Universal Truths in Japanese Literature

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Universal Truths in Japanese Literature

Arts, Culture and Literature

In The Crane Wife and Princess Hase, both short stories in the book Tales of Japan-Illustrated Folk Tales, Fairy Tales and Mythology by Birgit Amadoi there are examples of Universal truths. The Universal Truths such as Good vs. Evil, Greed vs. Generosity, and Outer Strength vs. Inner Strength affect the people of Japan, and reflects on how the live their life, and their outlook on the world.

The universal truth of Good vs. Evil reflects Japanese culture through, the history, the people, their outlook on life, and their actions. Evil is usually perceived as the opposite of good. In history it is to be known that Good always conquers evil. Every language has a meaning for good, and a word that expresses it, and also a word for evil meaning bad. The sense of knowing right from wrong and knowing good from bad is a universal meaning or truth. Buddhist believes that good and evil is inseparable aspects of life; meaning you cannot have one without doing the opposite of the other. Buddhist also strongly believes in Karma. Karma can be either a good thing or a bad thing. This word means that if you make an action either good or bad, there will be something that follows. Having either a good or a bad intent can bring either happiness or suffering. The Christian view of Good vs. Evil is that God will always be on the good side, and good will overcome.

Good versus evil; goodness comes from trying to do the best, out of the honor truthfulness. Evil comes from being naturally competitive. One must fail in all situations. Evil will do anything to win, even if that’s means to cheat. Goodness with follow the rules. Evil people are selfish, and do not care about other...

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...ment and spiritual perfection known as Buddhahood. This reliance upon one's own effort as the way to enlightenment is known as "self-power," and the philosophy of self-power forms the basis for practice in both the Rinzai and Soto schools of Zen.”

In Crane Wife If Yuhei had inner strength he wouldn’t have walked in on his wife making the quilt. He would have waited patiently, and would have obeyed her wishes. In Princess Hase since she had inner strength everything worked out for her, if she was weak she would have let her stepmother control her and she would have never met the love of her life. In The Tongue-cut Sparrow if Michio was not mentally strong, he would have crumbled from the beginning. In The Hare of Inaba Inner Strength id shown when the one son stops to help the hare in the middle of the road. If he did not stop, he wouldn’t have met the princess.

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