The Tale of Genji: Classic Japanese Outlooks for a Perfectly Imperfect Life
The Tale of Genji, written a thousand years ago, is a classic Japanese novel that contains many concepts and themes of Eastern philosophy. From Wabi-Sabi or the beauty of imperfection to the Buddhist idea of ‘living in the moment’, the novel offers some timeless lessons for living a perfectly imperfect life.
The Tale of Genji, written in the 11th century by lady author Murasaki Shikibu is considered a masterpiece of Japanese literature. Deemed as the world’s first written novel, the book features 800 waka, or short courtly poems on the life and experiences of Genji, the tale’s hero, which roughly translates to about 1300 pages in English.
The book follows Genji, an Emperor’s son by a relatively low-ranking woman who dies immediately after his birth. After her death, Genji goes through life by making his way from being a commoner to a member of Japanese aristocracy in the wealthy Heian period and then falls from grace to being a commoner again.
More so, however, the book focuses on Genji’s several love relationships with different women throughout his life. Each relationship brings something new to Genji and in the process, changes him in some way. His final relationship with Murasaki (who is the author herself) which turns out to be the most sincere and fulfilling for Genji is hammered by tragedy when Genji becomes arrogant and selfish because of all the wealth and power that he had gathered in his life.
The Tale of Genji then, is a story about the flow of life, its rise and fall, it’s good and bad.
The British novelist Clara Reeve once wrote that ‘The Novel is a picture of real-life and manners, and … gives a familiar relation of such things as pass every day before our eyes…. [It] represent[s] every scene in so easy and natural a manner … as to deceive us into a persuasion (at least while we are reading) that all is real, until we are affected by the joys or distresses of the persons in the story as if they were our own.’
While the novel focuses on ‘real life and manners’ of the Japanese life in the Hein period as Clara points out, it gets philosophical time to time exploring many concepts and themes of Eastern philosophy. The chapter, The Sacred Tree, for instance, is especially laden with different shades and colours of Eastern ideas — such as Wabi-Sabi (the beauty of imperfection), Yûgen (a feeling so deep that words can’t describe), Mono no aware (the Buddhist idea that everything is transitory), and Here and Now (the Buddhist idea of living in the moment).
Wabi-Sabi
Wabi is often used to define ‘rustic simplicity’ or ‘underestimated elegance’ while Sabi is used to define ‘the beauty of imperfection.’
The Wabi-Sabi emerged in Japan as an art of broken teapots and cups melded to become useful again. Often, the cracked teacups would be filled with gold-dusted lacquer to showcase the beauty of their age and damage which meant that their brokenness would not be hidden, but instead would be highlighted.
Wabi-sabi is an intuitive appreciation of a transient beauty in the physical world that reflects the irreversible flow of life in the spiritual world. It is an understated beauty that exists in the modest, rustic, imperfect, or even decayed, an aesthetic sensibility that finds a melancholic beauty in the impermanence of all things.
— Andrew Juniper
What Wabi-Sabi values at core is authenticity rather than perfection.
In fiction especially, a character is made timeless not because he or she is perfect, but precisely because he or she is imperfect.
In Tale of Genji, every character has a flaw that gives them a unique imprint and personality of their own.
The book’s author, Murasaki strongly believed that brokenness is an important aspect of being. She wrote in her diary that, ‘So much for their looks; but their characters — that is a much more difficult matter. We all have our quirks and no one is ever all bad. Then again, it is not possible for everyone to be all things all of the time: attractive, restrained, intelligent, tasteful and trustworthy. We are all different and it is often difficult to know on which aspect to dwell.’
Then again, it is not possible for everyone to be all things all of the time: attractive, restrained, intelligent, tasteful and trustworthy. We are all different and it is often difficult to know on which aspect to dwell. — Murasaki Shikibu
According to Murasaki, the appreciation of Wabi-Sabi leads us to appreciate the role of forgiveness for each other since we realize that none of us are any more perfect than the other and that in the end, we are all ‘human, all too human’ as Neitzche puts it.
She writes in the novel that, ‘It is very easy to criticize others but far more difficult to put one’s principles into practice, and it is when one forgets this truth, lauds oneself to the skies, treats everyone else as worthless, and generally despises others, that one’s own character is clearly revealed.’
And not just forgiveness, but wabi-sabi’s main mantra is to ‘be satisfied with little’ and to find ‘beauty in simplicity.’
