Kakyo Hyoshiki
Encyclopedia
is a text on Japanese poetics written by Fujiwara no Hamanari
. One volume in length, it "is the oldest extant piece of poetic criticism in the Japanese canon".
Book of Songs
(Japanese
Shikyō). However, chronologically the name does not fit, and some manuscripts do not include this title at all. Alternative titles include , which is likely to have been the original title, as well as based on the compiler's name.
to Japanese poetry
. As the two languages are fundamentally different, the application is forced and unnatural.
The text defines seven types of , literally "poetic sicknesses" which are rhetoric faults that should be avoided when composing poetry.: the last character of the first and last verses are the same: the last character of the first verse is the same as the third or sixth character of the second verse: the last character of the other verses is homophonous with the last character of the third verse: the last character of the third verse is used in the other verses: the second and final syllables in a single verse are the same: the final character of the third and fifth verses are the same: with the exception of the final syllable of the third verse, when two or more homophone
s are used consecutively
The text also defines three types of poetic forms:: chōka and tanka: irregular: mixed
Hamanari quotes 34 poems to illustrate the above points. Many of these poems are not found in poetry collections of the time such as Man'yōshū. These poems are quite valuable to historical linguists
as they are written in Man'yōgana, a script which preserves a historical phonological distinction known as Jōdai Tokushu Kanazukai
that was soon lost afterwards.
Fujiwara no Hamanari
was a Japanese noble and poet of the Nara period. He was the son of Fujiwara no Maro, and, according to the genealogy book Sonpi Bunmyaku, his mother was Uneme of Yakami no Kōri, Inaba Province, who is probably the same person who had a famous affair with Aki no Ōkimi. The collection of Japanese...
. One volume in length, it "is the oldest extant piece of poetic criticism in the Japanese canon".
Title
The common title today is Kakyō Hyōshiki and is in reference to ChineseChinese poetry
Chinese poetry is poetry written, spoken, or chanted in the Chinese language, which includes various versions of Chinese language, including Classical Chinese, Standard Chinese, Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese, Yue Chinese, as well as many other historical and vernacular varieties of the Chinese language...
Book of Songs
Shi Jing
The Classic of Poetry , translated variously as the Book of Songs, the Book of Odes, and often known simply as its original name The Odes, is the earliest existing collection of Chinese poems and songs. It comprises 305 poems and songs, with many range from the 10th to the 7th centuries BC...
(Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
Shikyō). However, chronologically the name does not fit, and some manuscripts do not include this title at all. Alternative titles include , which is likely to have been the original title, as well as based on the compiler's name.
Contents
The main focus of the text is an attempt to apply phonetic rules of Chinese poetryChinese poetry
Chinese poetry is poetry written, spoken, or chanted in the Chinese language, which includes various versions of Chinese language, including Classical Chinese, Standard Chinese, Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese, Yue Chinese, as well as many other historical and vernacular varieties of the Chinese language...
to Japanese poetry
Japanese poetry
Japanese poets first encountered Chinese poetry during the Tang Dynasty. It took them several hundred years to digest the foreign impact, make it a part of their culture and merge it with their literary tradition in their mother tongue, and begin to develop the diversity of their native poetry. For...
. As the two languages are fundamentally different, the application is forced and unnatural.
The text defines seven types of , literally "poetic sicknesses" which are rhetoric faults that should be avoided when composing poetry.: the last character of the first and last verses are the same: the last character of the first verse is the same as the third or sixth character of the second verse: the last character of the other verses is homophonous with the last character of the third verse: the last character of the third verse is used in the other verses: the second and final syllables in a single verse are the same: the final character of the third and fifth verses are the same: with the exception of the final syllable of the third verse, when two or more homophone
Homophone
A homophone is a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning. The words may be spelled the same, such as rose and rose , or differently, such as carat, caret, and carrot, or to, two, and too. Homophones that are spelled the same are also both homographs and homonyms...
s are used consecutively
The text also defines three types of poetic forms:: chōka and tanka: irregular: mixed
Hamanari quotes 34 poems to illustrate the above points. Many of these poems are not found in poetry collections of the time such as Man'yōshū. These poems are quite valuable to historical linguists
Historical linguistics
Historical linguistics is the study of language change. It has five main concerns:* to describe and account for observed changes in particular languages...
as they are written in Man'yōgana, a script which preserves a historical phonological distinction known as Jōdai Tokushu Kanazukai
Jodai Tokushu Kanazukai
is an archaic kanazukai used to write Japanese during the Nara period. Its primary feature is to distinguish between two groups of syllables as discussed below that later merged together.-Syllables:Following are the syllabic distinctions made in Old Japanese....
that was soon lost afterwards.