Ancient Japanese literature
Ancient Japanese literature flourished in the eighth century, and it was not until China's Chinese characters were introduced that Japan began to have a writing system. But when the earliest Chinese characters were not suitable for writing Japanese, China's classical Chinese was the only literary form. It was not until later that the pen name Wanye, which can be used to record Japanese, was exhibited. Pure Japanese literature records Japanese poems with a set of pronunciation of designated Chinese characters. The works created during the Nara period in Japan include The Story of the Historian in 7 12 years (a history book with mixed myths and historical facts), The Book of Japan in 720 years (written in chronological style, the earliest official history of Japan) and The Collection of Ye Wan in 759 years (the earliest extant collection of poems in Japan, hence the pseudonym of Ye Wan). At this time, Japanese used in literary creation is closer to ancient Japanese in grammar and phonology, which is obviously different from later Japanese. Even at the same time, the differences between dialects are obvious.
Japanese classical literature
Japanese classical literature flourished from the ninth century to the twelfth century. The Tale of Genji, a classic masterpiece of Japanese classical literature, was published. Japanese classical literature is closely related to the literary creation of heian period in Japan, and heian period is called "the golden age of Japanese art and literature". The Tale of Genji by Murasaki shikibu, a female writer, is considered as the most outstanding classic at that time and the earliest novel in the world. In addition, important contemporary literary works include The Collection of Ancient and Modern Harmony (Harmony Collection) in 1905 and Pillow Grass (prose collection describing the observation and feeling of life, feelings and aristocratic life) written by another female writer Qing in the 1990s. "ぃろは" is a full-letter Japanese pseudonym sentence ("ぃろは" is the first three sounds of this poem), which was also written in the early days of heian period. Compared with the same period, China was in the golden age of poetry in the Tang and Song Dynasties. At that time, there were no outstanding Japanese poets, and most of the poems were created by courtiers or palace women, while the aristocratic atmosphere was reflected in the solemnity and sophistication of poems and the emphasis on rhetoric to express emotions.
Medieval Japanese literature
13rd century to16th century was the heyday of Japanese medieval literature, and Meiji, Taisho and Showa periods (1868-1945) were modern Japanese literature.