Mori Ogai and Han Shan and Shih-Te

Mori Ogai and Han Shan and Shih-Te

Mori Ogai (1862-1922) was a Japanese novelist, critic and translator. He was well versed in the Chinese classics in his childhood. As an adult he studied in Germany where he was strongly influenced by the idealist thoughts of Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) and Nicolai Hartmann (1882-1950). Hartmann's aesthetic thoughts later became the basis for Ogai's literary creation. Mori Ogai was a representative of the Japanese romantic literature after the Meiji Restoration.

Mori Ogai's novel Han Shan and Shih-Te was published in 1916 in the Japanese magazine New Novels. It is a historical novel inspired by the "Foreword to the Collection of Han Shan's Poems" by Lü Qiuyin (dates unknown). Ogai boldly recreated the tale of Han Shan and Shi De, and reinvigorated the Buddhist foundations of the narrative, making it a groundbreaking work of the Japanese Zen literature, which exerted great influence on Japan.

森鸥外与《寒山拾得》

森鸥外，日本小说家、评论家、翻译家，从小受到良好的中国古典学训练，长大后曾赴德国留学，深受叔本华、哈特曼的唯心主义影响，特别是哈特曼的美学思想成为他后来从事文学创作的理论依据。森鸥外是日本明治维新之后浪漫主义文学的代表人物。

1916年，森鸥外的作品《寒山拾得》发表于日本杂志《新小说》。这是一篇历史题材的小说，其创作素材主要来源于闾丘胤撰《寒山子诗集序》，森鸥外对寒山拾得的故事进行了大胆的再创作，加深了作品的佛理性，使之成为日本禅宗小说的开山之作，在日本产生很大影响力。