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/lit/ - Literature

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3249503 No.3249503 [Reply] [Original]

Is there an Eastern Canon?
I've never read an eastern book before and would like to know where to start.

>> No.3249510

>>3249503
If Russia is Eastern, then read that. Otherwise, nothing that culturally significant ever came from the east.

>> No.3249507

>>3249503

Hagakure.

Ignore the parts about killing yourself for your master and it's pretty cool

>> No.3249514

the "east" isn't as, uhm, monolithic as the west is. it's mostly a construct.

there's an indian canon, a chinese canon, a japanese canon, etc.

>> No.3249512

I don't know man. You really should get a boat though.

>> No.3249521
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3249521

>>3249510
>nothing that culturally significant ever came from the east

>> No.3249523

>>3249514
This.

We have sections on the wiki for Japan, China and Korea. There was supposed to be someone working on India, but since India's literature is so extremely vast and covers so many languages, that one's a bit more complicated.

>> No.3249538
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3249538

Sengoku Rance

>> No.3249540

the classics of Asian lit off the wiki:

The Tale of Genji (11th century) by Murasaki Shikibu
The Pillow Book (1002) by Sei Shonagon
The Tales of Ise by Anonymous
Hojoki (1212) by Kamo no Chomei
Essays in Idleness (1330) by Yoshida Kenko
The Tale of Heike (1371) by Anonymous
Edo Period (1603-1868) The Life of an Amorous Woman (1686) by Saikaku Ihara
Hagakure: the Book of the Samurai (1716) by Yamamoto Tsunetomo
Four Major Plays (~1720) by Chikamatsu Monzaemon
Chushingura (1748) by Takedo Izumo, Miyoshi Shoraku, Namiki Senryuu
Tales of Moonlight and Rain (1776) by Ueda Akinari
The Dragon King's Daughter (Tang dynasty) by
Six Yuan Plays (Yuan dynasty) by
Three Kingdoms (14th century) by Luo Guanzhong
Outlaws of the Marsh (14th century) by Shi Nai'an
The Story of the Western Wing (14th century) by Wang Shifu
Journey to the West (16th century) by Wu Cheng'en
Creation of the Gods (16th century) by Xu Zhonglin
The Peony Pavilion (1598) by Tang Xianzu
Stories Old and New (1620) by Feng Menglong
The Plum in the Golden Vase (17th century) by Lanling Xiaoxiao Sheng
The Carnal Prayer Mat (1657) by Li Yu
Strange Tales From a Chinese Studio (1740) by Pu Songling
The Scholars (1750) by Wu Jingzi
Story of the Stone (18th century) by Cao Xueqin
Six Records of a Floating Life (1808) by Shen Fu
The Bamboo Grove: An Introduction to Sijo edited by Richard Rutt
Samguk Yusa (13th century) by Iryeon
Virtuous Women: Three Classic Korean Novels
The Cloud Dream of the Nine (17th century) Kim Manjung
The Memoirs of Lady Hyegyong (18th century) by Lady Hyegyeong
The Tale of Kieu (1820) by Nguyễn Du

With a bonus Vietnamese work at the end.

>> No.3249549

>>3249540
should note that this is missing a lot of poetry, so there's a big gap in it.

T'ang dynasty poets for China, the Man'yoshu and other Japanese collections, Matsuo Basho, Kobayashi Issa, Buson and the other haiku masters, Sung-era poets as well as the ancient ones, etc.

>> No.3249558

>>3249538
This.
Everything you need to know about Japan.
and rape

>> No.3249559

>>3249514
I get what you mean, though I think the west goes for the same, it's just that people don't think of it to be that way. There is just so much stuff.

>> No.3249561

>>3249540
How would I go about tackling this list?
Chronologically?
Alphabetically by author?
In the order provided?

>> No.3249571

>>3249561
The order provided is chronological, though divided by country.

I guess it depends on literature you normally enjoy. Plays? Poetry? Epic novels or short stories? Folklore, romance, warfare, comedies, erotica? I mean, there's a little of everything there.

>> No.3249629

Reading list for an Eastern classics program:
http://www.stjohnscollege.edu/GI/EC/reading_list.shtml

Other lists:
http://www.interleaves.org/~rteeter/grtasian.html
http://www.interleaves.org/~rteeter/grtmwasian.html
http://www.interleaves.org/~rteeter/grtorien.html

Last one is particularly good, though it does lean a little too heavily towards religious and philosophical works for me.

>> No.3249632

>>3249559
there's lots of stuff, but it's very incestuous. there's a much better case to be made for the west than there is for the east.

>> No.3249635

Is there an African Canon?

>> No.3249643

>>3249635
http://africanhistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa100BestBooks.htm

Pretty good list for it. Then add Sundiata and a book of collected African folklore.

>> No.3249645

>>3249635
arabic lit.

>> No.3249646

>>3249635
>black people
>reading
etc.

