if not esoteric, possession of the priesthood of the Jerusalem Temple. The literary activity of the Renaissance made itself felt within the circle of the priests, leading them to begin to commit to writing their unwritten law as well as the ancient traditions, customs, and ceremonies. Thus was commenced the work which has given us the middle books of the Pentateuch, as well as much of Genesis and Joshua.”[15]
It appears, therefore, as if the Hebrew literature of the time (the reign of Hezekiah, covering the period referred to, lasting from 728 to 699 B.C.) consisted substantially of the “law,” that is of the authoritative teachings of the “church,” and was almost exclusively in the hands of the priests. They exercised a control, which amounted practically to an ownership, over the sacred, that is the official, records of the “law,” and it appears as if the attested copies or transcripts could be made only with their permission and under their supervision. It is probable, therefore, that the copyists were attached to the Temple, and that such moneys as were received from the sale of their transcripts belonged to the treasury of the Temple,—but the manner of such sales can only be guessed at, as the records give us no information. If, however, this understanding of the practice should prove to be correct, we should have an example, if not of literary property, at least of a species of “copyright” control.
The severe Jewish law, directing the penalty of death to be inflicted upon prophets speaking “false words,” or uttering as inspirations of their own, words which had originated with others, has been quoted as an early example of regulation of plagiarism, but it appears evident, says Rénouard,[16] that the crime here to be punished was not plagiarism but sacrilege, “Vates mendax qui vaticinatur et quæ non audivit, et quæ ipsi non sunt dicta, ab hominibus est occidendus.”[17] The utterance of the prophet Jeremiah (c. xxiii. v. 30) evidently refers to the same regulation.