Title

The Literary-Historical and Bibliographical Significance of Banri Shukyu’s Chochuko: A Japanese Commentary on Huang Tingjian from the Muromachi Period

Author

Midorikawa Hideki

Genre

Article

Pages

271-307

DOI

10.6503/THJCS.202103_51(2).0002

Download

PDF

Language

Chinese

Key words

Banri Shukyu, Chochuko, Huang Tingjian 黃庭堅, “Sankoku sho”

Abstract

The Northern Song poet Huang Tingjian 黃庭堅 was much venerated during the Muromachi period by the monks of the Five Zen Temples (Gozan), who compiled a number of commentaries on his verse (known as “Sankoku sho”). One of the most important of these works was Banri Shukyu’s Chochuko (Fragrance Behind the Screen). This is a compendious work brimming with valuable citations; it not only requotes the annotations of previous scholars, but further draws widely from the classics, histories, philosophers, literary collections of the past, as well as the Buddhist canon. Using this vast textual corpus as a foundation, Banri Shukyu proceeds to present his own original views on Huang’s poetry throughout the text.

In this article, I conduct a detailed study of the Chochuko’s methodology as well as its explications of Huang’s poems, identifying the following features of the text’s poetic criticism: (1) a detailed structural analysis of poems in their entirety; (2) an examination of individual lines in Huang’s poetry; (3) an interpretation of poems in terms of Zen Buddhism; (4) an extensive use of illustrations; and (5) the introduction of topics related to Japan. In short, the Chochuko has considerable value for literary history because of its original interpretations of Huang’s poetry, which differ markedly from those of earlier Chinese commentaries.