>> No.3249650

>>3249645
There's also a lot of Portuguese and French literature from African countries. It's a fairly diverse continent, despite the tendency to group it all together.

>> No.3249653

>>3249635
Heart of Darkness

>> No.3249654

>>3249650
yeah, but as he said canon i assumed he meant "old" literatre.

>> No.3249657

>>3249646
a joke so tired you can't even be assed to make it

either go full-on /pol/ or don't even bother

>> No.3249664

>>3249654
Ah, I suppose. I think there's a good backing for a modern African canon too though. There are definitely authors that have already come to be known as essential, at least.

>> No.3249695

In a similar boat as OP (assuming he gets one). Should I read some Yukio Mishima or something from one of these lists?

>> No.3249703

>>3249695
Mishima may be more approachable. You should honestly just read what's interesting to you. There's no reason to take any of it as "required reading" of some kind.

If you like poetry, look into T'ang dynasty collections. Plays, read a collection from Chikamatsu. Sprawling epics, read the new translation of The Tale of Heike. Or Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Folklore, Strange Tales From a Chinese Studio or Creation of the Gods. Erotica, The Life of an Amorous Woman or The Plum in the Golden Vase. Essays, Hagakure or Essays in Idleness.

>> No.3249705

oh god a canon for the east would most undoubtedly be conceived in a horribly orientalist way

>> No.3249706

>>3249703
>Erotica, The Life of an Amorous Woman or The Plum in the Golden Vase.
Did you get off to it?

>> No.3249711

>>3249706
also,
>The Plum in the Golden Vase
Is that a euphemism?

>> No.3249713

>>3249706
They're more literary erotica, though the later has explicit scenes. The Carnal Prayer Mat is more explicit, I think.

>> No.3249716

>>3249711
"Jin Ping Mei takes its name from the three central female characters — Pan Jinlian (潘金蓮, whose given name means "Golden Lotus"); Li Ping'er (李瓶兒, given name literally means, "Little Vase"), a concubine of Ximen Qing; and Pang Chunmei (龐春梅, "Spring plum blossoms"), a young maid who rose to power within the family.[2] According to some Chinese critics, each of the three Chinese characters in its title symbolizes an aspect about human nature, such as mei (梅), plum blossoms, is metaphoric for sexuality."

In short, yeah.

>> No.3251106
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3251106

>> No.3251133

A Personal Matter by Kenzaburo Oe

>> No.3251135

>>3249653
Not written by an African.

>> No.3251140
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3251140

So I guess the answer is no

>> No.3251143

>>3249510

:/

>>3249514

This.

>> No.3251144

>>3251140
What? There have been plenty of recs made in the thread.

>> No.3251149

>>3251144
The answer is no.
The question is "Is there an Eastern Canon?"

>> No.3251152

>>3249635
Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe.

>> No.3251155

>>3251144
JK

All I was looking at was the erotica and that first post about killing oneself for their master. Mostly posted for the cat and monkey.

>>3251149
Well now, why?

>> No.3251159

>>3249503

Since most authors are based on the East Coast/Manhattan, all Merryclap literature is an Eastern Canon.

Personally, since I currently live in >>3249503
Shizuoka, San Francisco is to the East. So maybe Richard Brautigan?

>> No.3251218

African Literature =/= Books that black people write

>> No.3251223

>>3251218
>black people
>write

>> No.3251229

>>3251155
>Well now, why?

see >>3249514

>> No.3251230

>>3251229
Hi demiurge.

>> No.3251237

>>3251230
hi anon

>> No.3251865

>>3251106
>Murakami
>good

>> No.3251872

>>3249507
Or replace "Master" with a higher ideal.

>> No.3251913

I would call myself a "philosophical Taoist" but that's a painfully "white kid who wants to be Asian" term. I just find the ideas expressed in the Tao Te Ching and Zhuangzi to be beautiful and meaningful, and I try to follow the wisdom.

I've been meaning to read Hagakure as well.

>> No.3251916

>>3249540
oh yeah like OP's gonna chase down a list of like 20 books...

Everything on this list is easy to find IRL as well as online...

The basics:
>Sun Tzu's Art of War
>Lao Tse's Tao
>The Four Books of Confucius

Then for history:
>annals of the Springs and Automns period
upwards all the way to the boxer rebellion.

For religions
>Whatever you can find on either Bodidharma.

For current affairs
>any magazine targeted at young audiences. It should be quite simple to translate.

More advanced shit, if you're into nippon culture and all:
>a book of five rings, by Miyamoto Musashi

>> No.3251922

Where mah sinnoboos at?

>> No.3251967

>>3251913
Yes you should look into the early developments of Zen in Japan. It actually (in something like the 9th century) came from a mix of Taoist and Buddhist sects who shared some wisdom and kinda agreed on a lot of stuff. The result was Zen

I wish I had my prayer book on hand, I could give you a name.