Your situation: You have found an essay and a poem, both of which refer to the lower-class people of Japan at this time. Listen to the two pieces of literature, and notice that they reflect two different attitudes toward the poor.
Essay "A Visit to Hase Temple"
Poem "A Dialogue on Poverty"
"To my dismay, I found that a throng of commoners had settled themselves directly in front of me, where they were continually standing up, lying down, and squatting down again. They looked like so many basket-worms as they crowded together in their hideous clothes, leaving hardly an inch of space between themselves and me. I really felt like pushing them all over sideways."
I happened to be born a human
but I am no worse than others.
Yet vests with no cotton,
mere rags tattered and dangling
like sea-fleece, are hung on my shoulders.
Im this flattened hut, this leaning hut,
on straw spread on the bare ground
father and mother by my pillow,
wife and children by my feet
surround me, whimpering.
From the stove no steam spurts up,
in the teamer a spider waves its web,
and rice-cooking forgotten,
we moan like thrushes.
Your problem: You do not know which of the two attitudes you should adopt toward the poor if you want to be accepted by other aristocrats at the court.
Your solution: Click below to discover how nobles during the Heian period felt about the poor. With your partner, talk about the two attitudes expressed in the pieces of literature. In your notes, tell which attitude you will adopt toward the poor in order to be accepted. Finally, complete the notes for this section.
Your solution: Click below to discover how nobles during the Heian period felt about the poor. With your partner, talk about the two attitudes expressed in the pieces of literature. In your notes, tell which attitude you will adopt toward the poor in order to be accepted. Finally, complete the notes for this section.
