Literature and Calligraphy PDF

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Assignment for Ancient World Medieval Period...

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Alfonso 1 Diamante Rosa Alfonso HUM 2211 Professor Proulx 5 June 2019 Literature and Calligraphy During the Heian Period, one of the major themes was refinement and nobility. At the time, the Japanese language was still working itself out, and thus, Chinese was still the most written language in Japan. In the early ninth century, hiragana was invented, which essentially is a purely Japanese writing system. Eventually, popularity grew for hiragana and new forms of Japanese poetry such as the waka and haiku developed. Hiragana was one of the most influential things to happen to the Japanese language and thus allowed them to be able to express themselves in their spoken language. Literature and calligraphy played a huge role in Japan’s Heian Period by allowing a new form of written language to be expressed and making it available to the nobles before it came out to the public. Eventually, books and novels began to be written in the hiragana format, such as Sei Shonagon’s Pillow Book. This book was the first of the zuihitsu, or random writings to be published. Afterwards, the world’s first novel, The Tale of Genji, was published using this format which eventually was illustrated in a handscroll until making its way onto various other forms....