The life of Ihara Xihe

1675 He was deeply stimulated by the death of his wife. He entrusted the shop and children to a man, first got a haircut in Osaka, and then traveled around Japan. 1682 at the age of 4 1, he wrote the first erotic novel "The Man of the Lascivious Generation" in the form of prose, which was well received and regarded as the starting point of "floating grass" (social novel) in the history of Japanese literature and the beginning of realistic civic literature. From then on, he devoted himself to novel creation. Until his death at the age of 52, * * * wrote more than 20 novels. His novel creation can be roughly divided into three periods. Early works focused on the love between men and women. With the Qin Lou Chu Pavilion as the background, through tortuous love stories, some characters who are not bound by family background and take love as the first priority in life are created, such as "lascivious generation" and "lascivious generation", all of which are based on the wandering life of businessmen. Five Women in Passion, written in 1686, tells five different love stories of five people and the tragedy caused by the suppression of feudal hierarchy and moral concepts. 1686, the last erotic novel, "Women of the Lascivious Generation", describes the miserable life of a vassal's concubine who becomes a prostitute.

1685 The publication of "The Strange Tales of Xihe Country" is the beginning of the mid-term creation, which broadens the horizon and extends the theme to the urbanized samurai life and anecdotes. There are also filial piety-themed works such as "Twenty Unlucky Contemporary Men" and "A Mirror of Male Sex". Due to the author's lack of life experience, his artistic performance is slightly inferior to that of early erotic novels.

Later novel creation began with the publication of 1688 "Japanese Eternal Collection". He turned to writing citizen novels (street novels), reflecting the life of businessmen. "Japan is always hidden" tells the story of a greedy businessman getting rich. The works dig deep into the spiritual world of businessmen and show the characteristics of Xihe street novels. In his later years, his works, Worries of the Worlds and Native Products of the West Crane, mainly described economic life, encouraged young people to stand firm in the world and criticized the evil deeds of getting rich at the expense of others. The works of this period touched the class nature of merchant society and had certain social significance.