A diachronic analysis of the Zhuangzi reception in Japanese literary sources – From the VI to the XIV century

Abstract

This work aims at presenting a comprehensive analysis of the Zhuangzi reception in Japanese literature up to the XIV century. The Zhuangzi is a literary and philosophical masterpiece presumably written around the second half of the warring state period (475-221 BC), and its transmission to Japan has been proved to date back at least to the mid-seventh century. In Japan, therefore, the Zhuangzi was read and appreciated from the late Asuka period forward, resulting in many literary works written in Japan to contain, whether in a direct or indirect way, references or allusions to it. Such references provide the chance to glimpse at the understanding that Japanese authors had towards the Zhuangzi, both in its philosophical and literary aspects. The present work is divided into sections, each one of which centered on a different historical period, and progresses chronologically. The analysis attempts to include all the works that previous scholarship has pointed out being in any way related to the Zhuangzi, whatsoever the nature of such relationships may be. As a result of the analysis, I dismissed many hypotheses formulated by recent scholarship claiming intercorrelations between the Zhuangzi and Japanese texts, and I found that the greater part of Japanese authors quoted or alluded to the Zhuangzi solely for aesthetical purposes, lacking a concrete understanding of the themes and motives underlying the Zhuangzi complex - and often obscure - wording.