The Tale of Genji

The Samurai’s Tale by Erik Christian Haugaard is about a boy named Taro, the protagonist in the story. The major characters in the story are Taro, Yoshitoki, Lord Takeda Katsuyori, Lord Akiyama Nobutomo, and Togan. The setting of the story is in Japan, in around the 16th century. In the beginning of the story he was presented as a gift by the great Lord Takeda Shingen to Lord Akiyama after his parents had been killed. By using his wits and suppressing his fierce pride, Taro slowly escalates the ranks of his lord’s household until he achieves his greatest goal—becoming a samurai like his father and Lord Akiyama, whom he has come to admire. The life of a samurai is not so easy, Taro finds himself sacrificing opportunities of love and friendship

Although Murasaki Shikibu parodies the idealness of Genji’s character by showing even though he is ideal he is still not perfect, by having Genji admired by the majority of the other characters in the story she is acknowledging that Genji is an ideal man (or at least as close as one can get in the Heian Court). “His [Genji’s] many flaws are balanced by his charm, taste, generosity, humor, and sensitivity.”

In The Tale of Genji, Genji struggles to find who he wants to become throughout the book. He is born to royalty, but then gets his status taken away as a kid by his father, the emperor. As he grows up he falls in love many times and eventually sleeps with one of his father's wives. He then contemplates the death of one of his lovers and goes into depression but is eventually brought out of it and he goes visit Lady Rojukō to reminisce about the past events. Eventually, Genji finds the path to take but still finds much love which he wants to keep. In The Tale of Genji the tradition of aesthetic and cultural consciousness of Japan is reflected through impermanence, mono no aware, and wabi.

Buddhism is a major global religion with a complex history and system of beliefs. The founder of Buddhism is said to be Siddhartha Gautama, the son of an Indian warrior-king. Gautama led an extravagant life through early adulthood, reveling in the privileges of his social class. Gautama became bored with the indulgences of royal life so he wandered into the world searching for understanding. After encountering an old man, ill man, a corpse, and an ascetic, he was convinced that suffering lay at the end of all existence. He then became a monk, depriving himself of worldly possessions in the hope of comprehending the truth of the world around him. The culmination of his search came while meditating beneath a tree, where he finally understood how to be free from suffering, and ultimately, to achieve salvation. Gautama became known as the Buddha, meaning the “Enlightened One.” He spent the remainder of his life

The Samurai’s Tale is about a young boy named Taro, who had became the hero of the story. The main characters in the story was Lord Akiyama, Lord Takeda Shingen, and Togan. This story took place in Japan around the 16th century. The story began with Taro, Murakami Harutomo, arguing with his mother about what she had been telling him to wear for an event that was going to happen without him knowing about. Later that day Taro saw that soldiers came attacking his house, his mother leaving him with Yone in a chest trying to keep them safe in a storehouse that had laid behind the house. A soldier then found them both and took them out of the chest, then as they walked out of the store hold, he found his mother on the ground dead. A plot twist that

Hinduism, Confucianism and Buddhism are three of the world’s most distinguished belief systems of the past and for some, still in the present. The guidelines they provided influenced the social, political and religious lives of people within the societies that followed them. Hinduism emerged when the Aryans arrived in ancient India and began to combine their ideas with those of the Dravidians, the native population. One major Hindu idea was the caste system, which influenced the social lives of its followers and provided the state with political stability. Confucianism first saw an emergence of numerous followers during the Warring States period, when many philosophers were developing ideas for how to return order to China in this era of chaos. It provided political stability to the state by promoting an ethical system with several virtues and the idea that education could allow for social mobility. Buddhism originated from classical India when many people started looking for a new belief system, as they began to reject the caste system imposed by Hinduism. Buddhism had a minimal political or social impact on its followers, but instead influenced their religious lives. There is no doubt that these three belief systems significantly impacted the lives of their followers, but the manner in which they did this varied for each. Socially, Hinduism had the greatest impact with their caste system. Politically, Confucianism had the greatest impact by promoting virtues and

The Tale of Genji revolves around a prince Genji, son of an emperor and emperor’s favorite concubine who came from low-class family. Therefore, the surname Genji was given to him to live as a leader of the Genji Clan and to avoid the political schemes because he did not have any high officials backing him up to inherit the Imperial throne. As Genji grows up, he spends most of his time traveling to find love and to conquest women, not looking for the Imperial throne.

