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Created page with "*''Japanese'': 漢文 ''(kanbun)'' ''Kanbun'' (lit. "Chinese writing") is a category of types of Japanese writing which employ ''kanji'' (Chinese characters) exclusively,..."
*''Japanese'': 漢文 ''(kanbun)''
''Kanbun'' (lit. "Chinese writing") is a category of types of Japanese writing which employ ''[[kanji]]'' (Chinese characters) exclusively, or almost exclusively, with minimal or no use of phonetic ''[[kana]]''. The term most often refers to what might more specifically be called ''hakubun'' - Classical Chinese, or Japanese emulations of it, which incorporate no ''kana'' - but the umbrella term ''kanbun'' can also include a number of related forms developed specifically in Japan, known as ''hentai kanbun'' (lit. "changed form Chinese writing").
When written by Japanese scholars of Chinese subjects, e.g. Confucian scholars or Zen monks, ''kanbun'' can sometimes include turns of phrase and individual characters more typically Chinese, which are not more widely used in Japanese. However, the reverse is also true, as Japanese often wrote in a form closely emulating Classical Chinese, but incorporating particular characters and turns of phrase original to Japan, which would be unfamiliar to a Chinese reader.
==Types of Kanbun==
*''Hakubun'' (白文, lit. "white writing") - Classical Chinese, or Japanese emulations of it, with minimal or no ''kana''. The defining feature of ''hakubun'' is the absence of any ''kundoku'' marks or other reading aids. ''Hakubun'' is written in a Chinese word order, and must be read either in Chinese, or by mentally rearranging the word order and interpreting the unwritten particles, conjugations, and so forth in order to read this Chinese-like form as Japanese.
*''Kundoku bun'' (訓読文), also ''kanbun kundoku'' - ''Hakubun'' with marks placed alongside the characters, in order to help the reader convert the Chinese-like form into something readable as Japanese. These marks chiefly include the ''re-ten'' (レ), placed between two characters to indicate they should be read in reverse order. For example, 「不可」 can be read as a compound, ''fuka'', or, with a ''re-ten'', one would read the second character (可, ''beki''), and then the previous character, as ''bekarazu''. The other most common ''kundokuten'' (''kundoku'' marks) are numbers (一、二、三) and the characters for upper and lower (上、下), which are used to indicate that an entire phrase (marked 一, one, or 上, upper) should be read before going back to return to a phrase marked ニ (two) or 下 (lower). This occurs because Chinese grammar employs a very different word order, and sentence structure, from Japanese.
*''Kakikudashi bun'' (書き下し文) - roughly meaning "written down," in the sense of being lowered down or broken apart to a simpler level, ''kakikudashi bun'' are ''kanbun'' (''hakubun'' or ''kundoku bun'') texts that have been rewritten to resemble regular Japanese grammar and sentence structure, at least to some extent. These texts have the characters rearranged to follow Japanese (rather than Chinese) word order, and have the ''kana'' inserted. Thus, a phrase like 「相触無滞可出之」, which in ''kundokutai'' (''kundoku'' form) would be just as is, but with a few ''re-ten'' and ones and twos set between the characters, would in ''kakikudashi'' be rearranged to read something like 「相触れ滞り無くこれ出すべき」 (''ai fure todokoori naku kore dasu beki''), meaning roughly "the shogunal proclamation (''fure'') should (''beki'') be sent out (''dasu'') without delay (''todokoori naku'').
*''Sôrôbun'' (候文) - one of the most prominent forms of ''hentai kanbun'' in the [[Edo period]], ''sôrôbun'' is a form which uses both ''kanbun'' word order and ''kana'' extensively. Distinctively Japanese, it would not be easily legible to a Chinese reader, unlike other forms of ''kanbun'' which use ''kanji'' more exclusively. ''Sôrôbun'' relies extensively on particular set phrases, and ends a great many of its clauses and sentences in the copula verb ''sôrô'' (候). Though often called an "epistolary style," this is misleading as ''sôrôbun'' was used quite extensively in the Edo period, both for letters, petitions, and other communications, and also for a wide variety of records and other sorts of official documents.
==History==
The earliest object with written characters on it to be uncovered in Japan dates all the way back to [[57]] CE. This is a golden seal granted to the Japanese state of [[Na]] by [[Emperor Guangwu of Han|Emperor Guangwu]] of the [[Han Dynasty]]. However, writing is not believed to have been truly adopted by Japanese elites in any significant way until the 5th century CE, and it was only beginning in the 7th century that materials began to be read and written more widely by the capital elites, including Buddhist and Confucian texts, and other Chinese materials. It was around this time that ''kundoku'' forms first began to emerge.
