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The myth of peace: "Taiheiki" and the rhetoric of war.
- Format:
- Book
- Thesis/Dissertation
- Author/Creator:
- Sather, Jeremy A.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Asia--History.
- Asia.
- History.
- Oriental literature.
- Literature, Asian.
- History, Asia, Australia and Oceania.
- 0305.
- 0332.
- Local Subjects:
- Literature, Asian.
- History, Asia, Australia and Oceania.
- 0305.
- 0332.
- Physical Description:
- 370 pages
- Contained In:
- Dissertation Abstracts International 74-02A(E).
- System Details:
- Mode of access: World Wide Web.
- text file
- Summary:
- Japan's fourteenth century has been seen as an age of rupture. The Taiheiki, or the Chronicle of Great Peace, has contributed heavily to this view. It relies on what I call a "rhetoric of war," a fictionalization of the Nanbokuchō wars and the disjunctive power of warfare. In particular its emphasis of Emperor Go-Daigo, who tried to break with the past, has obscured the continuities that marked the period. The Taiheiki depicts the weakening of the symbolic authority of the imperial family and the concomitant rise of warrior power as the fault of Go-Daigo, when in reality this change was much more gradual. A weakened imperial authority did in fact lead to the transformation of war tales from epics on war for the sake of imperial authority to chronicles of private affairs of warrior houses. The Taiheiki blames the conflicts on vengeful spirits ( onryō), immorality, and warrior ostentation (basara ). All three contribute to the creation of a realm best described using the term gekokujō, or "the low overturning the high," where power, not symbolic authority, decides all. This new reality compelled the authors to utilize irony, humor, parody, and satire to cope with the reality of their milieu. Though the Taiheiki promises peace, it concludes with the rule of warriors, for whom violence was an indivisible aspect of their existence. Through the rhetoric of war the Taiheiki shows readers that in a realm where power supersedes imperial authority peace can only be a myth.
- Notes:
- Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 74-02(E), Section: A.
- Adviser: Linda H. Chance.
- Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Pennsylvania, 2012.
- Local Notes:
- School code: 0175.
- ISBN:
- 9781267714121
- Access Restriction:
- Restricted for use by site license.
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