Gubijinso or The Poppy - Comedy and Tragedy

Gubijinso or The Poppy is the first novel of Soseki as a professional writer. So it is highly likely that Soseki had a strong ambition to write a good novel. Like a little earlier novel Kusamakura or Grass Pillow you can find some difficult Japanese words here and there, most of which are Chinese classic literature origin, are not very important in the story. You can skip most of them without getting lost in the story. And you can regard most of these difficult parts as being intentionally made by the writer to create just some atmosphere. The story is not so complicated and logically flows - you do not have to read it backward to understand. The characters are not many and somewhat stereotyped and unrealistic several coincident encounters of the characters remind me of an old fashioned story telling. As a story this novel has comedy (comical or humorous) parts and tragedy parts and we finish reading with happy end (with the triumphant winners) and unhappy end (with the tragic losers). Someone reports that Soseki himself later commented this novel as a failure. But the readers have a right to judge whether success or failure. I think it a success for general readers.

There seems no English version - should be a very challenging and time consuming job for a translator.

1. Title

The original Japanese title Gubijinso, 虞美人草 in Chinese character, is a name of one kind of poppies. The Japanese word for this poppy is commonly Hina-Geshi (Geshi is the same as Keshi), a one kind of Keshi or poppies in general. Some type of poppies are processed to make drugs. The personal character of Fujio may remind us of a drug made from poppies but it has almost no relation between poppy and Fujio. Instead Gubijinso, 虞美人草 highly likely originates from the following Chinese anecdote.

Gubijin, 虞美人, is literally "a beautiful woman of country of Gu (虞)". The Chinese name is 虞姬 (Yú Jī). The story is as follows:

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"

Consort Yu

Consort Yu (died 202 BC), personal name Yu Miaoyi, also known as "Yu the Beauty", was the concubine of the warlord Xiang Yu, who competed with Liu Bang (Emperor Gao), the founder of the Han dynasty, for supremacy over China in the Chu–Han Contention (206–202 BC).

Life

Consort Yu's birth date is unknown and there are two accounts of her origin. The first said she was from Yanji Town (顏集镇) in Shuyang County, while the other claimed that she was from Suzhou, but both pointed that she was born in present-day Jiangsu.
In 209 BC, Xiang Yu and his uncle Xiang Liang started a revolution to overthrow the Qin dynasty. Consort Yu's elder brother, Yu Ziqi, was serving in Xiang Liang's army as a general then. Consort Yu met Xiang Yu, fell in love with him and became his concubine. Since then, she had been following Xiang Yu on his military campaigns and refused to remain behind.
In 202 BC, Xiang Yu was besieged in the Battle of Gaixia by the combined forces of Liu Bang (King of Han), Han Xin and Peng Yue. The Han army started to sing folk songs from Xiang Yu's native land of Chu to create a false impression that they had captured Chu. The morale of Xiang Yu's troops plummeted and several soldiers deserted. In despair, Xiang Yu indulged in alcohol and sang the Song of Gaixia to express his sorrow. Consort Yu performed a sword dance and sang a verse in return. To prevent Xiang Yu from being distracted by his love for her, Consort Yu committed suicide with Xiang Yu's sword after singing. She was buried at Gaixia.
A "Consort Yu Tomb" stands in present-day Lingbi County, Anhui.

Song of Consort Yu

This verse was sung by Consort Yu after Xiang Yu sang the Song of Gaixia. She committed suicide with Xiang Yu's sword after singing.

漢兵已略地，	The Han army has conquered our land;
四面楚歌聲。	We are surrounded by Chu songs;
大王義氣盡，	My lord's spirits are low;
賤妾何聊生。	Why then should I live?

"

四面楚歌聲 (We are surrounded by Chu songs) is a familiar phrase to Japanese even though most of them may do not know this origin. Soseki, a connoisseur of Chinese classic literature, intended to provoke this story by Gubijinso, 虞美人草. But Chinese 虞姬 (Yú Jī) and Fujio are not analogous. As a flower or flowers of Gubijinso (poppy) appear in the last chapter (19) after the death of Fujio, just symbolically without explanation.

2. Analogies of the characters

2-1 Apparent analogies of the characters

Fujio (Kono) - Cleopatra, Ego, Gubijin, 虞美人 or 虞姬 (Yú Jī)
Cleopatra killed herself and so did 虞姬 (Yú Jī).
Fujio's mother - Enigma     
(Hajime) Kono - Hamlet

2-1 Hidden analogies of the characters

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3. As a tour guide of Kyoto,

If you use a map of Kyoto when you read in the first several chanters (Chapters 1, 3, and 5 while Chapters 2, 4 and 6 are stories about Fujio and Ono in Tokyo) you will enjoy a Kyoto tour with the major characters. Probably this was also Soseki's intention.


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