Early Japanese myths and legends are also oral literature. It was not recorded in writing until the second half of the 7th century. In order to record the so-called "history of kingship", rulers have a demand for writing. Then "ancient records" and "logs" appeared. There are some differences between Ancient Records and Journal. Ancient Records mainly records the history of the ruling class, while Journal imitates the genre of China's orthodox history books. Of course, both of them involve myths and legends in oral literature before, and also clearly reflect the subjective will of the rulers of "kingship". However, due to the influence of China's ancient culture, Japanese early literature is also indistinguishable from literature and history. Furthermore, Japanese characters originated in China, and today's Japanese characters evolved from ancient Chinese. The earliest Japanese poem is Song of Peace. The appearance of harmony songs is related to "ballads" in ancient records and journals. Ye Wan Collection is the earliest extant Japanese poetry collection. Similar to China's The Book of Songs, the poems collected from the 4th century to the mid-8th century are long and short, and there are always different opinions about the date of completion and the editors, but most of them are works from the Nara period (AD 7 10 ~ 784). It is generally believed that The Collection of Poetry was compiled and handed down by many people for many years, and was completed by Yukio Yakuchi (7 17 ~ 785) in the second half of the 8th century. Later, it was revised and approved by several people before it became the current version. When The Collection of Ye Wan was written, Japanese did not have its own writing, and all the poems were recorded by borrowing Chinese characters, namely Ye Wan's pen name. His greatest contribution lies in getting rid of the stereotype of China's poetry and developing amorphous ancient songs into stereotyped, nationalized and personalized poetry forms by using Japanese national language, which set a good example for later poetry creation. Among these "all-leaf singers", what needs to be put forward in particular is the beautiful memory of the mountain. When he was young, he was an attache sent by Ambassador Tang to our country. Most of his Long song are accompanied by long preface written in parallel prose, which shows his profound Chinese accomplishment. His famous Long song's Song of Questions and Answers about Poverty is the only work that directly reflects the sufferings of the people under the rule of ancient legal countries. The full translation of this song is as follows: rainy night, cold sleet day. It's hard to resist the cold on a cold winter night. Crude salt drinks wine, while fermented grains talk about heating. Frequent nasal congestion, bent back and repeated coughing. It's hard to resist the freezing cold with a moustache twisted. Cover me with linen and put on my rags. Although I have everything, I can't resist this cold night. Those who are poorer than me, listen to me and ask a few questions: my wife and children are crying, and my parents are hungry and cold. In this tragic time, why celebrate the New Year? Although the world is vast, it is difficult for me to be alone. Although the sun and the moon are bright, do you shine on me? Is it all over the world, or am I alone? God gave birth to me occasionally, and farming was never idle. Wearing a cotton-free coat, the cloth hangs over the shoulders. Ragged as seaweed, how to keep out the cold? The low house is falling down, and the rice shop is sleeping in the wetland. My wife and children are squatting at my feet, and my parents are snuggling on the pillow. The whole family is big and small, sighing. There are no fireworks on the stove, and cobwebs are hung on the pot. I have been hungry for many days, and I can't remember three meals. The sound is as thin as a thread and as soft as cotton. It never rains but it pours. The manager was very angry and shouted in front of the house, holding a cane in his hand, urging Tian to pay taxes. The world is like this, how can I be fired in my life? Undeniably, ancient Japanese benefited a lot from Chinese mainland culture. The Japanese introduced the national system, cultural relics, agricultural cultivation and ironware skills from ancient China. But it is more important to introduce the characters first. Because there were no characters in ancient Japan, as mentioned above, culture was passed down by word of mouth. The borrowing of Chinese characters has a long-term impact on Japanese culture, but it also carries profound contradictions. Only with writing can we develop a unique culture. However, because the initial opening almost copied China's ancient ideology and culture, the ancient Japanese aristocratic consciousness and feelings were almost threatened by assimilation.
Under the influence of China's ancient literature, the Japanese also wrote China's poems. China's earliest poetry anthology was Huai Feng Zao in 75 1 year. The editor of Huai Feng Zao is said to be an elegy of Dan Haiminlang, but it is unknown. Among them, there are 64 poets and 20 poems/kloc-0. Judging from the chronology, the creation of Huai Feng Zao is almost the same as that of Ye Wan Ji. According to legend, the main authors are Prince Judas, Prince Otsu and Emperor Wu Wen. Most of the poetry collections are "five words", mostly imitating the ancient poems of China in the Six Dynasties.
For example, the following is Prince Otsu's five-character poem "Dying".
The golden bird is in the west, and the drums are short-lived;
Lu Quan has no hosts or guests, so who will go home tonight?
There is really a feeling of homology. Another example is Fujiwara Yu He's "Xihai Road Time":
I went to Dongshan in previous years and went to the West Sea this year.
Pedestrians are tired of border soldiers several times in their lives.
It might as well be said that China people look at Japanese Chinese poetry, which is more attractive than harmony songs. Four well-measured sentences clearly show the identity and feelings of the characters and are full of aesthetic feeling. But unfortunately, there are not many masterpieces like Huai Fengzao. Most poems only imitate the style of mainland poetry and describe the love affairs of court nobles. In this sense, the literary history value of Huaifengzao is lower than that of Ye Wan Collection. Because Ye Wan Collection is rooted in national life, it is inextricably linked with the traditional art form "ballad"; As an "educational literature" of the Japanese aristocratic class at that time, Huaifengzao was mostly a timely work and became a leisure of court culture. It is also at this point that there is a certain contradiction between mainland culture and Japanese native culture. China's poetry is highly respected, but it can only exist as court literature.