Genji tries to follow some aspects of Buddhism but others not so much such as monogamy, as he has many affairs in his lifetime. It is believed that all the

A prince named Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha) founded “Buddhism” in the sixth century before the birth of Christ. Buddhism is better understood as philosophy rather than a religion and follows the concept of the Four Noble Truths and the Eight Fold Noble path.

The values, makoto and aware, are also deeply ingrained into The Tale of Genji and are a recurring theme within the work. The men are always searching for women with sincere characteristics, and the women are always chasing after Genji, who is a paragon of sincerity. The value of aware is quite Buddhist in nature and describes the impermanence of all things. This is definitely the most significant religious influence on The Tale of Genji because aware is the abounding theme throughout the tale. Genji is constantly witnessing the impermanence of life. One such example is when he loses his wife, Aoi, to childbirth. She is very sick and fragile after the birth of their son, and Genji is deeply moved by her fragility, “The sight of her lying there, so beautiful yet so thin and weak that she hardly seemed among the living, aroused his love and his keenest sympathy” (Tyler, 179). After Aoi’s death, Genji takes it hard and “life was intolerable to him” (Tyler, 180). The feeling of aware is embodied in Genji’s reaction to Aoi’s sickness and death; moreover, the fragility of life is made clear to him

I chose this topic because I view women as the backbone to the development or a nation, therefore the Chinese woman is paramount in one of the world’s great civilizations. The role of women in Chinese culture has changed over the years. When we consider the position that women held in ancient Chinese society we find that they have come a long way to be where they are today.

Buddhism is a religion and philosophy based on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama. It is the oldest and fourth largest religion in the world with around 500 million followers. Buddhism focuses on teaching people how to come to terms with and end the suffering of themselves and others by cutting out greed, hatred, and ignorance from their lives. Unlike most major world religions, Buddhism does not revolve around worshiping a god or divine creator, instead the focus of Buddhism is living one 's best life and transforming the lives of others. The ultimate goal of Buddhism is to reach Enlightenment and upon death achieve Nirvana, the liberation of pain and suffering. For Buddhists, it is the individual’s responsibility to find his or her own path to enlightenment; the principles of Buddhism are seen more as guidelines than rules.

Genji Monogatari or The Tale of Genji is a story that was written by Murasaki Shikibu during the Heian period. It is a very well received work of Japanese literature and the first part of the story is written with the main character being Genji, and then continues without him. I have no knowledge of the second half of Genji Monogatari but it is in the first section of this tale the characteristics and traits for ideal men and women of the society within the story can be gathered. The criteria for an ideal man or woman in The Tale of Genji was the importance of the physical attribute of beauty, the background, personality, and education of a woman, and characteristics that the main hero of the story, Genji, possessed.

Genji grows older and not only becomes married to Princess Aoi, but he also gains a strong friendship with his brother in law, To-no-Chujo. The two friends like many boys, discuss women and the troubles that arise from relationships. To-no-Chujo and Genji have a big discussion over this, while reliving past relationships the Chief Equerry arrives and joins in on the discussion. To-no-Chujo remarks on a woman he actually bore a child with and that they did not stay together because she was too forgiving and submissive. The

The theme of religion is very important in the novel and the roles of mysterious spirits that can be found throughout the novel. The character of Lady Rokuju can be used as a prime example for how spirits contribute to novel’s plot and help it progress. Her relationship with Genji goes on a downward spiral as the novel progress; therefore she begins to have feelings which Genji finds unwanting. She began to show distasteful feelings such as being ill-tempered and difficult to deal with. Genji becomes annonyed and tries to distance himself from this relationship by forming a new relationship with a youthful female named Yugao. They soon have a secret affair and Genji is dazzled