Kukai and Beast in Human Soul : "Seishikai-no-uta" in Sango-shiki and "Araya-shiki" in Daijo-kishin-ron(<Special Issue>Humans and Non-Humans in Old Literature)

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  • 空海と心の獣 : 『三教指帰』巻下「生死海の賦」と『大乗起信論』「アラヤ識」(<特集>人類と異類-古代文学から-)
  • 空海と心の獣--『三教指帰』巻下「生死海の賦」と『大乗起信論』「アラヤ識」
  • クウカイ ト ココロ ノ ケモノ サンゴウ シキ カン ゲ セイシカイ ノ ウタ ト ダイジョウキシンロン アラヤシキ

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Abstract

The images of hybrids between humans and non-humans appear in the medieval tales of heterogeneous marriage, therianthropic figures in mythology, and the Buddhist fables of metamorphosis. Such imagination of hybridity takes a more metaphysical form in Kukai's poem "Seishikai-no-uta." There Kukai depicts the beast latent in human soul and, under the influence of Daijo-kishin-ron, insists on the necessity of repressing it under what can be called the unconscious region. Probably the monk-poet was interested in the animal transformation of soul not only for a religious reason but also for an aesthetic one, because it seems to be on a parallel with a figurative transformation of poetical language.

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