Philosophy Of Murasaki Shikibu
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Submitted by AthenaGrkGoddess on 06/30/2008 05:21 PM
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Philosophy Of Murasaki Shikibu
This paper is a discussion on the philosophy of Murasaki Shikibu and how her philosophy challenged Buddhist doctrines of karma, enlightenment, and salvation.
Murasaki Shikibu lived at the height of the 10th and 11th centuries when Mahayana Buddhism had a high influence in Japan. Mahayana Buddhism connects a person to their present and to their future eternity. "It [Mahayana Buddhism] incorporates the Confucian virtues of filial piety, veneration of ancestors, duties based on rank and position, honesty and so forth." (Moore, pg488) The higher a person was in society the closer to the Mikado that person was. The Mikado is the greatest earthly god of nature. This is why the Japanese aristocracy followed Mahayana Buddhism.
Buddhist doctrines of karma, enlightenment and salvation said that women were of lesser moral worth than men. For a female to achieve salvation she must be reincarnated as a male and live that life virtuously to enter heaven, the Western Paradise. Being born a female in the Buddhist community meant that in a past life that woman had lived life as a man that had lost virtue. Thus the reincarnation to a woman is to atone fro that past male life.
Females were also kept uneducated to a degree in that era. Japanese society in that time frame did not teach women how to read the Chinese language, which was at that time the official language of Japan. "In her time, court ladies were expected to confine themselves to stories written in Japanese."(Harvard Magazine Online) Life for Japanese women was harsh and cruel. Murasaki's characters in her stories show just how dismal and bleak life really was for women. It was especially hard for women who, like Murasaki, had views on morality, salvation, philosophy, etc. "Her own story, centered on the life of the "shining prince," Genji, evoked for her contemporaries a version of their world in which many things are done right for a change. Even so, life's cruelties show clearly enough through...
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