아쿠타가와 류노스케의 『두자춘』 고찰

Abstract

The source of《Toshishun》was the Chinese literary romance《Toshishunden》, but it is clear that more than two thirds of the text differs from the original work in terms of its content, and that as its writer Akutagawa said, in the process of adaptation a new work of children’s fiction was created. The most significant difference between the two works is that in《Toshishunden》, Toshishun is reborn as a woman, gets married and gives birth but still does not talk. Her husband hits her son with a mortar right in front of her. At that moment she screams “ah!” Then her body returns to its original form of the top of the mountain Yuntaifeng. In Akutagawa’s《Toshishun》, Yama gathers his parents and whips those who have been reborn in the form of horses. Toshishun’s mother stays silent as she considers Toshishun’s inner being. Toshishun, who is moved, cannot help shouting “mother!” And when he becomes conscious, he has returned to Luoyang. In Akutagawa’s completely modified《Toshishun》, after Toshishun senses his mother’s evanescent love while in hellish pain and shouts “mother”, the key which settles the problem of ‘honest living’ is his realisation that his way of thinking is changing already. In this change of thinking, we cannot fail to notice the writer’s deep understanding of the desire of motherhood. In《Toshishun》, Akutagawa intended to convey the story of the changing personality of Toshishun, who once found it impossible to learn and was anti-social but who changes as a person and decides to engage in ‘honest living with humanity’ and to express a warm heart. In this way the writer depicts humanity with intimacy through the children’s story《Toshishun》. He vividly conveys the warm sentiments of human respect and innocence through Toshishun.