The famous Japanese author and essayist, D.T.Suzuki puts it:
An active aesthetical appreciation of poverty … To be satisfied with a little hut, a room of two or three tatami mats, like the log cabin of Thoreau, and with a dish of vegetables picked in the neighbouring fields, and perhaps to be listening to the pattering of a gentle spring rainfall.
Yûgen
Yûgen refers to a concept rooted in Buddhism which means ‘an emotion, a sentiment, or a mood so subtle and profoundly elegant that it is beyond what words can describe.’
In short, it refers to a deep sense of awareness about the universe.
Zeami Motokiyo, the Japanese aesthetician once explained it as:
“To watch the sun sink behind a flower clad hill. To wander on in a huge forest without thought of return. To stand upon the shore and gaze after a boat that disappears behind distant islands. To contemplate the flight of wild geese seen and lost among the clouds…” ~Zeami Motokiyo
For example, in the Tale of Genji, the description of a scene or a landscape is put out to be so vivid and so profound that it engenders a deep feeling in its characters who get lost and absolutely overwhelmed by their emotions.
The early pages of the book demonstrate an example of Yûgen as:
‘The moon was sinking over the hills, the air was crystal clear, the wind was cool, and the songs of the insects among the autumn grasses would by themselves have brought tears. It was a scene from which Myobu could not easily pull herself.’
“A profound awareness of the universe that triggers feelings too deep and mysterious…” is how a lot of people define the feeling.
Mono No Aware
The concept of Mono no aware describes a ‘deeply Buddhist awareness of the transitory nature of everything worldly.’ For example, the changes of day and night, the changes in seasons, and weathers can elicit a feeling of the impermanence of natural phenomenon.
The idea that nothing is going to last forever, that everything is temporary and illusory, while daunting can be liberating at times.
In the Tale of Genji for example, Genji’s wealth and power does not last forever, his relationships do not last forever, and basically, everything that he ever wanted and ever loved do not last forever including himself.
And it is precisely knowing that since all of it does not last forever, it should be cherished while it lasts.
Often, Mono no aware is described as an ‘ephemeral nature of beauty, the quietly elated, bittersweet feeling of having been the witness to the dazzling circus of life — knowing that none of it can last. It’s basically about being both saddened and appreciative of transience.’
In his book, the Shortness of Life, Seneca gives an antidote to our unhealthy obsession with the idea that things last forever. Many of us are not open to having the ‘bittersweet feeling of having been the witness to the dazzling circus of life — knowing that none of it can last.’ He writes:
“You live as if you were destined to live forever, no thought of your frailty ever enters your head, of how much time has already gone by you take no heed. You squander time as if you drew from a full and abundant supply, though all the while that day which you bestow on some person or thing is perhaps your last.”
Here and Now
Who is not aware of the Buddhist idea of living in the moment?
One of the most profound ideas in all of history, and especially one in Japanese history, have also been explored by Murasaki in Tale of Genji in which the characters ‘let things happen’ to them without worrying about the future so much. Genji, for example, takes joys in small little things that happen to him on daily basis, even the heroines several of which form the central theme of the book take pride in day to day living.
‘Just being there’ and doing nothing extraordinary.
Just cherishing every little moment.
Thich Nhat Hanh, the famous Buddhist monk puts the idea of here and now beautifully in his book The Miracle of Mindfulness, ‘People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don’t even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child-our own two eyes. All is a miracle’
He describes that people can learn to live in the moment when they, sit only for the sake of sitting, walk only for the sake of walking, do chores like wash dishes only for the sake of washing dishes.
What Thich Nhat proposes is that we should exist just for the sake of existing, not to do this or that, achieve this or that, reach this goal or that, but ‘just exist’ without losing our mind over ‘why we exist.’
These were just a few of the many concepts that the Tale of Genji explores and describes in its pages.
Of course, the book has many other themes and dimensions which cannot be distilled in a single post.
Its narrative of strong female characters is especially noteworthy, and so is its description of the manners and styles of people in the Heian period.
It has a lot to say about human love and relationships, manners of the sexes, and the manners of aristocracy of course. It also has tiny bits of wisdom about what to pursue in life, and how to learn an art or a skill a common theme in Japanese literature.
According to Murasaki:
‘No art or learning is to be pursued halfheartedly…and any art worth learning will certainly reward more or less generously the effort made to study it.’