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[[Category:Resource Articles]]
''Kanbun'' (lit. "Chinese writing") is a category of types of Japanese writing which employ ''[[kanji]]'' (Chinese characters) exclusively, or almost exclusively, with minimal or no use of phonetic ''[[kana]]''. The term most often refers to what might more specifically be called ''hakubun'' - Classical Chinese, or Japanese emulations of it, which incorporate no ''kana'' - but the umbrella term ''kanbun'' can also include a number of related forms developed specifically in Japan, known as ''hentai kanbun'' (lit. "changed form Chinese writing").
When written by Japanese scholars of Chinese subjects, e.g. Confucian scholars or Zen monks, ''kanbun'' can sometimes include turns of phrase and individual characters more typically Chinese, which are not more widely used in Japanese. However, the reverse is also true, as Japanese often wrote in a form closely emulating Classical Chinese, but incorporating particular characters and turns of phrase original to Japan, which would be unfamiliar to a Chinese reader.
==Types of Kanbun==
*''Hakubun'' (白文, lit. "white writing") - Classical Chinese, or Japanese emulations of it, with minimal or no ''kana''. The defining feature of ''hakubun'' is the absence of any ''kundoku'' marks or other reading aids. ''Hakubun'' is written in a Chinese word order, and must be read either in Chinese, or by mentally rearranging the word order and interpreting the unwritten particles, conjugations, and so forth in order to read this Chinese-like form as Japanese.
*''Kundoku bun'' (訓読文), also ''kanbun kundoku'' - ''Hakubun'' with marks placed alongside the characters, in order to help the reader convert the Chinese-like form into something readable as Japanese. These marks chiefly include the ''re-ten'' (レ), placed between two characters to indicate they should be read in reverse order. For example, 「不可」 can be read as a compound, ''fuka'', or, with a ''re-ten'', one would read the second character (可, ''beki''), and then the previous character, as ''bekarazu''. The other most common ''kundokuten'' (''kundoku'' marks) are numbers (一、二、三) and the characters for upper and lower (上、下), which are used to indicate that an entire phrase (marked 一, one, or 上, upper) should be read before going back to return to a phrase marked ニ (two) or 下 (lower). This occurs because Chinese grammar employs a very different word order, and sentence structure, from Japanese.
*''Kakikudashi bun'' (書き下し文) - roughly meaning "written down," in the sense of being lowered down or broken apart to a simpler level, ''kakikudashi bun'' are ''kanbun'' (''hakubun'' or ''kundoku bun'') texts that have been rewritten to resemble regular Japanese grammar and sentence structure, at least to some extent. These texts have the characters rearranged to follow Japanese (rather than Chinese) word order, and have the ''kana'' inserted. Thus, a phrase like 「相触無滞可出之」, which in ''kundokutai'' (''kundoku'' form) would be just as is, but with a few ''re-ten'' and ones and twos set between the characters, would in ''kakikudashi'' be rearranged to read something like 「相触れ滞り無くこれ出すべき」 (''ai fure todokoori naku kore dasu beki''), meaning roughly "the shogunal proclamation (''fure'') should (''beki'') be sent out (''dasu'') without delay (''todokoori naku'').
*''Sôrôbun'' (候文) - one of the most prominent forms of ''hentai kanbun'' in the [[Edo period]], ''sôrôbun'' is a form which uses both ''kanbun'' word order and ''kana'' extensively. Distinctively Japanese, it would not be easily legible to a Chinese reader, unlike other forms of ''kanbun'' which use ''kanji'' more exclusively. ''Sôrôbun'' relies extensively on particular set phrases, and ends a great many of its clauses and sentences in the copula verb ''sôrô'' (候). Though often called an "epistolary style," this is misleading as ''sôrôbun'' was used quite extensively in the Edo period, both for letters, petitions, and other communications, and also for a wide variety of records and other sorts of official documents.
==History==
The earliest object with written characters on it to be uncovered in Japan dates all the way back to [[57]] CE. This is a golden seal granted to the Japanese state of [[Na]] by [[Emperor Guangwu of Han|Emperor Guangwu]] of the [[Han Dynasty]]. However, writing is not believed to have been truly adopted by Japanese elites in any significant way until the 5th century CE, and it was only beginning in the 7th century that materials began to be read and written more widely by the capital elites, including Buddhist and Confucian texts, and other Chinese materials. It was around this time that ''kundoku'' forms first began to emerge.
{{stub}}
[[Category:Resource Articles]]