The Early Works of Natsume Soseki’s Chinese Poetry : Focusing on the Scenic Descriptive Expression : Chapter II, Section 5 “The color” of flowers

In this paper, I have been discussing the scenic descriptive expressions in Chinese poetry written by Soseki. In this second chapter, I discuss his expression of color, an issue that is also emphasized in his “Bungakuron”（Criticism of Literature）, and I will focus on “flowers”, which have a strong presence in his novels, and investigate the expression of their colors. There are 58 instances of “flower” in Soseki’s poems, which can be divided into two classes depending on whether or not they are given specific names. In this section, I consider the meaning of “flowers” in Soseki’s poetry by focusing on those without specific names. In the last issue, all of them have important meanings in Soseki’s poetry, both in terms of quality and quantity, and proved to contribute to the originality of the poetry. In this issue, we will focus on the yellow color, which has not been discussed so far, and will firstly consider “rape blossoms （菜花）”. This is the collection of 68th poems, “Saikakoh（菜花黄）” in his staying in Kumamoto period. At first glance, it seems like the poem is about a peaceful spring scene, but I have two questions as below: Q1. Why is it called “Saikakoh” instead of “rape blossoms”? ; Q2. What is the meaning of the word “crazy”’ in the second stanza, I will discuss these two points here. 1. The precedent for the “rape blossoms” begins with two stories from the Tang Dynasty. The first work of Liu Yuxi（劉禹錫） of the Middle Tang Dynasty depicted a desolate landscape depicting oats and other wild plants expressing the view of the impermanence of past and present. The second work of the Wentingyun（温庭筠）’s Poetry, the Late Tang Dynasty that yellow rape blossoms were used to describe about the breath of spring. Later, if the “rape blossoms” were described and referred to the breath of spring in these two types of “rape blossoms”, it could be thought that “yellow color” was added to distinguish it from the former and to emphasize its natural beauty. It is clear that Soseki’s poem titled “Saikakoh” also places a lot of emphasis on “Yellow color”. 2. As for “The delirious（狂）”, there are numerous essays and genealogies from ancient China regardless of genre, and there is little dislike for it, including Confucius, but rather it is highly praised for its innovation. Soseki, who is well-versed in Chinese classic books, takes this tradition into account and expresses the “joy” of being in the “yellow” of morning and evening to the fullest through the use of the “delirious”. Furthermore, the third and fourth stanzas describe how the reason for “joy” lies in the dream of “reaching the blue sky”. The resource of this work,（“Yellow Bird（黄鳥）” by Qin Feng（秦風） in “Shi Jing（詩經）”Poetry）, is the work that mourns the young man who died for the Qin Dynasty, Duke Mu（穆公）, and also inspire the shadow of death. However, due to the upward movement inspired by the “yellow” of the earth, Soseki used as the foundation of his dreams as a topos of longing for the soul to reach and flow into the opposite world of “blue”. The joy of the “delirious” can be said to be due to the fact that, even though it contains “death” within it, it allows to travel to the vast, limitless blue sky that can soothe his soul.